Phil & Tye hit on Justice Hill entering the transfer portal, interview Kevin McPherson, and more!
Noland makes decision to drop football, play baseball full time
In a move that has been discussed and rumored about for awhile, freshman Connor Noland will no longer try to play two sports and focuse on baseball for Arkansas.
He made the announcement Thursday morning on Twitter:
No matter which sport I play I’ll always be a Razorback! #Omahogs@RazorbackFB @RazorbackBSB @ArkRazorbacks pic.twitter.com/rheD4xpt3W
— Connor Noland (@cnoland_13) June 20, 2019
“My dad always told me that I wouldn’t be the one picking which sport I would finally focus on, he said the sport would pick me,” Noland said in the tweet.
That is now the case, despite his abilities in football where he won one of the two games the Razorbacks played last season and the coaches had liked his talent and capabilities there.
But baseball, he felt, was the best path for him, which Dave Van Horn liked.
Van Horn’s statement:
“We’re happy for Connor. We know this decision wasn’t easy, as his love for both sports has been apparent since we first met him. We’re happy that he was able to come to this decision on his own with his family. Thank you to coach Chad Morris for allowing Connor to achieve his dream of playing both football and baseball at the University of Arkansas. I look forward to working with Connor this summer and into the fall as we get ready for our 2020 season.”
You knew the baseball ability was there as he ended up with a weekend starting spot from the first series and appeared to improve after football spring practice.
Despite missing all of fall practice and having only a handful of intrasquad scrimmages under his belt, Noland earned a spot in Arkansas’ weekend rotation for the opening series of the baseball season.
He ended up making a team-high 19 starts and one relief appearance, finishing the season 3-5 with a 4.02 ERA, 55 strikeouts and only 14 walks in 78 1/3 innings. Only ace Isaiah Campbell threw more innings than Noland.
Those numbers aren’t spectacular, but he got a lot better down the stretch. It seemingly coincided with the end of spring football, as he attempted to pull double duty.
Against Vanderbilt the week after football practice ended, Noland couldn’t get an out and gave up five runs, then finished with 33 strikeouts and four walks in 45 innings the rest of the way with a 2.60 ERA.
As far as football, he feels he’s leaving the team in pretty good shape in a crowded room with Ben Hicks, Nick Starkel, KJ Jefferson, John Stephen Jones, Daulton Hyatt and Jack Lindsey on the roster now and Chandler Morris coming in 2020.
Chad Morris’ statement:
“We’re excited for Connor and his future in baseball. He’s a tremendous competitor, an outstanding athlete and a Razorback who will succeed in anything he does. I can’t wait to be in the seats at Baum-Walker next spring to watch him pitch.”
“The Razorback QB room is full of very talented players I will definitely miss being there with everyone,” Noland tweeted.
Noland and Jones were the only returning quarterbacks to throw a pass in a game last season. Noland was 12-of-41 with two interceptions and Jones appeared in three games, completed 2-of-8 passes.
Many thought playing time was likely to be difficult for Noland in football and he made the choice to stick with baseball.
Van Horn has said on a couple of occasions he felt Noland would be helped by playing baseball fulltime, particularly with his fastball.
Now there will be no more questions.
Musselman names Nevada assistant as Hogs’ director of operations
FAYETTEVILLE — Anthony Ruta has been named director of men’s basketball operations, coach Eric Musselman announced Thursday.
Ruta worked the past four years on Nevada’s staff.
The duo’s partnership goes back to the 2013-14 season when Musselman was an assistant coach at Arizona State and Ruta served as a graduate assistant with the Sun Devils.
At Nevada, Ruta was initially brought on to be the director of basketball operations before being elevated to assistant coach his last two seasons with the Wolf Pack (2016-17 and 2017-18).
In his role as an assistant coach, his duties included scouting opponents, recruiting student-athletes and scheduling opponents.
In Ruta’s four years at Nevada, the Wolf Pack won at least 24 games all four years (24, 28, 29 and 29), won three Mountain West regular-season titles, won one conference tournament championship, made three NCAA Tournament appearances including a Sweet 16 berth, and won the 2016 CBI championship.
During his time as an assistant coach at Nevada, the Wolf Pack won 29 games each season, tying a school record and marking the programs’ best two-year run in school history.
Nevada won the Mountain West championship twice and earned at-large berths to the NCAA Tournament each year. Last season, Nevada was 29-5, was ranked among the nation’s top 25 all season and finished 20th in the final AP poll/23rd in the USA Today coaches poll.
The previous year, Nevada reached the Sweet 16 for the second time in school history, was 29-8 and was ranked all but two weeks throughout the season before finishing 20th in the coaches final poll/24th by AP.
In his first two seasons at Nevada, the Wolf Pack went 28-7 in 2015-16, won Mountain West regular-season and tournament titles and earned the program’s first NCAA berth in 10 years.
Ruta helped the Pack go from nine wins prior to his arrival to 24 in year one and Nevada won the CBI Championship, which was the first postseason championship by a Mountain West or Nevada team.
Prior to coming to Nevada, Ruta was an assistant coach with Fort Wayne Mad Ants of the NBA Development League. He assisted in all areas with Mad Ants that included in-game coaching and practice preparation.
His primary responsibilities were defensive game planning. Working with the guards and wings he coached NBA veteran Dahntay Jones and D-League All-Star game MVP Andre Emmett.
Ruta began his coaching career at his alma mater, Arizona State, where he was a graduate assistant for two seasons. The Sun Devils advanced to the postseason both years playing in the NCAA and NIT Championships.
While at ASU he assisted in scouting and game preparation. Additional duties included assisting in scheduling, team workouts primarily with the guards, team travel and summer camps.
He also oversaw the team managers, organized the recruiting database and served as the academics and facilities liaison.
As an undergraduate student at ASU, Ruta was the head student manager for two seasons. He assisted with the daily operations of the Sun Devils basketball program which included workouts.
Additionally, he worked summer camps and organized the team managers.
Bud Light Morning Rush Podcast: Thursday
John & Tommy discuss a former Hog on Chad Morris, Nick Mason on Daniel Gafford’s NBA projections, Richard Davenport with a recruiting update and more!
Musselman adds former Nevada assistant to Hogs’ staff
FAYETTEVILLE — Hays Myers, who spent the last three seasons at Nevada, has been named special assistant to new Arkansas coach Eric Musselman.
Myers was a graduate assistant one season and worked the last two seasons as director of player development.
His duties with the Wolf Pack included gathering and disseminating analytics, film exchange with opponents, preparation of film for opponent scouting for both coaches and players and one year as the academic liaison.
In his three years at Nevada, the Wolf Pack won at least 28 games each season, won three Mountain West regular-season titles, one conference tournament championship and made three appearances in the NCAA Tournament, including a Sweet 16 run in 2018.
Myers joined the Wolf Pack staff after five years as a student manager for the LSU men’s basketball team. It was there, in 2014, Myers first crossed paths with Musselman, who was an associate head coach with the Tigers.
Myers worked directly with Musselman, preparing scouting reports.
Myers has worked with coaches such as David Patrick (head coach at UC Riverside) and Brendan Suhr (former Detroit Pistons and New York Knicks assistant coach).
Myers also worked with several NBA players while at LSU, including the 2016 overall number one selection Ben Simmons and fellow first-rounder Jarrell Martin as well as second-round NBA picks Johnny O’Bryant and Jordan Mickey.
A native of Dallas, Myers graduated in May of 2016 from LSU with a degree in mass communication and two minors in sports studies and leadership development.
He married the former Haleigh Wells on May 26, 2019.
???? Wednesday Halftime Pod — featuring Rashad Phillips
Phil & Tye hit on if Arkansas baseball’s success is helping the FB/BKB team, interview Rashad Phillips about Daniel Gafford, and more!
Bud Light Morning Rush Podcast: Wednesday
John & Tommy discuss best gas station food, excitement for Hog FB, friends in NEA and more!
???? Tuesday Halftime Pod — featuring Nikki Chavanelle
Phil & Tye hit on the disappointing part of the season, interview Nikki Chavanelle, and more!
Bud Light Morning Rush Podcast: Tuesday
John & Tommy discuss the Texas Tech loss, the team reflects, Hog sports better next year and more!
Hogs’ quick exit from Omaha shows how hard titles are to get
Within minutes of the stories being posted here following Arkansas’ loss to Texas Tech on Monday afternoon, one fan apparently thought I was going to produce a negative piece.
Bless his heart, he implored that I not be allowed to write a certain way … and added for the umpteenth time I be fired.
It’s almost disappointing to tell him no one has told me in the five decades of doing this what to (or not to) write or talk about.
In the biggest of markets I’ve been in (top five in the country), no one has ever so much as hinted at it … to me or anyone else that I know.
Even more, there’s nothing to really be negative about, even with an 0-2 run in Omaha at the College World Series this year.
It’s baseball. Winning a national title in that sport is as hard as any sport.
Yes, that’s one of Dave Van Horn’s sayings that filters down to his players, but it’s an accurate statement. It also applies to just about every other team sport, but especially in baseball, which is (at least in my opinion) the most difficult sport.
Baseball, unlike any other sport, celebrates someone who accomplishes their task of hitting a round ball with a round stick four out of 10 times. Most would crucify a quarterback who completed an average of four-of-10 passes.
The sport creates more “what if” moments than any other form of competition. For a fan base that is still playing that card 60 years after some games in various sports, baseball is often a maddening experience.
Yes, there are questions on decisions. Van Horn knows that’s a gigantic part of baseball, too.
And there were mistakes made in the field and at the plate. That’s part of baseball, too.
“It was a good year,” Van Horn said later.
This Hogs team over-achieved from what a lot of folks were expecting back in February. Van Horn said it. Many ignored him saying and assumed another trip to Omaha, which turned out to be correct, and has become the expectation every year.
“I know there’s a lot of people back home disappointed, but probably like me, if they just take a step back and take a breath and kind of realize what we replaced and how we did after we replaced all those players, it was a pretty good year,” Van Horn said Monday afternoon.
The result against Texas Tech is crushing to some, disappointing to others.
But all Razorback fans should just take a step back, suck in a deep breath and realize it was a year that actually was better than most expected.
Next year will be here soon enough.
In the meantime there is football coming up with practices starting in about six weeks and SEC Media Days in about three weeks.
Yes, it’s that close.
