John & Tommy discuss Jimmy Buffett weekend, changes in college basketball, interview Richard Davenport and more!
Scroggins on being picked by Red Sox in MLB draft
Hogs pitcher Cody Scroggins talked Wednesday morning about his journey from infielder to Tommy John surgery to pitcher and being taken in the ninth round of the draft Tuesday.
Fletcher briefly Wednesday morning on Diamondbacks, Rebels
Arkansas center fielder Dominic Fletcher talked about being drafted by Arizona in the MLB draft and looked ahead to the Super Regional matchup with Ole Miss.
Criswell’s commitment to Tar Heels isn’t any type of warning
Earlier this week, Jacolby Criswell of Morrilton gave Mack Brown at North Carolina his commitment … and many of the Razorbacks’ Lunatic Fringe went into orbit.
Relax and come back down to earth. It’ll be okay.
Some will complain that losing the top-rated quarterback in Arkansas is a warning sign. Nothing against Criswell, but life goes on and in this day and age that doesn’t mean he’s gone forever.
The way players transfer these days, who knows what’s going to happen over the next few years, especially since Criswell’s not the highest-rated quarterback committed to Brown.
Yes, Brown landed Vince Young and rode him to a national title, but he also couldn’t land some other highly-rated quarterbacks and all this transfer stuff started after he left the Longhorns.
In recruiting coaches win some and lose some. Every coach. At every school.
The days are gone that the Hogs are going to get every player in the state. The truth is they never have gotten every single player. Remember, Clyde Scott from Smackover went to the Naval Academy and Fayetteville looked a lot better when he met a girl from Lake Village.
Even Frank Broyles lost players out of state. Chuck Latourette from Jonesboro went to Rice in 1963 and was All-Southwest Conference and All-American as a defensive back and return specialist. He led the NFL in kickoff returns in 1968.
Ken Hatfield lost several players in 1984 and 1985, just months after taking the Arkansas job. Those included MarK Hutson out of Fort Smith Northside, Eric Mitchell from Pine Bluff and one Keith Jackson out of Little Rock Parkview.
The point of all this is, quite simply, no Arkansas coach is going to get every player in the state and never will. While fans think it’s an unforgivable sin for any Hogs’ coach to lose a player out of state, the fact of the matter is they keep the overwhelming majority of the best players in Arkansas every year.
Probably the only time there’s really room for criticism is if the Razorbacks don’t recruit a highly-touted player. That didn’t happen in a few cases during a time when some remarkably high academic requirements eliminated some pretty good players that went out of state and onto lucrative pro careers.
That wasn’t the case here.
Chad Morris and offensive coordinator Joe Craddock recruited Criswell. He just made a decision to commit to North Carolina.
It’s not about the other players on campus. Brown earlier landed a commitment from four-star dual threat quarterback Malik Hornsby from Fort Bend Marshall in Missouri City, Texas. He will face competition in North Carolina.
Many think Chandler Morris will join his dad in Fayetteville when he finishes up his senior season at Highland Park, but that decision won’t come until later in the summer (according to Chandler in recent interviews).
They also have an offer to four-star quarterback Haynes King in Longview, Texas.
But remember, it’s a crowded quarterback room for the Hogs already. They have eight in there now with only room for a couple more.
Everybody has a lot of quarterbacks on the roster these days. Injuries are part of it because the numbers show you don’t go through a season with one quarterback healthy for all 12 games. Ask Nick Saban if he’s glad he had Jalen Hurts behind Tua Tagovaila last season.
Some will leave for whatever reason.
But right now Criswell won’t be coming to Fayetteville.
And we won’t know if that’s a big deal or not for a few years.
???? Wednesday Halftime Pod — Featuring Bill King
Phil & Tye celebrate the Udder Tuggers, interview Bill King, and more!
Kenley on staying with Hogs in utility role, getting drafted Tuesday
Hogs second baseman Jack Kenley was a utility player before moving into a starting role this year and talked Wednesday morning about it paying off with his selection by Detroit.
Kenley has made one of the biggest jumps of a position player on this year’s Razorbacks team, hitting .324 over 61 games with 12 home runs and 50 RBIs.
Over his previous two seasons, Kenley combined to hit just .190, but now has career-bests in average, runs scored (53), hits (71), doubles (10), triples (4), walks (40), home runs and RBIs.
This year, Kenley is second on the team with 23 multi-hit games and third with 13 multi-RBI games.
He’s also second on the team in home runs after not hitting one in his freshman or sophomore seasons.
Van Horn on Super Regional with Rebels, players being drafted
Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn talked with the media Wednesday morning previewing the NCAA Super Regional matchup with Ole Miss and players drafted by major league teams.
Campbell on decision to return to Razorbacks for this season
Redshirt junior right-handed pitcher Isaiah Campbell was the second Razorbacks taken in the 2019 MLB first-year player draft Monday night.
Campbell was taken by Seattle, No. 76 overall.
Campbell is the sixth pitcher since 2013.
Arkansas’ previous top picks in the last two drafts were right-hander Trevor Stephan, who went in the third round to the New York Yankees in 2017 as the 92nd overall pick and Blaine Knight, who went in 2018 to the Baltimore Orioles in the third round as the 84th pick.
Campbell was selected in last year’s draft as a redshirt sophomore by the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (24th, No. 721), but elected to come back to Fayetteville for his fourth year and has had one of the biggest jumps of any pitcher in the nation.
The Olathe, Kansas, native has racked up an 11-1 record this year and has helped the Hogs into their second-straight NCAA Super Regionals, their eighth appearance in supers in school history.
He recently was named an All-American by Collegiate Baseball Magazine and showed his All-American stuff in the NCAA Regional last week with a career-high eight-inning, one-run performance against TCU to put the Hogs into the regional final.
Campbell has racked up a team-best 2.27 ERA among Hog pitchers that have thrown 40 or more innings and has struck out 108 batters over 103 innings, which are all career-bests.
He topped the 100-strikeout mark during his start in the SEC Tournament and is now sitting ninth all-time on the Arkansas single-season charts with 108 strikeouts.
Throughout his career, Campbell has made 48 appearances on the mound since 2016, 39 being starts. He has a 3.29 ERA in 205 innings and has held opponents to a .232 batting average.
Last week, in his start against TCU in the regional, Campbell reached 200 strikeouts in his career, becoming the sixth Razorback under Van Horn with 200 or more strikeouts in a career.
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Former Razorback Hastings selected to Kansas Sports Hall of Fame
FAYETTEVILLE — The Kansas Sports Hall of Fame announced former Razorback Scott Hastings as part of the Class of 2019 who will be inducted on October 6 at the Kansas Star Casino.
The KSHOF Class of 2019 consists of 13 members, including Tammy Thomas Ammons, Gene Bissell, Bob Chipman, Nick Collison, Lauren Goehring Cost, Hastings, Warren Jabali, Tom Meier, Mike Pelfrey, Nate Robertson, Fred Slaughter, Roy Turner and Kamerion Wimbley.
Hastings was an All-State basketball selection while leading Independence High School to a state championship in 1978.
He was additionally tabbed the Topeka Capital-Journal High School Player of the Year in 1978.
He was a four-year letterman at the University of Arkansas, playing for KSHOF member Eddie Sutton.
Hastings finished his Arkansas career second in school history in scoring with 1,779 points (currently fourth) and third in rebounds with 680 (currently eighth). He was an All-American selection in 1981 and 1982 as well as a three-time All-Southwest Conference selection.
Hastings was selected by the New York Knicks in the second round of the 1982 NBA Draft and he played 11 NBA seasons. He was a member of the Detroit Pistons’ 1990 NBA Championship team.
Hastings is a member of the University of Arkansas Hall of Honor in 2005 and the state of Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame in 2005.
Red-hot Campbell can set tone for Hogs against Rebels on Saturday
Ole Miss has beaten Arkansas three out of five times this season, including two games at Baum-Walker Stadium.
However, the Rebels are 0-1 against Hogs ace Isaiah Campbell.
How Ole Miss handles one of the nation’s hottest pitchers in the opening game of the super regional Saturday morning will have a big impact on which SEC team advances to Omaha.
Campbell is fresh off an eight-inning outing where he held TCU to four hits with just one walk and 8 strikeouts in a 3-1 win over the Horned Frogs in the regional semifinal. Campbell, a redshirt junior, is 11-1 with a 2.77 ERA.
While he showed flashes of brilliance last season, he was inconsistent. An offseason filled with hard work has transformed Campbell into an All-American. He also wildly improved his MLB Draft stock as the Seattle Mariners picked him late in the second round Monday night.
It goes without saying that whoever wins the opening game has a leg up. It’s an even bigger advantage for Arkansas since it is the host.
If Arkansas has a 1-0 lead going into Sunday’s game, the environment will be even more hostile.
Arkansas has a better starting rotation than Ole Miss, but if the Rebels get a win against Campbell, they get to face freshman Connor Noland, who has never pitched in a super regional. All of a sudden, there’d be a ton of pressure on the pitcher/quarterback.
has to feel much better running Campbell on the home hill than the Rebels starting Will Ethridge. A dominant pitcher(s) most always make a difference in a post season series, especially in the opener.
The last time Ole Miss saw Campbell was in a 5-3 loss March 29. Campbell gave up just four hits in seven innings of work.
On that night, reliever Jacob Kostyshock came on to pitch in the eighth but recorded just one out and star closer Matt Cronin got the final two outs of that inning and closed out the ninth.
Van Horn would take a similar performance Saturday. Last week the Horned Frogs went from seeing Campbell for eight innings to Cronin for one – downright filthy.
Ole Miss knows it has to get Campbell out of the game early.
While they didn’t do a good job of that in the first encounter, they are swinging hot bats. Ole Miss combined for 41 runs in three wins against Jacksonville State and Clemson in the Oxford Regional last weekend.
Arkansas had a tougher road last weekend, and its bats came back to life after a short reprieve at College Station and Hoover.
The Hogs need to jump on Ole Miss’s modest starting pitching and get the crowd in the game and increase the confidence for Campbell and the other hurlers.
The Razorbacks have scored 20 runs in five games against Ole Miss. They know they need to do better this weekend and not let Ole Miss’s bullpen take over with the lead.
If Ole Miss can beat Campbell, it will have a good chance of winning the series.
If not, they could be returning to Oxford Sunday night. This will be one of the more interesting super regionals in the country with one of the more intriguing openers.
