It was the offense’s first time to win the belt for a spring practice Tuesday as Chad Morris said later Ben Hicks is making a big difference, taking charge during the drills.
PHOTOS BY ANDY HODGES | HITTHATLINE.COM
Morris talks about offense winning belt for first time in spring
Razorbacks coach Chad Morris said for the first time in spring practice the offense captured the belt and talked about Ben Hick pulling unit together.
Gafford named honorable mention All-American by AP on Tuesday
FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas’ Daniel Gafford picked up a pair of national honors as he was voted Associated Press All-America honorable mention and named to the CollegeInsider.com Lefty Driesell Defensive All-America Team.
Gafford becomes the 29th Razorback to be named All-America and the 14th to make an AP All-America squad. Gafford is the first Razorback to be named to the Lefty Driesell Defensive All-America Team, an award that began in 2010.
Gafford’s honor comes after he was tabbed consensus first team All-SEC — just the sixth Razorback to be such honored — and being voted to the SEC All-Defensive Team, joining LSU’s Tremont Waters as the only players to be both consensus first team All-SEC and be named to the SEC All-Defensive Team this season.
A native of El Dorado, Gafford finished fifth in the NCAA in field goal percentage (.660) and led the SEC in the category by 95 percentage points over Tennessee’s Grant Williams (.565).
Gafford was one of two players in the NCAA (Gonzaga’s Brandon Clarke) to average at least 15.0 points, 8.0 rebounds and 2.0 blocked shots while shooting at least 60 percent from the field.
In the SEC, Gafford was the only player to rank among the league’s top five — much less top 10 — in scoring (4th; 16.9/game), rebounding (2nd; 8.7/game), field goal percentage (1st; .660), blocked shots (3rd, 2.0/game), offensive rebounds (2nd; 2.8/game) and defensive rebounds (3rd; 5.8/game).
In addition to blocking 2.0 shot per game (65 total for the season), Gafford led the Razorbacks with 151 deflections on the defensive end — 36 more than the next closest on the team.
Gafford finished his two-year Razorback career with 955 points, averaging 7.4 rebounds, a .635 (second-best in school history) and 141 blocked shots (sixth-best in school history).
Storms named SEC’s top pitcher after complete game shutout over Kentucky
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Autumn Storms was selected as the SEC Pitcher of the Week after a 3-0 performance last week, including a complete-game shutout of Kentucky last Friday.
The weekly accolade is the second of Storms’ career.
Storms’ shutout against the Wildcats was the first for the Wildcats this season. She went on to only allow two runs in game three of the series, helping the Razorbacks to their sixth-straight conference home series win.
Storms started the week with a win over Sun Belt opponent UT-Arlington, where she allowed only four hits and struck out five Mavericks. Over the course of the week, Storms tallied 12 total strikeouts.
The Temecula, California native faced 94 batters and recorded only one true walk through 20.2 innings pitched. She currently ranks in the top 50 of four categories among Division I pitchers including victories, walks allowed per seven innings, strikeouts and strikeout-to-walk ratio.
Since becoming a Razorback, Storms has recorded 325 strikeouts; Storms’ 116 strikeouts this season are already a single-season career high.
Up Next
Arkansas will start a four-game road stretch on Wednesday when they travel to Missouri State for a non-conference mid-week game with the Bears.
After Wednesday’s contest, the Razorbacks will head south to Gainesville, where they will kick-off a three-game series with Florida starting Friday at 5 p.m.
Bud Light Morning Rush Podcast: Tuesday
John Nabors & Tommy Craft discuss selling the Arkansas program to coaches, Eric Musselman rumors, plus Aaron Torres!
Could Nevada’s Musselman be Hogs’ choice if Sampson not interested?
With every passing hour there is no announcement that Houston’s Kelvin Sampson is the new Arkansas coach, you have to wonder if there’s a different focus and if the focus is on Nevada coach Eric Musselman.
After the Cougars were eliminated by Kentucky in the Sweet 16 last week, every Razorback fan started the clock, watching intently for an announcement.
One that hasn’t come from anyone official.
Musselman is a name that’s been whispered by numerous people for nearly a week now.
After a couple of stints in the NBA that were rather unremarkable, he worked first at Arizona State, then LSU before going to Nevada as the head coach in 2015 and in four years he’s won at a 76.4 percent clip.
He’s had the Wolfpack in the NCAA Tournament for three of his four years. The first year he had a 24-14 record and won the CBI Tournament. Okay, that’s not even the NIT, but it’s in the record and with that record in a major conference they would have been in the NCAA.
The Hogs likely weren’t going to look at a Rick Pitino, for a variety of reasons … pick one. Chris Beard isn’t leaving Texas Tech for Arkansas. He’s a Texas guy and might go to the Longhorns, but that’s a big question mark, too.
Because of Hogs athletics director Hunter Yurachek’s relationship with Sampson, everyone assumed that was a deal done months before the firing of Mike Anderson last week.
If there was a deal — and no one has any evidence I’ve seen there was one — for whatever reason it fell completely apart. Probably because Houston has some boosters who can pony up the financial resources to make the Cougars an attractive job.
All of that leads to Musselman, who is 54 years old, has worked in the NBA and as an assistant at the top college levels. Reportedly he was one of the keys to LSU landing Ben Simmons.
He’s won everywhere he’s been … except in the NBA.
Like I said, that’s not a negative from this corner. Pitino and Calipari didn’t win in their trials in the NBA, either.
You can see on his resume why he might be an attractive choice.
Whether he’s the first choice or not.
???? Monday Halftime Pod — featuring Arkansas legend Sidney Moncrief
Phil Elson & Tye Richardson discuss the coaching search, interview Arkansas legend Sidney Moncrief, plus the guys recap their weekend!
History made Tuesday night when Razorbacks host Little Rock
FAYETTEVILLE — Tuesday night marks a historic night in Arkansas baseball history as the Razorbacks face Arkansas-Little Rock for the first-ever meeting between the two programs in the regular season.
It will be the first of two games Arkansas plays against in-system schools, facing Arkansas-Pine Bluff in two weeks.
Arkansas (22-6, 6-3 SEC) is looking to get back on the winning track after dropping two-of-three against then-No. 21 Ole Miss last weekend.
The series loss snapped a streak of 18-consecutive home series wins dating back to 2017, but now the Hogs have their sights set on earning a win on Tuesday to take momentum into their weekend series at Auburn.
Freshman Patrick Wicklander will take the hill for his fifth-consecutive midweek start. The San Jose, California native got the nod last week at Missouri State and was unhittable for two innings, striking out the final five batters he faced.
In his five starts this year, Wicklander has a 2.84 ERA and a 4.67 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
The bats of Dominic Fletcher and Casey Martin come into the eighth week of the season hot as both players hit well over .400 last week with Fletcher leading all Razorbacks with a .438 average over the last four games.
Three of Fletcher’s seven hits went for doubles last week and his 14 doubles this season ties Mississippi State’s Jake Mangum for the SEC lead.
Martin hit his team-leading sixth home run of the year on Sunday against Ole Miss, extending his hit streak to six games.
Against the Rebels last week, Martin went 6-for-13 (.462) with two multi-hit games and has 10 hits during his six-game streak.
Follow live
Tuesday’s game with the Trojans will be available via SEC Network+ and the ESPN app. Brett Dolan (PxP) and Troy Eklund (Analyst) will have the call.
Fans can listen to the radio call on ESPN Arkansas 95.3 in the River Valley, 96.3 in Hot Springs and 104.3 in Harrison-Mountain Home and via the Razorback Gameday app.
Phil Elson and Bubba Carpenter will have the call from Baum-Walker Stadium. Pregame coverage begins 30 minutes prior to first pitch. There will also be a live radio link available on ArkansasRazorbacks.com.
Probable Starters
TUE. : (ARK) LHP Patrick Wicklander (2-1, 5.11 ERA, 37 K, 15 BB) vs. (LR) RHP McKinley Moore (0-2, 9.00 ERA, 12 K, 10 BB)
Razorback Prime Nine
• For the first time in school history Arkansas will take on an in-state school when it faces Little Rock on Tuesday at Baum-Walker Stadium. It will also take on Arkansas-Pine Bluff on April 16.
• Arkansas is 16-3 this season in non-conference games and is hitting .306 in those games, while the pitching staff ERA is at 3.13.
• The Razorbacks defeated Missouri State, 8-2, in their last midweek contest after getting eight unanswered runs over the course of the final four innings.
• Freshman Patrick Wicklander will make his fifth-consecutive midweek start on Tuesday. In those starts, Wicklander has a 2.84 ERA and a 4.67 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
• Junior outfielder Dominic Fletcher is coming off one of his strongest weeks of the season after going 7-for-16 (.438) at the plate, which led all Razorbacks, with three of his hits going for doubles.
• For the fifth-straight start, redshirt junior Isaiah Campbell went six or more innings after going seven against No. 21 Ole Miss last week. He only allowed four earned runs and five walks in March.
• Redshirt freshman Jacob Nesbit saw his 15-game hitting streak come to a close last Friday against the Rebels. Nesbit hit .412 during the streak with 15 RBIs and slugged .529.
• Outfielder Dominic Fletcher is tied for first in the SEC in doubles (14) heading into the fourth week of conference play. He matched his career-best of two doubles in Friday’s series opener vs. Ole Miss.
• Closer Matt Cronin had his longest outing of the year last Friday against Ole Miss, going 1.2 innings for his seventh save of the year, striking out three. The save total is second most in the SEC.
Up next
Arkansas hits the road for its first Thursday-Saturday series in conference play when it travels to 10th-ranked Auburn at Plainsman Park.
Game one is set for Thursday at 6:30 p.m. on ESPNU, while game two will be at 6 p.m. on SEC Network+.
The series finale will have first pitch at 2 p.m. and be broadcast on SEC Network+ as well.
Bud Light Morning Rush Podcast: Monday
John & Tommy discuss the Sweet 16/Elite 8, spring practice updates, plus Tom Murphy joins the show!
Photos from Saturday’s cold, windy, rainy practice, including scrimmage
PHOTOS BY ANDY HODGES | HITTHATLINE.COM
