Phil & Tye hit on March Madness memories, the Texas loss, and more!
Anderson previews second-round NIT matchup with Indiana
Arkansas coach Mike Anderson met with the media and talked about how his young team is stepping up with more contributors in tournament.
Bud Light Morning Rush Podcast: Thursday
John Nabors talks about the progress in the NIT, possible player transfers, plus SEC Mike breaks down the Arkansas QB battle!
Neighbors’ different style working for Hogs, producing wins in March
By choosing Tennessee over Arkansas for the women’s NCAA Tournament, we now know that committee is fully capable of being as wacky as the men’s side of things.
“We were so close,” Mike Neighbors said Tuesday about the selection. “I’ve been told by many people that we were the last team talked about.”
The Razorbacks open play in the Women’s NIT on Thursday night at 7 p.m. against Houston in Bud Walton Arena.
Despite what you may hear, there are no seeds in the NIT on the women’s side. The Hogs aren’t a No. 1 seed, despite being the first team out of the NCAA.
“And I can guarantee you Houston isn’t a No. 16,” Neighbors said Wednesday afternoon after his team went through a practice where they were on the floor just 42 minutes.
The Lady Vols got in probably on their body of work over the last 35 years or so … regardless of what the selection committee wants to say publicly.
“I look at it head-to-head,” Neighbors said. “Everything else was about even. They might have had more top 50 wins than we did, but we had more top 25 wins.”
Ignoring the Hogs’ 80-79 win is something you get the idea kinda irritated Neighbors.
“When it gets down to a tie, every place that I’ve ever played whether it was the backyard growing up in Greenwood or in the SEC, when things are that even you look at what happened head-to-head,” he said Tuesday. “And we won in Knoxville.”
For a coach that is as good as anybody at the UA in juggling the mental aspects of things, it’s another tidbit Neighbors will keep in the bag.
“It’s 95 percent mental at this point,” he said Wednesday. “If above the shoulders is not locked in it at this point, it doesn’t matter how good or bad you’re feeling.”
This time of the year is what Neighbors has in mind back starting in the summer and builds in a very specific method when they play the first game.
“We try to cut practice by five minutes a week from the time we tip off in October,” Neighbors said. “We were on the floor for 42 minutes today. At this time of the year, we’re stripping things away rather than adding a lot.”
Neighbors has been that way for awhile now.
“I don’t know if seven years ago we stumbled onto something by accident or just a consequence,” he said, “but it seems to work.”
He cuts back practices. He gives his players more days off than anybody else … despite warnings from former bosses Gary Blair and Vic Schaefer.
“They both told me I was going to get myself fired doing that,” Neighbors said Wednesday. “They said once people found out I was doing it they were going to use it against me, but I just believe in it.”
The reason he believes in it is because he is producing winners.
“We did it even with our best team in Washington,” he said. “We were allotted an hour and 45 minutes or something for practice at the Final Four and we practiced for 25 minutes, then stood around looking at the big screens and stuff.”
Long workouts at this point in time, he feels, don’t work out too well.
“I don’t want to get in their way,” he said. “They know what to do. In an hour and 45 minutes, you’re trying to cram, making stuff up and doing things counter-productive.”
Narrowly missing out on the NCAA has made this Arkansas team one of the teams one of the favorites in the WNIT … for better or worse.
You get the idea, though, it’s given this team something to prove.
“You can’t go into this thing with regrets or looking back or being frustrated,” Neighbors said Tuesday. “The kids are ready and so are the coaches.
“After we vented to whoever we vent to.”
Now they’ll play against Houston in a game where both teams know what the other wants to do. Neighbors and Cougars’ coach Ronald Hughey told each other earlier this week what their game plan is.
“We’re focused and looking forward to playing Thursday night,” Neighbors said.
If you haven’t been to one of the women’s games, here’s your chance. Tickets are just $5, parking is free and athletics director Hunter Yurachek is giving away free tickets to the first 300 kids (and it’s just $3 for youngsters 17 and under if you can’t get there early).
On top of that, you’ll get to see one of the best teams in women’s college basketball. Just because the NCAA chose tradition over quality doesn’t really change that.
The Hogs are one of the hottest teams in the country.
And playing postseason basketball in Fayetteville.
Razorbacks come up one run short against ’Horns in 7-6 loss
AUSTIN, Texas — Arkansas pitchers couldn’t command the strike zone Wednesday night, walking 14 batters and allowing ninth-ranked Texas to score five-straight runs in the middle innings, leading to a 7-6 defeat at Disch-Falk Field.
The loss for Arkansas (18-3, 3-0 SEC) snaps a seven-game win streak that dated back to March 10 in a 4-2 win over Louisiana Tech.
The Razorbacks are still off to one of their best starts in school history coming out winners in 18 of their first 21 games, which is the program’s best start since 2012.
Redshirt freshman Jacob Nesbit led the team, offensively, with a 3-for-4 night at the plate, his first three-hit game of his career.
Redshirt senior Trevor Ezell also turned in a two-hit game, going 2-for-3 with a run scored, but he and Nesbit were the only Razorback hitters to notch more than one hit in the game.
For Nesbit, his second-inning single extended his hit streak to a team-best 11 games. During the streak, Nesbit is hitting .471 (16-for-34) with four multi-hit games, 10 RBIs and nine runs scored.
His two-out double in the top of the ninth gave the Razorbacks some renewed life, driving in Jack Kenley from first base to cut the Texas lead to 7-6.
Arkansas did get on the board early in the second inning, once again, scoring four times on three singles and a double, while also taking advantage of a Texas throwing error.
After Texas cut the lead to 4-2 in the third, Arkansas pushed ahead, again, with a run in the fourth inning off a Dominic Fletcher double, his third of the series. It was Fletcher’s only hit of the night, but his third this week.
Texas went on to score five more runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings as Arkansas pitching struggled to find command. Eight different Razorback pitchers entered the game Wednesday night.
Redshirt sophomore Marshall Denton got his second-consecutive start and held the Longhorns scoreless for the first two innings.
After him, the staff wasn’t able to get things under control until the final two innings where the combo of Caden Monke, Carter Sells and Collin Taylor held Texas hitless, even while issuing seven walks.
“I liked what I saw from our team. I didn’t play a couple of our starters and I threw a bunch of young kids today and we still had a chance to win the game. So that makes me feel pretty good about some of these players. There were some good things in there with a couple of our pitchers. But for the most part they struggled with command. We walked them and we hit ‘em and that’s why they beat us.” — Dave Van Horn on Wednesday’s game
Up next
Arkansas continues its road trip to Tuscaloosa, Alabama this weekend as SEC play continues against Alabama starting on Friday at 6 p.m. All three games this weekend will be broadcast on SEC Network+.
???? Wednesday Halftime Pod — featuring Scottie Bordelon of Whole Hog Sports
Phil Elson & Tye Richardson hit on both Arkansas victories Tuesday night, interview Scottie Bordelon of Whole Hog Sports, plus Jalen Rose on the 1994 Elite 8 game against Arkansas!
Bud Light Morning Rush Podcast: Wednesday
John & Tye discuss the NIT win, callers on Gafford’s impact, plus Andrew Hutchinson of Hawgbeat joins the show!
Hogs get off to fast start in NIT, downing Providence with relative ease
It probably shouldn’t be a complete stunner that Arkansas jumped on Providence early and, for a change, didn’t let go of the rope.
It’s a credit to Mike Anderson and his coaching staff that the Razorbacks were considerably more interested in this game than the Friars … and it showed early.
The Hogs never trailed in an 84-72 win in the opening round of the NIT that never felt as close as the final margin.
Oh, sure, Providence cut the Arkansas lead to single digits on a few occasions, but you never got the idea they were going to make it all the way back, much less get the lead.
Without their leading scorer and rebounder during the regular season, some guys stepped up. Mason Jones led the Hogs on a balanced scoresheet with 18 points, Reggie Chaney scored 14, Isaiah Joe 12 and Gabe Osabuohien 11.
Osabuohien, with his best game of the season, also led the team in rebounding with eight, had a block and a steal. He even hit a 3-pointer. Maybe he needed to move a few feet back like the NIT has done with the 3-point arc.
The Hogs hit their first five 3-point shots and jumped out to a 20-9 lead just seven minutes into the game. Providence made a little six-point run and Arkansas responded with four straight layups.
You wonder if Anderson isn’t better in situations like this. It’s when he seems to do his best coaching. Of course, he’s never had a team anywhere loaded with top-tier recruits, but he’s shown to produce pretty decent results with blue-collar type players.
Joe, who had some eye-popping 3-point numbers during the regular season, was the closest thing to a star on the roster.
What these Hogs did was play with energy from the start, didn’t appear to be sitting back and waiting on one guy to take control … they just did it by committee.
Now we’ll find out if they can put two of these type of games together.
They will play at Indiana on Thursday night. The Hogs slipped past the Hoosiers at Bud Walton Arena in the third game of the season, 73-72.
For at least one game, a team playing in a tournament many have said is a complete waste of time, appeared to be happier about being there than Providence. How the Friars got a higher seed is still baffling, but being on the road didn’t’ exactly seem to bother the Hogs on Tuesday night.
We’ll see if an environment that likely will be larger and more vocal than the small, intimate gathering in Providence.
How this team handles that will be interesting.
Franklin, Kjerstad’s homers pace Arkansas’ 11-4 whipping of Texas
AUSTIN, Texas — Arkansas came out swinging Tuesday night, scoring six runs in the second inning and four runs in the third inning en route to an 11-4 victory over Texas.
It was the Razorbacks’ seventh win in a row and 13th win in their last 14 games.
Five of Arkansas’ (18-2, 3-0 SEC) first 10 runs came off the home run ball and it all started with a grand slam by freshman Christian Franklin in the second. Franklin finished the game 2-for-4 with a season-high four RBIs and the grand slam was the Razorbacks’ first of the year.
Two batters later, sophomore Heston Kjerstad launched his third home run of the year to straight-away centerfield, a solo shot that traveled 435 feet to finish off the six-run frame. It was Kjerstad’s only hit of the game, but his third hit in his last nine at-bats as it silenced the Texas crowd at Disch-Falk Field.
Along with Franklin’s two hits, Dominic Fletcher and Matt Goodheart both turned in two hits in the game. For Goodheart, it’s his third two-hit game in his last four starts.
Since game one against Missouri last Friday, Goodheart is 6-for-13 (.462) with two doubles. Also, both of Fletcher’s hits were doubles, marking a career-high for doubles in a single game.
With a six-run cushion after just one inning of work, starting pitcher Patrick Wicklander was able to go easily into the fourth inning with only one hit allowed and a couple of walks.
The Longhorns finally saw their offense come alive in the bottom half of the fourth inning, scoring four off of Wicklander, two from a home run by catcher Caston Peter, cutting into what was once an 11-0 lead to 11-4.
Nonetheless, the freshman hurler was able to keep the damage minimal and give way to the bullpen in the fifth as Kole Ramage and Zebulon Vermillion combined for just one hit allowed and one walk in the final five innings.
Wicklander finished with four earned runs allowed and three strikeouts on 77 pitches in his fourth start of the year.
Ramage earned his fifth win of the season, taking over the team lead, and second in as many outings, as he stymied Longhorn hitters in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings. Ramage retired all nine batters he faced and struck out three on 29 pitches.
Vermillion closed the game’s final two innings, allowing just one hit, one walk and striking out three of his own, one shy of a career-high.
The win for Arkansas over Texas (15-8, 2-1 Big 12) is its fifth-straight over the Longhorns dating back to 2012 and first win in Austin since 2005 in the NCAA Austin Regional. During that five-game win streak, Arkansas has outscored Texas, 49-17, including three games with 10 or more runs scored.
Razorback quotables
“We got off to a really good start offensively. We took some good swings in the first. We felt like we were going to get to him. In the second inning, I just thought our hitters did a tremendous job of battling. We had a lot of 3-2 counts, took some walks, fouled off pitches and squared some balls up pretty good. Wicklander was really good for the first couple of innings and then he just lost his command a little bit in the third and the fourth. We would have liked to have gotten another inning or two from him, but he was getting behind in the counts and wasn’t able to land some pitches, but his stuff was good, his velocity was good, and he got us off to a good start, which is what we wanted.” — Coach Dave Van Horn on the the win over Texas and the performance from Patrick Wicklander
“That ball was crushed. It was interesting because we were talking about the batter’s eye during the rules at home plate. They said you had to hit it over the batter’s eye and what a shot it takes to get it over it. It was just to the right of it. I think the ball hit in that tree or something. It was a no doubter. It wasn’t really wind-aided. It was going to go no matter what, but he got all that one. He’s been a little frustrated on the power numbers. He’s been getting his hits, batting average has climbed a little bit, but at the same time he hasn’t hit the ball out of the ball park like he can. That was a big swing for us.” — Van Horn on Heston Kjerstad’s monster home run in the second inning
“Coming out of the bullpen, I knew I kind of had every pitch going. I felt really good in the bullpen. I just came out and attacked these hitters. They were getting a little aggressive because they were coming off that inning where (Patrick) Wick(lander) kind of got a couple hits off of him, so I just had to come in. Tried to start them off with a little bit off speed just to kind of get them on their toes and just keep attacking to get them out.” — Kole Ramage on his perfect three-inning outing
“There’s nothing like it, hitting a home run, especially a grand slam. I hit one in high school, but to hit one – especially against Texas – it means a lot.” — Christian Franklin on how it felt to hit a grand slam
Up next
Arkansas will finish the series against Texas on Wednesday at Disch-Falk Field with first pitch, once again, slated for 6:30 p.m. on the Longhorn Network.
???? Tuesday Halftime Pod — featuring Rivals’ Nikki Chavanelle
Phil Elson & Tye Richardson hit on the possible pressure on the 2019 baseball team, interview Nikki Chavanelle, plus Arkansas faces off against Oregon State once again!
