Arkansas centerfielder Dominic Fletcher talked with the media Wednesday about being ready to start the new season Friday.
Bud Light Morning Rush Podcast: Wednesday
John & Tye discuss Arkansas’ NCAA tourney hopes, interview Aaron Torres, plus What’s Your Beef Wednesday!
Anderson can’t stop bleeding in game Hogs somehow could have won
The bleeding of Arkansas basketball continued Tuesday night at Missouri.
Despite another sluggish defensive performance and double-digit deficits, somehow, the Razorbacks still had a shot to win the game at the end.
But Jalen Harris’ weak attempt at a final shot fell short, giving the Tigers a 79-78 win and leaving some Hog fans scratching their heads.
Others will be screaming to the heavens … for what, though, I’m not really sure. Fans scream, but it’s hard to nail somebody down on exactly what they expect. Not what they hope for, but what’s their realistic expectation.
Later this week when we talk to Mike Anderson, it’s going to be repeated that this team is young, inexperienced and needs to learn how to win these close games.
They have won some this year, but not enough. There’s not much point hoping for a deep run into the NCAA Tournament because the odds now are almost at the point the Hogs are going to have somehow pull out a win at the SEC Tournament to get there.
With the record now sitting at 14-10 overall and 5-6 in the league, they’ve got to get some more wins just to have a shot at the NIT.
The way this team has been playing defense lately, that may even be a stretch. Missouri was 2-8 coming into the game. Arkansas had beaten them just a couple of weeks ago in Bud Walton Arena.
We’ll hear how tough it is playing on the road anywhere in the SEC. But to lose to a 2-8 team, giving up 46 points in the first half after a meltdown Saturday against South Carolina where a team that has to have defense gave up 46 points.
A lot of people were banking this week on Anderson’s track record of teams playing better towards the end of the season. That may still turn out to be the case this year, but the trend is not looking good.
All of this happening with the best 3-point shooter in program history in Isaiah Joe (he passed Rotnei Clarke on Tuesday night when he hit five 3-pointers, scoring 17 total) and a likely first-round NBA draft pick in Daniel Gafford (26 points against the Tigers).
Now back to those expectations.
Some fans holler about making the Sweet 16 should happen frequently, but the program has now gone the longest in modern history without getting there (23 years). The first came in 1958, the second in 1978. That started an 18-year run when the Hogs got to the Sweet 16 10 times.
They haven’t been since 1996. Arkansas also hasn’t had that many players with that level of talent to put on the floor at once since then, either.
Mississippi State is next on Saturday. The Hogs need a win in about as bad of a way as it gets. They are 4-7 in the last 11 games, 3-3 in the last six games.
As we said earlier, the trend is not looking good.
Oh, and if you think there’s going to be any sort of change coming, you can forget it. Anderson’s not going anywhere and nobody’s going to fire him.
Add that to the unrealistic expectations for some fans.
What nobody will say, however, is that not making the NCAA this year might put Anderson on a seat a little warmer than anything he’s experienced as a head coach.
Hogs basketball may not be winning right now, but it is going to be interesting.
For a variety of reasons.
???? Tuesday Halftime Pod — featuring Pat Bradley
Phil & Tye discuss the win over North Carolina in 1984, Get Off My Lawn, plus Pat Bradley!
Bud Light Morning Rush Podcast: Tuesday
John & Tommy discuss Arkansas baseball, Connor Noland’s future, Would You Rather Tuesday and more!
ANDY’S NOTES: Noland’s spring football, Hogs running out of games, Murray’s gamble
With the first baseball series starting this weekend for Arkansas, it is expected freshman Connor Noland will be on the mound at some time and that’s probably going to be early, according to Dave Van Horn.
Van Horn spoke to the Swatter’s Club on Monday and that’s what he said.
Last week Chad Morris was confident Noland will be at spring practice quite a bit, too.
It’s really not as difficult as it sounds, mainly because spring football isn’t as time-intensive as many think. It’s nothing like it was 40 years ago … or even 20.
Here are some of the key rules for spring practice and how it could affect Noland (remember, he’s a pitcher, so basically one day a week is all he’s in a game there):
• There are only 15 practices total. With the Razorbacks starting February 26, that’s three practices per week over a six-week period (the spring game will be April 6, according to a news release Monday).
• Morris usually practices on a Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday rotation. At most, that’s five workouts missed, but because the Hogs have a host of games in March, well, the guess is that number could be reduced.
• Of those 15 practices, only 12 can have any contact and only eight can have tackling to the ground. Of those eight, only three can devote more than half of the time on 11-on-11 … and the spring game counts for one of those.
To summarize, yes, Noland will miss some football practices but don’t be so quick to think he’s going to miss that much.
Van Horn and Morris have each indicated they want this to work. Both are smart guys and they each have a player with some pretty special abilities … in both sports.
Don’t be surprised to see Noland making the overwhelming majority of football practices.
And starting in baseball.
Anderson still positive, but that’s no surprise
At his press conference Monday, Mike Anderson was still positive, even explaining away the Hogs’ second-half collapse against South Carolina last Saturday by saying it’s the way the game is played today.
“If you watch basketball, we’ve had games where we’ve been 16 down, come back and go up,” he said. “There’s a lot of time in basketball.”
Against the Gamecocks, the Hogs had a 13-point lead with just over 15 minutes left in the game.
“That’s a lifetime in basketball,” Anderson said. “You want to be ahead at the end. You want to build on those leads, but if you watch around the country … it’s called learning how to win and learning how to finish.”
As someone who has defended the youth and inexperience, it’s getting hard to keep doing that.
If these freshmen haven’t figured it out in 23 games, there are some wondering if they ever will.
And if they’re going to learn how to finish, well, they’re running out of time.
The Hogs sit at 14-9 on the year, 5-5 in the SEC, and there are just eight games left in the season.
That includes, by the way, a road game against a surging Kentucky team. Four of the games will be at home and splitting those last eight games will leave the Hogs at 9-9 in the league.
Get ready.
The stretch run could be interesting.
Murray’s has a backup plan … baseball
With former Oklahoma quarterback Kyler Murray committing to play football over a guaranteed contract in baseball, he’s gambling he can make it bigger in that sport.
Talk about a gamble.
For him to make that decision, though, you have to at least make the educated guess somebody in the NFL has told him he’s going to be a high draft pick.
That’s a huge gamble for an NFL team to take a quarterback that’s not even 5-foot-10 inches tall.
Don’t believe it? Here’s the Sooners’ assistant athletics director on Twitter:
Keep hearing TV talking heads question the 5-10 height at which we list Kyler. Have heard a couple even say they think he's more like 5-8. Before the season, our strength staff measured him at 5-9 7/8 in socks.
— Mike Houck (@mhouckOU) January 14, 2019
By the way, only five quarterbacks 5-10 or shorter have thrown a pass in a league game since 1960. Doug Flutie was the last one in 2005.
Only two quarterbacks shorter than 6-1 have been drafted in the first round since the leagues merged the draft in 1967.
What this says is the odds are against Murray, but then again he could have a plan to give it a shot in the NFL and if it doesn’t work out … go back to baseball.
It’s always good to have a plan.
???? Monday Halftime Pod — featuring Arkansas BSB’s Casey Martin
Phil & Tye discuss the basketball squad, good memories from the weekend, plus Arkansas baseball shortstop Casey Martin!
Anderson on Gafford, previewing Tuesday night’s matchup with Mizzou
Arkansas coach Mike Anderson met with the media Monday and talked about how Daniel Gafford is having a great season while looking ahead to the rematch with the Tigers on Tuesday night.
Bud Light Morning Rush Podcast: Monday
John & Tommy discuss the South Carolina loss, the AAF, Best/Worst of the weekend and more!
Mike wants explanation from SEC on T, but may get standard line
Arkansas’ women’s basketball doesn’t have a game for a week, so Mike Neighbors’ schedule may be open, which is good because he’s wanting some clarification from SEC commissioner Greg Sankey.
After the Razorbacks had whittled a 17-point Auburn lead down to four, 65-61, Jaiyn Mason had a steak, but Malica Monk missed the layup. Kiara Williams got the rebound, missed a short jumper, got the rebound and that’s when the problems started.
Williams was called for a foul and Neighbors registered a complaint. Okay, he did it loudly and with some enthusiasm. Assistant coach Todd Schaefer came out to get him and the bench was hit with a technical.
“That is EXACTLY what we are taught to do as assistant coaches our entire life,” Neighbors said to the media later. “We are taught to protect the head coach and go get the head coach and that’s exactly what happened.”
He was not going to give his opinion, though. The league office frowns on that and is fairly quick to get money from those who deliver opinions they view as too negative or questioning.
“We were told the technical was issued because one of my assistant coaches left the bench and the assistant coach was trying to get me to not go on the floor,” Neighbors said.
Well, it does happen all across the league every game and it’s called so seldom I thought they had changed the rule.
“That’s what they told us, so I’m not telling you anything about my opinion on it,” Neighbors said. “I’m just reporting the fact of what they told us.”
He’s holding his opinion, which is probably the smartest thing to do.
“I’m not sure I could comment further on it without talking to commissioner Sankey tomorrow so I’m not going to,” he said.
All he wants is a clarification for a simple reason.
“I want my assistant coaches to do that,” Neighbors said. “That’s exactly who we are and that’s the program we’ll aways be.”
That didn’t cost the Hogs the game. They even got a make-up technical later when the Tigers’ Crystal Primm was whistled for a foul she didn’t agree with.
“She showed a little too much emotion on the foul,” Auburn coach Terri Williams-Flournoy said later. “Since I can’t talk about the refs, that’s all I can say right now.”
It’s a good bet she will be talking to somebody in the league office Monday, too.
Neighbors, on the other hand, just wants to understand exactly why there was a call in the first place.
“If that’s the rule, then I need to understand it better and I need to teach it better because I speak at clinics all over the country and I tell assistant coaches that’s part of their job,” Neighbors said.
The explanation from the league office may be interesting.
Some enlightment would be nice, but the guess here is it’s be termed a judgement call, Neighbors understands the rule and he’ll hear what other coaches have heard from the league:
“Hey, coach, we’re sorry … we missed it and you’re right.”
Oh, and the standard close:
“Good luck.”
That really should be the opening line from the league on most of these things.
Razorbacks shut out Campbell in six innings to complete winning opening weekend
LAKE CHARLES, La. — Arkansas closed out a successful weekend in the Pelican State with a six-inning 8-0 win over Campbell on Sunday.
Sophomore Mary Haff pitched her third complete game of the season and recorded 13 strikeouts in the win, tying her career record.
Through 20 innings in the circle, Haff has allowed only four hits and not a single run.
Up Next
Arkansas will be back on the road next week, as the Hogs go south to Mexico for the Puerto Vallarta College Challenge, where set to face North Dakota State, No. 3 Washington, Northern Colorado, and Sacramento State over the three-day weekend.
The tournament is powered by Triple Crown Sports and hosted by Flo Softball.
How It Happened
Both the Hogs and the Camels would enter the second inning scoreless, but it didn’t take long for Arkansas to put runners on base, as Kayla Green took a full-count walk to reach first.
With two outs on the board and a Hog on first, senior Haydi Bugarin took things into her own hands as she unloaded on a 2-1 count and sent it soaring over the center field wall. The homer is Bugarin’s first of the season and the eighth of her career.
Sophomore transfer Danielle Gibson battle back from an 0-2 count to leadoff the third inning with a single to second base. She moved to second as Green found her way on base again, this time in a hit-by-pitch scenario.
Ryan Jackson made contact off Campbell’s pitch and sent it roaring down the right-field line, scoring Gibson and giving the Razorbacks a three-run lead headed into the fourth.
The Fighting Camels responded with their first hit of the game, a single to shortstop, but the Hog defense held strong as Haff accounted for all three outs of the inning with three more strikeouts in the book.
Arkansas picked up right where they left off, as Bugarin and freshman Maggie Hicks took back-to-back hits into left field, putting runners on first and second for Hannah McEwen with no outs.
Campbell would call for a defensive change on the rubber, but no sweat off McEwen’s back, as she stepped up and skipped a speedy hit through the middle and scored Bugarin.
Two more singles by seniors Katie Warrick and Ashley Diaz would tack on another three runs for the Hogs, who wrapped up the fourth inning with four runs on five hits.
The fifth inning would be scoreless for both teams and after Campbell threatened with a base runner in the sixth, Arkansas responded with pinch hitter, freshman Taylor Greene to lead off the sixth.
Greene drew her first collegiate walk as a Hog and looked to Sam Torres to take first to pinch run for the Hogs. Torres used her quick feet to steal second and advance to third as Gibson grounded out to first base.
Warrick followed suit and beautifully executed a sacrifice fly to deep right-center field, giving Torres the time she needed to tag up and score, in a walk-off, eight-run win.
