Razorbacks coach Mike Anderson talked about Saturday night’s win over Florida International and looked ahead to the game against Colorado State on Wednesday night.
Neighbors on loss to Iowa State; previews Tennessee Tech
Arkansas coach Mike Neighbors met with the media Tuesday afternoon to recap the loss at Iowa State on Sunday afternoon, then look ahead to Tuesday night’s matchup.
Kelley announces transfer from Razorbacks’ football team
Cole Kelley will not be moving into Year 2 with Chad Morris and the rest of the Arkansas coaching staff.
On Monday, he announced his decision via his twitter to leave the Razorback program.
Once a Hog always a Hog! Woo pig forever pic.twitter.com/7AJ9d2lyOv
— Cole Kelley (@ColeKelley10) December 3, 2018
Kelley has not decided where he will play next season. He finished 2018 with five passing touchdowns, five interceptions, and 455 passing yards.
???? Monday Halftime Pod — featuring Jimmy Dykes
Phil & Tye discuss CFB rankings, 3 up 3 down, and interview Jimmy Dykes!
Joe’s 34-point night earns him SEC Player of Week honors from league
FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas freshman Isaiah Joe was named the Southeastern Conference Men’s Basketball Player of the Week, the league announced today.
Joe scored 34 points — 17 in each half — and made 10-of-13 shots from 3-point range to lead the Razorbacks to a 121-89 victory over FIU this past Saturday. Joe joins Courtney Fortson (Dec. 15, 2009) as the only Razorback freshman to be named SEC Player of the Week.
Highlights from Joe’s award-winning performance include:
• His previous best was scoring 17 points versus Texas in the season opener. Joe scored 17 points in each half versus FIU.
• The 34 points are most by a player in the SEC this season. The total is additionally second (tied) on the Arkansas all-time list for most points by a freshman in a game.
Bobby Portis scored 35 as a freshman versus Alabama in 2014. Scotty Thurman scored 34 twice as a freshman. This was just the seventh time a Razorback freshman has ever scored at least 30 points in a game.
• His 10, 3-pointers are the most by a player in the SEC this season. He is just the fourth Razorback (fifth time in school history) to make at least 10 3-pointers in a game and just the 10th player in SEC history (11th time in league history) to make at least 10 in a game. Arkansas’ Rotnei Clarke had at least 10, 3’s twice in his career.
• Joe was 10-for-13 from 3-point range and that .764 percentage ties for the best percentage in SEC history for those that made at least 10 in a game. (Alabama’s John Petty was also 10-of-13 for a .764 percentage last season.)
• After FIU trimmed its deficit to four (24-20) at 8:29 in the first half, Joe drained a 3-pointer and scored 14 points over the next 4:37 to put Arkansas up 20.
• Joe started the game going 1-for-3 from 3-point range. He then made six straight attempts and finished the game making 9-of-his-last-10 from long distance.
• Joe and Daniel Gafford, who has also been named SEC Player of the Week this season, are the only Razorbacks to score in double digits in all six games this season.
• Joe ranks ninth in the NCAA in 3-point field goals made per game (4.0).
• In the SEC, Joe ranks first in 3-pointers made (4.0/gm), second in 3FG% (.462), fourth in steals (2.0), sixth in scoring (16.3) and 10th in FG% (.485). He is the only player to rank among the SEC top 10 in both overall FG% and 3PT FG%.
Arkansas will return to action this Wednesday (Dec. 5) for their first true road game of the season, facing Colorado State.
Tip-off in Fort Collins, Colo., is set for 9 p.m. and the game will be telecast on CBS Sports Network.
Froholdt, Harris named to SEC’s second team by The AP
FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas’ Hjalte Froholdt and De’Jon Harris have been named to the 2018 Associated Press All-Southeastern Conference second team.
It marks back-to-back years Harris has received second team honors from the outlet and is the first for Froholdt from The AP.
Harris’ accolade is the fourth all-conference distinction over the last two seasons, while Froholdt picked up his third overall award, earning two in 2017.
Froholdt, the senior offensive lineman from Svendborg, Denmark, started all 12 games for the Razorbacks in his final year in Fayetteville.
He played in a team-high 815 offensive snaps, primarily at left guard (542), but began the 2018 campaign at center (260) due to a teammate’s injury.
Froholdt did not allow a sack in 440 pass blocking snaps, according to Pro Football Focus, doing so for the second consecutive season. His work on the offensive line produced a 90.0 grade by PFF, the fourth-highest among SEC lineman, as the Razorbacks totaled 4,028 yards of total offense.
Harris, a junior linebacker from Harvey, Louisiana, led the SEC in total and solo tackles with 118 and 62, respectively.
He was the first Arkansas defender to tally 100+ tackles in back-to-back seasons since Jerry Franklin (2010-11), leading the team in both years with 115 in 2017. Harris also led the Razorbacks in tackles for loss for the second consecutive year, totaling 9.0 this year and 8.5 last season.
He posted the team-lead in tackles in seven of 12 games this year, totaling a conference-best seven double-digit tackle performances over the course of his junior campaign.
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Bud Light Morning Rush Podcast: Monday
John, Tommy, and Tyler Wilson discuss the conference championships, interview Tom Murphy, and hit on Jalen Hurt’s decision!
WATCH: Highlights of Arkansas’ 121-89 win over FIU
Arkansas destroys FIU 121-89 in the first ever meeting between the two teams. Isiah Joe would rack-up a career-high 34 points and would set a freshman record by drilling 10 three-pointers.
via WarMachine2013
Dungee’s career game not enough in 91-82 loss at Iowa State
AMES, Iowa — Chelsea Dungee scored 19 points in the third quarter, but Arkansas suffered a 91-82 loss at No. 22-23 Iowa State in the Big 12-SEC Challenge in Ames, Iowa, on Sunday afternoon.
Dungee had a career-best 27 points, leading four players in double figures, but the inside play of Iowa State (6-1) was something Arkansas (5-3) could not overcome.
The Cyclones outscored Arkansas 44-20 in the paint and had an 18-14 advantage in second chance points. ISU out-rebounded Arkansas 47-37 and had seven blocks while holding the Razorbacks without a fast-break point.
Dungee, Monk and Mason all had career scoring nights with Dungee adding a 13-for-16 performance from the line. Monk finished with a season-best 21 point and Arkansas got 10 points each from Mason and Alexis Tolefree.
ISU led by as many as 14 points late in the game but Arkansas mounted a comeback in the first five minutes of the last frame with a 12-9 advantage cutting the lead to single digits.
Arkansas cut the lead to three points, 85-82, at the 3:02 mark but a kick-out 3-pointer by Iowa State changed the momentum as the Cyclones outscored the Razorbacks 6-0 in the final minutes of play.
The Razorbacks and Cyclones combined for a 70-point third quarter with ISU outscoring Arkansas 39-31 in the frame.
The First Half
Arkansas found success early at the free throw line and did a good job defensively against the Cyclones in the first half.
The Razorbacks spotted ISU an 8-2 lead from the opening tip but trailed by just three points, 18-15, at the end of the first frame.
Kiara Williams forced a couple of ISU turnovers that led to Razorback points as Monk and Dungee began making their shots.
The defense remained strong in the second quarter as Arkansas held Iowa State without a basket for more than three minutes in the period.
The Razorbacks were 5-for-7 during that stretch, tying the game for the first time on a jumper from Jailyn Mason at the 6:05 mark before the half.
The teams traded points until ISU put together an 8-0 late in the half talking the lead into the locker room at the break.
Notes
• Arkansas Starters: Malica Monk, Kiara Williams, Jailyn Mason, Bailey Zimmerman, Chelsea Dungee
• Arkansas is 1-2 against Iowa State.
• Arkansas is 2-3 in the conference challenge.
• It is the fifth time in eight games the Razorbacks have made double digit shots from the free throw line. They finished going 19-for-25 from the line.
• Chelsea Dungee scored a career-best 27 points. She has scored in double figures in every game this year and scored 20+ points in four games. Dungee was also a career-best 13-for-16 from the line.
• Malica Monk posted a season-best 22 points. Monk has scored in double figures in seven of eight games. She has 964 career points.
Up Next
Arkansas returns home hosting Tennessee Tech University on Tuesday, Dec. 4 at 7 p.m.
The Razorbacks travel to Abilene Christian on Dec. 8 and host Prairie View A&M and Nebraska as December continues.
Committee reinforces notion league title games part of playoff
Sunday’s decision by the College Football Playoff committee to leave two-loss Georgia out of the final four really shouldn’t be that surprising if you carefully remember back when it all started.
Early in the morning at SEC Media Days back in July 2014, executive director Bill Hancock sat down for an interview on the brand new college football playoff and his points from that interview haven’t really changed.
“We want something people are talking about all year long,” he said while we were finishing up a quick visit from then-SEC commissioner Mike Slive, who had stopped by to say hello.
He also talked about the entire season meaning something for college football. That was a point of debate for detractors of the old BCS formula, which rewarded late success and, at times, ignored late failures.
Hancock made it very clear the entire season mattered.
“There is a strong blueprint for the process,” he said.
That blueprint hasn’t changed a whole lot going into the fifth year of the process. There’s no definitive language that eliminates a two-loss team from getting into the final four, but unless there’s a lot of them, don’t look for it anytime soon.
Reading between the lines, Hancock more or less said from the first year it would be hard for a team to lose a championship game and still get into the playoff.
“The last one — and the most important one — is that you win your conference,” he said in 2014.
Alabama got in without winning the SEC last year … and promptly won the whole thing because Georgia avenged a regular-season loss to Auburn, then beat the Tigers in the SEC Championship game.
With the Big 10 and Pac 12 in dreadful shape, it wasn’t a big stretch to have two teams from the SEC in the discussion.
But this year? Well, the reason Georgia didn’t make it in is because they lost their play-in game. Conference championship games — for good or bad — have become literally the first round of the college football playoff system.
The committee made it clear Sunday that’s the case.
Based on prior conversations with Hancock, the guess from this corner is the Bulldogs would still be on the outside looking in if Notre Dame wasn’t in the mix this year. I’m guessing Ohio State would have been in there.
It’s the conference championship thing again.
Just as Wisconsin finished 12-1 in 2017, that one loss came to Ohio State in the Big 10 Championship Game and the Big 10 got left out because Alabama had one loss that did not come in the conference championship game.
Ohio State more or less got into the playoff the same way in 2016. They didn’t make it to the Big 10 title game, but got into the playoff with an 11-1 record. They were promptly stomped into the ground by Clemson, but they got in.
The CFP committee could resolve all of this by simply saying you don’t have to be in your conference championship game, but if you do make it there you better win it.
They won’t, though. Just like they’re not really going to entertain any talk of expansion anytime soon.
“It’s going to be four teams for 12 years,” Hancock said back in 2014. We set this up on a 12-year contract because we want fans to know how it’s going to be.”
So don’t expect changes for awhile.
And whether you like it or not, that’s the way it’s going to be.
Which keeps you talking about the College Football Playoff. That drives interest, which drives sponsorship dollars and television ratings.
“Every school and every conference will benefit financially from this deal every year,” Hancock said back in 2014.
In case you’re wondering, that’s what really matters.
