Hogs take aim at Gators on road Wednesday night
FAYETTEVILLE — Looking for its fourth victory away from Bud Walton Arena this year, Arkansas travels to Florida on Wednesday evening for a 6 p.m. tip-off on ESPN2.
The Rundown
Opponent: Florida (12-5, 4-1 SEC)
Date: Wednesday, Jan. 17
Site: Exactech Arena (Gainesville, Fla.)
Tip-off: 6 p.m. CT
TV: ESPN2 | WatchESPN
Live Stats: Click Here
SiriusXM Radio: 137/190
The #Fastest40 Facts
• The Razorbacks are looking for their first conference road win of the year after tying the program record for SEC road wins in a season last year with six.
• During the last four seasons, Arkansas is second in the SEC in league wins with 36, while Florida is third with 35.
• Following Saturday’s victory over Missouri, Arkansas’ RPI went from No. 25 to No. 21 according to the NCAA, while its strength of schedule is up from No. 13 to No. 7.
• Arkansas has won 31 consecutive games in which it has led at halftime. During Mike Anderson era, the Razorbacks are 116-7 when leading at the intermission.
• Daniel Gafford’s game-winning dunk against Missouri was his 39th slam of the year, more than six SEC teams, including Florida with 35 as a program this season.
• Daryl Macon is one of two players in the SEC with four games of 8+ assists this season. In those four contests, he has totaled 32 assists and just six turnovers.
• Jaylen Barford is the only player in the SEC to rank in the top three in points per game (3rd) and field goal percentage (3rd).
A Win Would…
• Give the Razorbacks their first true road win of the season and the fourth victory away from Bud Walton Arena this year.
• Be Arkansas’ first win Gainesville in 23 years, dating back to a 94-85 victory during the 1994-95 season when Corliss Williamson led the way with 20 points.
• Snap a seven-game losing streak to Florida, including 12 straight losses in Gainesville.
Igbokwe named SEC’s co-runner of week
BIRMINGHAM — Six-time All-American sprinter Obi Igbokwe has been named the Southeastern Conference Co-Runner of the week, for his efforts this past weekend in the 200-meter dash at the Arkansas Invitational.
Igbokwe shares the honor with Auburn’s Akeem Bloomfield.
NCAA Leader
A native of The Woodlands, Texas, Igbokwe opened his third season as a Razorback in dominant fashion, finishing as the top collegiate performer in the 200.
Racing alongside a pair of decorated professionals Igbokwe was pulled out to a personal best performance in the event of 20.78.
The time ranks him as the top 200-meter sprinter in the NCAA and the third-fastest sprinter in the world at that distance.
Igbokwe now ranks at No. 9 in the 200 on Arkansas’ all-time bests list.
Igbokwe will next see action on the road next weekend at the Simmons-Harvey Quad in Ann Arbor, Mich., against Ohio State, Michigan State and host Michigan.
Arkansas returns to its home track Jan. 26-27 for the Razorback Invitational.
Shaffer named co-freshman of week after Kentucky effort
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Redshirt freshman Sarah Shaffer was named the Southeastern Conference Co-Freshman of the Week following her 39.325 all-around performance in the Razorbacks’ home opener against No. 6 Kentucky last Friday.
Shaffer’s all-around score is the highest among freshman in the SEC this season, and the seventh highest in the conference overall. The score is the fourth highest among the nation’s freshman this season through week two.
The Tyler, Texas, native secured Arkansas’ highest all-around score since April 2, 2016 and the highest by a Razorback freshman since 2015.
As the Razorbacks’ anchor on beam, Shaffer helped Arkansas secure its highest beam score of 49.250 since March 8, 2014. In total, Shaffer took second in the all-around and on the floor while taking fourth on vault and recording her highest event score of 9.875.
Shaffer was one of Arkansas’ five scorers on every event against No. 6 Kentucky, helping the Razorbacks tally its third-highest home opening score in program history of 196.525, and vault into the top 10 of Road To Nationals weekly rankings for the first time since 2016.
Shaffer’s Results vs No. 6 Kentucky
Vault: 9.875
Bars: 9.800
Beam: 9.800
Floor: 9.850
All-Around: 39.325
Shaffer becomes the sixth Razorback gymnast to earn an SEC Freshman of the Week honor and is the first since Jessica Yamzon won the award on Feb. 7, 2017.
The 10th-ranked Razorbacks return to action Friday for another top-25 conference matchup at the No. 24 Missouri Tigers in Columbia. The meet is scheduled to begin at 6:45 p.m. and will be streamed on the SEC Network+ and the WatchESPN app.
Tickets for the remaining four home meets are available at the Razorback Ticket Center by calling 1-800-982-HOGS (4647) or by clicking here. Arkansas’ next home meet is Jan. 26 at 6 p.m. against Georgia.
Hogs get second Top 5 ranking in national poll
FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas found itself ranked No. 4 in the D1Baseball.com preseason poll Tuesday morning, its second top-five ranking of the three preseason polls that have been released so far.
Along with the D1Baseball.com poll, Arkansas is ranked No. 6 by Perfect Game and No. 3 by Collegiate Baseball, its highest preseason ranking since 2013.
Coming off a 19-game turnaround in 2017 and its 14th NCAA Regional berth in the last 15 years, Arkansas returns with a highly touted team that includes six of its top eight hitters and a bevy of pitchers from a year ago.
Arkansas’ 45 wins last year were its most since 2012 and ninth 40-win season under Dave Van Horn.
To cap Arkansas’ year, Baum Stadium hosted an NCAA Regional for the sixth time in school history and a total of 67,704 fans were in attendance, making the Fayetteville Regional, the highest attended regional in the country.
For the season, Arkansas finished third in the nation in average attendance (8,269) and second in overall attendance (289,421), its 13th-straight season in the top five.
Eight teams ranked in D1Baseball.com’s preseason poll will face off against the Razorbacks this year, four of those matchups coming inside Baum Stadium: No. 21 Texas (March 13-14), No. 8 Kentucky (March 16-18), No. 3 Texas Tech (April 24-25), No. 10 Texas A&M (May 11-13).
One year after leading the conference with 83 home runs and touting the third-best team batting average (.286), Arkansas’ brings back the core of its lineup, including freshman All-American Dominic Fletcher and All-SEC players Grant Koch and Jax Biggers.
Biggers led the team with a .338 average, the best batting average by a Razorback shortstop since Scott Hode in 2005, while Koch led all SEC catchers with 13 home runs coupled with 42 RBIs.
Fletcher was, arguably, the best freshman hitter in the SEC last year with a .291 average, 12 home runs, and 37 RBIs.
His 12 long balls was just one off from tying the Arkansas freshman record set by Zack Cox back in 2009, but were the most among all freshman in the SEC.
On the mound, Arkansas returns the heart of its pitching staff in preseason All-American Blaine Knight along with redshirt sophomore Isaiah Campbell, junior Kacey Murphy, and junior Jake Reindl.
Entering his second year as the Arkansas pitching coach, Wes Johnson hopes to continue seeing the pitching success the Razorbacks had last year, which combined for a 3.61 team ERA and a school-record 619 strikeouts.
Arkansas is scheduled to open the 2018 season against Bucknell on Friday, Feb. 16 with first pitch at 3 p.m. at Baum Stadium. Tickets are now on sale through the Razorback Ticket Office.
2018 Opponents In The Rankings
| Team | D1Baseball.com | Perfect Game | Collegiate Baseball |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florida | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Arkansas | 4 | 6 | 3 |
| Texas Tech* | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Kentucky* | 8 | 8 | 8 |
| LSU | 16 | 12 | 10 |
| Ole Miss | 9 | 11 | — |
| Texas A&M* | 10 | 15 | — |
| Mississippi St. | 12 | 25 | 13 |
| Texas* | 21 | 23 | — |
| South Carolina* | — | — | 19 |
| Missouri St.* | — | — | 22 |
* – denotes home opponent
Schultz named top freshman of the week in SEC
FAYETTEVILLE — Freshman diver Brooke Schultz earned her sixth weekly honor of the season from the Southeastern Conference on Tuesday, as the Fayetteville native was tabbed SEC Female Freshman of the Week for the first time.
Schultz has previously been named SEC Diver of the Week five times so far during her freshman campaign, the most in school history.
She is the first Razorback to earn Freshman of the Week honors by the league office since Madison Strathman was given the honor four times during the 2015-16 season.
“Brooke continues to have a strong freshman season,” said Razorback diving coach Dale Schultz. “With continued hard work, we are looking for Brooke to have a solid finish in her first year of collegiate diving.”
Over the weekend, Schultz won the one-meter and three-meter titles against No. 7 Tennessee with scores of 344.78 and 344.18, respectively.
The closest competitor scored 43.50 points less than Schultz on the 1m and 9.68 points less than her on the 3m.
Of her 18 six-dive efforts this season, Schultz has 15 first-place showings, having never finished outside the top three.
In dual meets this season, Schultz has yet to finish off the top of the podium, recording 10 first-place performances. She also holds the top scores in the conference on both dives.
Why starting Noland fits today’s college football
In case you haven’t noticed, college football today is nothing like it was 10 years ago.
Some heard new defensive coordinator John Chavis’ comments at his first press conference about having a goal of limiting opponents to 300 yards and were disappointed.
If you were one of those, then you haven’t been paying attention to the changing face of college football.
It’s nothing like it was 10 years ago.
Especially with defensive goals.
Back in 2008, limiting opponents to 300 yards a game in offense and 20 points a game would have barely gotten a team in the Top 25 of defense.
In 2017 you would be in the Top 10.
Chavis knows this, which is exactly why that’s the goal for every game.
Don’t say it can’t be done.
Mississippi State averaged allowing 302 yards per game and 20.4 points per game last season, which was 10th in the nation.
That was a turnaround from a defense tied for 110th the year before, giving up 461 yards of offense and 33 points a game.
They changed coordinators.
On offense, Arkansas will have only Cole Kelley returning at quarterback and the guess here is that’s not going to get anyone excited. Too big, slow footwork, bad mechanics and slow decision-making won’t cut it in this offense.
Enter incoming freshman Connor Noland from Greenwood.
The guess here is he knows more about Chad Morris’ offense while he’s getting ready for the Bulldogs’ baseball season than any of the current players will figure out by the end of spring practice.
He’s been running it at Greenwood under Rick Jones, who has known Morris and his offense for over a decade or so.
Don’t give me the freshman argument.
A true freshman came off the bench to win the national championship game just a week ago. If he hadn’t, a true freshman would have won it on the other side.
Last season a true freshman came within a minute of winning the national championship and if his team’s defense had lasted one more drive, his touchdown will less than two minutes left would have won it then.
It’s proven you can win with a true freshman quarterback.
Still skeptical? The smart money is that Clemson, who will be the No. 2-ranked team when the 2018 season starts, will be starting a true freshman quarterback.
Don’t be shocked if Arkansas’ defense is a whole lot better in 2018 than anyone can imagine. The game hasn’t passed John Chavis, but he did have a job for three years where defense wasn’t a particular concern.
The guess here is the offense will be drastically better too.
Probably with a freshman running the show.
