Hogs take care of business in exhibition against Emporia State
Arkansas defeated Emporia State, 94-44, Friday night in its final exhibition contest of the season inside Bud Walton Arena.
Mike Anderson moves to 12-0 in exhibition games at Arkansas, beating those teams by an average of 35.6 points per game. Anderson also improves to 30-0 all-time as a head coach in exhibition contests.
The Razorbacks and the Hornets traded buckets early on, but Arkansas used 14 turnovers to go along with a 44-10 run with 16:46 left in the first half to pull to a 49-16 halftime lead. Senior big man Moses Kingsley scored 12 of his 16 points during the run, including 10 straight by himself.
Arkansas opened the second half on another impressive run. The Razorbacks scored 15 unanswered points as a part of a 21-4 run with six straight coming off three turnovers in the backcourt. Arkansas scored 42 points off 30 turnovers. In the two exhibition games, Arkansas has outscored its opponents 96-34 in the paint. The Razorbacks shot 76 percent from the charity stripe, making 25-of-33 free throws.
Once again, the Razorbacks used their depth as five players scored in double figures. Junior guard Daryl Macon scored a game-high 21 points to go along with three rebounds and three assists. Seven Razorbacks pulled down at least three rebounds, including Adrio Bailey who had a game-high eight boards. Arkansas went 32-of-59 from the field as a team, shooting 54 percent.
WHAT MIKE ANDERSON HAD TO SAY
“We do a good job sharing the basketball. We are a team that wants to get to the free throw line and our defense does a good job of spreading the responsibility, so we are able to keep possession of the ball. I want guys to play on both ends of the court. We did what we were supposed to do and we are able to develop confidence from that.” – Coach Mike Anderson
“We will be tested this season. We have a tough schedule and we have to play like we want the basketball. We have to play like we want to win in every game.” – Coach Mike Anderson
UP NEXT
Arkansas will open the regular season next Friday, Nov. 11 against non-conference opponent Fort Wayne at 7 p.m. inside Bud Walton Arena. The Mastodons are the preseason favorite to capture the Summit League Championship.
Hogs advance to SEC title game with 3-1 win over Auburn
ORANGE BEACH, Ala. — No. 19 Arkansas defeated No. 11 Auburn 3-1 Friday night at the Orange Beach Sportsplex in Orange Beach, Alabama, to advance to its first SEC Tournament championship game since 1996 and under head coach Colby Hale’s tenure.
Senior Lindsey Mayo put Arkansas on the board early with her ninth goal of the season during the fifth minute of play. Mayo’s goal was the Razorbacks’ fastest score of the season, surpassing Stefani Doyle’s score during the 10th minute against James Madison in the season opener.
A penalty kick from freshman Kayla McKeon in the 74th minute would break a 1-1 tie in the second half after Auburn’s Casie Ramsier equalized the match 38 seconds after halftime. Senior Katie Moore would seal the win for the Razorbacks after scoring her first goal of the season during the 83rd minute.
“That was a much better performance. It felt like us,” Hale said. “You don’t always get a second chance to get a game back and we made the most of this. I thought our composure on the ball was very good. Auburn is a very good team. On the day, I thought it was a well-deserved win. We will enjoy it tonight and get ready for Florida.”
Arkansas outshot Auburn 7-2 in the first half and 8-6 in the second, to hold a decisive 15-8 advantage. Senior goalkeeper Cameron Carter tallied four saves and earned her 17th win of the year. Arkansas is also 2 for 2 in penalty kicks this season.
With the win, the Razorbacks improved to 17-4-0 overall and 10-3-0 in Southeastern Conference play. Auburn’s run in the SEC Tournament ends with the Tigers dropping to 14-6-0 overall and 9-3-0 in the league.
Arkansas will face the No. 15-ranked Florida Gators in the championship game on Sunday, Nov. 6 at 3 p.m. CT.
It will be a rematch of their Sept. 16 contest in Fayetteville, which saw the Razorbacks upset the then-No. 4 Gators 2-1, in the program’s first victory over Florida in 20 years. The match will be broadcast live on ESPNU.
Florida reached the championship game after upsetting No. 2 South Carolina 1-0 Friday afternoon.
Razorbacks kneel during anthem before exhibition opener
FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas’ womens’ basketball team opened their season to play against Oklahoma Baptist Thursday night to a small crowd.
But the actions of several players have brought a spotlight to the game that transcended the walls of Bud Walton Arena and the few people that had gathered in it.
As the National Anthem played, approximately six players took a knee until the music concluded.
The form of protest that was started by San Francisco 49er Colin Kapernick as a statement to promote equality has spread to a number of teams and venues, but has been the first of it’s kind at an Arkansas sporting event.
Select members of the Razorback women’s basketball kneeled during the national anthem ahead of tonight’s exhibition game pic.twitter.com/lYQZFD36RX
— Razorback Nation (@RazNation) November 4, 2016
“Recently you all know that there’s been a lot of killings from police officers of African-Americans and other minorities,” sophomore Jessica Danberry of Conway told reporters after the game. “Me and my teammates took a knee today during the national anthem to speak for those who are oppressed. As Razorback student-athletes we have a platform to do that.”
Players addressing the media said the move was discussed as a team prior to the game.
“We are extremely proud of our young ladies,” said coach Jimmy Dykes in his postgame press conference. “They have strong, well-educated opinions, based on their real life experiences.”
Dykes said he was not bothered by their actions.
“I have their back, because we live in the land of the free and the home of the brave,” said Dykes. “They know where I stand and it is very different than some of my beliefs. I know a lot of people are disappointed in me, but my players aren’t.”
On the other side of the issue, sophomore forward Kieryn Swenson said she chose to remain standing in support of a military family that lost a member last year.
She told reporters that she did not feel the issue would divide the team.
“In this country, we value everyone’s right to voice their opinions and views. University campuses are places of learning and thus places where differences of opinion and varying perspectives are recognized. We respect the rights of our student-athletes and all individuals to express themselves on important issues in our nation.” said athletics director Jeff Long. ” We will continue to encourage our student-athletes to engage in constructive conversations with their peers, coaches, support staff and administrators to raise awareness of varying backgrounds and life experiences and to develop understanding among conflicting points of view.”
In the game, Danberry led all scorers with 14 points each. Malica Monk (13 points) and Jailyn Mason (10 points) also finished in doubles figures. Defensively, Arkansas held OBU to just 24.5 percent shooting for the game.
The Razorbacks used a 16-0 run over 9:51 that spanned parts of the first and second quarter to turn an 11-10 deficit into a 26-11 lead and would not trail the rest of the way. They also had an 18-0 run in the second half to stretch out their lead.
Arkansas opens the 2016-17 regular season against Sam Houston State on Friday, Nov. 11, at 10:30 a.m. in Bud Walton Arena.
Forbes: Fayetteville top SEC college town for business, career
Fayetteville was ranked No. 24 by Forbes magazine in the publication’s 18th annual “Best Places to Live for Business and Careers” list.
Forbes analyzed data on 401 U.S. metropolitan statistical areas and divisions and Fayetteville was the highest-ranked Southeastern Conference institution on the list.
Nashville, Tennessee, home to Vanderbilt University, was the second-highest-ranked SEC city at No. 30, followed by Lexington, Kentucky, at No. 34.
Gainesville, Florida (University of Florida), at No. 70, Knoxville, Tennessee (University of Tennessee), at No. 82 and Baton Rouge, Louisiana (LSU), at No. 131 rounded out the list of U.S. cities with an SEC member school in the publication’s top 200.
Forbes generated the list with data from Moody’s Analytics and the U.S. Census, while also accounting for 14 metrics related to job growth, business and living costs, income growth, quality of life and labor force education.
Earlier this spring, U.S. News & World Report ranked Fayetteville No. 3 in the nation in its annual “Best Places To Live” list.
What happened to Arkansas’ defense?
ESPN.com’s Sam Khan took an in-depth look at Arkansas’ defense after Auburn ran roughshod over the Razorbacks last Saturday night in a 56-3 win.
The run defense by the Hogs was bad.
The 543 rushing yards the Razorbacks yielded to Auburn were the most allowed to any FBS team in a game this season. But this wasn’t a one-game issue for Arkansas. Defensively, the Razorbacks have been statistically poor in their three losses to Texas A&M, Alabama and Auburn.
You can read the entire story here.
Gators’ offense will be focusing on red zone issues against Georgia
While Arkansas takes the week off, their next opponent has a rivalry game that will give Hog Country a chance to do some scouting.
Florida faces Georgia in the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party. And, yes, I’m aware that’s not the politically correct term, but I don’t care and we’ll address all of that mandy-pandy stuff at a later time.
The Gators’ offense has been, well, lacking since about 2009. When Tim Tebow left, Florida’s entire offensive philosophy seemed to go with him.
Coming up, they’ll face a Georgia team that has been giving up points and, in fact the Gators are a 7.5-point favorite in play betting on sports.
Edward Aschoff of ESPN.com looked at the Gators’ red zone issues and how they will be looking to improve it this week.
Florida has been doing it with defense this year and that’s what Arkansas fans may be most concerned about after last week’s game against Auburn where the Tigers just dominated the Hogs’ offense.
Former Hogs quarterback Clint Stoerner talked on the Paul Finebaum Show on Wednesday about how — on paper — the Gators are very comparable to Alabama defensively.
Looking back at Auburn’s win over Arkansas
Ivan Maisel, Ryan McGee and Heather Dinich talk about Auburn’s blowout win over Arkansas and the tone it sets for the rest of the season for both programs.
Florida game time set for national television lead-in to Alabama-LSU
Following a bye week after playing eight straight games to open the season, Arkansas will return to Razorback Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 5, for a 2:30 p.m. showdown against No. 14 Florida on CBS.
With 11 wins over its last 15 games dating back to last season, Arkansas will look to open the month of November with a win over a ranked team for the second consecutive season. The Razorbacks’ 11 wins over their last 15 contests are the third most in the SEC over that span.
Coming off a loss at No. 21 Auburn, Arkansas will look to return to its winning ways when it hosts Florida. The Razorbacks defeated then-No. 12 Ole Miss 34-30 in their last game at home. Arkansas has won eight consecutive games following a SEC loss dating back to the 2014 season.
Florida will make its fourth trip in program history to Fayetteville and first since 2008. The Gators are ranked No. 14 in the Associated Press Top 25 leading into their game against Georgia this weekend. Florida has been ranked in eight of the 10 all-time meetings against Arkansas.
The last time the two teams met was in 2013 in Gainesville when a Gators’ team that finished 4-8 thoroughly dominated the Hogs in a 30-10 win.
Auburn embarrasses Hogs with talent, scheme and coaching in this one
TCU first exposed Arkansas’ talent drop-off the second week of the season.
Texas A&M exploited it in the fourth week.
Alabama hammered it in the sixth week.
Auburn just stripped it bare and laid it out for the world to see Saturday at Jordan-Hare Stadium.
The Razorbacks simply don’t have the horses to play with the top level teams in the SEC.
Don’t wave the Ole Miss win around like it was a big deal because the Rebels don’t have that much talent, either. The Rebels are the only team in football that can’t run the ball against their own defense in practice.
Bret Bielema knows it. When you sort through the coach-speak after the loss to the Tigers, he as much as said it.
“We have to take a serious look at some of the things that we are doing, how we are making guys play and what we are asking them to do,” he said later.
That’s how coaches say their team simply can’t match up with the other team.
“We have to do a lot better of a job to put our guys in the position to have success,” Bielema said. “The position we have been putting them in can’t be executed or called, then we have to make changes.”
Again, that’s a shortfall of talent. But it really wasn’t the most alarming comment in the postgame.
“We are a 5-3 football team that can end on a high note, but we definitely have to make corrections moving forward,” Bielema said.
Eight games into the season and Bielema is talking about making corrections and actually hinting at changing things defensively in terms of scheme to make up for the talent shortfall.
In college football, it comes down to players. Coaching is, well, secondary. Great coaches don’t win championships unless they have high-ranking recruiting classes.
“Coach (Bobby) Bowden always used to tell us about recruiting that having a top class doesn’t guarantee you a national championship,” former Florida State coach Max Howell tells me at least three times a year, “but then he would add that he could guarantee you that you won’t win a championship without those high recruiting rankings.”
That has held true.
Especially in the SEC. Alabama dominates on the field and, in case you missed it, they have rounded up the No. 1 recruiting class in the nation for the last six years. The last time Nick Saban’s crew wasn’t No. 1 in recruiting was 2010, according to the 247sports.com composite recruiting rankings.
Let’s face it, you could put Willie Shoemaker in his prime on a Clydesdale and he ain’t going to win the Kentucky Derby.
Don’t blame Bielema. He’s doing the best he can with what he’s got to work with.
He’s managed to keep it strung together about as well as can be expected and better than most.
Yes, this team is 5-3 with four games to play and two of them should be winnable. If he gets a run of November Luck like he’s had in the past the Hogs could finish 9-3.
But you got the idea from his brief comments with the media Saturday night that may be a little too optimistic.
“When you are playing against teams like this, especially teams that like to run the football as well as Auburn, it is as simple as being gap sound, edge sound and support sound,” he said as a way of explaining his defense.
Sounds simple, right? Unfortunately, it isn’t quite that easy to fix without the talent.
“We unfortunately aren’t that way at this point,” he said.
The guess here is he found it surprising that he couldn’t get the talent at Arkansas to compete for championships in the SEC like was able to do at Wisconsin in the Big 10.
He also got out of the Big 10 before Urban Meyer got things rolling at Ohio State. Jim Harbaugh was coaching in the NFL, not at Michigan.
With a bye week coming up, rest and recovery will go a long way.
It will also give the coaches a chance to hit the recruiting trail … hard. Somehow, some way, Bielema has to figure out a way to get better players to be Razorbacks.
In his time at Arkansas, the Hogs have an average finish of 10th in the SEC in recruiting.
In case you’re wondering that’s down with Mississippi State, Kentucky, South Carolina and usually Ole Miss.
What can be done to fix it?
Get better players.
