New Razorbacks coach didn’t wait around long to come down with an opinion following wide receiver Jalen Brown’s arrest.
Bud Light Morning Rush Podcast: 4-14-26
Arkansas basketball gains a commit from the portal, Tye and Tommy cover the juicy details of the Russini-Vrabel “affair,” Baseball in Little Rock vs UAPB.
Guests: Tom Murphy!
479 Equipment Ruscin & Zach podcast April 13
We recap baseball stuff.
Rory wins the Masters again.
Bums of the week and so much more.
Pig Trail Nations’ Mike Irwin recapping Hogs sweep over Alabama
Wasn’t expecting to win all three in road series against Crimson Tide and who’s playing better for Razorbacks to make difference.
Thomas does what top freshmen do entering NBA Draft, keeping options open
When you’re the fifth-highest-rated recruit in Arkansas basketball history, average 15.6 points a game as a freshman and set a program record from three-point range in SEC play, the NBA Draft isn’t a surprise destination.
It’s kinda the expected one.
Meleek Thomas made it official Monday afternoon with a post to his Instagram account, announcing he’s entering the 2026 NBA Draft while maintaining his college eligibility, leaving the door back to Fayetteville open if the process doesn’t go the way he’s hoping.
He’s the first Razorback to make that move ahead of this year’s draft cycle.
But for a player who arrived at Arkansas with the pedigree Thomas carries, the only real surprise would’ve been if he didn’t test the waters.
“I’m very grateful for how far I’ve come and for everything that’s shaped me along the way,” Thomas wrote in his announcement. “I want to start off by thanking God because without my Lord and Savior nothing in my life is possible. I then want to thank my family for always being in my corner through it all, my coaches for holding me to a high standard, and my teammates at Arkansas for everything we went through together. Those moments mean the most to me.”
He also acknowledged the work it took to reach this point.
“It hasn’t always been an easy journey, but every step has prepared me for this,” Thomas continued. “With that being said, I’m declaring for the NBA Draft. I will also be maintaining my college eligibility.”
Freshman Season That Earned This Moment
Thomas didn’t stumble into NBA Draft conversations. He earned them, one game at a time across a 37-game season in which he started 21 times and never missed a contest for the Hogs.
He finished second on the team in scoring at 15.6 points per game and added 3.8 rebounds and 2.5 assists while leading Arkansas in both free throw percentage at 84.3% and steals with 57 on the year.
His 41.6% three-point shooting for the full season was impressive enough, but in SEC play, it jumped to an Arkansas-record 48.7% on 78 attempts. That’s not a hot streak. That’s a skill set.
Across conference statistical leaderboards, Thomas ranked among the SEC’s top players in field goal attempts, field goals made, steals, three-point attempts and three-point makes. He finished 18th in the league in scoring and 10th in steals per game.
By season’s end he’d earned a spot on the 2026 SEC All-Freshman Team and took home 2026 First Team NABC All-Southeast District honors. That’s the kind of recognition that tends to make NBA front offices start paying closer attention.
Thomas and fellow freshman Darus Acuff Jr. combined for 1,424 points this season the top-scoring freshman duo in Division I since 2019-20. In the NCAA Tournament the two made history as the first freshman pair to each record at least 20 points and five assists in the same game, with Thomas going for 21 and five and Acuff posting 24 and seven.
The Pedigree Was Always Pro-Caliber
It’s worth remembering what Thomas was before he ever played a minute for the Razorbacks.
He arrived in Fayetteville as a consensus five-star recruit ranked No. 13 overall in the 2025 class and No. 3 among shooting guards nationally.
He committed to head coach John Calipari and Arkansas carrying one of the most decorated high school résumés in the country.
Thomas was a 2025 McDonald’s All-American who also participated in the Jordan Brand Classic and the Iverson Classic.
He earned recognition on the 2025 Jersey Mike’s Naismith Trophy Boys High School All-American team and landed eighth on USA TODAY’s ranking of the top 15 players in the 2025 class.
At Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School in Midland, Pennsylvania, he scored 1,750 points across three seasons and guided the program to back-to-back 4A PIAA Championships in 2023 and 2024.
He was a two-time Pittsburgh Tribune-Review HSSN Boys Basketball Player of the Year and a two-time First Team 4A All-State honoree.
As a junior he averaged 23.5 points and 10.8 rebounds, a double-double — while adding 5.8 assists and 3.3 steals as Lincoln Park went 28-3 and won a WPIAL 4A title.
Before his freshman year, Thomas averaged 31.9 points, 8.9 rebounds and 4.3 assists during the OTE regular season while shooting 38.1% from three.
He also averaged 20.3 points per game — ninth-best in the Nike EYBL — with New Heights Lightning NYC in the spring of 2024.
Players with that background don’t typically leave a freshman season like his without at least finding out what the NBA thinks.
Thomas is simply doing what players in his position do.
Path Back Remains Open
Maintaining eligibility is a practical decision that gives Thomas options.
The NBA Draft process involves workouts, combine invitations and feedback from teams that will shape what comes next. If the draft feedback matches his expectations, he’s gone. If it doesn’t, the Hogs could get him back for another season.
Either way, Thomas’s first year in Fayetteville delivered exactly what Arkansas needed from a recruit of his caliber.
He came in as one of the program’s highest-rated signees ever and played like it from the jump. The Razorbacks and their fanbase won’t have to wait long to find out whether that chapter has one more page to write.
Razorbacks end Alabama’s 18-game home streak in historic sweep
Eighteen straight home wins don’t just disappear on their own.
Somebody has to take them.
Arkansas took them all Sunday afternoon and walked out of Sewell-Thomas Stadium with something the program had never owned before — a series sweep on Alabama’s home campus in Tuscaloosa.
The Hogs beat the ninth-ranked Crimson Tide 3-2 and made history doing it. Every Arkansas team that’s come before them tried.
None of them pulled it off. This one did.
The Razorbacks are 24-13 overall and 8-7 in SEC play at the midway point of conference season. Those numbers don’t scream dominant.
What happened this weekend in Tuscaloosa does.
The only previous Arkansas sweep of Alabama came in 2015 and it happened at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium while the Crimson Tide played away from their home park during renovations.
That one had an asterisk. Sunday’s doesn’t.
Tate McGuire took the ball first for the Razorbacks and the early returns weren’t encouraging. Alabama put its leadoff runner on in each inning McGuire worked and scored in both the second and third.
Justin Lebron drew a walk in the second and eventually came around to score on back-to-back singles from Eric Hines and Andrew Purdy.
An inning later Lebron struck again, this time with a two-out double to left that scored Chase Kroberger who’d reached on a Pompey throwing error at third. Two runs in three innings and McGuire’s day was done at 52 pitches.
What came next was the real story of this game.
Parker Coil took over and worked two clean innings. Gaeckle followed and did the same, even when it got uncomfortable in the seventh with the bases loaded and Alabama threatening to blow the game open. McElvain came on last and made it all look easy. Four pitchers. Eight innings combined after McGuire’s exit. Alabama scored exactly zero runs against all of them.
The Crimson Tide went 2-for-12 with runners in scoring position and left 12 baserunners stranded. Upchurch gave Alabama six-plus solid innings as a freshman and it still wasn’t enough because the Razorbacks’ bullpen simply wouldn’t allow it to be.
Arkansas didn’t panic trailing 2-0. The Hogs have been in tighter spots than this.
Ryder Helfrick started the comeback in the sixth with a one-out triple that rattled off the wall in right-center field.
Maika Niu drove him home with a sacrifice fly and the deficit was suddenly cut in half.
One swing of momentum and a ballgame that felt like it was getting away from Arkansas felt very much alive again.
The seventh inning belonged to Nolan Souza even if it didn’t look that way for a while.
Damian Ruiz doubled to lead off against Upchurch and Kuhio Aloy followed with a walk. Alabama turned to left-hander Ashton Crowther and the Crimson Tide liked their chances.
Souza stepped in and tried to bunt twice. Failed both times. Hitting coach Nate Thompson walked out to the plate for a timeout.
Souza fouled off the 0-2 pitch. Then he lined a 1-2 pitch right back through the middle and Ruiz came home from second to tie it 2-2. Two failed bunts. An 0-2 count.
A base hit anyway. That’s the kind of at-bat coaches talk about in film sessions for weeks.
The inning ended tied. TJ Pompey struck out. Pinch hitter Alexander Peck grounded into a double play on the first pitch.
The Hogs didn’t take the lead when they had the chance and Alabama came right back in the bottom half with Neal singling and Lebron doubling to put runners on second and third with nobody out.
This is where Gabe Gaeckle earned something that statistics don’t fully measure.
With the game tied and Alabama’s best hitters coming up with runners in scoring position and nobody out, Gaeckle struck out Hines and Vaughn back to back. Then he walked Torres to reload the bases. Then Osterhouse hit a fly ball to Ruiz in left and the inning was over without Alabama scoring.
The Crimson Tide had their best chance to win the ballgame and came away with nothing. Gaeckle made sure of it.
Camden Kozeal made sure of the rest.
Helfrick reached in the eighth on a walk and moved to second when Alabama first baseman Luke Vaughn couldn’t handle the ball in a two-out rundown.
Kozeal stepped up with two outs and the go-ahead run ninety feet away and hit a double down the right field line that scored Helfrick and gave Arkansas a 3-2 lead it never gave back.
McElvain walked out of the bullpen throwing 95-96 mph and kept every fastball elevated in the zone. He retired all six batters he faced across two innings and struck out the side in the eighth.
Alabama’s best hitters saw him and went away quietly. That’s what happens when a left-hander is that locked in with that kind of velocity working up in the zone.
Lebron was Alabama’s best player on the day. He went 2-for-3 with two walks, two doubles, a run and an RBI and still ended up on the losing side. That tells you everything you need to know about how well Arkansas pitched.
The Razorbacks have Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Tuesday at Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock before fourth-ranked Georgia comes to Fayetteville to open a home SEC series on Thursday.
Georgia will be the measuring stick. Sunday was the confidence builder.
Before this weekend nobody could say the Hogs had ever swept a true home series in Tuscaloosa. Now they can.
Before this weekend the last time Arkansas swept a top-10 team on the road was 2021 against a Mississippi State squad that went on to win the national title. Now that memory has company.
The second half of SEC play starts with Arkansas knowing something about itself that it didn’t know a week ago.
This team can go into a loud hostile environment against a ranked opponent and take everything.
It can fall behind twice and come back twice. It can get a key bunt down when it matters — or battle through when it doesn’t — and still find a way to score. It can lock down a ballgame with the bullpen when starting pitching runs short.
None of that showed up in the box score.
All of it showed up in Tuscaloosa.
ESPN Arkansas Acquires 100,000-Watt 93.7 FM
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
ESPN ARKANSAS ACQUIRES 100,000-WATT 93.7 FM
KISR FM to Move to 93.1 FM, ESPN Arkansas To Add 93.7FM
Pompey’s homer ignites Razorback explosion in Alabama blowout
Arkansas wasn’t going to let this one slip away.
Trailing No. 8 Alabama through the middle innings in Tuscaloosa, the Hogs caught fire at the plate in the late innings and didn’t stop swinging until the final out.
By the time the dust settled, Arkansas had put together one of its most productive offensive games of the SEC season, winning in dominant style to clinch the series over the Crimson Tide.
The final score was 15-6, and it wasn’t as close as that sounds.
Clinching this series moved the Razorbacks back to .500 in SEC play and gave the program a road series win it can build on heading into the rest of the year.
The Hogs also picked up 11 spots in the RPI heading into the game, moving into the top 50. a sign they are trending in the right direction.
Gibler Makes History on the Mound
To get this win, Arkansas turned to lefthander Cole Gibler, who entered with a 3-0 record and a 2.57 ERA.
What made the start even more notable was that it was Gibler’s first career start. He’d been used in other roles before, but Saturday marked a new chapter for the lefty.
Alabama countered with Zane Adams, a lefthander with a 4-2 record and a 4.07 ERA. Adams had previously faced the Razorbacks in 2024, throwing a career-high eight scoreless innings while striking out five in that outing.
The Crimson Tide got on the board first in the bottom of the first inning when Justin Lebron stole his way into scoring position and then scored on a throwing error by the Hogs’ catcher, putting Alabama ahead 1-0 before the Hogs had even batted.
Arkansas tied it up in the third inning when Maika Niu grounded into a fielder’s choice with the bases loaded and two outs, allowing Carter Rutenbar to score and knot the game at 1-1.
That momentum didn’t last long, as Alabama pushed ahead again in the third and fourth innings to build a 3-1 lead.
Razorbacks Battle Back to Take the Lead
The Hogs weren’t done. In the top of the fifth inning, Carter Rutenbar singled to center to score Nolan Souza and cut the deficit to one run.
Then things got wild.
TJ Pompey stole third and scored on a throwing error by the Alabama catcher to tie the game at 3-3. Ryder Helfrick then flew out to center to bring home Rutenbar and give Arkansas a 4-3 lead heading into the sixth.
Alabama answered in the bottom of the sixth when a fly ball from Bryce Fowler scored Justin Osterhouse to tie things up at 4-4.
At that point it felt like anyone’s game. It wasn’t going to stay that way for long.
Steele Eaves came on in relief of Gibler in the fifth inning, and Colin Fisher then took over in the seventh before the bullpen handed things off later in the game.
The Razorbacks’ pitching kept Alabama off the board long enough for the offense to blow the game open.
Pompey’s Grand Moment in the Eighth
The floodgates opened in the eighth inning. Camden Kozeal doubled to lead off the frame, and Damian Ruiz singled to center to score him and give Arkansas a 6-4 lead.
After Kuhio Aloy singled and Reese Robinett laid down a bunt single to load the bases, Souza flew out to center to score Ruiz and make it 7-4.
Then Pompey stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and launched a home run to left field, scoring Aloy and Robinett and blowing the game open at 10-4. That three-run blast off Austin Morris was the swing that put the game out of reach.
The Hogs weren’t finished. In the top of the ninth, Aloy singled to center to score Niu and push the lead to 11-5.
Souza then singled to right to score Ruiz and Aloy, stretching the advantage to 13-5.
Pompey added another RBI single to center to make it 14-5 and a fielder’s choice by Christian Turner brought home another run to cap a five-run ninth and set the final score at 15-5 before Alabama scored once more in the bottom half to make it 15-6.
Alexander Peck also made just his second career start, playing first base.
It was his first appearance in the starting lineup since the third game of the season against Texas Tech.
Reese Robinett replaced Peck at first base in the sixth inning and went on to play a role in the late-inning rally.
Series Win Carries Real Weight
This wasn’t just a feel-good win on the road. Clinching the series over a top-10 Alabama team while coming into the game 6-7 in SEC play is a meaningful result for the Razorbacks.
Getting back to .500 in conference play keeps Arkansas in the conversation for postseason positioning and the jump in the RPI adds to that.
Razorbacks’ Ismael Cisse and Bradley Shaw after Saturday’s scrimmage
Detailing how wide receiver Cisse’s positive season de-railed by weird injury and Shaw on progression of linebackers in spring practices.
Hogs finally hold on, stun No. 9 Alabama in series opener
For a team that’s had its share of late-game struggles this season, Friday night in Tuscaloosa felt different.
Arkansas built a lead in the eighth inning and this time didn’t give it back.
The 22nd-ranked Razorbacks survived a ninth-inning scare to beat ninth-ranked Alabama 7-5 in the SEC series opener at Sewell-Thomas Stadium, snapping the Crimson Tide’s 18-game home winning streak in front of 5,075 fans.
The Hogs improved to 22-13 overall and 6-7 in SEC play. Alabama dropped to 26-9 and 8-5 in conference games.
The Crimson Tide hadn’t lost at home since Opening Day against Washington State, the longest such streak in college baseball this season.
Arkansas can take the series Saturday with first pitch set for 4 p.m. on SEC Network.
Parker Coil Slams Door
What made Friday different from so many close losses this year was closer Parker Coil getting the final three outs when it mattered most.
Alabama made things interesting in the ninth when left-hander Ethan McElvain hit Bryce Fowler with a 2-2 pitch and Justin Lebron and Brady Neal followed with singles.
Neal’s two-run hit pulled the Tide within 7-5 and sent the Razorbacks to the bullpen for the third time.
Coil came on and didn’t flinch. He stranded Neal by striking out Eric Hines swinging to end the game and earn the save.
It was the kind of finish Arkansas had been searching for — a lead built late, tested immediately and ultimately defended.
Six Runs, One Inning, One Statement
The rally that gave the Razorbacks the lead they’d eventually protect started with a bang from Camden Kozeal.
He led off the eighth with an opposite-field home run 350 feet to left field against Alabama left-hander Matthew Heiberger, cutting the Crimson Tide’s lead to 3-2.
Brennan Holt then made a strong defensive play at second base to take a hit away from Ryder Helfrick, keeping the inning alive.
Nolan Souza followed with a double down the right field line and scored on Zack Stewart’s one-out RBI single through the right side to tie the game.
After Heiberger struck out Reese Robinett for the second out, Kuhio Aloy smashed a double past third base and Alabama turned to closer Hagan Banks.
He made the pitch he needed — but Baseball America’s No. 4 MLB Draft prospect, shortstop Justin Lebron, couldn’t handle it, committing both a fielding error and a throwing error on the same two-out ground ball.
Lebron’s fielding miscue allowed pinch runner Landon Schaefer to score from third. His errant throw to first let Aloy come home and Arkansas led 5-3.
TJ Pompey made sure there was no doubt. He took Banks deep on the second pitch he saw, a two-run shot 383 feet to left field — to push the lead to 7-3 and cap the six-run frame.
Van Horn’s Challenge Answered
Hogs coach Dave Van Horn had called out his upperclassmen at the start of the week, saying they needed to step up at the plate.
Friday night in Tuscaloosa, they did exactly that — just later than anyone might’ve hoped.
Arkansas had managed just one run through the first seven innings despite starter Hunter Dietz doing his part.
Dietz was sharp in a career-high 107 pitches, allowing three hits and three walks while striking out nine.
The only runs charged to him came on solo home runs when Hines launched one 425 feet over the scoreboard in left field in the second inning with a 110 mph exit velocity and Neal connected for a 379-foot shot to left-center in the sixth to put Alabama ahead 2-1.
Freshmen Flash, Tide Retakes Lead
Arkansas got its first run in the fifth inning thanks to a pair of freshmen.
Christian Turner beat the shift with a single to left field and moved to third when Carter Rutenbar singled in an eight-pitch two-out at-bat.
Turner scored on Kozeal’s RBI double to right-center but Rutenbar was thrown out at the plate trying to score the go-ahead run.
It’s a sequence that summed up the Razorbacks’ offensive frustrations through most of the night.
Alabama reliever Gabe Gaeckle then got into trouble in the seventh. Luke Vaughn drew a leadoff walk and Holt singled after failing twice to lay down a bunt.
Vaughn scored on Fowler’s fielder’s choice RBI to push the Tide’s lead to 3-1 with runners stranded at second and third when Jason Torres struck out to end Gaeckle’s 28-pitch inning.
That’s when Gaeckle was replaced and the Razorbacks finally caught fire.
Alabama Starter Kept Hogs Quiet
Credit goes to Alabama starter Tyler Fay for keeping Arkansas off the board for most of the night.
He allowed one run on four hits with two walks and four strikeouts across six innings on 98 pitches.
The Crimson Tide’s formula was working until the eighth inning unraveled with errors, hard contact and a two-run homer that shifted all the momentum.
Heiberger took the loss, allowing four runs — two earned — on four hits and a walk. Gaeckle earned the win after his one-inning appearance in which he allowed one run on one hit and two walks.
The Razorbacks held on when it counted Friday.
Now they’ll try to back it up Saturday.
