The Razorbacks Red-White 2009 Spring Game is now behind us, and some say that the questions that many thought would be answered are now even more difficult to decipher.

The big one: who will be the starting quarterback come late August - Ryan Mallett or Tyler Wilson? Wilson, who split time on both the Red Team and the White Team seemed to put up better numbers in the court of opinion. Mallet's passes seemed to look better and get to their desired targets quicker.

Many thought since his announcement of a transfer from Michigan to Arkansas that Mallett would be the hands-down starter come Fall 2009. He did, after all, see significant playing time at the tradition-rich home of the Wolverines. He is big and strong, with an accurate arm that has the pop to get the ball to its desired location at a high velocity. His ability to zip the ball in between defenders quickly earned him permanent tenure in the echoed halls of all that is"YouTube." And at least one Big Blue was so disappointed in Ryan's leaving that he pieced together this video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5KJKjqGDOI.

Enter Tyler Wilson. Since his signing from Arkansas River Valley powerhouse Greenwood High School, Wilson has impressed the critics and the fans. His arm is strong and accurate, and he has bulked up with muscle since his arrival on campus. He is talented with the ability to make smart decisions. During a previous interview with us, a high school teammate of Wilson's made the statement that Mallett has the ability and potential to play in the NFL someday. Overhearing the conversation, a passerby agreed. Unfortunately, Razorback fans have not been able to see Wilson's full potential. After seeing some playing time early as a Freshman, Tyler was diagnosed with mononucleosis, thus prohibiting him from appearing on the field throughout the remainder of the 2008 campaign.

A tough battle will ensue over the next months for these two athletes, but it is a battle that is welcomed by Razorback faithful. A battle that has been much needed but not seen in awhile, especially with the run happy history that Arkansas has written for decades now.

So our point fails to be made and an answer seems to be a debate for the coaching staff when Fall practice begins. Until then we will have to wish all students well on Finals, and we will see the Hogs in the weight room come May.

We will do our best to analyze the remaining positions' (including some on the remaining athletes at quarterback) outlooks following the Spring game.

Until next time and forever - Go Hogs!!!

Feel free to comment above or to e-mail me at haydenhodges34@gmail.com.

Arkansas Razorbacks

Travel, illness, family illness, covering too many basketball games to remember, and a lack of sleep have caused us to fall behind.  But we'll be back very soon, ready to go at it once again.  

And we are changing some things up.  Look for us to make this site a little, well, let us just say "different."

Please stay tuned as the monkeys do their work.

Interested in helping?  Shoot me an e-mail at haydenhodges34@gmail.com.  

Go Hogs!!!

What has happened to cause the suspension of Courtney Fortson from the Razorback Basketball team?

How long will he be suspended?

Will we be able to survive Kentucky with only 7 to 8 scholarship players available?

The answers to these questions are as of yet unanswered despite the rumors and "This is what happened" statements floating around the Arkansas Internet World. Does someone know outside of those involved? Probably. Do we know for a fact who that person is? Probably not.

We can talk about the impact that Fortson's suspension will have upon the team, but accusations and innuendos should be avoided until things are cleared up from within the situation. Keep your heads and class about you while we let the young man and those around him keep a private situation just that - private.

We also know that whether or not this could produce off-season transfers weighs on your minds. Pelphrey knows what he is doing; we will just have to hope and leave it at that.

Thank you for your time.

Go Hogs!!!

Feel free to comment above and to e-mail me at haydenhodges34@gmail.com.

Arkansas Razorbacks

“I’m not sick, but I’m not well.
And I’m so hot, cause I’m in hell.”
Harvey Danger - “Flagpole Sitta”

I was dribbling a basketball outside yesterday. The seams were rough from bouncing on concrete and an invisible grime covered the ball. When I shot it looked good at first but the rotation was slightly off, the arc heavy and uneven, as if the ball was not a perfect orb. I kept clanging bricks and I stared at the ball, blaming it for my failures.

At the goal next to me a group of high school kids were playing 3 on 3. It was 1pm on a school day but here they were. Maybe it was some kind of grubby teenager holiday.

The sun was bright but ineffectual, the air frigid and clear. I smelled burning oil and wet wool.

The kids were not good, not at all. They were dressed in sweatshirts and long sleeve shirts and too big jeans and watchcaps. Their shoes were those heavy skater sneakers where the laces don’t tie. Everyone looked heavy and slow and clumsy. A little guy kept jacking from deep despite the breeze and airballed two. His friends didn’t seem to care. They seemed to be having fun.

I wasn’t that way when I was a kid. I felt the need to win every pick up game and so did my friends. That was how we were taught and how we felt. The journey wasn’t important, just the destination. We got in fights quite a bit and guys that jacked weak jumpers weren’t invited the next time.

To me that has always been a beauty in sport, that winners and losers are easy to distinguish. You win or you lose, just look at the scoreboard if you are confused.

As I have gotten older I have softened on this, but not much. Sports are a live drama. Winning and losing are the ending of the movie, but you have to watch and savor the whole thing to understand the plot and the character arcs. Whether you win or lose is crucial only in that it effects how you look back on the story, see what you’ve learned, how you got to where you are today.

We are running late for the game. A wreck northbound on the Arkansas River bridge brought us to a standstill. I feel good about the game, comfortable and serene. That’s probably not game.

We sit down just before tipoff. Henry is in the lineup and this is good. Bruce Pearl is going with a mock turtleneck and sportscoat, like it is a theme day during a high school “spirit week” and he is dressed up as a ‘70’s gigolo. Richard Gere would be proud. His out of season tan is nearly spectacular.

I like Bruce Pearl and I have loved his teams, the way they get after it and go for the jugular. But I don’t like this team. They look like they have 5 forwards that all think they can shoot but can’t. Their defense is soft and weak. I think there might be something in the water in Knoxville that turns great looking basketball players into enigmas. Their teams always seen to be good only in theory. Maybe its the uniforms.

Texas, as much as I dislike them, has a cool shade of orange. It is burnt and smokey and masculine. Tennessee looks like pale sherbert. You could put their colors on a sun dress for an Easter outing. This bugs me.

Let’s play ball.

TIPOFF

My date looks great. She has kind of a school teacher/dominatrix thing going on. I tell her this but she doesn’t seem to think it is the compliment I do.

Man we look slow early. Fortunately Tennessee looks perfectly happy to throw the ball around the 3 point line against our weak zone then jack up a set shot every once in a while. Where is their point guard? They are in desperate need.

My date is troubled by the fact that some UT players have orange shoes and some have white. “That’s silly”, she says. She likes Tyler Smith’s socks though. They are a “pretty color”.

Stef has a steal and a couple turnovers. Rotnei misses. Henry misses and fouls and is replaced. We still haven’t scored but Tennessee has only made a bucket and some FTs.

We are down 8-1 before Stef decides to take a couple easy dribbles against his bigger defender and pull up for a nice J.

FIRST TIMEOUT 3-8 Tennessee

Sweet tempo change. Courtney drives. Henry scores. Stef buries a 3. Crowd comes alive. Now that doesn’t seem so hard.

RC is off. He misses again but he seems to lack a spark. He hasn’t taken it to the hole like he did in the second half against LSU. He is busting it around screens and his teammates are looking for him but it just doesn’t seem to be there. I would argue that playing a soft zone on defense has this effect on a team. It saps them of energy. They become passive on both ends.

We now have ushers in there sweater vests go to each corner of the floor during timeouts - protecting the floor I guess. I feel safer already.

Courtney looks to get fouled on every drive. he needs to use his hops and his strength to go through people because he isn’t going to get calls doing that dipsy-doo stuff.

Henry scores and Tenn has to call timeout. Jay Bilas would say that Henry is “long”.

SECOND TIMEOUT 12-8 Hogs

Sanchez does a spin move for absolutely no apparent reason but makes a nice fade. He looks skinny, like the season is wearing on him. He moves better at this weight though.

Tenn hasn’t score in like 5 minutes but they seem perfectly happy to keep having big men shoot bad 3s. How did UT get like this? They haven’t pressed yet - not even token pressure.

I point out to my date that Prince is wearing black stockings.
“Tights, honey. We call them tights.”, she says and pats me on the knee. I’m always learning.

Stef actually makes a layup. He is playing very, very well.

Smith gets off the schneid.

THIRD TIMEOUT 17-13 Hogs

I understand the zone defense idea and I’m sure it is the right move but I HATE it. We are just waiting for D-1 scholarship athletes to find their range. This idea that we let other teams beat themselves IN OUR HOUSE instead of attacking, attacking, attacking drives me nuts. We stagnate in half-court and look really good in transition. They don’t have a guard. We are at HOME! Let’s push it. (I understand that this runs the risk of getting THEIR team and athletes comfortable in a transition game but so what. If we are going to get beat let’s get beat hard.)

Did I mention that Tenn started 3 guys with headbands and sometimes has a 4th on the court. We started 3 as well. This is a problem. It needs to be addressed on a congressional level.

Chism’s headband is silly. He has it way up on the crown of his head. It looks like a yarmulke with a sunroof.

Tyler Smith puts his bright orange mouthpiece in his headband during timeouts then puts it back in. Uhhhhh - Yuck.

We are bricking FTs, even Sanchez who is reliable. RC misses again but they are good shots. Just keep firing.

Maze is in for Tenn. I think he is supposed to be their PG. Bang he makes 2 in a row. Maybe he doesn’t play because he shoots too much for a point.

WOW Hopson with a semi-360 cram. Seems a little early for showboating but if I could do that you couldn’t get me to stop. I’d do it all day, just like when I first discovered . . . well that’s another story for another time.

Henry hits a 3. He is sooo good. he gets his hands on everything.

And now Stef hits. This is a game of kinda weak runs. Maze comes back with a 3. He has by far the best looking shot from the creamsicle squad.

Stef again to answer another UT 3.

LAST TIMEOUT 30-26 Hogs

Stef is carrying us and Maze is keeping them in it.

Stef with a pretty look away to Henry for a cram. Offensively Stef is more in control than he has been.

“Boy, Tennessee has some cute little coaches over there, don’t they” my date says. I was just about to mention that.

There is a big white goofus in the game for Tennessee. His last name is Pearl. Hmmmmm. If he IS the coaches son then his dad is hogging the tanning bed.

Mike W makes a nice little pro-fade before half.

HALFTIME 35-33 Hogs

What a weird half. We played soft and weak for at least 10 minutes of it but had brief flashes of dominance. Tennessee is a shell of the last couple of years. Neither team wants to press. Rotnei can’t hit to save his life. Just weird. We learned nothing other than the fact that Henry has to play 25-30 minutes a game.

The halftime entertainment is a male female duo that are billed as “Quick Change” artists. This is a lie. He is a magician right down to the gloves and the tuxedo. I think he is just trying to fool me because he knows that magicians, mimes, and clowns join mascots in my pantheon of creepy things. I feel like all of those career choices were made under the influence of prescription narcotics just after a bad breakup and around the time of a recovered memory featuring a drunken uncle sneaking into their room when they were 7.

I tell this to my date and she is speechless due to my wisdom.

“They were on ‘America’s Got Talent’”, my date says. “They were GREAT!” She is giddy. Giddy I tell you.

I want to tease her for watching “America’s Got Talent” but I’m pretty sure I saw that episode too.

The magician’s assistant is looks to be an eastern european immigrant in her early to mid fifties. My backstory for her is that she advertised online for a husband so she could move to America and this guy told her he was a “Quick Change Artist”. It wasn’t until she arrived here penniless and alone that she found out he was a MAGICIAN and she has been his prisoner ever since, secretly passing notes to mascots at every arena they visit in hopes they will rescue her.

This story gets my date asking what I’m drinking.

The Artists are dancing which is a mistake. I am claiming that I can see her layers of clothing - as I am a man of science and cannot be trifled with. I really can’t.

The change of clothes is actually kinda weird and remarkable. At the end she changes while stepping through not much more than a hula hoop. It seems like, like . . . uhhhhhh MAGIC!

My jaw is on the floor and my date is cackling. Actually cackling. She’s lucky I’m into the dominatrix thing. I tell her our “safe word” should me “MAGIC”.

She says that there will be no “safe words”. CHECK PLEASE!

SECOND HALF

My date went to get some burgers and I am inordinately excited about this. She seems less so.

We start the 2nd half just like the first. Soft, stagnant defense saved only by crummy Tenn shooting. We haven’t scored in 4 minutes and are suddenly down 7. How did that happen?

“That Williams guy on Tennessee looks like Sinbad” my date says. “I loved him in that movie where he was a cowboy.”

I am excited by a Sinbad reference. I tell her that he was on the first season of “Star Search” along with other luminaries like “Sawyer Brown”.

“Man I loved me some ‘Sawyer Brown’”, she says. Well who didn’t.

Stef with a drive and some tosses then a steal and a feed to Henry. Let’s go Stef.

Pel was just chewing out RC, I’m not sure for what. First time I’ve seen that.

FIRST TIMEOUT 41-42 Tennessee

UT seems to have figured out they can get inside the zone with a few simple passes. And if they get it up on the rim they can crash the boards instead of letting us get the long rebounds off missed 3s.

This zone has been successful at times this year but it is a fundamentally poor defense in its execution. If we are supposed to be letting them shoot then there is no reason we shouldn’t be controlling the paint.

I’m excited about my burger but the bun keeps falling apart. This is upsetting.

Courtney buries a 3 point bank shot falling down as the shot clock runs out. he just caught and shot which is key for him. I think that was his 1st three since the Truman administration.

Stef penetrates and scores. Does he have 20 already?

Stef and Courtney spend an extended period of time doing a very complicated low five. Good to see.

A bit of back and forth. RC misses again, badly this time.

SECOND TIMEOUT 49-49

“Those were some very thin band people during the timeout” my mom says. We aren’t a musical family so we refer to band folks as if they are another species.

Stef misses a short one, Oy Ve! But then he hits a deep one. Atta boy SW.

Henry is playing much better than the stats will show. He is active and touches everything.

MW dunk and I think this thing could be ours.

Chism is scoring at will inside. No doubt we are small but goodness.

THIRD TIMEOUT 58-55 HOGS

We have trouble finishing teams, for a lot of reasons. Mostly due to a lack of lock down defense which is, in part, a function of size.

Courtney showing signs of taking over. Prince did a good job on him but noone else can stay in front of him.

Stef misses a 3 that could have been a dagger. story of the season.

Mike W misses a pair of FTs (not even close) that could’ve put us up 6.

Stef misses again from 3. Good shots. Gotta make them.

And it’s tied. prince is a decent ballplayer. I like him.

Did I mention that when I came into the game there was an older couple (early 70’s) leaning against a wall with their cute red sweaters and jeans on. The man had his left hand firmly stuck in his lady’s back pocket. Good Times!

Criminy - Henry misses and Chism gets hoop and harm.

CF makes a 3 pointer! - straight in I swear.

LAST TIMEOUT 64-64

CF drives and scores. The kid can play and has played well today.

Can’t make free throws though.

This slow pace leads to games like this - that can go either way. We can’t let this happen at home. And Tenn STILL hasn’t pressed.

Tie game with a minute and a half left but our defense is porous. Smith scores.

Courtney answers. Prince gets a tip in. Get a freakin’ STOP!

Down 2 we run down the shot clock - why? CF with a pretty bucket.

Maze pushes up the left side and makes a nearly unchallenged 8 footer. Wow the air just went out of this place.

Stef got the inbounds pass and went up the left side and got a clear jumper from 5 ft and missed. Chance at a tip and we miss.

FINAL SCORE 72-74 Tennessee

UT did execute the last 4 or 5 possessions quite well. We just have to be better than this.

Stef played well but had too many turnovers. Henry played well but shot poorly. CF just played well. Rotnei was off and had maybe his worst defensive game and maybe hurt his shoulder. We played almost NO bench which I just can’t understand. Moore and Clarke make tons of mistakes but at least they are active defensively and they couldn’t have been worse than what we had inside. But I don’t watch practice.

This season has become a bit of a sojourn, a long trudge. There are mountains and valleys within each game and each half and even each possession. I can see progress but again I can’t. I have little patience for the “We have no depth so we can’t play fast” excuses. We can always play like wild dogs. Go down hard in a blaze of glory. Make the opposition HATE to play us.

I guess I need to sit back and enjoy the journey for a bit. Winning isn’t everything. At least that’s what they tell me.

Until next time.

(Sorry this is late. I had to work.)

“In skating over thin ice our safety is in our speed.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

“If there’s a problem, yo I’ll solve it. Check out the hook while the DJ revolves it.”
Vanilla Ice

Northwest Arkansas is frozen tonight. The air itself is an icy, foggy mist. Light is refracting strangely, with distant streetlights sparkling and expanding in my vision. For some reason all my senses seem clean and sharp, I feel the cold and taste the air. I can see forever. Getting out of the car I hit a patch of ice with my first step and suddenly my feet are in the air and I land on my backside with an inorganic THUD. Slush creeps into my pants and I’m pretty sure the fall has pulled my jeans down just a little bit. I am flashing a deathly pale hint of frozen butt crack. My date is standing over me, hugging herself to control her convulsions of laughter. She is giggling so hard I fear she might wet herself.

Fayetteville and the UA campus really do look like a theme park of sorts. My father is giddy about the weather and I worry he may take off like an excited puppy to frolic in the ice covered limbs. We may need to bump the dose on his medication.

Everywhere there are overburdened trees, limbs bending and sagging under the weight of the ice. The campus reminds me of a Christmas tree lot with all of the merchandise covered with that fake white snow. This makes me think of powdered donuts and I am suddenly kinda hungry.

My father actually does a slow twirl with his arms outstretched, saying something about a “Winter Wonderland”. My mother, his wife of 46 years, is moving crab-like away from him, appearing to reassess the past half century. I ask Dad if dementia is as fun as he makes it seem. He doesn’t find me amusing.

We are early for the game. The roads were not nearly as bad as expected. My mom, who works in Fayetteville, seems vaguely disappointed that we didn’t have a near fatal accident on the way up to meet her. She has been babbling about the treacherous ice for two days and we are mocking her caution. We are brave explorers and cannot be stopped by mere weather calamity. I mention to my date that I think my undies have actually frozen and that this is leading to a friction rash.

Bama is on tap tonight. They just canned their coach and quite frankly they don’t have the look of a real contender. They have some nice players. Alonzo Gee and JaMychael Green are both excellent players with even more excellent names. But we all know that the college game is determined by guards and I really don’t know what the Tide has to offer in that area.

I am troubled as I watch the Hogs warm up. Stef persists with his headband that is clearly jinxed. Worse, Jason Henry has added a headband and he is wearing it low on the forehead like Michael Washington. It’s not a good look. Mostly it serves to draw attention to two small circular bald patches in his scalp. It looks like he has mange or maybe someone put a couple cigarettes out on his noggin.

Multiple players have their warm up tops tucked into their pants AND the legs of the pants tucked into their socks. This is quite simply unacceptable. They look like the are wearing riding pants.

Brandon Moore and Marcus Monk are in street clothes, sigh. Moore looks really skinny in his civies, his shoulders all sharp and pointy.

The mascots seem to have gone a bit batty. It started with Boss Hog, the giant inflatable dude, when we first came in. He was all up in my face trying to get me to have a stare down with him. I think he sensed my fear of mascots and tried to spook me.

Then Boss started in on my Dad who just seemed confused by the whole thing, like maybe he thought it was a hallucination that noone else could see, a rubbery side effect of some medicine or another.

Next was the regular mascot, the one that bizarrely wears a basketball uniform and kinda looks like a bright red Teen Wolf. He was crawling behind our seats and popped up to frighten us. It worked. I spit out my coke into my already cold and moist lap. Geez I hate mascots.

The band is playing “Ring of Fire”. Interesting choices with the playlist this year.

Bama has sort of cool old-school unis. They look a bit like an ABA squad.

We need Henry and Andre Clark to play well. Bama looks kind of large.

I have decided that I want the hospital where I work to treat me like Bud Walton treats the hogs. When I show up for a shift I want them to dim the lights and have the overhead speaker boom out “Ladies and gentleman let’s give a big ER welcome to your doctor tonight.” Then I’ll jog in while strobe lights flash, my scrubs on and my stethoscope twirling. Is that too much to ask?

Let’s get to it and play some ball.

TIPOFF

Knox and Green are both really big but both of them seem to have weird legs, slightly flat footed.

Rotnei is guarding Hillman. That is the only guy he can even try to guard because he is 6’1” and the other two perimeter guys are about 6’6”. I’m guessing we end up playing a lot of zone or a lot of Henry.

Nice dish from Courtney to Sanchez.

I would really like to pass a team rule that forbids people from passing ahead to MW when he is ahead of the pack in the middle of the floor. Mike doesn’t control his momentum so well.

Andre Clark just blows an inbound pass to give up the lead.

RC misses a couple. AC with a deep shot.. RC gets off the schneid.

FIRST TIMEOUT 8-9 Bama

Sanchez airballed a 17 footer'. I’m glad he took the shot but geez.

There is a dangerous thing going on. Teams are not guarding Fortson until he gets in the paint and he is afraid to pull the trigger. Worse is the fact that teams aren’t guarding Sanchez at all either. His man is sinking into the lane as well which means things will be pretty congested in there for CF.

RC catch and shoot.

Henry doing a nice job on the boards.

My date mentions that the walk-on, Nolan, looks just like a guy she dated briefly in high school. She informs me he was a “horn-dog” and she had to dump him after the first date due to an over-large belt buckle. I don’t own such a buckle so I think I’m okay.

RC and Stef both miss but RC cleans it up.

SECOND TIMEOUT 15-11 Hogs

Green has a great touch. Very good player.

MW handling the double better. He is looking backside a bit..

Nice head fake and drive by RC.

We have a 4 guard lineup with Henry for Sanchez. I like it. Make them adjust to US.

Rotnei is playing ok defense. Nice steal. He slaps too much with his hands but he is a good off-the-ball defender.

Stef is WAY off.

My date just said that the Bama interim coach is a “cute little feller”. Alrighty then.

THIRD TIMEOUT 22-16 Hogs

Mike Washington! Little jumper. He is a solid, solid post player.

Welsh with a great dish to Sanchez.

Henry touching every rebound. RC transition 3. Finally.

RC again. This is his night.

Stef with another good dish inside to Henry. Good to see Stef shake off the bad shooting.

Stef feeds RC TWICE on the same possession but he finally misses.

I just noticed a young woman on the south side just looking around as she casually runs her pinky finger up, into, and around her left nostril. She keeps looking side to side to see if any of the 10,000! people surrounding her might be noticing.

LAST TIMEOUT 34-25

We need to close the half hard.

Alonzo Gee follow hoop. I think I will name my first born Alonzo Gee. It is just that fun a name.

Cox in and gets swatted. Who does he think he is? That is a Sanchez move.

CF with a bad time for a silly turnover. And it’s down to 4 points.

“Steven Cox is just really, really cute”, my date says. “I could do without the squatting though. He has a weird squat on defense.” I make a note to remember this.

Henry big 3. He has had a good half.

HALFTIME 38-31 Hogs

We look pretty good against teams that can’t shoot.

Great half from RC. We become a decent team when he is shooting.

They introduce all the athletes with a 3.0 GPA or higher at halftime. There are a bunch. I can’t decide if I am impressed by the number or simply shocked at how short a couple of the golfers are.

SECOND HALF

Sanchez takes a 3 because he was completely unguarded. he needs to take that shot. If he doesn’t become a threat he will have to sit. Of course it would help if he made one.

Knox has a nice mid-range shot.

Not sure MW can go left.

Not guarding CF again but Stef finally nails a big three then draws a foul.

We are getting KILLED in the paint but still up 6.

And then RC hits. That gives us a ton of flexibility.

But then Hillman just outmuscles RC for 2 straight buckets.

Then RC hits again and Hillman blows a jumper trying to post up RC. 10 point game

There is a fella sitting in the floor seats, a grown man with an unkempt mustache and chin fur, wearing a drab green warmup suit. I’m pretty sure he is a Russian mobster or possibly a Ukrainian flesh trader. Someone needs to look into this.

My date can’t stop laughing because I referred to the color of his warm-up as “olive”. Tough crowd.

FIRST TIMEOUT 54-44 Hogs

Henry and Britt in and another turnover trying to hit MW on the break in the middle of the floor. Why is Mike running the middle of the floor anyway? Ball should go middle and the other guys pick a lane to either side and a trailer spots up. Me no likey.

We are pressing a bit now. Interesting. Wait until late so we don’t wear out.

Clarke can’t miss. Good lineup – Henry, Britt, Courtney, RC, and Washington.

Green is gonna be a pro.

Nice outlet to Britt for a layup.

SECOND TIMEOUT 64-54

Sanchez misses a pair. RC has 26.

Andre Clark blows a dunk and Bama scores. We aren’t putting them away.

We are trapping some now.

Nice move from Sanchez. Aggressive.

There were NO BURGERS at halftime. I repeat, NO BURGERS. After last week I was looking forward to one the whole first half.

THIRD TIMEOUT 72-60

The band was running around the court during the last break. That should be a pay-per-view event. “Band Guys Running”.

Green and Knox are scoring at will.

Stef 3 then Knox again.

Gee blows by Rotnei for a jam.

We have been playing mostly zone and it has been fairly effective because Bama can’t shoot. When we try to switch to man we have match up problems, Gee being the main one.

My date has started a new game. We pick out some guy in the crowd and try to decide if he is wearing a rug or just has horrible hair. This is making us feel better about ourselves.

LAST TIMEOUT 75-67

They are going right at Rotnei every time, or at least for the last 3 possessions and it’s a 6 point game.

RC is out.

We are milking clock and I hate it.

“Stop slowing it down!!”, my mother screams. “We SUCK at slowing it down!!” That’s my momma. (And she has a point)

We are making FTs.

RC comes back in with 20 seconds left. I guess it is a question of whether he can play crunch time minutes if we don’t have confidence in his defense. It will be a problem if he has to be involved in offense/defense substitutions.

FINAL SCORE 89-80

So what have we learned? Not much. We learned RC can shoot but we already knew that. Good to see it happen though. We learned that we have defensive match up problems but they don’t stand out against poor shooting teams, but we knew that too.

We learned that Sanchez is going to be more aggressive offensively, which he must be or he will sit. And he would sit because of the next thing we learned which is that we are at our best with Henry playing big minutes at the 4 and Britt getting big minutes backing up the other 3 guys.

Finally we learned that squatting looks funny, toupees are a bad idea, and grown men shouldn’t wear warm-up suits to public events.

Until next time

PS - if anyone is interested I have (self) published a book of short stories. There are a bunch of Hog stories in it. If you like these diaries I think you will like this stuff. Thanks for reading.

Link

Where do we go from here? A season that started out with more promise than a teenage boyfriend has now taken a turn that has it headed down the road of recent Razorback Basketball seasons.


40 Minutes of Pel was to mimic the success of Nolan Richardson's 40 Minutes of Hell, and although the pressing style was different, the results were the same. Arkansas was rolling and had garnished National attention, but now, after four SEC losses in four tries, the Hogs have fallen back into the stereotype that the big name media types have given them over the past decade.


We are tired of it. We have discussed the double-teams on Washington, the soft perimeter defense, and the inability to rotate to the ball. Now injuries, a DWI, and an eligibility issue have once again verified the cliche that history repeats itself.


We all agree that John Pelphrey is the right man for the job. Most of us agree that the talent on this team is worthwhile to compete for a Sweet Sixteen. We now have to question heart and chemistry.


We do not support rumors, nor do we start or thrive on them. We do try to verify. In this case, verification was already being sought for before the success of certain individuals on the team gave a rumored appearance of less than team play.


Did that last sentence make sense? You know, the radical fans' thoughts. Let's attempt to clean it up in English, make our point quickly, and get this piece over with (the players shall remain nameless):


Pass the ball to each other, guys. If Player B is open, by all means, Player A, pass him the ball. Same goes for you, Players C - M. Stop being glory Hogs (no pun intended), Rock and Roll, and get this thing turned back in the right direction.... as A TEAM!

That is, if the talk and perception is true. If not, which to more level heads appears to be the case, then make a few more baskets and create more wins and all of this talk that comes with losing will go away. The simpleton's fix: just play with more heart and more intensity.

Listen to some Bon Jovi pre-game if you have to - "Everyday."

Go Hogs!!!

Feel free to comment and to e-mail me at haydenhodges34@gmail.com. Thanks.



Arkansas Razorbacks

“If you want to destroy this sweater,

hold this thread as I walk away.”

Weezer - “The Sweater Song”

Slumps tend to get reduced to cliches, to their most basic level. “The Hogs are losing because their shots aren’t falling.” “They have been hurt by injuries and suspensions etc.” “They aren’t giving effort.” “They aren’t playing defense.” “Pel sucks.” All of those things may or may not be true, but as analysis they are meaningless. Those things are, for the most part, results. They are not the causes.

When looking at the cause of a failure, be it a basketball team or a Big Three auto company or the banking industry, it is dangerous to be TOO reductionist. This is an essential truth in a TEAM sport.

Basketball, like just about everything else, is a “system” for lack of a better term. It is not a series of individual events or shots. It isn’t just matchups. The way someone shoots depends on where they get the ball, what the score was, what kind of defense was being played, whether the seams of the ball were lined up nicely when the pass was received, whether the shooter’s legs feel bouncy, whether their girlfriend may or may not be cheating on them. Further, the way that shooter is shooting effects everything and everybody else. What defense do we play after a make vs. a miss. What kind of shot does the opponent get off a long rebound? Does the shooter pass up the next open look or does he jack a bad shot because he feels hot? Does a player on the end of the bench lose a girlfriend because being a baller for this team has suddenly lost its cache?

What I am saying is that these things are complicated. There are hundreds if not thousands of important variables on every team, in every game, on each possession, on each shot. And each of the variables fundamentally effect all of the others. This is, at least in part, Chaos Theory and it is the central reason team sports can be so exciting and so maddening. They cannot be accurately predicted. This is the nature of any “system”. It tends towards entropy, to disorder. The coach and the team are always trying to rein this in, to harness its power.

Let me offer a couple of examples in basketball:

The Houston Cougars of Drexler and Phi Slamma Jamma made three straight final fours and two straight finals. They were the dominant college team for 2+ years. Before and after this period they were nearly irrelevant (save the Elvin Hayes era). But I would argue that the overall talent in the program changed very little from year to year under Guy Lewis. The results, however, were completely different.

Houston teams were notorious for looking great at times but being unable to get a big stop or a crucial basket. These teams tended towards entropy, to disorder. When they needed to buckle down and focus they couldn’t. This made them vulnerable.

During the Drexler years this changed. I would argue it changed for 2 fundamental reasons, one well known and the other overlooked.

The well known change was Olajuwon showing up. From his first day he was an intimidating presence. Early on his offense was nonexistent but his defense was game changing. Hakeem instantly made that club a credible defensive team. The basket was protected and the rest were free to roam.

The less talked about change was Alvin Franklin. He was an absolute bull of a point guard with a nice jumper and with him running the show all of a sudden Houston would buckle down on big possessions on both ends. They had someone to take a clutch shot and exude calm. Think of it as the difference between a team led by Kenny Hutchinson to a team led by Corey Beck. It is hard to think of one individual skill in which Beck was a superior player but nobody who watched them play would ever take Kenny over Corey.

Alvin Franklin and Corey Beck CONTROLLED disorder. They reined everything in. Established limits. In doing that they allowed the rest of the team to run free and be loose and confident.

The other major example of controlling disorder is the NBA. The players are so good, and the teams so everchanging, that the only way to know what you are going to get every night is to reduce the game to matchups, one on one plays. It would be great to run a “system” with that level of players. To an extent Sacramento did just that during the Webber years and it was beautiful to watch. Unfortunately the system was too fragile. It broke down under pressure and with the loss of even one player of their top 8 guys. Bobby Jackson getting hurt would cripple them.

Gillespie at Kentucky does something similiar. Each season he has 2 and only 2 major offensive players, usually one inside and one outside. (This season Meeks and Patterson) The team will fight and struggle until they get comfortable with this but then they produce extremely consistent results. This was also the Eddie Sutton way. Players have to wait in the wings as role players and hope to be tapped for stardom later in their careers.


And so I come to my beloved Hogs, a team of interesting parts that seems to have lost its way. The thread has been pulled and the fabric has come apart. Weaving it together again falls on two people. Pelphrey and Fortson. Those two guys control more variables than anyone else. They can create controlled chaos. All the talk of Stef and RC and Washington and our struggles at the 4 are interesting and important but in the end irrelevant. Courtney controls the team on the floor and Pel controls it off.

Arkansas’s struggles are the direct result of having a freshman point guard that, as of yet, doesn’t understand the overall game. And just as quickly as it has gone south it can turn great again if (and when) the light goes on in Courtney’s head.


And now on to the Auburn game. Similar in many ways to Miss. State they are a perimeter team. But they lack Varnado and have been mired in a culture of losing and living and dying with jump shots. We SHOULD blow them out but my confidence is shaky.

I’m tired for this game. Very Tired. I worked all night and I am getting old. I bought an “energy drink” thinking it could pep me up. Instead I found out it tastes like a combination of liquid bubble gum and urine. I’m not a fan.

Beautiful day in NWA. Cold in the shadows and warm in the sunlight. I think that might be a metaphor for something.

The crowd isn’t great but it’s not horrible. Maybe 2/3 full. Aesthetically we don’t measure up to the OU and Texas crowds from a couple weeks ago. I think the pretty people must have dates.

Stat Girl is here and behind the scorer’s table. She looks good although I think she is wearing the same outfit as the last time I saw her - short black tunic and black slacks. I think maybe you become an official stalker when you figure out the outfit rotation of someone you’ve never met. Is their a stalker’s union or something I need to join. Maybe a group that offers my kind free legal representation when the inevitable happens. Just wondering.

Stef is wearing his headband again. He also wore it at Florida and Ole Miss. Coincidence? I think not. This is bad. Is there not a coach in charge of sartorial mistakes? Someone that looks out for jinxes? I’m available if you need me Pel.

Monk is in street clothes, no idea why. Yikes! (Although it is troubling that I feel reliant on a footbll player who has only been with the team a couple of weeks.)

Let’s play ball!


Tip Off

Stef nails his first jumper. Sweet. The crowd is into it. We need to pressure these guys and roll them.

Auburn has some serious shorts. Calf-length. At what point does wearing a mid length “skort” begin to hinder movement?

RC hits a deep one. This is good.

Sanchez faces up and gets fouled. His post moves are glacier-like. (That isn’t good)

Waller buries a shot from deep while leaning to his left. Ugh.

Horrible turnover on a CF pass to Stef. Bad pass from CF and bad awareness from Stef. Sometimes I question Courtney’s understanding of good passing angles.

Waller again. Might wanna get a hand up fellas.

FIRST TIMEOUT 6-11 Auburn.

We seem to be the cure for other team’s shooting woes. Our man is a bit soft and we aren’t handling screens well. We go under or switch so it is easy to get mismatches with our little guys.

Henry in. If he can play well he is the solution to many, many problems.

I’m thinking more Britt today as well. Maybe some Henry and Britt together with RC or Stef. That fixes the size and we still have some shooting. Marcus has to be willing to take a mid-range jumper though.

We ran a different set the first 3 possessions and got good looks. Lots of motion. We are back to pick and roll now. Stagnant.

Waller again. Oh my! That was against a zone and I’m not sure CF has any idea how to cover the left wing out of a zone.

Courtney gets a couple nice buckets.


SECOND TIMEOUT 12-17 Auburn

Henry got his pocket picked for a dunk and missed badly on a 3. He needs to work his way back.

Lefty hits a deep one for Auburn. We are playing soft zone WHY!

Waller another one.

Washington responds poorly to double teams.

RC hits a deep one that they call a 2. We HAVE to press and push. That is the only way to get open shots for our guards but we are sitting back on D.

Andre Clark is active. Out of position but active. He needs minutes.

Another 3 and we are down 10.

Stef comes back.

Stat Girl just walked right in front of my seat. Just a hint of a jiggle. I could have reached out and touched her or maybe thrown popcorn at her.

Stef cuts it to 5 but blows a layup.

THIRD TIMEOUT 21-26 Auburn

Jeff Lebo looks a lot like Donald Pleasance - the guy that played the psychiatrist in “Halloween”. I don’t think that is a compliment. His face is very shiny.

RC with an airball. He was wide open and missed by 2 feet. WTF?

Another 3 and it is back to 10. That was against a man defense.

Stef misses. We are missing open jumpers now and are down a dozen.

On the positive side I think the band is playing a song by Pink. So we have that going for us.

Auburn has a really tall skinny assistant or redshirt in a suit with a hanky in his pocket.

I point this out to my date but she thinks he is too old to be a player and not involved enough to be a coach. “I think he might be a semi-retarded guy that just wandered out there and is pretending to be part of the team”, she says.

I have no response to that.

Stef goes down HARD. He’ll be sore.

RC with a drive and dish to Sanchez. Michael draws the foul but he needs to explode up and finish.

We have lots of chances but nowhere to go for a bucket.

LAST TIMEOUT 27-36 Auburn

There is a women walking up the steps on the south side wearing a top that makes her look like Santa and if I am not mistaken she has on black stockings and little else. I realize I’m tired but I think I hired her for a bachelor party once.

CF is taking WAY too long before he shoots.

Now Stef with an airball. “Goodness Gracious” my mother says. Can’t disagree with that.

Pressed a bit there and fell back in a zone but CF makes another silly pass in transition.

HALFTIME 31-38 Auburn

Honestly it should be worse. Aubbie won’t shoot like that in the second half but if we don’t create turnovers we can’t score consistently and we won’t create turnovers with this defensive game plan.

There is clearly a good book on how to play this Hog team now and we have to figure out how to make that work for us. Everyone will bang Washington and double him when he gets it in the post. They will sink way, way off Courtney and dare him to shoot (while getting an extra defender in the paint to help with double teams). When CF takes up the slack and tries to penetrate they will let him get deep and take their chances with him making those dipsy-do shots. (It appears that he won’t get many calls on those anymore. That is probably as it should be because he is creating the contact by jumping in.)

My date was craving a hamburger at halftime. I argued that concession stand burgers are pretty much a vector for food-borne illness. She persisted and WOW. I just ate a really tasty burger. Who knew?

The dance squad is very sparkly in their outfits at halftime. I think their dance is a tribute to “working women”. I’m not sure how much of a “tribute” it is since they have on big eyeglasses to show they are smart and are spinning around and thrusting in dedazzled dresses that stop short of their thighs.

Hey I am all in favor of some good objectification of women but I just think that when people talk about “working women” they don’t really mean Hooters waitresses.

Speaking of objectifying women - a new one caught my eye. She is red-headed and a bit athletic. She seems to be like some kind of boss to the ushers, or maybe a coordinator. she is in all black and has a walkie-talkie on her hip. The whole effect is very much one of authority, like a female cop. (Is that another stripper fantasy?) I want her to scold me. Let’s hear it for the ginger people.


SECOND HALF

Come the eff on boys. This is silly.

Courtney is just off. He can’t shoot and he is making bad passes. I think he needs to sit for a bit.

Stef is missing catch and shoots now. Pelphry is freaking out.

RC has his leg collapse on a 3 and MW gets his shot blocked like 3 times. Auburn is winning in the paint. Ugh.

We look awful in half court, partly a function of our roster. I hate our tempo. It is defeatist.

Auburn has gone cold but we can’t score. Sanchez is active. He could be a good role player on a good team. But on a borderline team like this he is just another position where we don’t get enough production.

FIRST TIMEOUT 36-42

Should be worse. CF missed a toss. Courtney throws a full court pass to SANCHEZ. He needs to know better.

And we are back down 10.

There is an avenue for a win here because I don’t think Auburn will score a ton but we are impotent.

A minute ago I was excited because we got the ball to Sanchez in the middle. Things have gotten exactly that bad.

Sanchez gets rejected and again collects the honorary Charles Thomas/Jonathon Modica award for getting faced. If he keeps this up we may rename the award for him some time in his career.

Stef finds the range. He is playing OK. He has missed quite a few but they were all wide open.

We can’t get a stop.

SECOND TIMEOUT 34-42

We are all waiting. Just waiting for a run. A couple of stops and a couple of shots is all it will take but I just am not seeing it.

Stef again and we are down 5. We get a stop but give up the offensive rebound. Killer.

No Henry in second half so far. Hurt?

RC can’t hit. When CF drives they don’t pick him up until he gets past the 3-point line.

Sanchez a little lefty.

Ugh. And 1 for Aubbie. They are making the plays.

MW with a bad shot. Stef with a travel. We have opportunities.

We have had 3 chances on O down 7 but have barely even gotten a shot.

THIRD TIMEOUT 49-56

(I wrote a bunch of stuff here but it got kind of mean and frankly profane and isn’t really fit for public consumption. Suffice to say we scored 2 points the rest of the way and went the last 6 minutes scoreless. We missed good shots and bad shots, made bad turnovers and were forced into a couple. Auburn made some big plays burt also just let us collapse.)


FINAL SCORE 51-73

All in all that was the worst performance I have ever seen at home. There have been teams that played worse (specifically maybe when Georgia came in Stan’s first year and they were up by 30 early in the second half) but never a team that I thought was pretty decent and should win easily that just didn’t show.

Like I was saying in the beginning, systems are fragile things. They exist in delicate balance sometimes. The fabric of this team has clearly unraveled.

The good thing is that the solution is relatively simple. Courtney Fortson has to be the best and most in control player on the team and the rest of the guys need to feed off it. The bad thing is that CF is a freshman and I’m not sure he knows how to do this yet.

Until next time.