Arkansas Razorbacks Basketball

OK—so maybe that headline is a tad misleading. Along with approximately 500 other people, I was fortunate enough to attend last Saturday’s dinner honoring the 1994 national championship team. Here are some notes and observations from a very memorable evening, one that featured remarks from John Pelphrey, Nolan, and all of the attending ‘94 team members.

• Pelphrey began his remarks by saying, 'It was my understanding that when Corliss and Scotty left, they still had one year of eligibility remaining. 'Guys, I only need you for three games,' he said." [At that point, the Hogs had three regular-season games left.]

• Nolan was in a great mood, laughing heartily throughout the evening. At one point during his talk, he offered support and encouragement for Pelphrey and the current team. He asked for fans to be patient. He looked directly at Pelphrey and said, “You’ve got some time. You’ve got some time.” And then he quickly joked, “Now, you don’t have a lot of time here.”

In closing, he noted that many people had commented on his gray hair. “I’m just trying to look like the man who fired me,” he quipped.

• One of the more moving moments came when Roger Crawford took the microphone. He directed his comments to his former teammates and lamented that so many of them had fallen out of touch with each other and told them they must be better about this in the future. “We’re a family,” he said. As his comments drew to a close, he appeared to be on the verge of tearing up.

Darnell Robinson also struck a reflective tone when he said, “I see everybody here with their kids, and I think, ‘Wow, we are getting old, aren’t we?’”

• Craig Tyson, a forward who never played in a regular season game for the Hogs because of knee problems, had some poignant remarks as well. “My comments are going to be as brief as my career,” he joked.

But he then got serious and told Richardson that he’d never thanked him for the opportunities that Richardson had given him. “I’d like to now,” Tyson said and then shook Nolan’s hand. It was a very nice moment. A lady sitting next to me said, “Ahh. Bless his heart.”

• Reggie Merritt is one entertaining dude. He had the crowd laughing for much of his time at the microphone.

(more…)

On January 6th of this year, the Hogs beat Texas in what I think we can all agree was one of the most glorious Razorback sports moments in recent memory. Coming on the heels of an almost-as-glorious win over Oklahoma, it was a heady time to be an Arkansas fan...suffice it to say, we were all feeling a little giddy.

Take a moment to read through some of the posts linked in that last sentence and try to recall that spirit of exuberant optimism we all felt back in those halcyon days. Seems like another, very distant era entirely, right?

That was a little over seven weeks ago.

Incredible, huh? One minute we were all wondering how highly the Hogs would be seeded after winning (or maybe finishing second in) the SEC West, and the next minute we’re staring at the possibility of a mind-blowingly bad 1-15 conference record (the cockeyed optimist in me thinks we’ll probably do better than that...but it’s at least a possibility).

To continue that theme, on Jan. 6 the upsides of Courtney Fortson and Rotnei Clarke were somewhere in the vicinity of Lee Mayberry and Alex Dillard...on Feb. 26 it feels more like Kareem Reid/Cannon Whitby territory. On Jan. 6 we were worried about losing Michael Washington to the NBA and John Pelphrey to Kentucky...on Feb. 26, not so much.

On Jan. 6 the Razorback basketball program was back!!!...on Feb. 26 we’re wondering just how good Ryan Mallett will look in Bobby Petrino’s offense.

Anyway, I say all this more out of amazement at the sudden reversal of fortune than anything else. I’m not a hater by any means: I still believe in Pelphrey (and his red jacket, which he really should wear more) and think he’s too much of a winner to let this continue. Probably the important life lesson to learn here is that things are never quite as good or as bad as they seem.

But wow...what a crazy seven weeks this has been.

Thanks to the wonders of satellite radio, I had the pleasure of listening to the University of Arkansas men's basketball game last night. And I don’t mean “pleasure” ironically.

Yes, it was yet another loss. But I thought it was the Hogs’ strongest effort of the conference season. No great half of play followed by a mind-numbingly bad one, or vice versa. No blown double-digit leads.

Just one very solid effort and on the road, mind you. The Hogs played against arguably the SEC’s second-best team.

I know we are all tired of the losses. However, in their last two games, the Hogs have taken LSU and South Carolina down to the wire.

There is reason to hope that this team is closer to being NCAA Tournament material than its ghastly 1-11 conference record suggests.

And an ever-improving Jason Henry is a big part of that hope. It was fun to hear the South Carolina announcers heap praise on the West Memphis native for his fantastic performance last night.

Who knows, when all is said and done, Henry might be the best player out of this freshman class.

On a final note, I continue to be impressed by the Hogs’ effort.

In the last few weeks, the message boards have contained lots of ominous rumblings about a program in turmoil and a team full of players who don’t respect their coaches.

I don’t see it.

Whatever this team’s numerous shortcomings may be, giving up doesn’t appear to be one of them. I think that speaks volumes about Pelphrey, his staff, and these players.

Make no mistake. This team has a long way to go.

But I walked away from last night’s game thinking that maybe the journey will not take as long as we fear.  

This is getting tough to watch. You have to wonder if this is the kind of defeat that will break the team’s spirit. Perhaps that is a knee-jerk and melodramatic statement, but that was one tough loss.

Considering that we basically have no bench and that the game was on the road (and that Mississippi State apparently never misses a three-point shot), it shouldn’t be all that surprising that the second half unfolded the way it did.

Even with a 15-point lead courtesy of a picture-perfect first half, I was far from certain that the Hogs had this one in the bag.

I was hoping that the Razorbacks could at least keep their lead around 15 points for the first five minutes or so of the second half. When the Bulldogs came charging back so quickly, I quickly got that sinking feeling.

I certainly can’t complain about their effort. The obvious fatigue with which the Hogs, Fortson in particular, played down the stretch was testimony to how hard they competed.

They simply don’t have enough talent in the frontcourt or enough size in the backcourt, or even enough warm bodies to make it through a fast-paced game. We’re just going to have to take our lumps this year.

Our good friend Jethro wrote the other day that one of the good things about young players is that they bounce back quickly.

From a psychological perspective, hopefully that will be the case here. Despite the fact that they will almost certainly wind up with a ghoulish conference record, there is enough there, there to snag an unexpected victory or two (or maybe even three) down the stretch.

But I can’t help but worry that today’s loss is one that will linger.

Box score

Tennessee (13-7) at Arkansas (13-6)

The Line: Arkansas +4

Time: 8:05 PM EST

Playing against top-level competition is nothing new or strange to either of these teams. Arkansas set the tone for their season knocking off Texas and Oklahoma but then appeared to be in a tailspin, losing their first four conference games before beating Alabama last week.

Tennessee seems to be playing in a main event every time out, as their schedule ranks No. 2 in toughness. Because of all of the seemingly gigantic games the Vols have been involved in this year, it's tough to even think that they are still a very good 4-2 in the conference.

While the conference records seem to be going in opposite directions, you can't take anything for granted in the SEC.

Tennessee comes in at 8-9-1 against the spread, while Arkansas is 7-5 against the number. While I normally think that trends and things of this nature have a pretty big outcome when the big story is told, I don't see it being the case this time out. While Arkansas won their two big games earlier in the year, I think the Vols looked just about unbeatable last time out against Florida.

Tennessee has covered in seven of the last 10 overall in the series and the last four at Arkansas. The road team has also covered in seven of the last eight meetings. Tennessee is battle-tested and should be well ready by the time the tournament rolls around; this should be a very winnable game for them.

Mitch's Pick: Tennessee -4

See all of Mitch's Free College Basketball picks against the spread.

Arkansas (13-5) at LSU (16-4), Saturday, Jan. 31, 2009, 5 p.m. EST

The Line: LSU -11

First place in the SEC West meets last place in the SEC West as the Arkansas Razorbacks roll into Baton Rouge to take on the red hot LSU Tigers.

Arkansas finally got their first SEC win of the season last time out when they hosted Alabama. While LSU has won four out of five in conference play, and has the better overall record, Arkansas has played a tougher schedule. Upset wins over both Oklahoma and Texas have the Hogs 2-0 in games against the top 25, and 2-1 in games against the RPI top 50. LSU is 0-1 against ranked teams, and a dismal 1-3 against the RPI top 50.

While LSU had been rolling after their conference-opening loss to Alabama, they loss to Xavier by double digits last Saturday in a home game they were favored to win. Meanwhile, Arkansas appears to finally be getting their footing back, showing signs of the team that beat Oklahoma and Texas against Alabama, never trailing the entire game.

Arkansas enters this game at 6-5 against the spread, while LSU is 7-5 against the number. Before their last game, Arkansas appeared to be in a free fall, as they are just 1-5 against the spread in their last six SEC games. LSU has covered in their last four SEC games and is 4-1 against the spread in their last five overall.

Arkansas has played well against LSU, going 4-0-1 against the spread in their last five meetings.

I think that LSU's record may be a bit inflated, and the Hogs record is a bit deflated. This spread is just a little too large, as the difference in these two teams isn't that big.

Mitch's Pick: Arkansas +11

See all of Mitch's free College Basketball picks against the spread.

“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 civvies, 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 staredown 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 no one 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 four-guard lineup with Henry for Sanchez.  I like it.  Make them adjust to US.

Rotnei  is playing okay 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...

Alabama (12-7) at Arkansas (12-5)

The Line: Arkansas -5 1/2

A few short weeks ago, this young Arkansas team looked like they were ready to make a nice run this season and were proving they could stand on the national stage with anyone. After beating Texas and Oklahoma, most thought the Hogs would have their way in the SEC, which was full of rebuilding teams; the Razorbacks haven't won since SEC play started, losing their last four in a row.

On the other side of the court, Alabama is a team in turmoil. Expectations have turned to disappointment and a midseason coaching change. While at the college level it's rare we see a change in the middle of the season, we see one here at Alabama. The results of such experiments usually don't turn out well.

While I don't think Bama's season becomes an outright disaster, I don't think the big turnaround starts tonight at Arkansas.

Alabama is 6-8 against the spread, while Arkansas is 5-5 against the number. Neither of these teams has covered in a while in SEC play, as Alabama is 0-4 against the spread in the conference and Arkansas is 0-5. Alabama has dominated against the spread in this series, covering eight of the last 10 and four of the last five in Arkansas.

I don't see these trends happening in this one. What I generally see in situations like this is teams come out fired up to try to get their new coach a win but run out of gas and eventually get him his first win in friendlier surroundings, like their own home court.

Mitch's Pick: Arkansas -5 1/2

See all of Mitch's College Basketball picks against the spread

“If you want to destroy this sweater,
hold this thread as I walk away.”
Weezer - “The Sweater Song”

Slumps tend to get reduced to clichés, 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 affects 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 cachet?

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 affects 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 Clyde Drexler and Phi Slamma Jamma made three straight Final Fours and two straight finals.  They were the dominant college team for two-plus 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 two fundamental reasons, one well known and the other overlooked.

The well known change was Hakeem 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 ever-changing, 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 Chris 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 eight guys.  Bobby Jackson getting hurt would cripple them.

Billy Gillispie at Kentucky does something similar.  Each season he has two and only two major offensive players, usually one inside and one outside (this season Jodie Meeks and Patrick 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: John Pelphrey and Courtney 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’ 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.

Now on to the Auburn game.  Similar in many ways to Miss. State, they are a perimeter team.  But they lack Jarvis 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 two-thirds 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 there 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 football 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 three 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 three.  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 two.  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 three 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 five 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 two feet.  WTF?

Another three 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 bedazzled 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 redheaded 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.  Pelphrey is freaking out.

RC has his leg collapse on a three, and MW gets his shot blocked like three 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 sometime 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 five.  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 three-point line.

Sanchez a little lefty.

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

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

We have had three chances on O down seven 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 two points the rest of the way and went the last six minutes scoreless. We missed good shots and bad shots, made bad turnovers and were forced into a couple.  Auburn made some big plays but 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.

Preview

Auburn (1-3, 11-7) has struggled since conference play began—after seven straight non-conference wins, the Tigers have gone 1-3 against the SEC, losing by 12 at South Carolina, by three to Florida, and by nine at Kentucky, while pulling off a 14 point win against Alabama.

The Razorbacks (0-3, 12-4) have had an eerily similar start to conference play—after going 12-1 in non-conference play and gaining national attention at the turn of the calendar with an eight point upset over Oklahoma and a six point upset over Texas, Arkansas suffered a 14 point defeat at the hands of Mississippi State, a nine point loss to Mississippi, and a fifteen point loss to Florida.

The Achilles heel for both teams has been their free throw shooting—Arkansas is hitting just over 65 percent from the line while Auburn is just under 60 percent. In conference play, the Tigers have hit just 33 of 62 from the charity stripe, and these free throws are the difference of the game in some cases. When they lost by three to Florida, they missed 11 free throws.

Here's how the teams stack up across the board:

Stats

	Record	Conf	ATS	RPI	SOS	PF	PA
Auburn	11-7	1-3	9-3	105	73	71.2	62.0
Arkansas	12-4	0-3	5-5	60	118	77.8	69.5

	FG%	D. FG%	3P%	D. 3P%	FT%	RPG	SPG	APG
Auburn	43.4	39.5	32.3	32.8	59.5	40.2	10.3	14.2
Arkansas	45.9	41.8	33.9	34.3	65.1	44.3	7.4	14.0

The two teams are pretty even everywhere—they both shoot low-to-mid forties from the floor, allow around 40 percent of shots to go in, hit around one-third of their three point attempts and allow around the same amount to go in. The difference lies in steals and free throws. Auburn picks three extra balls per game, while Arkansas is more accurate from the line.

Prediction

Current Line: Arkansas -4.5

Auburn ATS: 9-3, 4-2 when underdog
Arkansas ATS: 5-5, 2-2 when favored

The Razorbacks have some great wins under their belts but stand 0-3 in SEC conference play—they need this win much more than the Tigers do. Arkansas has a deeper team and the ability to put up huge numbers (something they've been unable to do in SEC play so far...). Arkansas comes ready to play for the home crowd.

Pick: Arkansas -4.5

*All statistics for this article have come from StatSheet.com*

*This article is also featured on CFBPlace.com—and soon to be featured on CBBPlace.com*