May 20, 2013

Mississippi State 88, Arkansas 78

March 2, 2011 by

Rotnei Clarke / Kodi Augustus / Dee Bost (AP Photo/April L. Brown)ESPN.com: Mississippi State 88, Arkansas 78

Ravern Johnson scored 25 points as Mississippi State pulled away in the second half for a 88-78 win over Arkansas on Wednesday night.

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Filed Under: Arkansas Razorbacks, Basketball, Recap Tagged With:
  • Mike in Magnolia

    Really no need to comment. The game spoke for itself. Crying Shame

    • GolfHog

      Amen Mike, Amen. What more could possibly be said?

      I do owe Owasso and Gonzo and apology though. You guys are right. This team belongs to hog fans who support the Razorbacks through thick and thin, no matter what. I have no business watching this or commenting on it (that’s not a promise, just a fact.) One day basketball will return to the hill and I’ll be glad.

      Good luck to the kids and John Pelphry. I wish you all nothing but the best.

  • Ward_Hog

    One positive… we won’t be on Florida’s side of the SEC bracket now. Think about it….

  • HungryHog

    This is on the Mizzou web site, not the Razorback website:

    “Mike Anderson has restored the roar of Missouri Basketball. Taking over a program mired in sub-.500 basketball the three seasons before his arrival, Anderson has infused excitement, passion and winning expectations back into the Mizzou Nation and he’s done it all in just four years.”

  • HungryHog

    It didn’t all paste in/post.. Here is the next..

    Missouri ranks #11 nationally with 54 wins the past two seasons and the club’s back-to-back NCAA Tournament berths and highly-regarded brand, The Fastest 40 Minutes in Basketball, makes Mizzou one of the hottest programs on the college basketball landscape.

    The Tigers have won four NCAA Tournament games the past two seasons, including a 2009 run to the NCAA Tournament’s Elite Eight. That run came just a few months after the league coaches pegged the Tigers seventh in the Big 12′s preseason rankings. Fast forward to last season, after MU lost three 1,000-point scorers, the Tigers were once again slotted seventh by the league brass, only to finish with 10 league wins (23-11 overall) and advance to the second round of NCAA play. In fact Missouri was just one of three teams in 2010 to qualify for the Big Dance and joined Syracuse as the only team to lose three 1,000-point scorers and win a post season game.

    Back-to-back 20 win seasons, a consistent presence in the NCAA Tournament, NBA Draft picks, Academic All-Conference performers, All-Americans and National Coach of the Year awards just begin to tell the story of Anderson’s reclamation project in Columbia. His growing success story in the Show-Me State starts with a grassroots effort to galvanize an entire hoops-crazy state.

  • HungryHog

    I want to paste the whole thing in there, but here it is, this guy is the real deal:

    http://www.mutigers.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/ander…

    —

    What the heck are we doing? We are miserable. We aren’t playing hog ball, we aren’t fun to watch, we aren’t winning.

    And we are worried about losing recruits? Look, these guys would love to play for Anderson over Pelphrey – are you kidding? Read that Bio. Even so – if all the recruits said they would follow Pel – let them go if we can get Mike. I would much rather bank our future on a coach like this over any single group of players. (but I am sure they will still come)

    I have gone from “giving up” – “who cares” – to super-fired-up – because I read that Bio on Anderson. That got me fired up and excited for basketball – and it’s not even our team. I would LOVE to get him. Hog Ball would be back – we would be able to bring out the original “40 minutes of hell”. This year is a great year to do it too. Bring him in – the fan base will go crazy in support – honeymoon period. The new recruits will come – and we will be ready to raise the roof at Bud Walton again.

    Or… we “wait until next year…” again.

    I LIKE MIKE.

    • OwassoHog

      Really… Mizzou likes Mike? Why he is only able to pull in about a 2/3 of the arena?

      Some folks need to take off the rose colored glasses!

      • HungryHog

        Just to be clear. Are you saying you would rather keep Pelphrey – if Mike Anderson said he would come here for 2.4 million a season?

      • OwassoHog

        Yes, Mike is NOT worth $2.4/season. I may be totally wrong here but if Mike can’t bring 15K to Mizzou, what makes you think he will bring 18K to UofA? Mike is definitely not worth 42.4/season. Setting these expectations (which is what I’ve been focused on for the last week) means that in 3-4 years, I LIKE MIKE becomes I LIKE ______!

      • http://www.razorbloggers.net Walking on Sunshine

        Owasso not sure where you are getting your info. Mizzou is averaging 89.1% of capacity. Significantly more than two-thirds full. Averaging over 13,400+ per game.

        http://rivals.yahoo.com/missouri/blog/power_mizzo…

        Why the hate for MA?

      • OwassoHog

        I’m confident in those numbers… I pulled each and every one of them off of the Mizzou site… these came directly from the attendance totals… based upon the seating capacity (don’t remember exactly but around 15K). As for your numbers, I’m just going to take a wild guess and assume that this might be tickets sold which is higher than actual attendance. My point is that actual attendance is about 67% for Mike.

        Why the hate for MA? I have NEVER express and HATE for MA! I have expressed a STRONG belief that he WON’T be successful!

        Let me be clear, if MA does come, I totally accept him as the coach and will pull for him to win.

      • OwassoHog

        Correction: after looking at the link, “Tigers’ six home games” <— conference games. Yes, these were generally the best games in terms of attendance and they dropped off significantly from there.

      • HungryHog

        Owasso –

        I appreciate your faith in all things Razorback. You said you have a STRONG belief MA will not be successful here, but then if he is hired you will get behind him and and pull for him to win. Just because someone puts on a shirt with a Razorback logo doesn’t mean I am going to get behind him.

        If Jeff Long came out in a couple of weeks and said, “John Pelphrey has submitted his resignation and I am here to announce Stan Heath is coming back to lead the Arkansas Razorbacks basketball team.” – I would flip my lid. I have a STRONG belief that Stan Heath would not be successful here, and there is no way I would get behind him just because his title is head coach of the Razorbacks.

        Again – I do appreciate your love for anything Razorback, but please just understand that I am just voicing my opinion on what I believe would be a good move for the Hogs. Like SG said in his article – it’s not a democracy unfortunately. We have to have faith in Long.

        As far as attendance – I would say that Mizzou fans are just weak. Maybe they have other interests, but it is my opinion MA is our best shot at getting BWA full again. Maybe Long could use that as a recruiting tool – “Come back to Arkansas where we will pack the house for you.”

        I see that Mike has T.J. Cleveland working with him – good to see another Razorback being successful.

      • OwassoHog

        HungryHog, I have no problem with your position on Stan. I’m belief is to assume that our AD will pick the “right” person for the job. With that in mind, I’m going to assume that is the case until such a point that the “right” person proves likewise.

        Again, as for MA goes, one of my biggest fears is that so many folks want what we had… which is nearly impossible to replicate. It doesn’t mean that we can’t have something that is different, unique… even better.

        When so many folks are begging for Mike, I just keep feeling that we are going to put him into a similar situation as we did for both Stan and John. Doomed for failure almost from the get go.

  • Soupdhog

    Hungry, your post says it all….it says is that Mike Anderson would be an idiot to come to Arkansas. He has an amazing situation there – why would he want to leave that job to come to a place where the fans take out ads in the paper, file FOI on coaches, and have every move scrutinized? Add to that what the university and state had done to his relative, and have to work under that relative’s shadows and comparisons.

    You may like Mike, but why would Mike like you (the Hog program)?

  • HungryHog

    Soup…

    Where’s the love? I understand what you are saying.. and maybe there is no chance, but I sure hope Jeff Long gives him a call and asks what it would take.

    I think the Nolan smoke has cleared. Mike was here when we were kings. He believes in the program how we believe in the program. I know Frank and White and Nolan had their mess, but if Long is good at his job, he should be able to convince Mike that we want him and will do him right.

    It may be a dream. I just think/hope that Mike has a soft spot in his heart for Arkansas. If he came here and could return the program to what Mizzou is now – he would be worshiped like Petrino.

    I hope the Program doesn’t look as scary as you portray it. If it does – Jeff Long better be good.

  • soupdhog

    Sorry Hungry – I’m also disappointed with our team and how far we’ve fallen. But it’s embarrasing and frustrating to see fans do counterproductive things like take out ads in the paper or other stuff that doesn’t do our program any favors in the eyes of the media, prospective coaches and the players (the players read the papers too).

    I just think if everyone calms down it will work out. Believe me, Long and the Foundation are well aware of our performance and that most high schools draw a bigger crowd than the Hogs. My personal opinion is that we’ve had to buy time to get the program stable and go after a more experienced coach.

    I like Mike too, but it seems to me that’s totally unrealistic – I could be wrong though. I think a good coach at an average school may be a good target, like Tubby Smith for example.

    I’m confident that now Pel has us on a better track it presents some opportunity for us. I am thankful to Pel for taking the job no one else would and doing a noble job.

    • GolfHog

      Just when I thought I was out…they pull me back in.

      The fans wouldn’t be forced to these extremes if the administration was on the job. I won’t take the time to re-hash all of the real incompetence that has beset this program in the last four years, yes some of it going back to Stan Heath, but, this has been obvious to everyone for a full two years. If no move was made last year, then it should have been made clear that this year real progress was a fixed requirement rather than giving a failing coach a pass and vote of confidence. John could have taken re-tooling his staff seriously and the fans could have relaxed about another bad season most likely being addressed. Simple PR, really.

      I said a month ago that Rob Evans provided a nice buffer for the administration to avoid what we have seen this last month. No ad would have been necessary.

      Neither Stan or John even vaguely resembled Eddie or Nolan. Both were wishful hires. There is nothing wrong with a wishful hire as long as eveyone is clear that they must produce. And, there is nothing wrong with this program that a coach cannot fix. We have Van Horn and Petrino. How nice would it be to have a basketball coach?

      I know that Long and Pelphry will do their very best. They have my full support and best wishes.

      • soupdhog

        Golf, I respect your opinion about the fan extremes, but you’re wrong :) .

        Let the guys do their job – they all have way more experience in these matters than you, me, and the ‘fans’ that take out ads in the paper.

        I suppose there are people that complain about how people in general do their jobs; heck, there may be someone out there that doesn’t like how you do your job (I know there are some that don’t like how I do mine). It’s their right to complain, express their displeasure, etc. But I think there is a line that gets crossed by certain individuals that go very public to start some type of ‘campaign’ to run anyone (like a coach) out the door.

        Long has said publicly that he will evaluate the program at the end of the year based on performance. That statement is a lot different than what he has gone public with in the past, and would seem to leave an opening that Pel’s job is on the line.

        Having said all of that, I’m in the let Pel go camp – but let’s not hate on the guy. I hope people remember he is the one that took the job when Arkansas was the laughing stock of the SEC – maybe the nation – when a mediocre coach like Altman backs out. He stabilized the program, and made some tough decisions. Given where we were, I’d give him a solid B. Not based on wins and losses, but the other things that are important to stabilize a program. It’s a shame most people won’t think about that when all is said and done.

        Like I said, let’s all calm down, support the team in the SEC tourney and see what Long and the Foundation do in the off season. If you don’t like the decision, protest with your wallet. In reality, that is the most effective way.

      • GolfHog

        We’ll agree to disagree. Two years was plenty and silence is not always golden. One weak little statement was about as poor as his earlier responses. This is not your job or my job. The highest profile person in ANY southern state is the football coach. In Arkansas the basketball coach is somewhere in the top 5 or so. The AD is in the top 20. You can draw an ad for goofing up or goofing off. You think they have done their job, some don’t. This is just the down side of what makes Arkansas fans some of the best in the nation. You gotta take the bad with the good.

  • JayTownHog

    So…What about John Brady from ASTATE..? He won LSU two SEC Championships, as well as, a sweet 16 trip, and a final 4 appearance. Fired for who knows what down in the swamp. I tell ya though, I live in Jonesboro and have attended a few of his games here, and I believe ASTATE is lucky to have him. Any suggestions why U of A should try and get him??

    I believe he will carry some recruits with him. Hunter Mickelson, and Joe Madden are both from the Jonesboro area.

  • soupdhog

    Well, turns out I could be very wrong about Mike. When asked about it, his answer doesn’t appear to be very committal to Missou, at least after this year.

    http://arkansasnews.com/2011/03/04/blog-anderson-…

  • http://www.therazorbackblogger.com/ GonzoHog

    I haven’t had a chance to post comments lately, and after reading all the comments above, I’ll choose to defer on the Pelphrey debate for a while.

    Rather I’ll go with the Mike Anderson debate this time.

    Here’s my deal on Mike. First of all, Mike is a proven winner. I have no problem with him being named the new head basketball coach at the UofA if a change were made. I would support him 100%.

    Now that I’ve said that, for the life of me, why is it that everything seems to start and end with Mike when talking about hiring a new head coach?

    I’ve never understood the infactuation that Mike is the only answer.

    Just in case some of you haven’t been paying attention, there’s another guy coaching in the Big 12 (no, it isn’t Scott Drew) that’s making all the rest look pretty silly right now.

    I would confidently say he has no more talent than Arkansas currently possesses and has made a name for himself in the Big 12 this season, knocking off Texas and Missouri just recently and gave Kansas all they wanted earlier in the season.

    He has Arkansas ties, he’s a Greenwood native and coached Westark (now UA-Ft. Smith) to a Juco NC.

    If he has the athletes, he will run with you, if he doesn’t, he’ll slow it down and take a different route. Straight up, the man can coach.

    Anyone know who it is?

    • http://Sethgunderson.com sg

      What’s up, doc?

      • http://www.therazorbackblogger.com/ GonzoHog

        Yes, Doc Sadler.

    • Tomahog

      I do not know much about him but it certainly sounds inviting. Nice post that brought value to the group