The South Carolina Gamecocks come into Walton Arena on Wednesday night with an 8-8 overall record and a 0-2 mark in the SEC. By contrast, the Razorbacks are riding high at 13-3 and 2-0 in conference play for the first time since the 2001-02 season.
So…no worries, right? Well…maybe.
The last time these two teams met, the Hogs destroyed the Gamecocks by 30 points in the opening round of the SEC Tournament. Unfortunately, the game earlier in the regular season at Columbia was a complete disaster for the Razorbacks.
Similar to this year, South Carolina entered that game winless at 0-5 in SEC play. But in what was to be a familiar refrain of the Stan Heath era, the Hogs missed seven straight shots and committed two costly turnovers in the final five minutes of the game to lose 66-60.
In the post-game player interviews, the infamous quote, “They just wanted it more than us,” was used for what seemed like the millionth time during Stan Heath’s tenure on The Hill.
For many Hog fans (including this one), memories of those type of performances are always looming in the shadows. Until this class of seniors move on, that kind of skepticism is likely to remain prevalent.
Even with the obvious improvements made this season by new coach John Pelphrey and his staff, this team of experienced, veteran players should be better than they have shown in nearly every game they’ve played this season. Preseason predictions of division championships and top 25 rankings won’t be taken seriously until they start meeting those lofty expectations.
So while victories over Missouri, Baylor and Alabama were quality wins, the job of building up a NCAA Tournament résumé to make up for losses to Providence and Appalachian State still remains.
And suffering another untimely regular season loss to a mediocre South Carolina team would obviously make that task even more difficult than it already will be.
Amen, brother Tipster!
We have got to find a way to not go 0 for … in the last several minutes of the game. We need one of the "good" players (sorry Irvin, you are no Kobe Bryant) to step up and hit big shots down the stretch.
Like you said Tipster, the players are still falling into that same ole Stan Heath self-fullfilling prophecy at the end of games. They seem to turn off the switch with 5 minutes to go and try to coast in. Well guess what guys… that doesn't work in Division I basketball. Any team on any given night can put on a 15-0 run at the end of a game. That pretty much means that no matter what kind of lead you have with 5 minutes to go is usually not safe.
We need to learn how to push on the gas at the end of games and bury the other team. The team needs to keep forcing the action and working the offense. Until we learn to do that, the door will continue to be open and teams like Alabama are going to force us into overtime, even though we (incorrectly) thought we had that game in hand.
To sum it up:
1. Play hard until the clock says 0:00.
2. Find a scorer (I'm open to suggestions … not Irvin) to get the ball to down the stretch.
3. Play to win, not to keep from losing.
Excellent review Tipster. I do see a lot of what was supposed to be Stan Heath left in this team. No, they do not have a "go to" guy to end the game although, like it or not, Ervin was the guy last week. I have been wanting them to feed Darian Townes for 4 years now. He is wonderful and wonderfully consistent down low but, they just don't seem to want to get him the ball. That is beginning to change thank goodness.
As good as these players are individually I wonder if the problem besides motivation is that Stan didn't actually recruit a team. The pieces don't fit. At least they never play as if the pieces fit. They have been together for 4 years. You know that both Stan and Pelphry must know a few Xs and Os but, when you watch them play it always looks like a pick up game with the starters still in class.
Stan never recruited a guard. He always loved centers and forwards. Beverly and Welsh are good, don't get me wrong, but as role players we just don't seem to have good place yet either.
Maybe it is not any of that and just another reflection of a team with no discipline. Time will tell, I sure can't.
Looking at the schedule, we should be 5-0 going into a very rough stretch where we could be 5-5. On the other hand if take care of business, 7-3 after 10 games could look very, very good going down the stretch.
I'm with you guys. I do see improvement under Pelphrey, but it still doesn't quit feel right with the exsperience level this team has. What really bothers me the most is the fact that Steven Hill is pretty much non-existant this year. I've watched his movements over the past few games, and it's as if he's in another world. He seem's to be more interested with setting a pick than anything else. I don't get it. He was a joy to watch last year, but now, entead of taking his game up a notch, it's as if he's went back in time to his Fresh. year. Is it the up-tempo system? I don't know, but something has definately changed for Steven.
All of you have made good comments that I somewhat agree with. Here are just a few of my observations which may mean absolutly nothing.
1. Beverly may be suffering from BBall burnout. He has not had any rest in the last 7 months.
2. After watching on TV and in Dallas Stephen Hill is not equiped to play this style. And like the old adage "You can't teach an old dog new tricks" I think this might apply to Hill
3. We still don't look down low as much as we need to. We do have two go to guys in the post, Towns and Thomas. For us to jack up 20 – 30 three's a game is not what we need.
4. Although our turnovers have been lowered the ones we still make still look like Boys Club turnovers.
There just seems to be something missing with this team and I still can't put my finger on it. But I'm still very hopeful that we will continue to have a good season. There is plenty of season left to make the corrections needed. This team still have the potential of being an elite team by the end of the season.
MiM,
I agree with your comments but I do wonder about #2. I agree Stephen has not played as well as before but I am surprised. I thought he would be more active on offense because he can run the floor. I haven't seen that and he seems to get in foul trouble which limits his defense.
To a certain extent, I think your old adage of "you can't teach an old dog new tricks" applies to every SR on this team.
#4 is on the mark. It's not so much how many TO's we have but the way they happen. We do some of the dumbest things sometimes.
As far as what is missing on the team, I wonder if there is really a leader? I don't see one.