Back in 1999, the marketers of Gatorade coined the catch phrase, “Is it in you?” And thanks to Michael Jordan and a slew of other star athletes, the popularity of the expression has become pervasive.
In a market survey taken a few years ago, 19% of respondents correctly matched the slogan with the energy drink. Only Sprite’s trademark “Obey your thirst” scored higher among the other soft drink competitors.
By contrast, a much larger percentage of Razorback basketball fans have thought for a while that this group of players has had ‘it’ in them. There have been too many flashes…hints…over the last two seasons.
Last year…winning the Old Spice Classic; defeating a Vanderbilt team twice (both away from home) who would later go on to almost make the Elite 8; making a surprise run to the finals of the SEC Tournament.
This year…defeating good teams in Missouri and Baylor; and now….the thrashing of two ranked, SEC division-leading teams at home last week.
Even John Pelphrey admitted that his team has recently shown ‘it’ on the court:
“I’m proud of all of the guys in terms of how hard they played,” Pelphrey said. “We wanted to do the ordinary things even more — dive on the floor more, take more charges, rebound more, encourage our teammates more.
“I thought they were a team out there. Tonight, they had ‘it.’”
And hasn’t that been the most frustrating part of watching these guys over the years? I mean…if they hadn’t shown signs that they had ‘it,’ most of us would’ve just given up on this veteran team a long time ago…right?
But now things have changed. The talent and ability and fire — the ‘it’ of this team — was exposed last week. Never again will they be able to convince anyone that they don’t have what it takes to defeat any team in the country.
Yes, ‘it’ is in this Razorback basketball team. The difference now is…everybody knows it.
There's no doubt this team has had the "it" since late last season. Thier problem was alway's thier attitude. When things didn't go just exactly the way they thought it should, they "cried about it, enstead of bucking up and doing something about it. Gary Irvin was the world's worst last year when a foul was called, wheather it was obious he did it or not. He would alway's look at the ref in dis-belief, as if he were saying "say what? Are you crazy? I could alway's picture myself being in the position of the ref and thinking to myself "just shut up and play!" I think there have been some key lessons learned this year by several of these players, but the best one learned that's evident to me is the fact they have learned to shut thier mouths and let the coach do the bitching. If anything need's to be said to the ref, he'll let them know. It might not have been stated that way, in words, directly from the head coach, but I'll bet money that's one of the main reasons Irvin is coming off the bench this year, at least until Pelphrey get's all of the kinks worked out. Pelphrey demands consistantsy just as much as pure guts and desire, and it look's like he's finally getting what he want's. I was tabbing Tennessee as the best of the best going into the latter part of the season, with Ole Miss and Miss. St. tied for 2nd best, but after the late resurgence of the Hogs, it's definately going to be interesting down the stretch! GO HOGS GO!!!!!
Amen!
And, it has been obvious for a while. Talent was not holding this team back. It was their own attitude and decision making.
It is what got Stan fired.
They have had runs before. The next three games are tough, very tough. If they have made the turn, become a team, become fighting razorbacks, they will be in every game until the end.
This question has not been answered yet. But it is about to be. This is literally their last chance to live up to all of that potential. They appear to be ready.
Espn just reported we got Joe Adams. No small sign outdoing USC for something or someone, finally. Go Hogs!
Wahoo!!! Go Petrino Go!!!