Tip-Off Time ‘08
November 12, 2008 at 6:05am by TipsterHog
Filed under Arkansas Razorbacks, Basketball, SEC
It’s that time again! The Hoop Hogs tip-off the 2008-09 season against Southeastern Louisiana on Friday night at 7:00 p.m. in Bud Walton Arena.
If you can’t make it, don’t worry…you’ll have plenty of chances to catch them again. The Hogs open the schedule with 12 of their first 14 games at home.
In a year that even Coach John Pelphrey calls a rebuilding season, the Hogs were picked to finish dead last in the Western Division at last month’s SEC Media Days.
As for us here at RBN, just like we did back in July before football season, here are our predictions for both the Razorbacks and the rest of the SEC.
| Arkansas | HogBaller | TipsterHog | Sunshine | HogBlogger |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall Record | 19-10 | 17-12 | 16-13 | 16-13 |
| Conference Record | 9-7 | 7-9 | 6-10 | 6-10 |
| Hogs’ Most Valuable Player | Courtney Fortson | Rotnei Clarke | Courtney Fortson | Michael Washington |
| Advance to Tournament | NIT | NIT | NIT | None |
| Rotnei Clarke Breaks Single Season 3-Point Record (102, Scotty Thurman, 1995) | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| SEC West | HogBaller | TipsterHog | Sunshine | HogBlogger |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | LSU | Ole Miss | LSU | Alabama |
| 2. | Alabama | Alabama | Alabama | LSU |
| 3. | Arkansas | LSU | Mississippi State | Ole Miss |
| 4. | Ole Miss | Mississippi State | Arkansas | Auburn |
| 5. | Mississippi State | Arkansas | Ole Miss | Mississippi State |
| 6. | Auburn | Auburn | Auburn | Arkansas |
| SEC East | HogBaller | TipsterHog | Sunshine | HogBlogger |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Tennessee | Tennessee | Tennessee | Tennessee |
| 2. | Kentucky | Florida | Florida | Florida |
| 3. | Florida | Kentucky | Kentucky | Kentucky |
| 4. | Vanderbilt | Vanderbilt | Vanderbilt | Vanderbilt |
| 5. | South Carolina | Georgia | South Carolina | South Carolina |
| 6. | Georgia | South Carolina | Georgia | Georgia |
| SEC | HogBaller | TipsterHog | Sunshine | HogBlogger |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Regular Season Champion | Tennessee | Tennessee | Tennessee | Tennessee |
| Player of The Year | Patrick Patterson | Tyler Smith | Devan Downey | Tyler Smith |
| Coach of the Year | Billy Gillispie | Andy Kennedy | Bruce Pearl | Billy Donovan |
So that’s what we think. What are your predictions for this young team?
I thought Pelphry was supposed to be the savior of the program. In retrospect, Pelphry did not improve on Heath’s record, except to win an NCAA tournement game over a very troubled Indiana Hoosier team. Heath’s loss to Bucknell was due to some out of mind three point shooting which the Bucknell sharpshooters could have done blindfolded. (Some of those 3 pointers were made with the shooters falling down or away, In their next game the Bucks couldn’t repeat that 3 poiint performance even when open). Also, just average free throw shooting would have won the game for the Hogs. Bad luck for Heath. At the moment, I see no difference between Heath and Pelphrey. Neither one developed any offenisve skills for Hill, which might have made the Hogs a more dangerous team inside. Even the alley oop seemed to fade with Hill. under Pelphrey. Anyway, unlike Petrino this year, Pelphrey inherited a veteran squad last year but made no iimprovement on the record. Sorry yellow dog Razorbackers, so far I’m disappoinated, Hope Pelphrey gets better. But it looks like the brain trust on this site, based on their predictions, doesn’t have much faith either.
Jimdog, don’t misunderstand. We are all high on Coach Pelphrey and what lies ahead. With this many new faces, it will take awhile for this group to reach their potential.
Those that see “no difference between Heath and Pelphrey”, are not paying attention. The “talent level” of our 2008 seniors was cussed and discussed plenty on this site. I applaud Pelphrey for trying to make the best out of those seniors, while full knowing that the rebuilding project starts in 2009.
Sunshine
I like numbers so here are the consensus figures for the Razorbogger pundits (points for each place predicted by each prognosticator, added up, and divided by 4 – lowest score predicts higher place in standing)
Alabama 1.7
LSU 1.7
Miss 3.3
MSU 4.3
Ark 4.5
Auburn 5.5
I’m not intersted in the SEC East – so do your own math for that division
This team is going to be a heck of a lot better than the powers that be are portraying. I don’t blame them, Arkansas has a lot of unknowns. However, I have watched film of Rotnei Clarke and Courtney Fortson and these guys are the real deal. Pelphrey seems to be a defensive minded coach so that in turn should be a plus. I can’t say i drank the Rotnei Clarke kool aid b/c i have seen “you tube” clips of the young man draining threes like their free throws…………..I HOPE TO GOD TEAMS ZONE US UP THIS YEAR…….LOL. The key to this season is how healthy we can be and how many shootouts we have to have to win. We will be a “little” undersized in the post but offensively we will be fun to watch. I see us finishing no better than 3rd in conference with at least 19 wins going into post season play (baring injury). That’s why the play the game though, huh. We shall see!!!!
Sunshine:
Ah have been paying attention. To the record as well as performance. I saw the Baylor game in Dallas last year and I thought the Hogs had turned the corner. No such luck. I want to see results not promises. Every SEC team is probably having their media touting their recruiting classes. I’m not giving up. When Heath came in, like Petrino, he didn’t inherit a good ball club. He didn’t do badly after that. Pelphrey got a good ball club, now it’s up to him to show what he can do, and not what he can promise. Recruiting in Arkansas should be good. Jimmy Counce of the ’78 final four team, once told me that he thought one could get 5 NCAA 1 players every year from Pulaski County alone. I wish Pelphrey the best of luck, but I am reminded of the “emperor is wearing no clothes” story.
Bacon. In order to have your opponents zone up you have to be strong inside. Outside of Washington do we have as strong an inside game as last year?
Jim, I will say that the jury is still out on Pelphry when it comes to real success. But, to compare him to Heath does not make a lot of sense. Stan was simply not ready for prime time. He recruited well overall but didn’t ever build a complete team, motivate his players to play at a high level, develop a meaningful style of play, or show any ability to learn from his mistakes. He is a great guy by all accounts and will make someone a terrific assistant one day.
Pelphry has the pedigree and the passion. He obviously recruits better than Stan ever thought about, although it is interesting that all Stan wanted was post players and all Pelphry wants is guards and small forwards. Pelphry was stuck with Stan’s underachievers last year and there was nothing to do about that. We will see now if he can develop a style of play, coach these kids to play at a high level and make good moves off the bench.
This team is too young to do well this year. See football. But, Pelphry really only has two more years or the jury will be back in.
Oh, I missed a chance to take a shot at Frank and John White. Sorry about that.
If the intensity level on defense is consistant this season, (effort) then I think Pelphrey will be well on his way to developing his kind of team.
Stan didn’t coach intensity. Most of the time, guys like Hill just stood around flat footed most of the time, waiting for the ball to come to him, rather than go get it.
Townes had more ability than Stan could coach, and Thomas only played when he felt like it, but usually thought he was a PG somehow in a PF body.
Combine a PG with that, that was never 100% reliable or consistant in his basketball career, and you have the team that Pelphrey inherited his 1st year.
Attitude had a lot to do with their failures.
Well guy I must say I agree and disagree with alot that has been said above. First I think Stan an Pelphrey most definitely are in the same boat. They both inherited a team that was not there on although Pelphrey got alot better talant wise his first year. I think Stan was a great coach and was able to get alot out of the so called “underacheivers” I thought that he inproved every year and if we could have had Ronnie stay one more year I think we make it alot futher in the tournement and we definitely win more games but I know thats college basketball right. I haven’t made my mind up about Pelphrey yet but I will say I don’t think he played to our strengths last year and any good coach would have adjusted his on game plan to play to the strengths of what you have which leads me to believe that any time it comes down to a half court game this year and any other under Pel we lose which is not good. I do like his recruiting and hope that they are able to play his type of basketball or next year the Hog faithfull should be calling for his head to. I will say though guy if you guys the that CLarke beats the single season 3 pt record I am surprised you don’t have us winning more games. I would think this year that all plays hand in hand.
I think that Hogblogger has it right about Clarke not breaking the 3 point record, at least for this year. Once SEC teams have figured out that he is a great outside threat then they will adjust accordingly. Two other considerations: Clarke is still only a freshman and has not seen the likes of SEC defenders and for Clarke to be that successful Pelphrey will have to develope the offense around him, with screens, ruboffs, cross court passes etc. this may not set well with other players. Anyone who has coached basketball knows that your best players want their touches, or they get ticked off when they don’t get them. Balancing this and distributing the ball to give Clarke his shots will be a challenge. I think that one of Pelphrey’s (and Heath’s) problems last year was not developing Hill as an offencive player and one reason might have been “touches” required by the other inside players. As I recall one of the forwards last year had a bad attitude for a while. I also like Hogbloggers selection of Washington as the impact player. The guy has remarkable athletic skills. How the Hogs do will depend alot on Washington’s inside game. Gonzo, I would agree partly about Heatrh and intensity, but I would also say that one of his biggest failures was not to develope a chemistry for a team attitude about winning. Irt’s difficult to manage egos and make everyone accept their role in the game plan. Hopefully Pelphrey can do this.
Jimdog,
Pelphrey cannot be held responsible for not developing Hill in 1 year, as much as Heath should be for not doing it in 3.
This kid never developed a shooting touch from inside 10 ft., or at the ft. line for that matter.
If he can’t shoot the ball, no coach in his right mind is going to set up the offense so that kid can shoot it.
Hill cannot be considered anything but a shot-blocker, period.
His rebounding also got worse, which is nothing more than Blocking out, timing and heart.
Townes, Weems, and Thomas all got better, (slightly) so the fact that Hill was nothing more than a great shot-blocker from day 1, has nothing to do with Pelphrey’s 1st year coaching, 3 years later.
He will do much better with his own recruits.
Last year, his hands were tied. He had no choice but to implement his own style of play with players that were used to doing things their own way.
Remember, this guy kept a couple of these Srs. in the dog house for more than 1/2 the season, so team cemistry went right out the door when that happened.
Pelphrey handled the problems he was dealt pretty effectively.
I have no clue why anyone would have a gripe with his coaching at this point.
Most coaches would have committed suisied trying to develope last years team.
We’ve not seen enough of Pelphrey to be able to form a judgement. After year 1 most people thought Nolan was crazy. This didn’t get confirmed until years later, and by then he had won a National Championship in three Final Four visits.
You can’t even begin to develop an accurate comprehensive view of Phelphrey until year 3 or 4. We’ll know more when wes see at least a couple of recruiting classes reach the Soph level.
Last year’s team tells us little of what kind of coach he is going to be for us. I like what I’m seeing so far. He is way different than Stan Heath. Will he get better results? We will see in time.
Blindhog:
I don’t think that there is much of a difference between Heath and Pelphrey regarding pedigree. Heath coached 2 teams to conference championships (Wayne State and Kent State). His Kent state team almost made it to the final four albeit with veteran players. HIs major assistant coaching was with Tom Izzo’s Michigan State teams. Izzo is considered to be one of the most, if not the most, succesful collegiate basketball coach in recent history (according to ESPN). He has won a national title and has consistently gotten his teams into the final four. Every year MSU is ranked, many times in the top 10. . A number of Izzo’s assistants have become head coaches, Including Heath. A think the pedigree thing is a wash. Also, Heath definately proved he could recruit. The verdict is still out on Pelphrey regarding recruiting.. Now the “passion” thing is something else. Tthe powers that be at Fayetteville apparently decided that Heath was not passionate enough to bring basketball to the success level enjoyed with Sutton and Richardson. so bye, bye.
Let’s be brutally frank here. It is my opinion that Heath’s hire was in great part due to getting a Black coach to blunt Richardson’s poisonous charges of racism at U of A. That succeeded very well, but at the time.I was also of the opinion that White coaches were reluctant to come to Arkansas because they didn’t want to deal with the issues Richardson kept bringing up. I wondered if Heath was an interim, who had to prove himself within the 4 year grace period. I wasn’t sure at the time that eveyone was that sold on Heath and the first year didn’t help. Well, Heath didn’t prove himself, failing in the same way that Houston Nutt did – i.e. all that talent and you can’t get us an SEC championship? Pelphrey was hired as a last resort. No one of any stature wanted to come to Fayetteville .even with some of the best facilites around, a very good veteran team, a solid fan base, and having first dibs on instate talent. Heath proved at Kent State that he could take a good team to its best potential. Pelphey didn’t do that last year. Now Pelphrey has to prove himself as a recruiter and as a winning coach. Let’s wish him the best and give him 3-4 years. But after that, then is it Heathsville? If Pelphrey is not better than mediocre and is not fired, then, trust me on this one, Richardson (if he’s still around) will level charges that Heath was fired because he was Blsck. And the national media will jump on it, especially if Heath is even somewhat succesful at USF. It’s like predicting that the sun will come up.
Gonzo:
I was not privy to Pelphrey’s practices. but in order to develope a player you have to do it in practice as well as in the “cupcake” games. A 5 foot shot, a short hook by rolling off the finger tips, put backs or alley oop passes underneath. to get position for a shot (and not a direct dunk.). I’m not as sure as you are that Hill was an offensive klutz. He wasn’t allowed to take shots in games, so I’m still going with my touches theory having had a little experience with that myself. I wasn’t the only one who thought that Hill had some offensive potential including some close to the scene. I don’t blame Pelphey entirely who obviously had the same inside stategy as Heath, and I do give Heath most of the blame, but, and it’s a big but, Heath did have Hill in his senior year. Oh, and did I fail to mention that Hill’s shot blocking numbers went down under Pelphrey?