Fortson’s Return Sparks Hogs Performance
February 20, 2009 at 10:04am by HogBlogger
Filed under Arkansas Razorbacks, Basketball
SEC West leading LSU Tigers rolled into Bud Walton last Wednesday night looking tentative and uneasy. This had little impact on their early performance, as they managed one point with only four turnovers in their six possessions prior to the first media timeout.
The Hogs, sensing an opportunity to pounce, scored both a two point and a three-point basket as well as two free throws to amass seven points while managing only three turnovers in the same time span.
Courtney Fortson, returning from suspension for some unknown trespass of team rules, stood out as responsible for each turnover, although only one was credited to him by the official scorer – perhaps feeling that it was the responsibility of those that the passes were intended for to demonstrate supernatural athletic dexterity to manage to secure the ball. For the game Fortson finished with four assists to go along with his seven turnover contribution.
The Razorback’s outstanding performance grew their lead to 26-9 with 7:55 remaining in the first half. In the remaining 27:55 of the game the Hogs scored an additional 43 points while allowing only 63 by the Tigers.
The bulk of the damage occurred as the Hogs amassed four points over the last 7:55 of the first half while LSU struggled with two turnovers and only 17 points while holding only a 17-6 rebounding advantage during the span. Experts thought that perhaps the fact that 10 of the 17 rebounds occurred on the offensive end worked to the Tigers favor, but others not allowed to comment officially citing the sensitive nature of the discussions disagreed.
The Razorbacks performance during that time was highlighted by four missed 3-point tries, two turnovers by Courtney Fortson, and two layups by LSU from offensive rebounds gathered from the Tigers missed free throws.
Coach Pelphrey, in an attempt to keep his charges well motivated, called a 30 second timeout with 2:45 left in the first half and the Hogs up by nine points. The Hogs responded to the time out by scoring two points for the remainder of the period while allowing only five points, two offensive rebounds, one steal and three blocked shots by LSU.
Courtney Fortson was the star for the Hogs in the second half, accounting for a full one third of their shots and 40% of the scoring while registering two assists as the Razorbacks scored 37 points in a passionate attempt to match the 46 points gathered by the Tigers over the course of the half. The Hogs success on the boards in the latter stages of the first half continued in the second, limiting the Tigers to a pedestrian nine rebound advantage.
It was only the failure of the basket to accept a layup, three 3-point attempts and the front end of a one and one free throw opportunity that prevented the hard working Razorback cagers from totaling more than one point in the final five minutes of the game.
The Hogs credited the return and outstanding play of Courtney Fortson as being the spark to their performance. Scoring on four (11 points total) of the 10 LSU first half turnovers was directly attributable to the floor leadership of the competitive point guard.
It is almost unseemly how so often in modern day basketball winning and losing depends solely on the outcome of the last possession. The last second fall away jumper three point attempt by Rotnei Clark from 28 feet fell just short, leading once more to disappointment for the young Razorback players, coaches and fans alike.
Yeah, we’re all sick of this mess but, like watching a car wreck, you can’t bring yourself to look away. I feel bad for John and whoever hired him.
A little much, don’t you think…. I hate that this season is a wash, but have patience. I cannot handle another Nutt hater debacle with Coach Pelphrey. Go Hogs Go!
Ward – don’t worry, I have patience. I just wrote this to amuse myself and channel the anger over giving away another game over wasted possessions and fundamental lapses. While a few more better players and some experience will make things a lot better, I do feel that we are losing games we should win because we are careless on way too many possessions during the game. I think Rob Evans agrees.
I’m not very high on Courtney Fortson right now. He has a long way to go to be a true point guard.
Wow Hog Blogger, it wasn’t very long ago that you were professing your man crush on Fortson! My, aren’t we fickle!
http://www.razorbackexpats.com/2008/12/31/the-morning-after-2/#more-632
LOL, i remeber that man crush………….I’m not worried about this team (yet). We are obviously short handed and inexperienced. Look at John Brady’s old team (LSU)……….Well, that’s the same team as this year. If i can recall correctly, they were young and short handed (injuries). This team will only get better. They get an off season where they will spend the summer in the weight room and another year in the same system. If everyone comes back, we will see more of the non-conference Hogs of this year more so than the conference Hogs of this year.
I like Fortson but it was a red flag for me when I heard someone say he was the best pg we’d had since Kareem Reid. I think Kareem Reid was selfish, out of control, and the beginning of our downfall (perhaps a little harsh) The last real pg we have had is Cory Beck. Fortson is a freshman, so I’ll have patience with him but I’d like to see a correlation if one exists between his points and our performance. I think we will be a better team when we don’t need or get more than about 10 pts. from Fortson. Up in the 20’s, points to some missing weapons and a lack of balance.
Carolina, the similarities between Fortson and Kareem are shockingly similar. I think Kareem was faster and less flashy than Fortson. They both are lefties who love to get into the lane with the trees. I thought Courtney had a better outside jumper but that seems to be the same as well. Truthfully I’d rather have a PG like them besides Dontell Jefferson and Eric Ferguson (remember them?) I think the offense needs to revolve around Rotnei Clarke in the future so we can concentrate on offensive rebounds rather than having different people trying to force things.
I’ve been off the Fortson bandwagon for a while now after only reluctantly getting on it to start with. Too many turnovers. Too many shots. Too much one on three. Poor decisions on the floor. I agree with Carolina – Fortson needs to average 9 points a game. I would expect 8 assists and no more than 3 turnovers.
There were a lot of ‘ugly’ possessions. That’s either the point guard or the offense. I think both need a lot of improvement. In Fortson’s defense, Pelphrey calls for a lot of isolation to allow him the freedom to penetrate. Fortson gets his points while everyone else gets totally out of any offensive flow.
I’d play Rotnei Clarke at point guard for 10-15 minutes a game. He seems to get his shot off better off the dribble from around the top of the key. I like his ball handling and passing skills. As I’ve said before, he’s not tall enough to be an effective off guard.
We made the big first half run on LSU with Clark/Washington, Moore, Henry, Clarke and Fortson / Welsh / Britt. Moore and Henry are long and effective on defense. They both make a lot of good things happen that the 6 foot guys can’t. This team needs to play tall rather than short. The first half compared to the second half illustrates why.
My biggest worry is that we seem to be not growing as players or as a team. More than halfway through the SEC race we are making the same mistakes that we made in the first SEC game. Washington was the one with the blocking out issues on free throws, so I’m not buying that is just a freshman problem at this point in the season.
I’m not expecting us to be world beaters. I just rather not be giving games away because, as Rob Evans said, of “details”.
I find it more than coincidental that we won the first half by six with zero PG points——that is you, Courtney Fortson! And, lo and behold——–drum roll——-Courtney contributes 17 in the second half. The only problem is that the team lost the half by nine points. Courtney, dude, what do you make of this?