ArkansasRazorbacks.com: Cold shooting costs Hogs at Vanderbilt
Jeffery Taylor scored 16 points, had 10 rebounds and a career-high six assists to lead Vanderbilt over Arkansas 75-58 on Sunday in the regular-season finale for both teams.
Also:
- ArkansasRazorbacks.com: Game Stats (PDF)
- ESPN.com: Vanderbilt 75, Arkansas 58
- Ryan Malashock: Vanderbilt Keeps Razorbacks Winless On Road In SEC, Fortson Strong In First Half, Off In Second
- Bob Holt: An unforgiving road, In the lane
Updated 3/9/09 8:30 a.m.
One game left is this season… a season of GREAT disappointment.
You can stick a fork in us cause we are done! I don't see anything good happening in the SEC tourney.
My grade for the:
Pre-conference season – B+
SEC conference – D
Overall – D+
Coaching – C-
I won't grade the players because too many of them wouldn't pass.
Ok… we have a new baseline for next year. We need to be back to at least 20 wins with no less than 8 conference wins.
We definitely need some big guys that want to play and play agressively.
Owasso, was it really a GREAT disappointment? From day one, this was to be a rebuilding year, and we were picked last in the west. So is it a disappointment or what was expected?
I think this team gave us some great moments, the OK and UT wins, of course. But other than that it was as expected…at least for me.
Being a Hog fan for over 40 years, it does hurt when we lose, but if we were picked to win the west or had a team with more experience and bench depth our current record would be a big disappointment. Given what we had to work with, it's just as expected.
I'm sorry. This isn't about Pelphry or even Stan. This is about an administration that blew a HUGE, HUGE opportunity.
This is the true legacy of Frank Broyles and Jim Lindsey. I won't waste 3 long paragraphs talking about Frank's ego or Lindsey fortune being based on the Razorback Foundation. It is done. We have gone from being one of the winningest programs in basketball to something well beyond mediocity.
This won't be fixed next year. It may not be fixed by John Pelphry. It is a train wreck. It is probably time to throw the kind of money at this that Alabama threw at Nick Saban.
Who is the number 2 coach in college basketball??? Is there a pro coach who would take the challenge? Darrell Walker? Time to think outside the box. Or, wait another 3 years and start over.
It's way too early for me to have any kind of an opinion on Coach Pelphrey.
He seems to be on the right track, but only time will tell if he can stay the course.
I wouldn't want to be in his situation, but commitment isn't something Pelphrey is a stranger to.
He's got at least 2 more years to play with, and a lot can be done in 2 years.
If Pelphrey can bring in another true PG in the spring, to go along with the Center, PF, and SG already coming, things should be looking a lot better about this time next season.
You can't really explain beating Texas and Oklahoma and only winning two conference games. How did we beat those two teams without a point guard and a center. Amazing.
Washington should have to run to Rogers and back for every reach in foul he gets.
soupd, yes, it was. Too many loses at home plus too many games we had the lead only to have it slip away at the end of the game. If we had lost to both Oklahoma and Texas, I would have said that it was a disaster but these 2 games pulled it out of that category for me. In addition, I just don't believe that this team grew much over the season so ultimately that is why I called it a GREAT disappointment. Any way you look at it, a losing season is still no good enough for this program. It's even worse when you are pick dead last and you prove that you've earned it.
Reason, I think the explanation is pretty simple…Marcus Monk. Our downward spiral happened when we lost him. I really underestimated his impact, but when you look harder his leadership, toughness, and decent stat line brought alot to the team.
Owasso, I do agree it is disappointing to see things turn out as 'experts' expected…..but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt that you weren't expecting us to have a strong season with 25 wins and an automatic bid to the tourney. My point was that our actual season pretty much when as predicted by most folks.
And so we should be ok (i.e. happy) to MEET EXPECTATIONS by having a losing season?
I don't know about you, but OK doesn't mean 'happy' to me. Ok to me means 'oh well'.
Just my opinion…
It seems to me that we have seen more up-and-down, inconsistent play than normal from our team (before anyone says it is youth, the older dudes are just as bad or worse). Earlier in the year it looked like Fortson and Clarke both were completely overmatched due to inexperience, height, etc. Yesterday they both look like SEC quality guards and they have looked better and better for the past few games. Now, Washington and Henry were both terrible yesterday. Why? I don't know and if John knows he does not seem to know what to do about it.
I want to give Sanchez his due——-the kids gots tons of want to and is just not skilled up to SEC competition. I do believe everyone will continue to get better and we should "wait 'til next year" to say much more than that.
Chemistry doesn't seem to apply to this team that much. I was hoping that was one element that could've been developed just a little bit more than it was.
Let's look at the negatives:
Fortson tries to penetrate into traffic more often than he should. He's also not a very good 3-pt. shooter, and lets his competitiveness (attitude) get the best of him from time to time.
Rotnie Clarke has simply developed into the most consistant Freshman we have, so if there's a negative, he's too short for the SG position in the SEC, and he's a victim of his own team mates lack of progress.
Stephan Welsh, well what can I say? He just simply cannot play consistant basketball, plain and simple.
One game he plays great defense, hits a good majority of his shots, (because he isn't forcing them) hits a good FT %, and doesn't have costly turnovers at the most inopportune times.
Then, the very next game, he does exactly the opposite.
Micheal Sanchez really tries, Honestly guys, you have to feel a little bit sorry for the guy, giving everything he has in a league where he's just not up to par, or so it seems.
Way too slow and lethargic, leading him to be foul-prone, and spending most of his time on the floor trying to keep up with better, more physically gifted athletes.
Ahh yes, Mr. Washington. The young man who seems to think he can force the action (similar to Welsh) by elluding inside double teams, in which he simply runs out to the perimeter.
I won't get into the specifics. Everyone knows by now exactly what he does when he gets there.
Let's just let a dead dog lye, and say he doesn't seem to be that smart of a player all of the time.
Jason Henry hasn't really decided what he wants to do in college; play basketball, or go to school and play basketball.
Marcus Britt doesn't really know his role anymore. He just fills in when someone screws up.
Brandon Moore – ?
Andre Clark – ?
At this point I would say.
Michael Washington would make an excellent Forward. He is an OK center. He only plays there because we don't have one.
Fortson has really improved his three point shooting the last four games and his assists outnumber his turnovers. He can penetrate and score. I wish either he or Rotnei were taller for the two guard spot because I would like to see both on the court in the future.
Clarke has really improved many areas of his game and can now dribble and create a shot. He will most likely always be your third best defending guard, so he better score.
Basically that leaves us in need of a point guard, a center and hopefully a tall guard or short forward.
With these six, three of which we have and three of which we don't (unless Henry starts using his head or Sanchez gets some quick genes),
Pel should have more athletes next year and if he doesn't, he better start adapting his game plan to the players he does have or the heat will be on and attendance will be down.
Talk to you on the Football Posts as I am not that much of a baseball fan.
Excellent post, reasonrules! Henry needs to use his head———-suspended again——–and, poor Sanchez needs to go back to the gene pool. That is amazing as both mom and dad were pretty accomplished.