Louisville 96, Arkansas 66
November 17, 2009 at 9:51pm by TipsterHog
Filed under Arkansas Razorbacks, Basketball, Recap
ESPN.com: Louisville cruises past short-handed Arkansas
Reginald Delk scored 20 points and sparked key surges in both halves, helping No. 20 Louisville open with a 96-66 victory over depleted Arkansas in the Hall of Fame Showcase on Tuesday night.
Also:
- ArkansasRazorbacks.com: Arkansas falls to No. 20 Louisville
- ESPN.com: Louisville Beats Arkansas By 30 (Video)
- Brandon Marcello: Depleted Hogs fall hard to Louisville
- Matt Jones: Short-Handed Setback
Anybody surprised that we lost? Really! Way too few players that are way too young that don’t have any comfort with each other yet.
Just hang on for a better day!
Not surprised at all with 5 players suspended. Biggest issue for us is to find some Team Chemistry before Conference Play.
More people better start showing up to watch the games or not surprised will turn into don’t care.
Looks as if the team prayer went unanswered tonight.
Oh gosh Swineherd…let’s not go down that path again!
Who knows… maybe the prayer was let’s not get bet by more than 30? Or maybe lose anybody else via an injury route.
OK
Maybe it’s just me, but I didn’t think we looked THAT bad last night. Granted, I have very low expectations coming into this season…enough so that I wondered if this team could hold my interest. But I saw enough flashes of potential goodness to keep me watching in the weeks to come.
Keep working, Hogs.
There is nothing wrong with this bunch to be so young. Of course that was true last year as well. Just as true last year, you can’t play hawgball with 6 players, 10 or more is best.
We have one player left from last years recruiting class and half of this year’s class suspended as well. That’s the problem.
Ol’ Dudley Do-right may have some Houston Nutt in him. He’s more of a drama queen than a basketball coach. But, it’s only his third year. When we see how many of these players are still here next year maybe we will have some idea where he is headed.
what was up with washington? he looked scared the entire game he is certainly not the dominant force he was last year, or at least he didn’t play like it last night. usually when he gets the ball underneath he’s looking for the slam, but it seemed he was just trying to get out of the way.
i agree with the youth and stuff, but i expected more from washington. hope he gets it in gear.
i’ve got my fingers crossed that powell and farmer don’t have character problems. powell is the rebounding force we need. if he can get some offense in him he’s gonna be awesome. farmer was able to hang in there and didn’t make the stupid plays that we absorbed from fortson as a freshman.
i hope fortson and britt get their stuff together soon. i’m done with welsh…fortson and britt can help be the threat that gets clarke open more…and if washington becomes a force we’re in for a good season.
lots of “if’s”….
Washington’s ability to get his shot blocked by shorter players is a sight to behold.
Maybe he forgot how to jump?
Although I think Welsh is a decent player, I don’t think there is much to be gained from keeping a senior with character problems. We’re not going to win anything this year. Its about the future. I liked what Nobles did last night. For a freshman against 40 mins. of pressure. Not bad. I”m old school but that’s more of what a point guard should be instead of this out of control crap we get from Fortson. Fortson has amazing talent but I hate his style of play.
Why we don’t do more off the ball to get Clark open blows my mind.
Powell has potential.
If this young talent can stick around which for us is a big “if” then together with next years recruits and the year after we could be headed in the right direction. We just need to see some damn progress. Please.
I agree with your comments about Welsh. We have to find some chemistry this year and I don’t think he is the glue.
Our offense is horrible! Same as last year! We go into Washington which is great,but other than that its Fortson with his head down going to the basket! Nobles did a great job against pressure last night but we have no offense. How many times did they screen for Clarke last night? And the few times they did, we throw the ball to the other side as he’s breaking open.Washington needs to grow a pair and go up strong! They take a time out and you think, ok Pelfrey is make a change here. But it never comes! One guy with the ball, 4 guys standing,no one setting screens, they don’t even drive and dish, once they drive, they re going all the way even if its a crap shot! Very poor coaching! Thats what it boils down too!
Bobby Knight had some interesting comments last night. He seemed to disagree with crippling the team with wholesale game suspensions as a form of discipline. He suggested making players run the bleachers until they are so sick of running that they get the message. I can’t say that I disagree with him. Suspending players from game action is one way of discipline, but that can hurt the team as a whole. Having the offending player run his butt off while everyone else is finished with practice and going about their business would probably be just as effective. If the player becomes too problematic for that type of discipline, maybe he would prefer to pay his own way through college and thus be able to behave any way he wants. Yank his scholarship and give it to someone who can behave properly and help the team each and every day. That means helping in practice as well as games. It makes no sense to me to give a kid a scholarship and pay his way through school for playing basketball…. and then he can’t play in games because he is being disciplined by the coach. Keep them and let them play, or get rid of them. There is more than one way to discipline those young men. Getting a beatdown on ESPN does little to help the program.
Agreed!
i don’t think i’d take discipline advice from a coach that threw chairs across the court and hit his own players. i would guess that pel has them doing extra stuff besides just sitting out of games. don’t think sitting out doesn’t get the point across less effectively. do you think those kids didn’t mind sitting out on a prime time ESPN game? not many of those will come the hogs way this year.
i like what pel is doing – sit them out of the less meaningful games, and keep em in practice.
I hope Pel gets it all worked out soon. He inherited a veteran team from Stan Heath and was able to win a few games with those players. Since then the basketball program seems to declining into more turmoil with each new sunrise. Pel has discipline problems with the team he inherited from Heath, but those players are now gone. Last year and again this year all the trouble is coming from players Pel recruited himself. And let’s not forget the revolving door of players Pel recruited that are no longer even part of the team. Now this year the Hogs begin the season with 5 suspended players. There are more problems in the basketball program than I would care to try to sort out. Pel is a nice guy but he has nobody but himself to blame for what’s going on in the basketball program. Maybe he should have recruited players with a better character instead of taking chances on more talented kids with questionable character. He surely can’t win any games with the kids he recruited that have already been run off because they had discipline problems, and he can’t win any games with half of the team suspended for discipline problems. He won’t be around long if he continues to lose games, just ask Stan Heath. So he can suspend everyone but the janitor if he wants, but ultimately he will be the one held accountable for the state of the program.
Good point, except Fortson isn’t even being allowed to practice. At the moment he is getting a free education for putting out no effort at all. No practicing with the team and no playing in the games. I wonder what would happen if a student on a band scholarship quit practicing with the band and didn’t perform at the games. I suspect the scolarship would be gone. Same for any other student receiving a scholarship…. if they quit doing or aren’t able to do what earned them the scholly, they will lose it. Bobby Knight hasn’t always displayed model behavior himself, but I think he knows a lot about college basketball and the young men who play the game. I’ll bet he even knows a thing or two about motivation and dealing with behavior problems from student athletes. Like Bobby Knight or not, he was a very successful college coach and his program turned out a lot of great players who were (and still are)solid citizens. He managed to do all of this and win a heck of a lot of basketball games, including 3 national championships. His own misbehavior is what sank his ship, not the misbehavior of the guys on his team. He does make a great color commentator for the ESPN broadcasts though. He’s very insightful.
i may not agree with knights discipline approach, but i do think he’s the best analyst i’ve seen on espn in the last 15 years. I love his honesty and insight!
Maybe we could have them stand in the corner! Bobby Knight may have went to far! Several times! But these kids now a days have zero respect for authority! Bobby is right, run them till they can’t run anymore! And if they can’t get their s–t together, send them on their way! It’s not fair to the other players or the kids that got passed up for a scholarship! Pelf’s problem is he has no control of his players. Not knocking him about that, I probably couldn’t either! But I’m not a college coach! And on Fortson, word on his suspension from someone in the program is, he failed a 2nd drug test is why he’s out.
Remember when Pel had to play a little bit during a Midnight Madness event? I think that was because he didn’t have enough players to put on the court, right? Guess what, he still doesn’t have enough. He has pulled one from the golf team and 3rd string player from the football team. I suggest he approach Van Horn about seeing if the back up catcher wants to play some basketball this season. Maybe the track coach will let him borrow a pole vaulter, and the tennis coach can surely spare one body to contribute to the cause. Does Pel have any eligibility left? Maybe he can petition the NCAA to let him play a few minutes if things get too bad. I hear the volleyball team has a 7 footer who can really jump. Hahahahahahaha
Much has been made of Pelphrey’s lineage: Pitino, Donovan, Sutton. Can’t he call those guys for advice on how to discipline a team? He doesn’t need Bobby Knight.
LEADERSHIP is the first quality, an inherent quality, that a coach needs to succeed. If Pelphrey doesn’t have that, the ability to command the respect and attention of his players, effortlessly, he will never win championships. If he can’t make his players behave, make them want to play for him and the team and the school, and for themselves, he cannot succeed. If he cannot lead, then the Xs and Os won’t matter much. I think the active players are demoralized by this turn of events, the suspensions and the investigation, as well as having to carry the increased burden of a short bench. That will take a toll on them later in the season.
At this point the person under the most pressure is Pelphrey himself. If he prevails, he’s a keeper. If he fails, it’s back to square-one.
I think Pel will be just fine, and our team, in the long run, will be just fine.
Whatever problems Fortson has, i’m sure they are self-inflicted. No one can blame Pel for his nonsense.
If you leave a guy like Fortson alone, take no disiplinary action against him when needed, he’ll eventually destroy your team.
Sure, he’ll be a one man show for a while, win you a few games here and there, go to the pros, and eventually be just another damn Allen Iverson, talking in front of a microphone on ESPN about how he doesn’t take practice seriously.
If he doesn’t get his act together, i’m sure Pel will show him the door and no one else will want him. I think this is probably the message Pel is trying to convey to Fortson as we speak.
Look at the precautions Pel has taken at that position.
After a season last year full of suspensions for Fortson, Pel went out and found J. Peterson, who wanted to transfer from Iowa, and who will be eligible next season, signed our current starting PG in J. Nobles, and just recently signed another quality PG in M. Wade for next years recruiting class.
That could be a sign that Pel is making it very clear to this young man that Razorback basketball is going to be sucsessful with you or without you.
I stand behind Pel 100%.
GO HOGS GO, BABY!!!!!
Totally agree with this… and fully support this approach too.
Gonzo, I hope you’re right. You know what you’re talking about. There are some good newcomers and good recruits, good signs.
Also at this stage of his career you must judge Pelphrey against his contemporaries, not against the legends or his mentors. This is only his third year at this level. I certainly think he deserves another couple of years after this one to see what he can do, unless the team collapses.
Arkansas has too much tradition, too much invested, to be a third-tier team.
Mike Anderson.