The SEC is Ky and a football conference again. The Miss schools are the standard bearers in the West with teams that likely will not even make the dance.

It makes it harder to build at Arkansas now but, easier to compete. I can’t imagine why you would argue that the whole league is not way down. It looks like it is going to stay there. We have the facility and the fan base to rise and pull the West up with us. And, eventually we will. The fans will demand it, sooner or later.

As much as I have a tough time watching Arkansas basketball and find the PR coming out of Fayetteville incomprehensible, Opie is a good boy. If Long wants to take the high road then that is a supportable decision. I just wish they would stop blowing smoke or hiding behind foolish comments and talk to the fans like they have some sense. Sure its ugly. Promise to do better and actually be committed to doing better or knowing why and say why.

2009 EAST Teams avg RPI: 78.3
2010 EAST Teams avg RPI: 48.5

2009 WEST Teams avg RPI: 79.5
2010 WEST Teams avg RPI: 91.5

More barf.

I doubt seriously Long really meant the heartfelt support offered to calm the waters long enough to finish the season. I would say that the verdict is still out on that. After this finish Long has to be taking a long hard look at his next move. Anyone who watched the Nutt debacle knows that the fans will go from frustrated to angry pretty quick given the right circumstances. Opie has shown a pretty good tendency to shoot himself in the foot. And, he clearly is not the man for the job. People have stopped arguing that in the face of the evidence. They can only argue for one more year based on principle. But, given a bad break or two along the way, how low can attendance fall? Without a Petrino hire, how long does it take to repair the damage? Do you really want to keep digging?

Real questions that a real AD has to answer or have a bigger mess on his hands. Yeah, you can feel good now. Long may go that route and get away with it. He may not.

We have two players who cannot and will not ever play pressure defense. Fortson and Clarke. If they are in the game, offense may be better but defense will suffer. They are short and can’t get in anyone’s face. You cannot press with those guys. So assuming they are on the floor, you better be a good offensive team. I agree, Powell fits that to a T, but how many Powell’s has Pel Parlayed? Pone (had to make up a word).

I want to feel good, but I don’t see a Plan coming together.

A lot of teams lose on Senior Day so they can get a lower seed to get on the W1 side. That one is true, but you were stretching that as a positive.

Your list of positives and negatives are good — probably should add rebounding to that list of negatives, though.

My biggest concern with Pelphrey right now is that we were saying the same things about our offense and defense now as we were early in the season. The inability to fix those issues is not good.

I hope there’s more to it than what we’ve seen.

I am just glad we are going to be able to watch some good baseball and talk about spring football practice. So, Mallett is out all spring? In a way, that’s gotta be a little good/interesting to see our second/third string QBs duke it out.

Soup – you are the man.

Go Hogs

This loss was disappointing – just like the other 3-4 this year that were decided in the last few seconds. My what a difference those games would have made if the ball bounced the other way. As I think someone posted on another thread, taking care of the ball one or two possessions can really make a difference. A 4-12 record decided by 5 points or less with Freshman and sophmores? I think it’s perspective – not so bad considering those games are typically won with your experienced leaders. Really bad with a team full of Jrs and Srs…which we are not.

This comes with maturity and experience, which our kids will have next year. Arkansas should be a powerful team with the depth and experience we have coming back. I hope Fortson will be back next year, cause he and Powell will own the SEC assuming the All-NBA rookie team at UK goes to the league they belong in.

I don’t think Pel’s identity changed over the course of the year – he has been very consistent. Whether people agree with his identity is another story.

At any rate, there is lots to be positive about this season:
- we won more SEC games than we did last year
- had a 5 game SEC winning streak (not sure when that was done last)
- finished 3rd in our division – definitely better than last year
- beat every team in the west once, and a couple east teams as well
- established Powell as an SEC force
- garnered a good spot in the SEC tourney – our seed is pretty good, we have to go through Vandy, but at least we don’t have to play UK until the Championship game
- gained some depth at key positions

Down side:
- had a losing record
- one/two dimensional on offense
- horrible perimeter defense, marginal interior defense
- too many turnovers
- poor shooting % from mid range

I’m sure more of you can find more ‘down side’, but I think anything you identify really falls into one of the categories above.

Here’s the key in my opinion: All of the down side can be addressed through coaching and player experience. Next year should be very interesting to see how our kids and Pel can change these things. Adding a few immediate impact recruits that can guard the perimeter and the paint will help Britt and Powell.

So next year is where I either say ‘you were right’ and jump on the ‘can Pelphrey’ bandwagon or watch all of you to jump on the ‘Pelphrey for President’ bus. Can’t wait to find out.

How does it start Thursday… just being optimistic! While it doesn’t appear that we are making progress, I believe that we have… I’m guessing that next year could be even bigger progress.

BTW – next year starts this Thursday night at 8:45PM!

But, I think, once again, sg has said it best. Pel is simply developing his own wonderfully funny style that Arkansas fans will learn to love and appreciate.

Even is we don’t get “‘em” next year. He will keep us rolling with his Pelphryisms.

So, lets all get ‘back to work.’

All of this and stay out of trouble/bars/parties/twitter – and we can win 8 or 9 SEC games next year for another incremental successful year.