It's Definitely Time for a Change of Subject

Your wish is my command and all that. ;^)

Re: Keeping Pel

We need to figure out what it is that Pel wants and give it to him within reason. More money, better facilities, better terms for his assistants, whatever it may be. I’m just concerned that he may have a hankering to go to KY. In that case, we won’t keep him any longer than he’s willing to stay.

Love that blazer though! ;^)

To be honest, I think the best way to keep Pel is to make sure that Billy G wins enough games to not get fired. It’ll be frustrating if we get a good, hardnosed coach who brings the Razorbacks back to the national picture, only to have basically warmed him up for those bastards (said as lovingly as possible) at Kentucky, especially since Billy G basically snubbed us for them.
On another note: Has anyone noticed that DJ Williams is in the student section, rooting for the Hogs? I think it’s refreshing to see a star football player come out and actively support the basketball team.

I wrote Jeff Long an email of congratulations (on his first year) recently and mentioned that I planned to make my first Razorback foundation donation this year. I heard back rather quickly. This wasn’t the first time I had emailed him but it was certainly the first time I had gotten a response. Needless to say, he mentioned the foundation would put the money to good use. Not sure how much the Nutt buy-out hurt cash flow but it must have been significant.

I think the practice facility is going to have to happen soon, or at least get on the drawing board, so the Lady Backs (oops), Women Razorback Basketball team and the Mens teams don’t have to coordinate practice times. I’m not sure Pel really wants anything in particular and I agree there might not be anything we can do to stop Pel from going to Kentucky when they come calling. But, we should at least make it expensive for them by wrapping him up long term and including a steep departure clause. One thing about Pel though, even if he leaves someday, I really feel like he’ll have the team in great shape and there won’t be the struggle to land quality replacement.

Since I currently live in Creighton’s back yard, I long for the day when Pel and the Hogs meet Dana and the Bluejays (hopefully in the NCAA). I will be there, calling the Hogs like I’ve never done before. Over and out.

On the game, I think we all saw this coming but since we were living in the fantasy land of home court and nonconference wins over Ok and Tex, we didn’t want to admit that this team has a lot of frail areas.

First of all, MSU will not shoot like that again this year. That stretch in the second half was unreal.

Sanchez needs to play better. He has to score against a shorter player with some consistency or teams will play us 5 on 4 defensively.

Welsh was awful. I assume Pelphrey tells him to shoot 20 times a game, but he shot us out of the game in the second half with his errant bombs.

Fortson and Washington played a little below average. Varnado affected Washington, and Fortson started launching 3s like Welsh, which was an ugly sight.

No, this game was to be expected. It’s too bad it happened at home and not on the road where losing has been a way of life for us the past ten years. Now, we’ve got to overcome a home conference loss somehow. We definitely didn’t play with the fire we had against Texas or the crispness we had against Oklahoma. I think we tried, but in the SEC noboby rolls over for anyone.

Our weaknesses are still the same: We need help for Washington scoring and defending. We need a mid-range scorer like Jason Henry to really step up. Fortson will improve as will Clarke. I pray (with the aid of Tebow) that Welsh stops shooting so much.

Now, the goal should simply be win the SEC West and forget about rankings, which I knew was much ado about nada.