The Hits Just Keep On Coming

sigh. Any chance we can petition the NCAA to allow us to play an entire season of non-conference games? The only consolation I have is that, at some point in the future, we will win another game. I don’t know when that will be, though. There was a time when I predicted that we would finish the season with 6 losses. Open mouth, insert foot.

are there any teams in the sec that aren’t 15-20 points better than arkansas?

..and to add insult to injury, LSU waltzes into Tad Smith today and blows Ole Miss out by 32…Yikes!

I wouldn’t give up on them yet. I think the Hogs are still capable of finishing the conference 8-8 and making the NCAA tournament but they sure look sad at the moment. Young teams can be streaky.

Two straight games without a point for Clarke — that just seems inexplicable — and Welsh has returned to the form so lamented by J Hawg and me. Neither one was on the court late and I would not be surprised if Britt and Henry don’t start the next game in their place.

Fortson still looks spectatular at times, but he also is turning the ball over way too much. But I think Pelphrey can settle him down. Much will depend on whether Clarke’s can recover his stroke and whether Pelphrey can get Welsh to play like he did against Texas and Oklahoma.

billy donovan appeared to be giving clarke a few kind words of encouragement during the postgame handshake

It got pretty ugly, but there were moments of sunshine to be sure. In the last three games but also the Texas matchup, early foul trouble resulted in either Washington, Fortson, or Sanchez being benched when we really needed their presence. That’s just typical of a young team hitting their first legitimate match-ups; not only is the talent level in the SEC the highest the Hogs have faced yet (sorry Big 12), but the schools there also recruit the same kind of player and there’s a lot of position/match-up parity in the league.

What that means is that every aspect of the game must be executed properly; you can’t win in the SEC shooting under 10% from 3-point land or under 50% at the free throw line. Arkansas has all the tools it needs to be better than 8-8 in the league despite this start, but cold spells in any aspect of the game will eat us alive.

Lately it’s been three pointers; Rotnei [sic?] Clark has a spot on this team solely to fulfill that role and he needs to earn his keep, whatever it takes. He had open looks today that rattled out. He may be rattled mentally, but he’s got to break the slump or Pelphrey will need to hit the HPER to see if he can scrounge up a walk-on or two.

I still have high hopes for the Hogs, especially at home, but they are going to need to win two out of the next three to get their legs under them in the league. I was worried this team might be peaking early; now I am a bit worried that inexperience and a string of losses will get them down and cause them to lose games they should really win.

ZM

Well it possible that the hogs with go 0-16 in conference play? The hogs are playing lousy. Now days I think a high school team could beat the hogs. Like Wally Hall said the freshmen should be playing better than this.They are not freshmen any longer when it comes to playing basketball in the SEC. I watched the Florida game and it was awful. I was angry with team for not playing better and then I felt sorry for them. I just want Arkansas to be a powerhouse name like they were when Coach Sutton and Coach Richardson were coaching at Arkansas.

Well, as has been the case for several years now, Arkansas is getting beat behind the 3-point line. 33-6 in this game. I agree with Zach Matthews that Rotnei Clarke’s sole purpose for being on the court is to reduce this deficit… so let’s go Rotnei! In sum, our ONLY problem is outside shooting (and the defense of same). Start knocking down some more shots, and everything else opens up as well. The game of basketball requires a team and its individual players to shoot a ball through a hoop. As long as we can’t do that, we’re going to lose. Simple.

Was Billy Donovan telling Clarke he needs to shoot more after the game?

After the Texas game, I sent text messages to several friends proclaiming the rebirth of Arkansas basketball. The Hogs haven’t won since. My bad.

I’m not sure what happened to the 3 pt shooting, especially by Clarke, but I’d say Welsh is stinking it up pretty good right now too.

We don’t work the ball around the perimeter like Florida does. They keep the ball moving continuously in the half-court set.
We, on the other hand, let our passes stall out, allowing the defense to catch up to the ball.

Florida struggled last year with the same players they have now.
We’re probably just going to have to wait our turn.

Did anyone really think we were going to be that good before next year anyhow?
We need to re-evaluate our exspectations (me included)
of our basketball team this season.

The bad news is, we’re not as good as we thought we were.
The good news is, we’re still probably as good as the veteran team we had last year, or at least pretty darn close.

I’m still excited about this team’s future.

GO HOGS GO!!!!!

No, losing on the road at Florida ain’t unexpected.

They executed a lot better on offense, however. And they do need for Clarke (and others) to start making some jump shots. My guess would be Donovan told Clarke to work harder for his shot and keep shooting, because I’d think any capable coach would. He’s gotta risk getting one blocked now and then, work on coming off screens, giving ball fakes, etc.

Miss State exposed the two-dimensional nature of the Hogs offense. Because Fortson’s a lousy outside shooter, defenses are learning to back away, overplay his left hand, force him right. He’s much less effective going that way. I think a review of the film would show him turning the ball over as often as not going that way. But at least he didn’t spend 20 seconds of each possession dribbling, as he had been doing until Florida. When a point guard does that, the other guys almost can’t help slackening up in their efforts to cut, screen, etc.

He also forces too many low percentage passes. Hey, he IS a freshman.

Regarding the other dimension: it’d be harder double-teaming Washington if the outside shots were falling. See above.

Another problem is Sanchez and Washington making silly fouls, forcing the team into a zone, where they were getting killed on the boards because they weren’t blocking out effectively. It’s harder in a zone.

That said, they played much more competitively vs. Florida. They need a couple of home wins very badly.