A Very Simulating Experience

by John Expat on Apr 7, 2009 10:33 AM CDT in 1978 Final Four

Well, the college basketball season is officially over (of course, for Razorback fans it's been over for a few weeks now, if not longer). So, in the absence of any games in reality it's time to look for alternatives - such as computer simulations between classic teams of the past.

The WhatIfSports.com site has a pretty amazing feature where you can match up a wide variety of teams against each other to see what would happen, even down to reading the play-by-play. And because it's done on a computer, the results are absolutely 100% accurate. Ok, maybe not, but it's still extremely addictive...definitely check it out (and let us know in the comments section if you get any interesting results of your own).

I ran some simulations between the various Hog Final Four teams, plus a few other battles, and got some interesting results. For example:

1994 Razorbacks - 85
1978 Razorbacks - 77
box score
Scotty Thurman's 22 points topped Sidney Moncrief's 21 points (and 12 rebounds!) in that one.

1994 Razorbacks - 93
1990 Razorbacks - 95
box score
Upset special! Corliss went for 32 points, but that couldn't quite top double-figure scoring efforts from Mayberry, Day (20), Bowers, Howell and Miller.

1994 Razorbacks - 102
1995 Razorbacks - 95
box score
A pretty evenly matched effort, as you'd expect. Both sets of stars had strong games, but the difference was 10 points off the bench from the 1994 version of Al Dillard.

1994 Razorbacks - 82
2009 Razorbacks - 58
box score
This should surprise no one. The less said about it, the better.

1994 Razorbacks - 114
2009 UNC Tar Heels - 111
box score
Figured I'd see how the classic Hogs stack up against the new national champs. In what has to be one of the greatest (simulated) games ever, Arkansas fought back from a five point halftime deficit to win by three in overtime. I didn't do a play-by-play for this one, but we all know who hit the winning three-pointer in OT, right? By the way, Corliss outscored Tyler Hansbrough, 35-14.

1994 Razorbacks - 103
1995 UCLA Bruins - 84
box score
Yep, that sounds about right.

from WhatIfSports.com

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Comments

Great post, John.

’91 Hogs were arguably the most talented of all.

by Sue E. Pig on Apr 7, 2009 3:27 PM CDT reply actions

Now, if you really have some time on your hands, John, you can write the simulated Wally Hall column for each game, haha. I think you know the general recipe, right? God, Mexican restaurants, tortured similes and metaphors along with some tortured syntax on top.

by KevinHog on Apr 7, 2009 3:51 PM CDT reply actions

Sue E – I agree that the 1991 team was a really, really great one, but they probably would have found a way to choke at the end if they ever played the 1994 team (ex. the Elite Eight game that year against Kansas). To me, they lacked the heart that the other great Razorback teams had.

Kevin – I most definitely don’t have kind of time on my hands! (Also, trying to write like Wally would probably make me go insane.) However, an enterprising computer programmer could probably write some code that would auto-generate Wally columns on demand…that’d be fun to see.

-John

by Razorback Expats on Apr 7, 2009 4:22 PM CDT reply actions

94-95 Arkansas 35 58 93
94-95 UCLA 39 40 79

i drove from memphis to fayetteville early that monday morning in hopes of this type of scene:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/akdobbins/unc-victory-timelapse

to this day i’m still disappointd.

by what shoulda been on Apr 8, 2009 1:02 AM CDT reply actions

I’ve never recovered from that UCLA loss. So heartbreaking.

by Stephen on Apr 8, 2009 2:24 PM CDT reply actions

And due to Wooden, their trophy case already had plenty of trophies anyway. Why couldn’t we have had another! I take plenty of satisfaction in UCLA’s recent runs to the final four that have all come up empty.

by KevinHog on Apr 8, 2009 3:16 PM CDT reply actions

Hi Kev,

Yeah, the most agonizing thing about the UCLA loss was that the Hogs missed their chance to make their claim to being one of the all-time great teams.

If they had won back-to-back titles, then I think they would be on the radar when people debate college basketball’s best teams. I’m not saying they would be front and center in that debate, but they would at least be on the periphery of the discussion.

by Stephen on Apr 8, 2009 3:30 PM CDT reply actions

Great fun, this is. Thanks, John!

by J. Hawg 3 on Apr 8, 2009 10:57 PM CDT reply actions

No story on the hogs sweep of No. 1 Arizona State the past 2 days in baseball. The diamond hogs have given us hope until football season!!

by Hog Fan in Memphis on Apr 9, 2009 8:25 AM CDT reply actions

I just hope to gawd that the Diamond Hogs don’t draw Oklahoma State in the regional. The school I work for has beaten the school I love both times of late when the Hogs have hosted in Fayetteville. The Cowboys are just bad guests! But, hell yeah, haha, I am excited about and impressed with the Diamond Hogs! Woo Pig Sooie!

by KevinHog on Apr 9, 2009 9:28 AM CDT reply actions

Hog Fan in Memphis,

Sorry – college baseball just isn’t our cup of tea. I’ll confess to not knowing the first thing about the Diamond Hogs.

Our friends at Razorbloggers.net follow the baseball team very closely, and our pal CharlieHog has a great baseball blog at http://razorbacknine.blogspot.com/.

by Stephen on Apr 9, 2009 10:13 AM CDT reply actions