Good crowd for today’s times. Not like old times but good.
Mercy the refs are just about to ruin the game. No idea how many fouls but I’m guessing 45. That’s over one a minutes, pitiful. I do think the refs called the game about the same on both ends but it just stops the momentum of our Hogs. I guy can get clobbered and the next thing you know there goes the whistle and you don’t even know what happened. Sorry Refs!!
Another thing I just hate is with the new scoreboard AND WHY in the world do we not show each players that is in the game their stats? Having to look up at the corners to maybe catch the stats just takes away from watching the game! I like to glance up and see what LSU player is killing us. So you look up at the corner and you can’t even figure out who is who. I was told tonight that could be up on the big board but the advertising over rides that?? Money talks I guess. Thanks Jeff…
ANOTHER–Once again money talks but you don’t see most of the big boys with a student section off to the side. A lot of them are right behind the basket.
I miss the days of Jim Robken! (sp?)
Something else our press does it ever work? I again have not seen any stats but everyone has filigreed out how to break the press. I’m guessing the TO margin was equal. WE can’t play NR style due to the rules because of Nolan and 40 minutes of Hell.
Help me out guys. Is the thought process that fatigue will wear down these players? Well these D-1 players are in as good of shape as our players. Thus we’re tired too, correct?
I could go on and on but those are just a few thoughts right off the top of my head.
Kudoes to those that showed up tonight! ANY thoughts HI gang?
Advertising has nothing to do with it. They could put the stats on the central board, just as they did with the old scoreboard, but they seem to like using the vast majority of the video board for, well, video, with just that strip at the bottom for the score and a strip ad below that. At least they do put stats up on the ribbon board. Trying to get stats at RRS is like pulling teeth. The ribbon boards generally have four panels of ads (sidelines and baselines) and the corner sections have the stats. I suppose we should be thankful that they took the ads off those four sections of the ribbon board so we can get stats.
Our student section is more behind the basket than it used to be. In the old days at Barnhill, the students were all on the sideline across from the benches. (The reason other schools put students behind the basket is for money, so they can sell those sideline seats to big donors; it has nothing to do with atmosphere). The infamous Duke atmosphere is because the court at Cameron is ringed with bleachers, sidelines and baselines, and the students fill up the bleachers; paying customers are in the seats around that.
You underestimated the fouls. Fifty called tonight – 24 on them, 26 on us. Amazingly Cook is the only one to foul out. Turnovers were pretty even – 12 for them, 13 for us.
Tonight it did look like both teams were tired late in the game. That’s not usually the case. I can’t ever remember a game where it looked like both teams were gassed for the last five minutes. It has seemed to me, attending several games at BWA, that they have the heater cranked up a little higher than in past years. I come in wearing a jacket and have to come out of that jacket rather quickly.
Man I need to read my posts before I hit the submit button. LOL
F for spelling. But it wasn’t to hard to figure the line of thought.
Sure I knew where they were in Barnhill arena. Actually a huge, pretty vocal Hog fan gave me an ear full tonight and that got me to thinking on these topics.
A W is a W. It was a fun game to watch. Several good athletes on the court tonight.
Now lets take that one Tuesday night. BIG game!!
The way stats are displayed frustrates me, too. There’s enough room in the corner display to put Pts, Reb, A, Fls all at one time for each player in the game, and keep them up.
I finally told a few people last night. They agreed and said write JL a letter.
I could write a letter but there is zero chance he addresses this issue. IMO
The only way he knows how to do business is with sweet heart deals with the “platinum hogs” and advertising executives; he doesn’t know anything about winning customers by making a quality product. He treats fans like his serfdom just balancing how much he can get away with taxing them without an insurrection.
That’s a shame.
JL has lost touch with the people that actually make Arkansas unique.
So I sit there in the game last night wondering how many points MK has and who is doing the damage from the LSU side.
At one point I asked Elton how many points does Moses have? He responded with a number and by the time I look at the corner boards it had changed to rebounds or whatever. As the game keeps going along… :x
NO problem. Actually I have Alexa sitting right by me and all I need to do is ask her.
I remember one time posting that I don’t post due to the fact of my spelling and it’s very difficult for me to type my thoughts. Clay responded in saying in so many words "don’t worry about that just post! This may sound silly to anyone that reads this but my brain runs about 100 MPH and I think I’m typing something but my brain has moved way down the road in what I am trying to say. You can sent that into Ripley’s believe it or not! But it does
So I post and do the best I can and don’t worry about other people’s thoughts about me or my Post! WPS
I agree with most of your thoughts and share several of your frustrations. That said, I slightly differ or have even stronger frustrations on a few:
–I thought the same about the refs and I do in almost every game. I don’t see much freedom of movement when play is stopped by a touch foul on seemingly every other possession. Games like yesterday can be fun. The teams are running and gunning, the crowd is electric from the start and then, without fail, here come the refs. Fifty fouls and 65 FTAs combined in a regulation game is a joke and it happens all the time, all over the country, now, in the name of a more exciting game because of more points. It’s dumb.
–I think Jeff Long generally does a good job. I hate it, but in many ways, particularly at Arkansas (and really at most any P5 school) you have to keep the big wigs happy. They’re the life blood of the program because of the insane cost of just keeping up with the Joneses.
His other primary/most important duties are making good HC hires. He has been very good in that regard. Long landed Petrino (a major coup at the time regardless of his issues at Atl).
And, I know many people are down on MA and BB. A certain amount of that discontent is deserved. But, at the time of the hires they were and should have been considered very good, solid hires.
Petrino was considered an offensive guru and he won big here. BB was coming off of 3 straight Rose Bowls at a non blue blood program and MA was a coming off a 77-29 last 3 seasons at MO that included 3 straight NcaaT appearances, the best season in MO history and a National Coach of the Year Award (and left Haith with part of another 30-win team).
Long is also a big part of facilities maintenance and upgrades and we are very competitive in the league and country in that regard.
My gripes with Long are mostly little things that could, if done better and more efficiently, make the overall fan experience much more enjoyable.
I know he delegates these duties to others, but the gameday experience in football and basketball could be improved with more attention to detail.
AT&T is a lead sponsor at RRS and you can’t get consistent service in the stadium on gameday. It’s doable. All the pro teams manage it and many of the college programs do too.
While we should be paying attention to the game, it’s also fun on gameday to follow other scores around the league and country and also to keep up with our game’s stats as it’s happening (something that isn’t done on Big Screen for individual stats). It’s also fun to be able to get texts regarding the telecasts, booth reviews etc).
These aren’t big things. But, when you spend a lot of $$ to go to these games and devote 6-7 weekends a year to the experience, it doesn’t seem to be a big ask to hold the lead sponsor to a higher standard. Get some portable towers in there and make it happen.
–I can’t complain about the student seating location at BWA when their attendance at BWA has been terrible in recent years. They basically get in for free but it takes pizza to get them there. It’s odd considering they set attendance records in football and the 2 programs are delivering a similar product right now.
–Like you, I again get frustrated with simple gameday experience stuff. They have all the bells and whistles and don’t use them. Then, they wonder why attendance is down. I used to run the sideboard at BWA (ie stats of players on Crt). It’s easy. A dummy like me can do it. Get a volunteer SID student intern to do it.
–Similarly, make the gameday music and video a priority. Subcontract some of it out to free labor (students with majors associated with Marketing, Broadcasting, etc.) to spice it up. People have begged for Jim Robken for almost 30 years. He isn’t walking through that door. But they can find somebody or somebodys to pick up the slack in an area that has been lacking for the last generation and 3.5 coaches.
It just makes no sense to spend so much $ to have this fancy scoreboard and sideboards and then not use them anywhere close to their max capacity.
–I think our pressure defense often works, but it’s below the surface. We tend to go on big runs and we also often see teams wear down late against us. We have seen that a handful of times this year when we have come back from large deficits to win. That said, I wish he would cut back on some of the “token”, predictable full court pressures against teams with experience and/or very athletic guards.
It leads to lots of easy baskets for opponents and foul trouble for our bigs when they easily beat a trap 90 feet from their basket and turn it into a 5 on 3. I think a more effective way to handle it (and he’s trending this way) is to use that pressure against younger, less athletic backcourts and to dictate tempo/fatigue against better opponents with more halfcourt trapping and matchup zones.
But, another aspect of it is they needed to upgrade the overall athleticism on the roster. They took some steps in that direction with this class and will take even more with the next two.
Gafford is a freak. Garland seems like a more athletic Ky Madden. Hall is raw and a tweener, but is 6’6 a strong 210 that can run the court and finish at the rim.
In the next class Reggie Perry is a possible McDs All American, Portis like talent of a big man. Ethan Henderson is a 6’8 SF with a Kansas offer and Isiah Joe, although undersized is really turning into a knockdown shooter. I think Desi Sills is my favorite in either class.
He’s not going to wow anyone. He’s 6’1. Does nothing extraordinary but everything well. He guards abd guards and guards all game long and he is a leader that kids follow. Sills is a winner and good kid. Very likely will be a fan favorite for his tenacity.
I think when next year’s class comes in with the returnees (guys like Barford who should be more comfortable and consistent in Year 2) the overall athleticism and “Hawgball” will improve as it did from last year to this year.
My biggest issue with the scoreboards in Bud Walton is that they put the individual stats on the SW and NE corners, with the team stats on the NW and SE corners and they don’t rotate them. So, since I sit in the NE corner I can’t see the individual stats unless I get up and look behind me as the SW corner across from me is blocked by the scoreboard.
This could be easily remedied by rotating the displays.
I liked the scoring lines on the main scoreboard. I don’t want to have to turn and look to the side for that information. I want it in front of me. But they didn’t ask me.
As a member of the media, we have scoring monitors spread out in our area and we can go on-line to get the stat lines on our laptops. Dudley and Jimmy do this and answer my questions when I want information, so I don’t watch the numbers, just keep a play-by-play. It helps me understand trends and runs, something I’ll use when I write.
I can tell you that the cell/wifi coverage at Mizzou in November, with a half-empty (or more) stadium, was no better than we get at RRS or WMS. So it’s not just our problem. I suspect if you pinned down AT&T and gave them sodium pentothal, they’d say that what they, or UA, or both would have to spend to get adequate coverage for 75,000 people for four hours on six Saturdays ain’t worth the investment.
The kids who showed up in record numbers for football this year could also show up for basketball, because the access pass they bought to get in for football also covers hoops. But they don’t show. Of course, we’ve only had one home game, LSU, since the spring semester started; Mizzou was three days before classes resumed. We’ll see how well they turn out for the remaining five home games, starting with Bummer.
