The thing that hurts so bad about this loss tonight...

Basketball Insider Board
#1

It shows we have a lot of players with no heart.

Say what you want but this game was personal and been marked on a lot of Hog/Bulldog fans for a while now. As I’m sure most are familiar, when Perry decommitted and went to Mississippi State, it got pretty ugly on social media. Perry’s mom really went after CMA and the hog fan base, she said a lot of things about CMA’s coaching ability and hit on a lot of stereotypes about our fan base. Even the players got into it, RJ Ready (former Arkansas kid, went Mississippi St.) took shots at the Razorbacks and the fan base, Macon and Beard got into it with a few of their players, it was a pretty good back and forth for a couple days there.

With all this known, our guys came out and played the most careless game of basketball I’ve seen from a hog team in quite some time, the ball handling and decision making in this game was just absolutely terrible. True competitors in games like this, they come in focused and ready to take care of business. Mississippi St. was down one of their best players and they still blew us out on our home court. They were laughing at us, pushing us around, trash talking, and we didn’t show a single ounce of heart. We did a Pelphrey and just laid down and had a good bleed. Our projected first round draft pick was huffing and puffing the whole game and missing wide open layups/dunks and our bench was acting like they’ve never played in a game before. YOU WOULD HAVE NEVER SEEN… Macon, Barford, Watkins, Hannahs and those guys lay down like that. Those guys would have fought them before they let them come in Bud Walton and laugh at them.

As everyone knows from my posting, I always try to look at the positive and support the team, but tonight hurts. I honestly thought this would be the best performance we seen from them all year, I just knew they would be fired up and ready to defend their coach and show Perry what he missed out on here at Arkansas. Instead in the words of Daniel Gafford, we got punked. I honestly never thought I’d see a CMA team get treated like that. And a good portion of that blame is on CMA himself, that did not look like a team that was prepared to play basketball today. Even when we had the lead we were sloppy and careless, Jones hot shooting just didn’t make it look as bad.

Tonight is a bad night to be a Hog fan, it’s really a low point, when Mississippi State fans are laughing at you and your program. Perry is feeling really good about his decision right now.

#2

Blu. I am with you. You have been one of the more upbeat posters on this board. I’m not sure what the answer is, but just like football we need to recruit our way out of this mess. I don’t know if Mike just doesn’t project well to recruits, is a bad talent evaluator, or players just don’t like this style. Whatever the answer some hard decisions need to be made albeit a new coach or a purging of the current roster. You realize Mississippi State has five 6’10 players on their roster and the three that played are all skilled. Their guards are all outstanding players and it only took seven players to dismantle us.

#3

Pooch,

We were just talking about this in another thread. I think two things need to happens. We need to make some adjustments in the assistant coaches and we need to go ahead and send some of these guys on there merry way and get some “dogs” cause we only got one of the team right now, and his name is Mason Jones.

As far as assistants first name that comes to my mind is Corliss Williamson. He’s a highly respected assistant coach in the NBA, name has been linked to head coaching jobs in the NBA before, he’s an Arkansas legend, NBA champion, why is this guy not offered the associate head coaching job? During one of our games a couple years ago they interviewed him during one of our games on the SEC Network and asked him about would he ever want to come back, I can’t remember his exact words, but it was pretty much a yes he was interested. There’s college assistants these days making more than some NBA assistants. Let’s offer Corliss about 800k, which is in line with some of the top assistants in college basketball, and get him over here. If anybody can keep our top in-state kids here and convince them you can become a star at Arkansas and be a success in the NBA it’s him. His NBA connections alone are going to get more recruits to look at us.

As far as players moving on this is just my opinion…

-Henderson and Ibby for sure both need to be out, neither can even buy a second on the court and our bench is horrible, that’s saying a lot. I was on the let’s let Henderson develop train, but he got in the game the other day for 1 minute, and he threw up the ugliest shot I ever seen, it was rainbow shot that ended up on the other end of the basket, then he got like dunked on, and taken out.

-One of Bailey or Gabe needs to be asked to transfer out. Both can’t shoot and they are just clogging up minutes at that 4 spot. I wouldn’t be mad if one of them stayed and was like the 11th or 12th man off the bench, but both playing the 4 spot again next year, that’s not going to work and it will be same old story.

-Sills, I know this is unlikely, but I just don’t think he’s that good and he’s going to get beat out next year, his minutes have been decreasing seems to have lost his confidence, he’s averaging 1.3 PPG over the last 6 games.

I’d be happy with the returnees just being Joe, Harris, Jones, Chaney, Embery and one of Bailey/Gabe. I think that’s a good core to build off of.

Then let’s sign…
-Raymond Hawkins
-Mahamadou Diawara
-Javon Franklin
-Javion Hamlett or Clarence Nadoly

Any remaining scholarships go towards 2020.

#4

not just a bad night, just a bad year to be a Hog fan. Basketball tickets are easy peazy to buy while baseball takes effort and connections. Such is winning. Interesting choice of words you had used. I will admit to watching very little Hog ball and alot of Lightning hockey since they were on simultaneously. I came away with the decision to call Harris the point guard, Careless Harris and drop Jalen. Informal communication and body language makes me not want that kid on the floor despite being the most talented we have at the position. Mason Jones had great #'s but missed a three that would have turned the crowd rabid, guess I have had my doubts about him since the last minute of the TX game that we should have won. Gafford speaks for himself, a waste of talent whether driven by him or the coaching staff. Whole team collectively looks disconnected but still have flashes that lead to hope. Mike needs to earn his money, may need some reorganizing of his staff and their responsibilities. Here in the land of Dave Ramsey, he talks about snowball effect (in a positive financial way) which seems to have hit us and we need to start with the little things and take care of business. I suspect there are a few like me who would like this season to be over as soon as possible. A colleague is fond of telling me in the OR that we are living the dream and I always remind him that nightmares are dreams also.

This collection of guys is hard to rally behind and support, both coaches and players. Too many kids cursed with potential that will be unrealized and therefore perceived as wasted. This team sets up well for classic Mora and McKay quotes after disappointing efforts.

#5