- 142 points is a lot obviously, but liked seeing 26 assists on 48 buckets (20 from three!) a lot of driving and kicking and moving the ball around the perimeter. Guys won’t pass up open shots moving forward.

- Moody didn’t have a stand out performance for game one. Tried to force the issue in the first half but had a strong second half. Put up a “quiet” 16 points, but played well.

- A lot of lineup experimenting last night. My personal favorite was Williams, Vanover, Vance, Moody, and KK.

- Vanover is the most efficient scorer on the team and impressed me with his mobility.

- Williams is the best rebounder on the team and played a lot better than his ranking. Almost put up a double double and showed some range and physicality.

- KK has a super smooth game. Great outside shot and good finisher.

- Desi was playing like he wanted to prove he was a starter. Definitely did that, too.

- Vance is a more efficient, taller Mase. Good shooter and decent ball handler but not that fast or athletic. He’ll be good for us.

- Smith did all the small things and had some explosive/athletic finishes. Exactly what he’s needed to do.

- Tate started slow but finished the game strong. Really stuffed the stat sheet with a Jimmy Whitt style distribution.

- Devo looked solid in his role. Probably not going to play a whole lot but showed some good things. Really needs to work on his shot.

- Notae had a quiet game for him. Don’t expect him to stay quiet moving forward.

- I think the main 8 (based only on last night): Tate, Sills, Moody, Vance, Smith with KK, Williams, CV as the next three, Notae at 9. By conference play, I expect KK to start for Tate and Notae to fill the KK spot and Tate to fall to 9.

I am very interested to see how competent teams defend us when CV is on the floor.

1) Zone? We are going to trot out too many shooters. Plus CV can shoot over it.

2) Man? If the opponent uses their big on CV, the driving lanes for Moody, Desi and KK will be wide open if they can beat their guy off the dribble. (Not sure anyone in the country can stay in front of KK). I envision lots of And 1s for Desi or dunks for Smith when his guy has to help off.

If the opponent uses someone other than their big to guard CV, he’s going to shoot over him.

1. We knew it would happen - NIKKI

Special teams already played a big role in losing Arkansas some games but we all knew there would be a game decided by special teams. Nathan Bax was the culprit this week, but it could’ve been anyone given how poorly the unit has performed this season. It’s debatable whether the Razorbacks deserved to win that game after atrocious third down performance but they definitely deserved to fight it out in overtime after all the adversity they’d battled through during the week and during the game, playing with 55 scholarship players.

I hope Sam Pittman gives Coach Fountain and the ST performances a good long look when the season wraps up. Arkansas isn’t making SC not top 10 highlights but it feels like ST really has taken a step backwards, which is saying something.

2. Time to Overhaul the Targeting Rule - HUTCH

If what Jalen Catalon did Saturday afternoon is targeting, the rule needs to be ripped up and destroyed. He clearly turned his body and hit the receiver with his shoulder and the side of his body, with his helmet nowhere close to the receiver.

I understand why targeting is a rule and I think it’s actually good for the sport, because you don’t want guys flying around and spearing players with their helmets. That’s how you end up with serious injuries.

What needs to change, though, is how the rule is enforced. The automatic ejection - or “disqualification” as they’re calling it now, as players can stay on the sideline because the NCAA is so gracious and kind - needs to be eliminated.

The NFL already doesn’t have an automatic ejection with its targeting rule. A player CAN be ejected, but the foul has to meet certain standards. That might be a good model for college.

Another idea would be to take a page out of soccer’s playbook at essentially have a “yellow” and “red” card. Certain fouls could be an automatic red card - or ejection - while all others are a yellow card. Then if the player commits a second targeting foul in the same game, then the ejection could kick in.

Those would be much more fair and teams like Arkansas wouldn’t have to be without players like Catalon for a chunk of the game - or in this case - the first half of the next game.

3. Jonathan Marshall - NIKKI

I didn’t want to write a whole new story after Hutch had literally just written about how impressive Marshall has been all season long but he showed it again on Saturday. He played 88 of 92 defensive snaps and graded out fourth on the team. He had 4 of the 10 pressures. I don’t know how they’d get it to happen other than telling him he could get drafted even higher in 2022 but if they can find a way to get Marshall to stay, that’d be one of the biggest recruiting wins of the cycle.

As Hutch wrote in his story, Marshall leads the nation in pressures. Looking back at the guys who led the nation in that category in 2019, one is still in college, two were drafted (3rd and 6th round), two went to NFL teams as UDFA with one playing very significant snaps for the Jags.

4. Grant Morgan Appreciation Post - HUTCH

I’ve written it before, but I really should have taken my own advice when I said not to doubt a Morgan. Drew proved that a few years ago and Grant is proving it again this year.

When our preseason roundtable asked me to predict who would lead the team in tackles this season, I picked a safety (and Joe Foucha, not Catalon - so I was way wrong) because I didn’t have a ton of faith in Arkansas’ linebackers.

All Morgan has done this year is rack up 104 tackles in eight games. Not only does that lead the team, but that leads the country…by 17! If he keeps up his current pace of 13 tackles per game, he’ll finish the regular-season with 130 tackles.

That is an incredible number, especially considering it would be against a 10-game, conference-only schedule. He didn’t get to pad his stats against the likes of Nevada and Charleston Southern.

As y’all know, I’m a big proponent of tackles not always equaling success for a defensive player, but Morgan has done a little bit of everything. He’s also tied for the team lead in tackles for loss (6.5) and pass breakups (5), plus he’s second on the team with two sacks and he has a pick-six.

Pro Football Focus has given Morgan a 74.5 grade this season, which ranks third among the 45 SEC linebackers who’ve played at least 60 snaps this season. There is no question he deserves to be in the first-team All-SEC conversation.

5. My no good, pretty bad betting week - NIKKI

Things got off to a rough start when Florida decided to saunter into Vanderbilt without a care in the world. The Gators neither covered at 31 or hit the over. Next, the Razorbacks didn’t pull off the upset so that’s -$300 through two games, though I did win on the over. I hit on Missouri, Alabama and Auburn on the spread but Georgia was nowhere close against Miss State and Tenn-Auburn didn’t hit the over. Overall, I lost $137, my worst week in terms of losses and my third negative week of the season. Going to finish strong though!

Week 10 Lines:
Kentucky at Florida (-23)
Arkansas at Missouri (-2)
Auburn at Alabama (-25)
Mississippi State at Ole Miss (-12)
LSU at Texas A&M (-12)
Georgia (-19) at South Carolina
Tennessee (-11) at Vanderbilt

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With Johnson’s decommitment from South Carolina, things have heated up with Arkansas very quickly, so I’m putting in my FutureCast pick for the hogs. With JHJ being a nickel safety type it would be good to have a true safety in this class even though they need defensive lineman. If he commits they’d still have maybe 3 more spots.

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Yikes that’s horrible

This was looking like it would happen next week, but Johnson decided to announce on Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving HawgBeat Family! Hope all has a blessed day/weekend with family and those close to them.

Here is Johnson's story:

Login to view embedded media Login to view embedded media He’d been committed to Maryland for 6 months until yesterday.

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CBS game isn’t available? WTH

With it being a time of Thanksgiving, I wanted to say...
Thank you Nikki @nikkichavanelle and Hutch @NWAHutch for all the time invested and all the work you both do.

When you started, I gave you a chance to earn / keep my business, and y’all have definitely done that. Great job! Thanks for all you do.

Everyone have a wonderful / safe Thanksgiving break.
Weird year but so much to be thankful for.

Not that y'all care, but I really like how my gamer came together tonight. I feel like hoops gamers are something I could use some work on, but tonight was a solid first outing by me, IMO (lol)...

We rank all the Power Five teams:

We do 5:00

Tip off for Arkansas' opener vs. MVSU is 6:30 p.m. CT. You can stream it on SECN+, which means you can watch it on the ESPN app or ESPN3.com with your cable provider's log-in credentials.

Some pregame reading for you...
Game preview from Hutch
Season preview from @CJC15WPS15

I am watching the game at my in-laws' house, so if updates aren't as frequent as you'd like, that's why. Lol.

Parkview's season has come to a close, here's Jointer's tape:

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Let’s goooooooooo!

I've made it to Bud Walton Arena and students are filing in now. The dunk contest is scheduled to start at 7 p.m., followed by the scrimmage.

Reminder: The game is being streamed on SECN+, meaning you can watch it online on ESPN3.com or on the ESPN app.

Amazon web services have been messed up today as you may have noticed by ours and many sites on the inter webs being down.

I didn't like the idea of playing Mizz short handed .
Hopefully we will have all healthy for Bama.

There was a technical difficulty about 2 minutes into Muss, but I paused the video so there shouldn't be too much dead air there before the interview resumes...
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Vance Jackson
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Connor Vanover
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How many of you all are actually having a small Thanksgiving with less than 10 people, or just your immediate family? We are because we just found out last night that my wife has the virus. Sucks because we have been the mask wearing folks everywhere we go, and can't figure out exactly how she got it. Maybe she got a little relaxed and took her mask off while at a dinner with work folks. Not sure...

If this one aint a blowout, we got problems

I really thought the young defense line guys looked better than expected . Miller and carter have good motors and were flying to the ball. Eric Thomas showed some flashes that I am excited about next few years !! Cant wait for soli not to have a club for one season haha.

As to who (or is it whom) Wally Hall will send out his thanks to in his annual retread Thanksgiving column tomorrow morning? Will he thank Keith and Joe? Will he thank Baz and Tommy? Hunter? Sam? Muss? Danyelle? Trump? Melania? His current wife?
Yeah, I'm bored %^$%-less right now.
I need some inside info, on an off week, bad.

Any more questions on why Fournette is a bust?

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Starting at Cincy this week per ESPN