ADVERTISEMENT

OT The Last Dance - Bulls/MJ documentary

Who’s planning on watching? Premieres on ESPN (uncensored) and ESPN2 (censored) at 8 pm CT. Two one-hour episodes, back to back. It’s the start of a 10-part documentary. (For those of you outside the U.S., it should be on Netflix.)

More than a month into this whole no sports/pandemic thing, I’m giddy. Almost feels like sports.

Although I know all about them because of stuff I’ve read and stories I’ve heard from my dad, I’m too young to have any actual memories of Jordan’s dynasty with the Bulls. Definitely looking forward to this.

FB Recruiting Georgia TE Miles Campbell puts plan on hold - committed to Tenn

Miles Campbell was set to release his top schools this week, and he actually had the list, he had the speech for social media, and rivals had the story in the admin ready to publish.

New offers came in, he had time to re-think his plan, and has decided to put things on hold for now.

Campbell gives the latest.

link: CAMPBELL UPDATE

Razorbacks APR Report

From the UA:
Razorbacks Shine on Latest APR Report Card

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – For the eighth consecutive year, the University of Arkansas exceeds the benchmark Academic Progress Rate (APR) multiyear rate of 930 in all 19 of its intercollegiate sport programs. All programs eclipsed the benchmark by at least 28 points with 14 programs besting the 930 benchmark by 35 points or more.

Arkansas’ sport programs averaged a rate of 983.5, marking the ninth straight year the program average has exceeded 970. The average is based on the 17 APR scores released for the University of Arkansas. The NCAA combines APR scores for indoor and outdoor track and field.

Last week, a program record seven Razorback programs were recognized with NCAA Public Recognition Awards for ranking among the top 10 percent of teams in their respective sports nationally. Women’s cross country, women’s golf, women’s gymnastics, softball, swimming and diving, women’s tennis and volleyball all earned a perfect 1,000 multiyear rate.

The University of Arkansas has now earned a total of 36 public recognition awards since the program began, including 13 in the past two years. Other top scoring programs included men’s tennis (993), men’s golf (985) and soccer (980).

“Thanks to the dedication of our student-athletes, coaches and academic support staff, all 19 of our sports are performing well above the APR multi-year benchmark,” Vice Chancellor and Director of Athletics Hunter Yurachek said. “Embedded within our program’s APR rates, are countless stories of Razorback student-athletes who continue to demonstrate, both individually and collectively, that academic and athletics success can work in partnership on the path to graduation. We remain committed to helping foster their continued success in support of our mission of building champions and Razorbacks for life.”

Men’s cross country made the biggest gain in APR, increasing its multi-year rate by 33 points from last year. In addition to men’s cross country, baseball (+9), men’s golf (+7), swimming and diving (+5) and women’s track and field (+4) also saw improvements in APR multiyear rates. Seven additional programs maintained their APR multi-year rates.

Arkansas posted a single-year average rate of 979.1 for all 19 programs. Four Razorback programs recorded improvements in single year APR rates from last year. Women’s basketball led the way, improving its single year APR rate by 50 points. Men’s cross country (+42), women’s track and field (+22) and men’s basketball (+2) also registered increases in single year rates. Nine additional programs maintained the same single year APR rates from last year, including eight perfect 1,000 rates.

In 2019-20, a total of 107 Razorback student-athletes were eligible to participate in commencement ceremonies in the fall and the spring. Razorbacks Athletics has averaged more than 100 graduates per year over the past five years.

The APR is based on academic eligibility and retention of student-athletes in each athletic program. This report’s multiyear scores are based on the 2015-16, 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19 academic years.

University of Arkansas APR Superlatives

  • Recorded a program multi-year average of 983.5
  • Eighth consecutive year that all 19 sport programs exceeded benchmark of 930
  • Ninth-consecutive year the program multiyear average exceeded 970
  • All programs exceed benchmark by at least 28 points (958) with 14 programs exceeding the benchmark by 35 points (965) or more
  • Women’s cross country, women’s golf, women’s gymnastics, softball, swimming & diving, women’s tennis and volleyball earned NCAA Public Recognition Awards for ranking in top 10 percent of their respective sports nationally. All seven teams posted a perfect 1,000 multiyear APR rate
  • Arkansas has now earned a total of 36 Public Recognition Awards, including 13 in the past two years.
  • Razorback Athletics posted a single-year average rate of 979.1 for all of its sports programs
  • Ten programs recorded a perfect 1,000 single-year APR rate (men’s cross country, men’s tennis, women’s basketball, women’s cross country, women’s golf, women’s gymnastics, softball, swimming and diving, women’s tennis and volleyball)
  • Total of 107 Razorback student-athletes on target to graduate in 2019-20

Football How athletics departments are prepping for bringing athletes back

Here's a really good story from SI: https://www.si.com/college/2020/05/18/college-football-coronavirus-campus-preparations

After the NCAA's call on Wednesday which could result in them either lifting the ban on campus activities, extend it or do nothing, the SEC will have a similar call on Friday. The SEC is expected to do something unanimously on when to bring athletes (football and basketball) so they won't leave out certain programs. Whether the ban is lifted at the beginning of June or mid-June, we don't know but there's plenty of talk of bringing players back in groups instead of all at once. Arkansas already has i'd estimate about 50 athletes back in Fayetteville doing their own thing.

After bringing kids back, things will still look dramatically different. There won't be full-team workouts or meetings, everything will be done in smaller groups. But it's a start.
  • Like
Reactions: cfcjr50 and Mass31

Random stat for the night.

Between these 5 Sec teams:

Kentucky(1)
Tennessee(5)
LSU(6)
Auburn(7)
Arkansas(8)

In the 2020 recruiting class, these 5 teams are being in a total of 7 FIVE STAR players and 15 FOUR STAR players. And that’s not including some big time transfers that aren’t listed. Thats obviously not including 9 other teams. But tell me the SEC isn’t about to be the top college basketball conference before long. The talent is coming now. AND we have a very good coach. Bout to be fun.

Baseball Couple more grad transfers to watch - 1 for 2 so far

I did some creeping of hitting coach/recruiting coordinator Nate Thompson's Twitter and noticed a couple of potential graduate transfers who he's following/they're following him back...

This name was mentioned in another thread the other day, but one of them is TT Bowens from Central Connecticut State. He was the big 6-foot-4, 235-pound first baseman who looked more like an SEC defensive end/linebacker than a baseball player when CCSU came to Baum-Walker Stadium for the 2019 regional. The Hogs beat the Blue Devils 11-5 in the opening game, but Bowens went 1 for 3 with a three-run bomb and had all five RBIs. CCSU of course went on to become a fan favorite and TT was among the several player who were very complimentary of how they were treated. He was off to a slow start this year (.234, 2 HR, 6 RBIs, 13 K in 12 games), but was really good after coming back from injury last season, hitting .376/.459/.640 with five home runs and 26 RBIs in 32 games.

I think the plan is for Matt Goodheart to play first base, as he should be able to get fully healthy, but it's still a new position for him and he's not proven there, so I wouldn't be totally surprised if Arkansas was interested in adding TT.

The other potential grad transfer is A.J. Lewis from Eastern Kentucky. He's a 5-foot-10, 195-pound catcher from Chicago who began his career at Missouri, went JUCO and ended up at EKU. He was red hot when the season ended. Through 13 games, he was 23 for 51 (.451) with seven doubles, two triples and three home runs (.843 SLG), nine walks (.541 OBP) and 21 RBIs. That's coming off a junior season in which he hit .303/.434/.521 with nine home runs and 49 RBIs in 54 games. D1Baseball ranked him as the 12th best catcher in the country.

With Casey Opitz likely to be taken in the MLB Draft, I wouldn't be shocked if the Hogs pursue a grad transfer catcher and Lewis seems to be a top option.
ADVERTISEMENT

Filter

ADVERTISEMENT