I noticed that I was sitting at 1,999 posts, so I decided to make my 2,000th post (as if that is some type of milestone) a rather lengthy post that analyzes the state of the Razorback basketball program. If you're not in to long posts, stop reading now.
Arkansas is a Basketball school. I say this often to my friends, but I believe it to be a fact. For all the hoopla and hysteria we have on this site and in general around Arkansas football, recruiting, the SEC, and the like, we are a Basketball school. I love football with an undeniable passion, but basketball is different. It's in our DNA, it's who we are. Frankly, in the past 25 years, we've not won anything of substance in Football. Sure we've had some legendarily great wins and awesome players in that span, but in general, we have (almost) nothing to hang our hat on nationally over the last quarter century. No national titles, no conference titles, no real national breakthrough. We are viewed as good, but not great. Most national fans would go so far as to say we are second-rate. Basketball perception is different. Most anyone over 25 years old remembers or at least acknowledges our once prominent basketball prestige.
For some context, I'm 31 and grew up in Little Rock during what I think of as the pinnacle of Razorback basketball (1990 - 1995). Some try to argue that Eddie Sutton and the Triplets were the best era of Arkansas basketball, but that's simply not true and another discussion altogether (although they were great too). Anyway, the point is that Razorback basketball is steeped in nostalgia for me, as I long for the days when 40 minutes of hell wasn't just a cliche saying and every basketball fan in the country was, in some manner, fearful of and/or familiar with the the Hogs on the hardwood. Todd Day, Lee Mayberry, and Oliver Miller were legends to me. Corliss was a god. Scotty was a icon. Corey Beck, Al Dillard, Clint McDaniel, and Dwight Stewart were like kings to me. Nolan was immortal. The sport coats, the boots, the shedding of the sport coat in a tantrum. Hell, the President of the United States was a freaking Razorback who openly sported Hog gear and got personal updates on the Hogs while discussing global issues with World leaders. It just doesn't get any better than that as a Razorback fan. All of those people and things just take me to a happy place.
As a Hog basketball fan the past 20 years have been rough. Everyone who can remember the glory days of the 90's just grasps for dear life to the hope that we can, just maybe, one day return to that point. To be fair, there have been some high notes in the past two decades. Kareem Reid, Derek Hood, and Pat Bradley of the late 90's were entertaining. Joe Johnson, amazingly, led us to our only ever SEC Tournament Championship. Sonny Weems, Brandon Dean, and Michael Qualls have provided countless highlight reel dunks. Bobby Portis infused us with hope and state-pride as he won SEC PoY and took us dancing. But, if we're being honest, the past 20 years of Hog basketball have been mediocre at best.
That brings us to today. Being the optimist that I like to think that I am, last season actually gave me hope. If you looked at our roster in the preseason on paper, we were a terrible team. We were severely undersized and the lack of talent was glaring. That said, the fact that we finished 16-16 spoke volumes to me about the players attitudes and abilities, and also it said a lot of Mike Anderson's ability to coach. To my point earlier about the early 90's nostalgia, I am a big Mike Anderson fan if for no other reason than he is a part of the best basketball generation in Razorback history. For all the issues we can argue about with his X's and O's, game management, substitution patterns, etc. the one thing that always brings me back is that he is a Razorback. The school, the history, the fans, the expectations, the passion...he gets it, he understands us. There may be better coaches out there, but for our very unique job on the Hill, Mike Anderson is about as good of fit as possible. All of that said, the measure of success in his line of work is to consistently win 20+ games a year and take us dancing regularly. Sprinkle in some deep tournament runs, a couple conference championships and we are all good. That hasn't happened in his 5 years here. I would like to acknowledge that Mike has gotten better every year he's been here up until last season. There were a series of unfortunate events that I believe led to last season's mediocrity, but then again, Mike gets paid a lot of money to be able to deal with such scenarios.
With last years hiccups (hopefully) now behind us, I am a firm believer that we are turning the proverbial corner in Basketball. I've seen where some are very skeptic and cautious about this years team and I totally understand that stance. I, however, am extremely optimistic about this years team and even more optimistic about our long term prospects.
On this year's team, I love the mix of old and new. Moses is an all-SEC caliber PF/C. Dusty is the best shooter we've had in a long, long time and in our system, that is an absolute necessity if we are to be successful. Trey Thompson reminds me of a poor man's Dwight Stewart. He's not quite the (proven) shooter, but he has that all around "old man" game. He's got above average vision, he's sneaky quick, and he seems to have a good basketball IQ. Anton plays with that hard-nosed mentality that is reminiscent of the 90's Hogs defensive mind-state. He's limited in capability, but makes up for it in effort and what he does good, he does very good (off ball help defense, defensive vision, getting to the rim on offense).
Our newcomers give me lots of hope. I think the class we brought in is very well-rounded and supplements our current roster's deficiencies extremely well. Barford, from what I can tell, gives us a floor general that can create and score on his own while still being an enabler of the offense. He is the key to everything working in our system and he provides exactly what we lacked last year in his ability to score and create his own offense. Macon provides the Ant Bell like compliment to Dusty's shooting prowess with possibly more upside to his all around Offensive abilities. For our style of play to really succeed, we need multiple shooters and he gives us that. Cook provides length and grit on the boards and on Defense. Dustin Thomas does as well. If we can get 7/5/1 (pts/rebs/blks) out of them both, then we are in good shape. It can't be overstated how our lack of length absolutely killed us at times last season. Hazen and Jones give us two more guys that should provide better spacing thanks to their shooting ability and also give us more length. Their value will increase over time, but even off the cuff next year they bring some quality attributes. Overall the length we added, the strengths of each prospect, and the depth to the roster are of such great value that I see us being a top 3-4 team in conference this year and a team that will make the tournament and could get to the second round (of 32) and maybe even the sweet 16.
The longer term outlook is even better, in my opinion, and it is all predicated on the abundance of in-state talent being produced. Our 2017 class is stout and even better, they're all from Arkansas. Enough has been said about the class's talents and rankings, but they all bring great things to the squad. Again, the length we gain with them is extremely valuable. Gafford's interior presence will help replace Moses. Hall and Garland give us the versatility at the 2 and 3 spot, as well as perimeter defense that we've lacked at times. I'm hoping to add a shooter and/or ball handler to the class, but even as it stands now, 2017 should be a very strong team with little to no drop-off. 2018 is stacked with talent in-state. Hopefully Justice Hill can reclassify and that sews up our PG needs for that class. Ethan Henderson and Reggie Perry (who I consider in-state) are guys we need to go get. Caleb Stokes, Isaiah Joe, Desi Sills all are guys who I wouldn't be mad to add to the roster. And I haven't even accounted for any out of state talent we are on yet. 2019 and 2020 appear to have some very good in-state potential as well.
I've said it before, but we only have to recruit regionally to be successful at Arkansas in Basketball. Unlike Football, we are in the Fertile Crescent of Basketball recruiting. Rather it's Little Rock, Memphis, Kansas City, OKC, Tulsa, Northern Louisiana, or Dallas we can recruit within a 300 mile radius from Fayetteville and be a top 10 program year in and year out.
So there is my 2,000th post. Basically a long-winded rambling of my thoughts on Arkansas Basketball. Sorry if it wasn't worth the read, but I feel better after saying (typing) it.
Arkansas is a Basketball school. I say this often to my friends, but I believe it to be a fact. For all the hoopla and hysteria we have on this site and in general around Arkansas football, recruiting, the SEC, and the like, we are a Basketball school. I love football with an undeniable passion, but basketball is different. It's in our DNA, it's who we are. Frankly, in the past 25 years, we've not won anything of substance in Football. Sure we've had some legendarily great wins and awesome players in that span, but in general, we have (almost) nothing to hang our hat on nationally over the last quarter century. No national titles, no conference titles, no real national breakthrough. We are viewed as good, but not great. Most national fans would go so far as to say we are second-rate. Basketball perception is different. Most anyone over 25 years old remembers or at least acknowledges our once prominent basketball prestige.
For some context, I'm 31 and grew up in Little Rock during what I think of as the pinnacle of Razorback basketball (1990 - 1995). Some try to argue that Eddie Sutton and the Triplets were the best era of Arkansas basketball, but that's simply not true and another discussion altogether (although they were great too). Anyway, the point is that Razorback basketball is steeped in nostalgia for me, as I long for the days when 40 minutes of hell wasn't just a cliche saying and every basketball fan in the country was, in some manner, fearful of and/or familiar with the the Hogs on the hardwood. Todd Day, Lee Mayberry, and Oliver Miller were legends to me. Corliss was a god. Scotty was a icon. Corey Beck, Al Dillard, Clint McDaniel, and Dwight Stewart were like kings to me. Nolan was immortal. The sport coats, the boots, the shedding of the sport coat in a tantrum. Hell, the President of the United States was a freaking Razorback who openly sported Hog gear and got personal updates on the Hogs while discussing global issues with World leaders. It just doesn't get any better than that as a Razorback fan. All of those people and things just take me to a happy place.
As a Hog basketball fan the past 20 years have been rough. Everyone who can remember the glory days of the 90's just grasps for dear life to the hope that we can, just maybe, one day return to that point. To be fair, there have been some high notes in the past two decades. Kareem Reid, Derek Hood, and Pat Bradley of the late 90's were entertaining. Joe Johnson, amazingly, led us to our only ever SEC Tournament Championship. Sonny Weems, Brandon Dean, and Michael Qualls have provided countless highlight reel dunks. Bobby Portis infused us with hope and state-pride as he won SEC PoY and took us dancing. But, if we're being honest, the past 20 years of Hog basketball have been mediocre at best.
That brings us to today. Being the optimist that I like to think that I am, last season actually gave me hope. If you looked at our roster in the preseason on paper, we were a terrible team. We were severely undersized and the lack of talent was glaring. That said, the fact that we finished 16-16 spoke volumes to me about the players attitudes and abilities, and also it said a lot of Mike Anderson's ability to coach. To my point earlier about the early 90's nostalgia, I am a big Mike Anderson fan if for no other reason than he is a part of the best basketball generation in Razorback history. For all the issues we can argue about with his X's and O's, game management, substitution patterns, etc. the one thing that always brings me back is that he is a Razorback. The school, the history, the fans, the expectations, the passion...he gets it, he understands us. There may be better coaches out there, but for our very unique job on the Hill, Mike Anderson is about as good of fit as possible. All of that said, the measure of success in his line of work is to consistently win 20+ games a year and take us dancing regularly. Sprinkle in some deep tournament runs, a couple conference championships and we are all good. That hasn't happened in his 5 years here. I would like to acknowledge that Mike has gotten better every year he's been here up until last season. There were a series of unfortunate events that I believe led to last season's mediocrity, but then again, Mike gets paid a lot of money to be able to deal with such scenarios.
With last years hiccups (hopefully) now behind us, I am a firm believer that we are turning the proverbial corner in Basketball. I've seen where some are very skeptic and cautious about this years team and I totally understand that stance. I, however, am extremely optimistic about this years team and even more optimistic about our long term prospects.
On this year's team, I love the mix of old and new. Moses is an all-SEC caliber PF/C. Dusty is the best shooter we've had in a long, long time and in our system, that is an absolute necessity if we are to be successful. Trey Thompson reminds me of a poor man's Dwight Stewart. He's not quite the (proven) shooter, but he has that all around "old man" game. He's got above average vision, he's sneaky quick, and he seems to have a good basketball IQ. Anton plays with that hard-nosed mentality that is reminiscent of the 90's Hogs defensive mind-state. He's limited in capability, but makes up for it in effort and what he does good, he does very good (off ball help defense, defensive vision, getting to the rim on offense).
Our newcomers give me lots of hope. I think the class we brought in is very well-rounded and supplements our current roster's deficiencies extremely well. Barford, from what I can tell, gives us a floor general that can create and score on his own while still being an enabler of the offense. He is the key to everything working in our system and he provides exactly what we lacked last year in his ability to score and create his own offense. Macon provides the Ant Bell like compliment to Dusty's shooting prowess with possibly more upside to his all around Offensive abilities. For our style of play to really succeed, we need multiple shooters and he gives us that. Cook provides length and grit on the boards and on Defense. Dustin Thomas does as well. If we can get 7/5/1 (pts/rebs/blks) out of them both, then we are in good shape. It can't be overstated how our lack of length absolutely killed us at times last season. Hazen and Jones give us two more guys that should provide better spacing thanks to their shooting ability and also give us more length. Their value will increase over time, but even off the cuff next year they bring some quality attributes. Overall the length we added, the strengths of each prospect, and the depth to the roster are of such great value that I see us being a top 3-4 team in conference this year and a team that will make the tournament and could get to the second round (of 32) and maybe even the sweet 16.
The longer term outlook is even better, in my opinion, and it is all predicated on the abundance of in-state talent being produced. Our 2017 class is stout and even better, they're all from Arkansas. Enough has been said about the class's talents and rankings, but they all bring great things to the squad. Again, the length we gain with them is extremely valuable. Gafford's interior presence will help replace Moses. Hall and Garland give us the versatility at the 2 and 3 spot, as well as perimeter defense that we've lacked at times. I'm hoping to add a shooter and/or ball handler to the class, but even as it stands now, 2017 should be a very strong team with little to no drop-off. 2018 is stacked with talent in-state. Hopefully Justice Hill can reclassify and that sews up our PG needs for that class. Ethan Henderson and Reggie Perry (who I consider in-state) are guys we need to go get. Caleb Stokes, Isaiah Joe, Desi Sills all are guys who I wouldn't be mad to add to the roster. And I haven't even accounted for any out of state talent we are on yet. 2019 and 2020 appear to have some very good in-state potential as well.
I've said it before, but we only have to recruit regionally to be successful at Arkansas in Basketball. Unlike Football, we are in the Fertile Crescent of Basketball recruiting. Rather it's Little Rock, Memphis, Kansas City, OKC, Tulsa, Northern Louisiana, or Dallas we can recruit within a 300 mile radius from Fayetteville and be a top 10 program year in and year out.
So there is my 2,000th post. Basically a long-winded rambling of my thoughts on Arkansas Basketball. Sorry if it wasn't worth the read, but I feel better after saying (typing) it.
