* Hogs assistant coach Melvin Watkins expected to visit 2017 combo forward Aaron Wheeler tomorrow: Wheeler, 6-7, 200 pounds from Stamford, CT, has a composite national ranking of No. 227 / 3-star ... he has offers from Providence, Creighton, Temple, Pittsburgh, Rhode Island, St. Louis, Richmond, and St. Joseph's, with Kansas, Syracuse, Notre Dame, Purdue and others showing interest.
Wheeler played for Rivals Mass, which won the 2016 Adidas Gauntlet 17U grassroots circuit in early July, so our coaches probably saw him while they were watching Darious Hall (Team Magic Elite) and the Arkansas Hawks at various events in July ... just a guess as to how he got on our radar.
* Victor Enoh update: Not sure if the Wheeler recruitment means we are just covering bases in case Enoh does not commit ... Enoh was expected to visit Oklahoma State this weekend, but I have not seen confirmation that he actually made the trip ... Enoh is slated to visit Vandy next weekend, then the Hogs on Oct. 7-9, then Oregon State on Oct. 14.
Speaking of Vandy, the 'Dores got a commitment from Top 100 big Ejika Obinna over the weekend, so that might bode well for the Hogs. Also, Memphis may be in the picture for Enoh -- Tubby Smith made an in-home visit this past week -- so stay tuned
* Cleveland hill: Going back to the Nolan era, the Hogs ran the hill that is also known as Cleveland Street, which is a daunting climb up to Garland Ave. just a few blocks north of the heart of campus ... for years during football season, I would intentionally park at the bottom of Cleveland hill on Saturday football gamedays just so I could get my cardio in before beer, food, and tailgating ... when MA returned, so did the team's running up Cleveland hill ...
* Organized Chaos = Winning the Turnover Battle: We all know the main tenet of our style of defense is to create turnovers/extra offensive possessions, and hopefully wear the other team down over the course of playing fast for 40 minutes ... was called 40 Minutes of Hell at its peak, and there have been some positive takeaways in MA's Fastest 40 / his first 5 years as our HC ... linked in the tweet below is an interesting breakdown provided by arkansasrazorbacks.com a few days ago.
The Hogs lead all high-major programs in 25-plus-turnover games with 9 in the last 5 years, we're 26-2 when forcing at least 20 turnovers in a game, and we're 2nd among high-major progams (behind Louisville) in forcing 15 or more turnovers in the past 5 years (we've done that in 98 games, going 73-25).
Obviously, the goal is to get much better defensively in 2016-17 ... we see what happens when we can get teams to turn the ball over at least 15 times in a game ... this is where the added depth, size, length, and athleticism should really help us after going 16-16 and 9-9 last year ... and when you peel back 10-12 games that were winnable, most of which really boiled down to 1 or 2 possessions, you gotta think had we been a little deeper and had more length and size both inside and out that we could have defended better, forced more mistakes and turnovers (especially late in games), and consequently could have won at least half those games for an NCAAT resume.
* Reminder to join me this and every Thursday at 1:30 p.m CDT on The Hog Call when I'll talk Razorbacks basketball and recruiting on KREB 1190 AM The Fan in Fayetteville: If you do not live in the Fayetteville area, you can log onto http://1190thefan.com/ and click on the "listen live" link at the top of the page.
Wheeler played for Rivals Mass, which won the 2016 Adidas Gauntlet 17U grassroots circuit in early July, so our coaches probably saw him while they were watching Darious Hall (Team Magic Elite) and the Arkansas Hawks at various events in July ... just a guess as to how he got on our radar.
* Victor Enoh update: Not sure if the Wheeler recruitment means we are just covering bases in case Enoh does not commit ... Enoh was expected to visit Oklahoma State this weekend, but I have not seen confirmation that he actually made the trip ... Enoh is slated to visit Vandy next weekend, then the Hogs on Oct. 7-9, then Oregon State on Oct. 14.
Speaking of Vandy, the 'Dores got a commitment from Top 100 big Ejika Obinna over the weekend, so that might bode well for the Hogs. Also, Memphis may be in the picture for Enoh -- Tubby Smith made an in-home visit this past week -- so stay tuned
* Cleveland hill: Going back to the Nolan era, the Hogs ran the hill that is also known as Cleveland Street, which is a daunting climb up to Garland Ave. just a few blocks north of the heart of campus ... for years during football season, I would intentionally park at the bottom of Cleveland hill on Saturday football gamedays just so I could get my cardio in before beer, food, and tailgating ... when MA returned, so did the team's running up Cleveland hill ...
* Organized Chaos = Winning the Turnover Battle: We all know the main tenet of our style of defense is to create turnovers/extra offensive possessions, and hopefully wear the other team down over the course of playing fast for 40 minutes ... was called 40 Minutes of Hell at its peak, and there have been some positive takeaways in MA's Fastest 40 / his first 5 years as our HC ... linked in the tweet below is an interesting breakdown provided by arkansasrazorbacks.com a few days ago.
The Hogs lead all high-major programs in 25-plus-turnover games with 9 in the last 5 years, we're 26-2 when forcing at least 20 turnovers in a game, and we're 2nd among high-major progams (behind Louisville) in forcing 15 or more turnovers in the past 5 years (we've done that in 98 games, going 73-25).
Obviously, the goal is to get much better defensively in 2016-17 ... we see what happens when we can get teams to turn the ball over at least 15 times in a game ... this is where the added depth, size, length, and athleticism should really help us after going 16-16 and 9-9 last year ... and when you peel back 10-12 games that were winnable, most of which really boiled down to 1 or 2 possessions, you gotta think had we been a little deeper and had more length and size both inside and out that we could have defended better, forced more mistakes and turnovers (especially late in games), and consequently could have won at least half those games for an NCAAT resume.
* Reminder to join me this and every Thursday at 1:30 p.m CDT on The Hog Call when I'll talk Razorbacks basketball and recruiting on KREB 1190 AM The Fan in Fayetteville: If you do not live in the Fayetteville area, you can log onto http://1190thefan.com/ and click on the "listen live" link at the top of the page.
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