[00:00:01] Speaker A: You're listening to the Hog Sports Network daily podcast.
Now, here's your host, Matt Jones.
[00:00:11] Speaker B: Tonight at Bomb Walker Stadium, Arkansas baseball in action against Arkansas State. We'll talk about that game on today's podcast. We'll talk about the Razorbacks being number one. Dave Van Horn's comments at the Swatters Club meeting yesterday at the Fayetteville Public Library. Ethan Westerman also going to be in the studio with me. We'll talk about the top 10 Arkansas softball team. Big weekend for them in Florida. We'll talk some basketball national championship game last night. Much more coming up on our podcast. But the first word from Kindle King at Kendall King.
[00:00:39] Speaker A: We're proud of over four decades of design. We're continuing the legacy of great creative design by combining our brands of Kendall king Soapbox and ShopCart. Together, these brands represent a new focus in marketing design with individual attention to specific areas. Through our design expertise, supported by a team of talented professionals, we showcase our best. We are Kendall King. We are Soapbox. We are Shopcart. We are Design.
[00:01:12] Speaker B: National championship game was last night in basketball. So basketball season is over. So our focus now pretty much fully moves to baseball. And I suspect that there's going to be a lot of interest in this Arkansas baseball team, you know, here over the next several weeks. So, number one in the polls this week, a unanimous number one ranking for the Razorbacks. When we were on our podcast yesterday with Bubba Carpenter, only three of the five polls had come out. The coaches poll and the writers poll came out yesterday. The Razorbacks, number one in those polls. It's the fifth season that Arkansas has had a number one ranked team. The others were 2009, they were ranked number one for a week. 2013, they were ranked number one in the preseason and then had fallen to number two by the time the first update to the poll happened. Of course, spent most of 2021 in the number one position, spent four weeks at number one last year, and now here they are. And, you know, you look at these numbers, and we've talked about this a little bit, they're the only team, Ethan, that ranks in the top 10 nationally in scoring, in ERA, and in fielding. That's a pretty good place to be.
[00:02:19] Speaker C: Yeah, you get. You get all aspects of the game covered as being pretty dang good at it. You're gonna win a lot of games.
[00:02:26] Speaker B: You know, and I was talking about this with Bubba yesterday. Run differential is a stat that I've, over the last few years, I've really come to appreciate, I think, because I Think that it gives you an idea of who the strongest teams are. You can have a high scoring team, you can have a really good pitching team, but when you have a team that has a high run differential, it usually is an indication that you've got a complete team. You got a team that can pitch a little bit, you got a team that can hit a little bit, you got a team that can field. What's interesting to me is that Tennessee, they're the 78th best fielding team in the country if you just go solely on fielding percentage. And they're still number two in run differential right there with Arkansas. And so that tells me that their pitching and their hitting is at a really elite level. And the numbers pretty much back that up, you know. But then you have Arkansas right there and again, they're. They're one of the best teams in all of these categories right now.
[00:03:23] Speaker C: Yeah. And a recipe for disaster for. I was. I watched maybe an inning of the baseball series this week and I was just keeping up with the score. And when I say keeping up with was like, oh, they another five runs. Another. It was just. I was watching a bloodbath from afar and it was a quite the scene. I was like, well, I think this is. We have a really good baseball team on one hand and a not so great one on the other.
[00:03:46] Speaker B: It felt like Groundhog Day over the weekend against Missouri. You know, like Bill Murray's character. Well, it's Groundhog Day.
[00:03:53] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:03:53] Speaker B: Again, I mean, every game in that series you got a 21 to 3 game, a 14 to 4 game, and a 16 to 2 game. And all of them had high walk totals from Missouri. All of them had high hit totals for Arkansas. All of them, except for one game, had multiple hit batsmen where the Missouri pitchers hit Arkansas batters. And it just.
I can't think of another series where it felt like every game just kind of played out like all the other games.
[00:04:26] Speaker C: Yeah. And it's. I. I mean, I'm keeping up with this from afar and I am starting to personally feel bad about like for these pictures about their walk totals. I'm like, that's just gotta be. It was like. It felt to me like they were just. Every inning to just get out of. It was just a, like a relief. Like we were one inning closer to this game being over, is how I felt. Keeping up with it from afar. Because, I mean, wasn't there some inning maybe Saturday where they walked in, like.
[00:04:52] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, it was. It was crazy. I think there were. I think there were three Bases loaded, walks and maybe one hit batsman. Yeah, the bases loaded. Here's a stat from the weekend. Missouri threw 568 pitches. 568.
[00:05:08] Speaker C: That is wild.
[00:05:09] Speaker B: In the equivalent of two games because they only pitched for 18 innings. It felt like about 38, but they only pitched for 18 innings. They threw 568 pitches.
[00:05:20] Speaker C: Yeah, that was, that was my takeaway. I was like, I think these guys are just. They just want this to be over and to get home.
[00:05:26] Speaker B: By comparison, Arkansas threw 358 pitches.
[00:05:29] Speaker C: Gosh.
[00:05:30] Speaker B: In that series. And Arkansas's pitchers, by the way, threw three more innings than Missouri's pitchers through. So they pitched three more innings and they threw 210 fewer pitches.
[00:05:41] Speaker C: Insane.
That is actually like. That's one of those, like, stats you, you hear and you like, you know, it's crazy in your head. And then you have to material, like, the more you think about it, the crazier it becomes.
[00:05:53] Speaker B: Arkansas had a strike rate of 64. 8 or 64.8% over the weekend. Missouri with a 51.2% strike rate. And again, you look at that and it's like, okay, well, that's only about 13%, but that's a, that's a huge number. I mean, even, even the difference between say like 62 and 67% in baseball is a pretty significant deal. And so when you're looking at 13, 14%, that's.
That's like the Grand Canyon almost.
[00:06:21] Speaker C: Yeah, it was. I mean, in the scores indicated how that series went.
[00:06:26] Speaker B: Cam Kozal was named the SEC Player of the Week yesterday for the race backs. He had such a big weekend and it felt like, you know, Oliver Grigg, who's the communications director over for the baseball team, the way that the player of the week award works is that the communications director, Sid, whatever you want to call them, they submit names to the sec, so they'll typically, it's a. Here's our.
Here's our submission for player of the week. Here's our submission for pitcher of the week. Here's our submission for freshman of the week. And then the SEC office ultimately decides who wins those awards. And it felt to me like Oliver could just maybe send the entire lineup to Hoover or to Birmingham because of, you know, just the huge offensive numbers. It's been two days since the series ended, and I still don't think I've quite processed just how incredible of a.
I don't even know. I'd say it's an incredible offensive performance because a lot of that was Missouri's own doing and their pitching staff's inability to throw strikes. But you still have to as a, as an offense, as a lineup, you still have to be patient. You still have to, you know, not swing at pitches outside the strike zone. And it just, I, I'm quite confident we are never going to see a team score 51 runs again in three seven inning games.
[00:07:48] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:07:49] Speaker B: In SEC play.
[00:07:50] Speaker C: And I mean end of the day a lot of Missouri's pitching's fault, but like that's the name of the game whenever you have a good offense is it makes these pitchers start flirting outside the zone all the time. And I mean I wasn't watching any of this. Sounds like they just could not find the zone. But like it's like whenever you have an offense that can make you pay, make a team pay, whenever you do throw it over the plate, I mean that's when you get these pitchers just, they can't get out of innings. And that's what it seems like happened that these Missouri pitchers probably, you know, because of the way Arkansas was seeing the ball and hitting the ball like and they start trying to make them chase and then they lose the strike zone. And then all of a sudden Arkansas has put up 50 plus runs in 21 innings or whatever.
[00:08:31] Speaker B: Camp Koza, by the way, last week, nine hits, 13 RBI, three doubles, two home runs including a grand slam in four games against Grambling State and Missouri. One game against Grambling, three games against Missouri. Cam Kozel's really coming on. You know, someone who I respect their opinion quite a bit made a comment the other day. They said that Kozal and Charles Davilin should be included in the Golden Spikes Award discussion. The Golden Spikes Award. They released their midseason watch list last week and Vijiva Aloy was Arkansas's only player this. There's 45 players nationally who are on this and Vivo Loyo is Arkansas's only player. But I go back to 2021, Kevin Copps was not on the mid season watch list and it was within about a week or two that he really started that ascent to where you could see that this guy is unlike anything we've ever seen coming out of a bullpen. And so, you know, we'll see whether or not that either of these two number one, they got to keep this up. Both of them are hitting incredibly well in SEC play. They got to keep it up, but we'll see. I mean I think that you could make a very strong case for Davilin in particular because he's Leading off, he's leading the team in home runs. I think he's got the second best batting average on the team. He's really setting the tone for the lineup. And, you know, it's like everyone is feeding off of the production that he's having at the top.
[00:10:02] Speaker C: Yeah. And I think that's where you got to look like if your offense is putting on those type of numbers, who's setting the table? And then whenever you see a guy with those stats, I mean, his. I'm looking at him right now and you're batting.400 with 11 home runs. That's pretty dang good.
[00:10:18] Speaker B: And he only had 10 home runs last year at Florida Gulf Coast. Last year he was a doubles hitter. And what I've heard Nate Thompson, Arkansas's coach, described before, he's like, we're trying to hit doubles, we're trying to hit line drives. And then as it gets warmer, the hope is that they're going to go over the fence. And I think that's kind of what you're seeing with Davilon, that, you know, it's, it's just line drives, but he's really getting a hold of some. And as the weather begins to warm up, if he's got 11 home runs right now, and there's going to be less midweek pitching to face, but eight of his 11 home runs have come in conference play. And so there's a thought that, you know, he could maybe put up some really impressive power numbers that may get him into that conversation at the end.
[00:11:01] Speaker C: Here's the most impressive thing to me is in 135 at bats, nine strikeouts, he has more home runs than strikeouts right now.
[00:11:09] Speaker B: How about this? He has eight strikeouts in SEC play and eight home runs in SEC play. That's. That's phenomenal.
[00:11:16] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, if you're striking out at that little of a rate, that's you're doing a lot. Right.
[00:11:23] Speaker B: Especially for a power hitter.
[00:11:24] Speaker C: Yeah. And just think about, I mean, the name of the game is putting the ball in play. And like, how many of those that you don't strike out on, you know, are you reaching because of an opponent mistake or like, I mean, he's putting them. That's what you have to do is put the ball in play. And a guy like him leading off doing that pretty great.
[00:11:43] Speaker B: All right, here's where Arkansas ranks offensively right now in, in college baseball going into this game against Arkansas State tonight. It's gonna be a 6:00 first pitch over at Baum Walker Stadium. It's going to be televised, by the way, by SEC Network. Derek Jones and Todd Walker are going to be on the call. They're going to be calling this game remotely, but it's going to be on the network tonight. Just listen to some of these numbers. So for Arkansas, they are first nationally in ops. Ops. If you've heard us talk on this show before, you know, we love ops. I think that it's a really good indicator, maybe even a better indicator than batting average of production at the plate. Arkansas, number one nationally with a 1052 OPS. They're number one nationally in line drive rate. 26.6% of the balls that come off their bat are line drives. Consequently, they're also. They've got the lowest ground ball rate in college baseball. So, you know, they're not hitting into a lot of double plays. RBI is their second nationally.315 scoring, third at 10.1 a game. Slugging, another big stat that we like.602, third in the country on base percentage.450. That's fourth. Batting average.335. That's fourth. Home run,72. That's fifth. These are offensive numbers like we have never seen at this point in the season, at least in this equipment era of Razorback baseball. After the, you know, the bats were modified about 14, 15 years ago.
You know, obviously the offensive numbers went down a little bit. Everybody says that, you know, maybe the ball is juiced now, the offensive numbers are coming back. I've heard people say that this is like the second coming of gorilla ball in college baseball, but we haven't seen those type of power numbers at Arkansas in a long, long time. And I don't know that we've ever seen them quite like this, you know, from a composite standpoint at this point in the season.
[00:13:37] Speaker C: Yeah. Now, the main thing I see is like, you look at the power numbers and it's like, can you pitch around it? Like, you can't pitch around anybody is what it look like. Like if you have your whole lineup producing like that, it's like you got to just face this lineup. You have to just face them and try. Try and have your best stuff. And that's whenever a team is scary, is whenever you really feel like there's not a ton of holes in your lineup.
[00:14:00] Speaker B: There's not. There's not a. There's what you're saying and it's true. There's not a moment to catch your. There's not an at bat to catch your breath.
[00:14:09] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:14:09] Speaker B: With this team, I Don't feel like there's still a little bit of a hole at the bottom and there's going to be that way in every lineup. But that hole has, has. It's not as big, it's not as gaping of a hole as it was three or four weeks ago. Those, those hitters in the seven, eight, nine spots in the order, they've really gotten a lot better in the last few weeks and they've taken some of the pressure off of the hitters there at the top. Dave Van Horn was at Swatters Club yesterday at Fable Public Library here in town. By the way, if you haven't been to the Swatters Club this year, the, the feel of it has totally changed. You know, in the past it's been in restaurant, restaurant ballrooms and hotel ballrooms, things like that. They moved it to the library this year and the event center number one at the Blair Library here downtown is first rate. It's very, very nice. And it's just, it's a different feel this year at Swatters Club and it's a real neat feel that they've got in there. It seems like maybe they found something that they can, you know, continue the Swatters Club there for, for quite some time. But Van Horn, when he was there speaking yesterday, he talked about the offensive numbers and he had Nate Thompson's back as hitting coach. And of course, Nate's had a lot of criticism from the fan base over the last several years for. For various reasons. This is what Dave had to say. You might have heard it before, but here it is. This video is courtesy of Hogs.
[00:15:34] Speaker D: Plus other teams are getting beat around a little bit.
Our offense, you. You know, our offense is pretty special. If you haven't figured it out yet, I'll just say that. And by the way, our hitting coach, he's pretty good. For those of you that didn't know that.
So overall, SEC, we're leading the SEC by about 30 points and hitting overall. And in just SEC games, we're first. We're hitting.361 as a team in SEC games. The Next closest team is.299. So don't be sending me any more texts about getting a new hitting coach. All right? That's all. I had to say it. I'm done. And anyway, I could get rolling on that, but I'm gonna leave that one alone.
And then fielding, I mean, our team fields too.
[00:16:29] Speaker B: We're fielding David Horn yesterday at the Swatters Club, we talked to him afterward about Nate Thompson and he said it was a hard Summer for Nate last year, said the, you know, the criticism hurt him. Some boy, he's, you know, there. There are a number of things that I think are playing into this offensive resurgence, if you will. And I think Nate gets a lot of credit for. For a lot of it. I think, obviously, there's a different. Different kind of offensive philosophy this year. There's, you know, a little bit more aggressiveness, although they haven't had to be aggressive a lot because of the way everyone is hitting. They're not having to manufacture runs in a lot of cases. That's number one. Number two, Thompson and Bobby Wernus, they were tasked last offseason with finding a different caliber of athlete. Not as many, you know, power hitters who couldn't run. It was, go find more versatile players. And then you got number three going on, which Bub and I have talked about before. But it's this move to the dugout. And if you go to our website, this morning, I talked to Nate. I've talked to Matt Hobbs, the pitching coach, to kind of get his take on this, and we've heard Van Horn talk about it. I asked some players about it in a press conference here recently, but there's a story about the move to the dugout and maybe how that has transformed things for the team. And, you know, it's interesting.
You can communicate with the players so much better when you're standing there in the dugout than you can if you're in the third base box. And I think that the ability for Van Horn and Thompson to stand together in that dugout, to bounce ideas off of one another and to have just an ongoing dialogue with the hitters in the dugout, I think that's playing a major factor in what you're seeing right now.
[00:18:23] Speaker C: Oh, no, I would think so, too. It's. There's nothing like just being able to, like, talk strategy and stuff right before and like, just be, like you said, like that much closer to your team in general. Obviously, I cover softball, and the way they do it is Courtney Diefel's at third base and their two hitting coaches, Gasso and Daniel Gibson, they're always in the dugout talking to the hitters, too. And I just think that I've always liked that approach because it just seems like you're the most accessible to your. To your hitters there. I mean, that's what you're coaching. I get it, but the coaching third base is hard, and I get it. Like, you need the right person there to do it. It's just you just got to choose where is, I think you're hitting coach most useful for your team. And it sounds like for baseball, having him changing where he's at has certainly been great for them this year.
[00:19:11] Speaker B: One of the things Nate Thompson told me whenever we were talking about this is he said when you're in the hitters meeting in the morning of the game or before the game, whenever that meeting is, he said you go over the notes on starting pitchers. He said, but the hitters can only.
This isn't meant negatively toward hitters. It's just the players can only process so much information. There gets to be a point where if you just keep talking to them and talking to them and talking to them, they're not going to be able to absorb it all. And so he said one of the things that has really changed is when the relief pitchers come in, they're able to more in depth, go over the scouting reports for those relief pitchers whenever he's in the dugout as opposed to maybe just having a minute, minute and a half during a pitching change. And he thinks that that's been a very positive development for this team.
[00:20:12] Speaker C: Yeah. And I would imagine it, I mean what, what would it hurt? You know what I mean? It's like I look at from the reverse side of like, how would this be worse for your team? Like I. It just seems like it's the right, I mean it was the right move and it's, it's showing right now.
[00:20:28] Speaker B: So Dave also gave a couple of injury updates yesterday at Swatters Club. It seems like these two pitchers get asked about every single week and it's because there's a lot of potential there if they can get Gage Wood and Hunter Dietz back in the bullpen. Whether or not they're a reliever or not. I mean just if they can get them back on the mound more than anything else. Well, we've got two clips here. First one is on Gage Wood. Of course, gage got injured Feb. 23 against Michigan, hasn't pitched since then, had a great start to the season, was really pitching well before he got hurt throwing a warm up pitch during that Michigan game. He's right here on the back end of when they said that he might be back. The timeline that was given, the initial timeline for his recovery. And this is what Dave Van Horn said yesterday whenever he was asked how Gage Wood was doing.
[00:21:19] Speaker D: He's coming along. And you know, I don't want to say anything too much, but everything I've seen, see, it looks good and he's not in any. Not having any problems just now. We're building him up and you know, you might see him on the roster this weekend or the next weekend hopefully.
[00:21:38] Speaker B: So Dave and Horn on Gage Wood. Well they, they need Gage Wood back. They need. If nothing else, they just need. There's, there's an energy level and a toughness that he brings to the team that I think that the other players will feed off of. Not saying they're lacking it, it's just there's more right there.
[00:21:58] Speaker C: Yeah. And I mean there's no price tag you can put on that. Whenever you have a guy who just injects energy into your team and you. I don't know. It was just one of those injuries too that it like it in the moment. Like it's hard to like even bring my brain back to that point in the season because the field was so much different just from like you know, the close calls with Washington State and then they lost obviously I think their first game down there and the injury, it just was like oh boy. Like. But just how the teams responded from then it's like just getting a guy back and he's an in state guy. It's just a shot in the arm. And you think about just the nature of injuries with teams on this campus right now of like how whenever you're rolling and you bring a guy back, I think it does nothing but like there's always the concern of like oh, what happens to things were going so well. I don't, I think that's like such a false. Like the guys are all happy to have their guy back and they figured out something without him. I think that you grow from that experience and getting a guy like him back would only help.
[00:22:57] Speaker B: And he's versatile. Yeah, he can fill so many different pitching roles on this team. Him to start, he can do that. If you need him to be a long reliever, he can do that. You need him to close, he can do that. He can probably close two times a week. I don't know if he can do it, you know the moment that he gets back into the swing of things. But I think somewhere down the road he could be a two time a week closer if that's what they need. I'll tell you this because of the injuries in the bullpen to the left handers. You know Parker Coyle is going to be out for a little bit. You're about to hear what Dave had to say about Hunter Deets.
They've got two left handers in the starting rotation with vital she's in root roots not coming out of the starting rotation and I don't know that vital she's will but if you needed to move vital she's back to the bullpen to give you another left handed option at the back. You know, maybe Wood can slide back into that game three starter role. We'll see whether or not that can happen. Of course, Hunter Dietz has only pitched two times for Arkansas, both of them about this time last year. I think once was in late March, once was in early April. He's been dealing with a bone injury in his arm for quite some time. And this was kind of a humorous moment yesterday when Dave Van Horn was asked about Hunter Dietz. You'll hear the question first and then you'll hear Van Horn's response.
[00:24:10] Speaker D: Hey coach, what about Hunter Dietz? Are we going to save him for Omaha? Well, you know, you're getting way ahead of yourself there, buddy.
I'm going to have to condition you after this meeting outside, we're going to go run.
We are not saving him for anything. We're trying to get him right but he's not right yet. So hope he can get right and I hope he gets right real quick. But we'll see, we'll see. He's still throwing. He's not having any pain. It's just not as good as it was and we don't want to put him out there too quick and have it not go good. And then he's thinking, man, I'm not very good right now. So we're taking our time with him. Good question though, except for the one part anyway.
[00:24:55] Speaker C: David Horn, there's nothing like being in a, like he's a coach in a spot where it's just like that being the expectation. I'm like, gosh, you know, they work.
[00:25:04] Speaker B: They walk out of a somewhere. I don't know exactly how it is in the new clubhouse. I know in the, in the old clubhouse. So there was a sign and it basically it said something like Omaha where work for it, expect it, earn it or something like that. And no, like that's the expectations they have for themselves.
[00:25:23] Speaker C: Yeah, for sure. Like I know it's their internal. I just think it's just funny like that. It's like a. For fans like you ask a question, taking it for granted like that you're being the coach of a program where fans are just like. So when you make it to Omaha, like no pressure at all. Just we're taking it as a. It's a granted. But yeah, no, for Sure. I mean, if you're a program like that, I'd be concerned if your expectation wasn't honestly getting there.
[00:25:47] Speaker B: Somebody said something to me yesterday, they're like, why do people keep asking about Hunter Dietz? What has he done to, you know, earn all these questions? He may be the highest rated pitcher I've ever seen get on campus if it's not him. And maybe Carson Wiggins, who's a freshman right now.
The thought is that, and we'll see if he ever pans out to be this type of pitcher. But the thought was that he was a almost sure fire first rounder whenever he would come out of college because he was like a top 5060 prospect out of high school. Top 5060 overall, not like a top 5060 high school prospect.
He turned down, I think, a lot of money in order to be able to come to college. And so hopefully it can, you know, just for his sake. And I mentioned this before, I hate seeing these pitchers who come to college and they turn down a lot of money and then it just never works out for them. I hope he's not one of those. I hope for his sake he's able to, you know, get in there and have some success. But Hunter Deets, we'll see whether or not he'll get into the bullpen rotation, so to speak, toward the end of the season. David Horn was asking about him. Later he said we need another left hander they 100 eats to pitch this year. But as you heard him say, they want him to feel good about himself whenever he's in those games. When we come back, we'll talk Razorback softball with Ethan. He's our softball reporter. They had a big weekend with a series win over Florida. Also had a big win yesterday before they flew home here to Fayetteville. We'll talk about last night's national championship game and more. But first, another word from Kendall King.
[00:27:22] Speaker A: At Kendall King, we're proud of over four decades of design. We're continuing the legacy of great creative design by combining our brands of Kendall King Soapbox and Shopcart. Together, these brands represent a new focus in marketing design with individual attention to specific areas. Through our design expertise, supported by a team of talented professionals, we showcase our best. We are Kendall King. We are Soapbox. We are Shopcart. We are Design.
[00:27:55] Speaker B: Hey, welcome back. I want to tell you about our friends at Bentonville Glass who've been serving their community since 1971. Committed, professional, versatile. If you're looking for a quality leader in northwest Arkansas, looking for skilled craftsmanship. Look no further than Bentonville Glass for all your glass market needs with the highest quality products and come by and see them at 507 South Main in Bentonville or online at bentonvilleglass.com until you can get the latest breaking news on all razorback
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[email protected] softball one of the themes you can read about on our website right now and just announced this morning they are a top 10 team after their weekend series victory at Florida. Florida, previously number two Razorbacks won games there 4 to 1 and 9 to 5 in the rubber game, could have easily Swept Florida lost 10 to 7 on a walk off grand slam last Saturday. Arkansas also beat a kind of a sneaky good North Florida team last night in Jacksonville before they got home 14 to nothing. They run rolled North Florida in five innings yesterday. Ethan covers softball for us. They are on a pretty good run right now. They started the conference play with three, you know, I mean maybe the three best teams in the conference. We'll see. I know they played OU in there who's who's really good obviously. But it seems like maybe those early struggles has built some character in this team and now you're starting to see them really take off.
[00:29:25] Speaker C: Yeah, they want the they started conference play at Ole Miss and lost that series and that's one that they just frankly should want back big time because they're they've proven over the course of the season that they're a better team than Ole Miss. They just had a really bad weekend other than on they were so frustrated I think by losing the first two games that that Sunday they won like 20 to three or something.
The thing about this team, once they get hot they're really hard to slow down and they're just playing at an incredible level right now. You mentioned the game yesterday North Florida. I mean I look at some of these like Warren Nolan, some of these like just the statistic data analytic based platforms that try and predict stuff and they predicted yesterday would be a 5 to 4 win for Arkansas there and I use it these they're actually usually pretty like close war Nolan's is and they beat the heck out of them. 14 nothing. I mean it was not even remotely close and that moved their RPI up. They were number eight in RPI going into yesterday and they moved up to number to number six today after that win and then over the weekend at Florida, I mean they were the better team just to be honest. Like they, they really could have swept that series.
Courtney Diefel said on Saturday. I mean they stranded 18 runners which is insane that to even like have 18 to strand, to be honest, they stranded 18 runners and lost on a walk off grand slam. Like it felt like a game that they dominated for the most part but just could not find a way to like just they couldn't find a way to win.
So they were just clearly the better team than Florida over the weekend. It wasn't on the fluke. They swept Kentucky the weekend before and that came right after a series win at Tennessee. Which Tennessee's. They be OU in a series last week. I mean it's like Arkansas has shown with over the past three weekends. This is the most important thing they've shown over the past three weekends that they can beat anybody. It's just they can't play how they did at the beginning of conference player else they could lose to anybody. It really reminds me of the basketball, the men's basketball team that I covered in the fact that it's like I feel like that Tennessee series on the road that they were not supposed to win. Kind of like I equate it to the Kentucky basketball game where it was. It felt like a get right series for them that it was like it showed them something. They were just, they were having so much more fun that weekend. They looked so much more loose and they've been just like every time you watch them now, it's like they're having a blast. I'm like something happened to y'all that weekend where y'all gained some sort of belief. It's like you, you proved yourself something and now they're starting to handle business.
[00:31:51] Speaker B: And now here comes South Carolina this weekend. South Carolina ranked number six, I think in the poll that we use. Arkansas is ranked 10.
[00:31:59] Speaker C: Yeah, Arkansas in the poll we use South Carolina is 11, Arkansas 10. But South Carolina is number six and two other major public. So there's, there's a lot of from like number six through 12. Honestly there's a lot of just parody across these polls right now. But South Carolina is thought to be like a top 10 team for sure.
[00:32:17] Speaker B: And three games at Bogle park this weekend, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Saturday's game is going to be on SEC network primetime game on Saturday night. Arkansas is 9 and 3 at home this year and the three losses were to OU and two of those were very competitive games.
[00:32:32] Speaker C: Actually all three were the one that they lost 7 to nothing. Was one nothing entering the final inning.
[00:32:37] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:32:37] Speaker C: And then a swinging bunt like just a total miss hit like derailed that whole game park. So they almost got out of was like that things just spiraled there. So I mean you look at the score and that was like you would think that, you know, they, they got blown out in one play, competitive in the other. It was really a close series all along. They just couldn't get fine like the, the hit they needed. They're playing, they play really well at home. And I think that last weekend was huge for them to come off that Tennessee road series. Went and sweep a team at home that was their first sweep at home in a minute since that 2022 season that they won the SEC regular season. So that was big for them to sweep an opponent.
[00:33:15] Speaker B: Briella looks like, look, I mean there's. There's legitimate thought that she's going to be the national player of the year in softball this year. What is it? 20. I lose track of the home runs. 20, 21 home runs.
[00:33:28] Speaker C: Right now she's at 20.
Her batting average as a power, right. Like she's a power righty. Like she's batting 5, 511 in through 37 games. It's like you, you see these numbers in non conference play that are all like it's. We talk about it with baseball or this shit's funny like the first weekend afterward. Like the stats hers have just been like, you know, like you wait for like when is it gonna actually average out and it just doesn't. It's just stayed there. Like that's what's been so impressive. It's like she was dominating in non conf and now she's dominating in the SEC. Her you were talking about ops, loving ops earlier.
[00:34:07] Speaker B: That's a big number.
[00:34:08] Speaker C: 1.9.
[00:34:09] Speaker B: Yeah, 1900.
[00:34:10] Speaker C: Yeah, 1900. I mean it is like, it is insane.
I've not seen like this level of dominance from a player in a hot minute like at Arkansas. It really reminds me what you were saying with like Kevin Cops the year that he had that where you're just like this does not make sense. Like how that's. I watch their games. I'm like this is not making sense in my brain right now. Like how this hasn't slowed down. Talking about the strikeouts. She has 10 strikeouts and 90 at bats. But she's. Her home runs double, her strikeouts, her on base percentages.644.
I mean now she's apparently stealing bases. She like stole two or three bases over the weekend and now she's three.
[00:34:52] Speaker B: For three there and teams aren't pitching to her as much.
[00:34:55] Speaker C: Florida then that was the big thing about this past weekend as Florida. I mean, Bri hit a go ahead home run in the ninth inning when they decided to pitch to her. It's like they have been pitching around her. Then they decided with the base is empty, let's just pitch to her this time. And she had a go ahead home run before the walk off. And so they came, they came into Sunday and they were like, we're not pitching to her. We are not letting her see anything. And then the, the lineup behind her made them pay, which that was huge for the team because I was, I was very curious to see how they'd respond to that because whenever you have somebody who's carrying your team at that level, I mean, she has 59 RBI to see. Other step up. Ella McDowell's now batting.393. Who. She's the freshman from. They played in the same travel program in Houston, Impact Gold. They're. They. This team has a lot of Houston players on it, but the freshman's now coming up and kind of making like defending the senior, like being behind her in the lineup and making them pay. So this lineup, like what we said about baseball, when it gets clicking, like they're really hard to stop.
[00:35:56] Speaker B: Seven players batting over 300. Four of those are batting over 300 in SEC only games. And then on one more note on Ellis, 1900. That's her overall OPS. Her SEC only OPS. It falls down to 1576. Yeah, it's still.
[00:36:12] Speaker C: Yeah, it's so pretty amazing. Yeah. No, and she's really. The thing about her too is her defense is playing at first base. She's all the time in softball, the hot corner, third base and then obviously first base. You're super involved at shortstops are like those, those three positions you better have just nails defenders. And she is so good defensively too. She had an error yesterday against North Florida and I think it was probably her first error in over a month or so. I mean it was even. She's all the time involved in very difficult plays to make.
So I mean she's by far the. I don't think it's even close right now. The front runner for player of the year. It's like you ask anybody who covers college softball and you say, who's the player of the year right now? I don't think they even think about it. They say Briellis. And then it's, to be honest, hers probably to lose because that's how big of a gap she's created.
[00:37:05] Speaker B: And Arkansas's never had a player win national player of the year in softball. I don't know that I've ever really had a player who's been in contention. This is.
[00:37:13] Speaker C: Yeah, Daniel Gibson. Her last year was, like, top five finalist, I think. But this is the first time, like, that year, I think, I mean, that you had OU on there. They're still on their glory run right now, but, like, they had players. You're like, they're gonna win it, but this is the first year that I'm going into an OU fans are like, all. She impressed them that weekend that, oh, you came here where it's like, oh, you softball kind of rules, college softball. Like, their fan base is so big that they, like, get. You hear their opinions the most. And all of them are like, yeah, she's got to win player of the year. So that says something to me that, oh, you fans are even saying, like, that's your player of the year.
[00:37:50] Speaker B: Maybe the best season ever for an Arkansas softball player that we're seeing right now from Briellis again. They played South Carolina on Friday night. National championship game was last night. Florida wins it. Did you win your family bracket?
[00:38:03] Speaker C: No, no. I fell so hard. Like, I mean, I. I was. I had a tremendous first round of this tournament. Like, I'm not kidding. I think I missed three games of the whole first round. I was getting upsets. Well, there weren't many of them, but, like, I got McNeese, right?
[00:38:18] Speaker B: I got McNeese and I got Drake.
[00:38:21] Speaker C: Yeah, see, I. Drake was one of my, like, three misses, but I was cruising. I was like, this is my year. I'm going to win. And then, oh, my goodness. I had the worst picks of all time. From there on out, I will brag on my women's bracket. My women's bracket. I got in the top 98% and I got the entire Sweet 16 to national championship, right? So I got the most important games right there. I got. I even picked UConn to win it all.
But I guess my men's bracket, I mean, it's like, I should have just, like, flipped a coin and done it because I probably would have the same success.
[00:38:53] Speaker B: Women, Yukon winning it. Paige Beckers. I think that was such a cool story for her. If you haven't followed her career. A couple of knee injuries. She was the. She was like the it player. Coming out of high school in the same class, I believe Caitlin Clark.
[00:39:10] Speaker C: That class was insane.
[00:39:11] Speaker B: And she has two knee injuries. We Saw her her freshman year here in Fayetteville when UConn came here and lost to that team with Chelsea Dungy. And when you watch, you know, it's one thing to watch a game on tv, but when you watch a game in person and you're able to kind of track a player and see everything that they're doing as opposed to just when the, you know, they're on camera because the TV's following the ball.
You could tell even as a freshman, she was the best player on that court. And it's no offense to Chelsea Dungy or anybody else, but, I mean, it was just a level of play from her that was then. She has the knee injuries, and then she comes back. I just thought it was a really neat deal for her to win it. And I know some people get, you know, pretty put off with UConn and all the success they've had. They hadn't won a national title in nine years. And the other thought I had as I was watching the women's title is, you know, think about Ariana, the level of greatness that you're watching from that coach that he has passed Pat Summit and kind of, you know, like, made his mark to where you say he is the greatest coach, not one of the greatest coaches. He is to women's basketball, what John McDonald was to track and field, what Nick Saban has been to football, what, you know, to a lesser extent, maybe Mike Krzyzewski was to men's college basketball and just keep going on down the line.
That was really. I just thought that was kind of a neat deal to see her in her career like that. And for him to kind of take UConn through the wilderness. I know they've been going through the Final Four most years, but to bring him back whenever, I think a lot of people thought maybe they would never see that moment again.
[00:40:56] Speaker C: Yeah. And Paige Beckers is probably the easiest player in all of women's basketball. Root for, like, I don't care who you are. Like, people that hate UConn cheer for her because she's just like, what she's went through in her college career. You mentioned the game, like, getting to watch her here as a freshman. That game against Arkansas was awesome. I mean, Chelsea scored 38.
[00:41:14] Speaker B: Were you there?
[00:41:15] Speaker C: I watched it on TV. I was in class.
[00:41:18] Speaker B: Let me tell you a funny story. I was there. Espn. I've done some statting for ESPN over the years, and so they called and asked if I would do stats for them. And basically, what I'm doing is I'm giving the stats and then they're inputting it. And it's stuff that you see on the tv and I think it's stuff that you see on their website, too.
That's called the official stats. Sometimes I would do the talent stats and you sit next to the play by play guy and you're passing them notes throughout the game and they're looking at it and they're deciding whether or not they want to read it or they just throw it away. And if you can get, by the way, if you can get like about a 55 to 60% rate of them, you know, using your stuff, you feel pretty good. But anyway, because that was the season post Covid, it was 2021, you know, you couldn't be near anybody in the arena. So they actually gave me my own suite in Bud Walton arena. And it was just me in the suite doing the stats for. It was just me and my computer doing the stats for espn.
[00:42:18] Speaker C: Did you give them the. Chelsea's scoring in that game was the most by any player against UConn in a win. I think in like over.
[00:42:25] Speaker B: I may have. I don't know.
[00:42:27] Speaker C: Somebody gave him that because I remember that at. But that was. That game was awesome. And that was whenever as a freshman, like, I already knew she was good, but I watched her that game. I mean, Chelsea was that day the best player. But, like, you could tell. I was like, this girl is special, but she.
Yeah, she. The career that she's had has been just so tumultuous. I was happy to see them win because she. I think just everybody in college basketball is like, she deserved that. This. Listen to the top seven recruits of her class. One, Paige Beckers. Two, Angel Reese. Three. Cameron Brink.
[00:43:01] Speaker B: Four.
[00:43:01] Speaker C: Caitlin Clark. Five. Camila Cardoso. Six, Diamond Johnson. Seven, Haley Van Lith. Like, they had like, just. That's. People are saying that is the most like elite recruiting class that there's ever been in women's basketball. Just like that all of them panned out. Like how.
I mean, you got Haley Vanlet, that's seven. Like, that's crazy. But yeah, that. That class changed women's basketball. The class of 2020, which is kind of a cool story because it's like that's the class that got school. The end of it just derailed by Covid. And that's the class that ended up changing women's basketball. Just.
I named all those players that have changed the game.
[00:43:38] Speaker B: Pretty interesting.
[00:43:39] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:43:40] Speaker B: Florida wins last night. Do you think the best team won the national championship?
[00:43:44] Speaker C: Yes, Florida, this is what I struggle with in my bracket, and I fell victim to it. I won't next year. I was picking it and I said, I feel like Florida's got to run out of steam because they won the SEC tournament. They had the super long winning streak. And I said, nobody ever, like, runs. Just keeps it going. But, like, as I was filling it out, I was like, I cannot pick a team that I legitimately feel like is going to stop them. Like, that's how good I felt about Florida. By the end of the year. It's just they were the. They were so good. I was like, I. I feel like they're going to have to have a dud. But, like, I don't feel confident picking anybody against them because right now, just the way that they're playing, the guard play, the inside play, like they had it all.
That team was so good.
And I think that it's honestly kind of scary for the SEC just how Todd Golden's gotten that, that going there. I mean, to close the year the way they did. I'm trying to look real quick, see how many games in a row they won. That's what's so impressive to me, to win, to just keep it rolling like that. Their last loss was at Georgia, February 25th. Like, that's just a run of. Just an incredible run.
[00:44:53] Speaker B: Golden's 39. I saw something last night, said that he was the youngest coach since Jim Valvano to win a national championship. Somebody's going to come after him, you know, whether it be a blue blood program or an NBA team. The question I feel like for Florida, because now it's like this is their modern day Billy Donovan or this generation's Billy Donovan. Donovan won that long ago. Can they keep him?
[00:45:18] Speaker C: And you're talking about Gino Arima leading up. I mean, UConn's way more storied of a women's program than Florida is men's.
[00:45:26] Speaker B: But they weren't when he arrived.
[00:45:27] Speaker C: Yeah. And truly, Florida went through the wilderness of basketball after that run. Well, I mean, ever. Honestly, ever since, like the last year of Billy Donovan, where they started to tail off. I mean, and they're back. That's the thing. And you just wonder if, like, they have enough program history to where golden views this as, like, you know, this is an elite. I mean, obviously it's an elite college basketball program, but, like, is there. There's another tier. We all know that in the college basketball world that I don't think Florida's in historically, but goodness, they are right.
[00:46:01] Speaker B: Now a wagon with three national championships, and all of them have been this century. I would call Florida Purple Blood, you know, where it's like, they're almost blue. They're not quite there yet, but, you know, they're another. Another champion. They're kind of like Yukon, maybe 10 years ago. Another championship or two. You. You elevate them into that.
[00:46:22] Speaker C: And the thing about them is that they just went off the beaten path for so long. This was their first sweet 16 this year since 2017, which for a lot of programs, you know, think of Missouri. Missouri would be thrilled that they had that mean that many years. But if you're like a Florida, that's one national championships you've been to. Let's see, six Final Fours. Like, that's kind of a long time, you know, to go without a sweet 16. This is their first final four since 2014. I think that this is a program that they. Yeah, Purple Blood. It's like, you got to show consistency that this is how Florida basketball is. But, man, when they're good, they're really good.
That's. I'd have to say it's kind of like the. They're boom or bust. They're either really good or they're not doing anything.
[00:47:05] Speaker B: Here's some trivia for you. Who was the last SEC team to win a national championship before Florida?
[00:47:12] Speaker C: Kentucky, probably.
[00:47:13] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:47:14] Speaker C: Yeah. It's been a minute. Were they the last team to even.
[00:47:16] Speaker B: Play in it, too, in 14? Yes. Yeah, I believe that's right. 14. I think Kentucky was the last SEC team to play for a national championship.
[00:47:24] Speaker C: Yeah. And here's. Yeah, it's. It had been a while, and I think that that was probably a really. That was a good thing for the SEC to, like, see a champion come out of this year, because it felt like the year that if there's not an SEC champion this year, like, what more does the conference have to do?
[00:47:41] Speaker B: And I'm not going to mess with, like, what conference they were in at the time that they won the title. But since Kentucky won it, there had been five teams from the Big east that had won a title in the big east now, four from the ACC and two from the Big 12. And so this, you know, I mean, the SEC, they. They like to fashion themselves.
I guess this was a little bit of a validation for the SEC that they were able to have the national champion in the year when they felt like they had the most complete conference maybe in the history of college basketball. They made $70 million off of this NCAA tournament. They got 35. They played in 35 NCAA tournament games. You get about 2 million for every tournament game you play in. Then you put that 70 million back in the pot and you distribute evenly among everybody else and everybody gets a little bit stronger moving forward.
[00:48:29] Speaker C: I mean, honestly, what Arkansas did this year just goes to show you like that that would. That Arkansas team was a Sweet 16 team. That really was a blown lead. I might not be able to say. A blown lead away from. Yeah, away from an Elite 8. Like, that's the depth that the conference had too. But they. The sec. Yeah, I must say it was a lone lead.
We can talk about it now. It's April 8th, but yeah, it was.
You had that type of depth this year too. I mean, and here's just the thing. Like, you knew from the start of the season to the end the SEC was the best conference. And that's hard to do as a conference is to maintain that type of. Just that you're the best and they did it. So, I mean, in Florida, like I said, they, they just go big. Like, if they make it this far, they, they. They've been to six Final Fours and they've won three national championships to. I mean, it's like if Florida's good, they're really good. And I feel like that's. I think we're going to see more SEC teams kind of start doing that with the conference. The investment it has in basketball right now is like. I think we're going to start seeing a lot more really good SEC teams, like championship contending SEC teams.
[00:49:40] Speaker B: If you're wondering what the heck that was about. Ethan caught some crap from a reader whenever he was in San Francisco for San Arkansas blew the lead to Texas Tech, but hard as.
[00:49:49] Speaker C: I didn't even say it.
[00:49:50] Speaker B: Yeah, well, anyway, we won't get back into that. We won't. But anyway, Ethan, appreciate you being here. We hope we see you on our website. Whole Hog sports.com will have coverage tonight from Razorback baseball against Arkansas State at Baum Walker Stadium. Bobby Petrino is speaking to reporters today. First time that we'll hear from him during spring football. That happens at 1:30 this afternoon. We'll have some coverage from that as well. We'll play some sound from that tomorrow on our podcast. Hope to see you then. Have a great day, everybody.
