Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: You're listening to the Whole Hog sports podcast.
[00:00:02] Speaker B: And now here's your host, Matt Jones.
[00:00:06] Speaker A: On today's show, the Razorback basketball team loses to Michigan State in East Lansing. Anthony Christensen was there and he'll join us in studio. We'll also be joined by Blair Cartwright to remember the late Mike Nell. The great Razorback basketball play by play, man. First, a word from Kendall King.
[00:00:19] Speaker C: 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 market 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.
[00:00:45] Speaker A: Arkansas lost in Michigan State, 69 to 66 on Saturday night up at the Breslin center in East Lansing. We'll tell you about it. First one tell you about our friends at Bentonville Glass. They've been serving their community since 1971.
If you're looking for a quality leader in northwest Arkansas or 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 now at 507 South Main in Bentonville or online at bentonville glass.com the glass that was the difference at Michigan State on Saturday night.
[00:01:15] Speaker B: Transition, you like that? That was good stuff.
[00:01:17] Speaker A: Good segue there. It was the difference. Arkansas could not keep Michigan State off the glass, off the offensive boards in particular.
They rebounded over half of their missed shots. I think they, they missed 36. They had 19 offensive rebounds. It didn't lead to a ton of second chance points for Michigan State. I think they had 18 second chance points. But when you lose a game by three points, that's a big difference.
Yeah, in the game. And then Arkansas, you know Michigan State's ability to rebound, they kept Arkansas off the glass for the most part. I think Arkansas had 13 offensive boards, but maybe like three or four of those came off missed free throws. It was kind of an inordinate amount off of missed free throws. The bottom line is that Michigan State, number one, they, they were just a lot tougher and more physical than Arkansas, especially in the, in the, in the interior. And then the other thing I thought was Michigan State, the big contrast that I saw between these teams, in addition to the physicality, was the fact that Michigan State, they worked offensively for their shots. Arkansas work a whole lot for their shots at Least on a number of those possessions. They had a nice possession there toward the end when they got within five or three points where they run a, you know, a double pickup high and they get a nice shot out of that. But for the most part, I'd like to go back and look and see what was the average time of possession for Michigan State and what was the average time of possession for Arkansas. Because I'm going to guess, Anthony, that it was a pretty significant difference, several seconds difference in terms of how long it took Michigan State to get into its offense and how long it took Arkansas to get a shot up. Just a lot of really poor shot selection, I thought, from the Razorbacks. They held Michigan State without a field goal for the last six minutes of this game, but Arkansas only got one. They didn't score a field goal for about the last three minutes.
They had their opportunities to win on a night when they didn't play real well, but bottom line, they didn't capitalize. And I think this is why these coaches like these type of games. I mean, you saw Bill Self take his team to North Carolina.
You saw rick Patino and St. John's play Alabama the other day. You see this game here between a.
[00:03:26] Speaker B: Couple of hall of Fame, Michigan State at New Haven.
[00:03:28] Speaker A: Okay, let's not get carried away, but you know, you had this game here between Arkansas and Michigan State, a couple of hall of Fame coaches, and they just, I think that both of them, Izzo and Calipari, they both knew that, you know, win or lose, there's going to be a lot of benefit coming out of this game. And I think whether it be the rebounding, the physicality, you know, kind of the hot shot basketball that we saw at times from, you know, the individuals at Arkansas, I think there's going to be a lot, they're going to be a lot better equipped to win down the road because they played this game now as opposed to, let's say they play this game in two, two and a half weeks during the Thanksgiving week.
[00:04:06] Speaker B: Yeah, no, for sure. And you mentioned the physicality. I think they were, they were expecting that. John Calipari said they were preparing for a football game going into it. So maybe that was. Maybe Arkansas shouldn't be thinking about football at all. But hey. Oh, sorry.
[00:04:22] Speaker A: Both of these teams are in bad football shape too. Yeah, Michigan State, they've. Their, their losing streak is only one game less than Arkansas. I think both of these fan bases had really put. And to the extent that, you know, not everybody who loves football loves basketball, but the, but there is a large overlap and I think we know that the people who are fans of both at Michigan State and at Arkansas, I think that they have been looking forward to this game for weeks, saying, hey, look, there's finally going to be a Saturday that we can look forward to having a team that, that might win a game.
You know, a game that's got a lot of significance too.
[00:04:57] Speaker B: Yeah, no, and it was, you know, it was a great environment at Breslin Center. I mean, it was, it was even better than what I remembered it from, from the one time I had been there previously. It was, it was awesome. You could tell people were excited about it and it was, it was a ton of fun to be there. And then, you know, the game was entertaining. You know, it wasn't the most beautiful basketball I've ever seen. I mean, Michigan State was, What was it? One of 17, one of 14 from the three point line for 7%.
So, you know, yeah, you're not going to win a ton of games shooting the ball like that. But you know, credit to Michigan State, they found a way. And you know, like you had mentioned, Arkansas really struggled with the physicality, especially early I thought, you know, Michigan State, I thought, really took advantage of, of that. You know, there were times where Arkansas looked as though it was starting to embrace that, but still just not really, not really all that, that, that great. I mean, you mentioned the rebounding. Michigan State with 45 total rebounds to Arkansas or 33. And you know, Arkansas ended up having, I think it was five or six fewer field goal opportunities and that in a game especially like this, that's, that, that really comes back to matter.
So, you know, I'm not super discouraged by, by the performance if I'm looking at it from an Arkansas perspective. And you know, you know, you didn't play your best game. You only get 13 points on 13 shots from your, from your three big men. And you know, you're not the most efficient from, you know, the field in general, shooting 39% but then 25% on 3 and 65% at the free throw line as well, you know, and you're still in a game within with the opportunity to win. You know, I don't want to think or I don't think that's discouraging to go and lose a game, you know, like this against a good Michigan State team that, you know, last season, you know, was much the same. You know, they grinded teams out, weren't exactly the greatest shooting team on earth, but you know, found ways to win. And that's what they did Saturday. So if I'm looking at it from an Arkansas perspective, I'm not super discouraged by it. And then if I'm looking at it from a Michigan State perspective, I'm, I'm pretty encouraged that, you know, you found a way to beat a good team, I think.
And despite, you know, not playing your.
[00:07:13] Speaker A: Best basketball, I felt like this game really came down to who got to control the pace of the game. Because early on, whenever there was that, you know, that it felt like a real tug of war in the first half between, okay, is this going to be a grinded out half court type game or is this going to be a game where the teams are getting out and running in transition?
Whatever Michigan State, you know, they'd had stretches where they were doing well. It was, they were getting it into the half court and they were really, you know, dominating or they looked a lot better in that, you know, in that type of style. Whereas Arkansas, you know, they'd go on a little five nothing run a seven to one run here and there. And you had a lot of transition points where they were able to get out and, you know, get layups, get dunks off of steals or, you know, just whatever the case might be.
And it felt like the real key to me was Michigan State. When they came out in the second half, they were able to establish that, okay, we're going to make you play our game.
And if you're having to play Michigan State's game, that's a, that's a unique kind of game. I mean, there aren't, I'm not saying that there aren't teams that are, you know, not built to play that way, but Michigan State's built to play that way for a reason. They recruit to that style. And when they get you in their game, in their arena, I mean, it just, it felt like that was the big key.
[00:08:29] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:08:29] Speaker A: That Arkansas just could not, for whatever reason, after halftime, even, even when Arkansas was making its comeback, they were having to make a comeback playing Michigan State's style of basketball.
[00:08:39] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, that's, I think, full credit to Tom Izzo and everything that he's done there. I mean, you know, he's, you know, a Hall of Fame coach for a reason and you know, obviously John Caliperi is as well, but on the night, I think Michigan State did a, did a better job of, you know, imposing its style of play and forcing Arkansas into, into, you know, more of that half court offense where, whereas Arkansas wants to play Fast and get out and transition and all of that. And I still feel like there were. There were plenty of things that you even doing that if you're. If you're Arkansas, you can be encouraged by. I thought D.J. wagner had his best. His best game of the season so far. Obviously it's only two games in, but I'm including the exhibitions in that as well.
You know, I thought he looked. I thought he looked good and maybe you wanted to get him more looks. You know, I like that. Darius Acuff and Malik Thomas, are you willing to take the game on to kind of, you know, try to take it over being younger guys? You know, neither of them had their best games, but still they.
[00:09:38] Speaker A: They forced some really bad shots down the stretch.
[00:09:40] Speaker B: No, absolutely.
[00:09:41] Speaker A: Like there were some really key possessions and I would say the last two or three minutes where Arkansas's got a chance to really, you know, make something of this, and it was already a three point game or a five point game or something and just rushed bad shots. Even, even Arkansas getting the look at the end with Trevin Brazil, that was set up was the.
Actually, I think it was. I heard. I heard Caliperi say something on the post game. Basically, they did not think that Michigan State was going to extend its defense out to Brazil.
They thought. And he said that if he could go back and do it again, he would have screened.
[00:10:17] Speaker B: Yeah, I was going to say, I feel like. I feel like in that situation, but.
[00:10:20] Speaker A: I think they wanted Brazil taking the shot. I think they do.
[00:10:22] Speaker B: Yeah. I felt as though that in that situation, if you're going to throw it out to Brazil atop the key, I think you want to do more of a dribble handoff and have somebody coming off a ball screen or something like that, you know, one of Malik Thomas or Darius Acuff. That's. And obviously I'm not a basketball coach.
[00:10:37] Speaker A: Brazil looked like he panicked in that.
[00:10:39] Speaker B: Moment a little bit.
[00:10:40] Speaker A: Maybe the defensive look was different than what he thought. I mean, you're taking a step back three from what, 25ft or more. I mean, just that. That was just not a high quality look at all. Yeah, but, but they. Where I was going with this, they got set up with that possession there because Acuff had rushed a three from the top of the key that had gone off a Michigan State player and created the inbounds, passed the inbounds play to begin with.
[00:11:05] Speaker B: That, that, that also goes back to the shot quality, like the, the shot selection, which, you know, I think everybody would tell you wasn't Great in that game, but kind of parroting off of what, what John Calipari said. You know, he, he likes that those guys are willing to try to take the game on and take it over, you know, despite being, you know, the younger guys.
And, you know. But he also said that there's a lot of teachable moments in that, you know, instead of, you know, taking a shot like that, you know, you have, you know, DJ Wagner, who's playing really well. You can find him and he's going to, you know, he's an experienced hand who can, you can handle moments like that.
So I think there, there's plenty of those teachable moments in a game like this. And, you know, that's why, like I said, if I'm, if I'm looking at it from an Arkansas point of view, I'm not necessarily super discouraged.
Even though, you know, the physicality definitely, definitely needs to be improved. Especially when you look at some of the teams down the line. Houston, for example, Duke, you know, there's, there's Texas Tech, you know, there's a lot of teams that are going to play physical with you, so you need to be ready for that.
So it is good to get a game like this early in the season.
[00:12:15] Speaker A: I think I found it interesting that as Arkansas was making its comeback at the end, they had Brazil available on the bench, but they never went to him until Pringle fouled out and then they had to go to him. They had Billy Richmond on the bench. They didn't go to him. This was a very interesting five man lineup that they kept on the floor. It was Pringle, Acuff, Ewan Thomas and Wagner. That was the group that really finally kind of buckled down defensively. They were getting stops, they were getting enough makes, whether it be, you know, field goals up until a certain point or some free throws after that.
I don't know that I would have thought that that would be the five on the floor that would give you the best chance to win at the end of the game against Michigan State.
[00:12:53] Speaker B: Yeah, I, I can kind of see why you don't want necessarily to have Trevor Brazile and Billy Richmond out in those. In, in that scenario, just because neither of them were having their best games.
[00:13:04] Speaker A: Yeah, so I was gonna say, I think some of it's just feel based on Brazil. It was just that was, it was not as.
[00:13:10] Speaker B: It was not performance.
[00:13:11] Speaker A: It was the Trevin Brazil that I think a lot of people hope that had been locked in a closet and that you would never see again, you know, like last year, they went to Vanderbilt and this new Trevin Brazil emerged. The Trevin Brazil that everybody thought they were going to get when he came here. And he played that way down the stretch last year and he played that way in the exhibition season. He played that way in the first game this season.
Val Trouble played a huge role in his game the other night, but he cannot, I don't. In order for this team to be effective, I feel like they cannot let Trevin Brazil have a 3.2 rebound game where you're playing however many. What do you play here? 16 minutes played 16 minutes. You got to have way more production and minutes from that guy. Like this team, I'm not gonna say they're built around Trevin Brazil, but for them to be good, he's got to be a centerpiece of whatever good they're having that night.
[00:14:05] Speaker B: Yeah, I would agree with that. And you know, it just wasn't, just wasn't a good night. I mean, nobody's going to have a good night every game, you know, or at least you wouldn't think so.
Obviously you're going to have some of those transcendent type players from time to time. Your, your Cooper flags or whoever it may be.
But yeah, it just wasn't, it wasn't a good night for him. And I think that's maybe why you didn't see him as much down the.
[00:14:28] Speaker A: Stretch until obviously I did hustle plays that he made. He made two or three really good hustle plays on defense in the second half, even after he had gotten, I think his third foul. It was between the time that he got number three and number four. He gave them some really quality possessions on the defensive end, even if he wasn't doing a whole lot on offense. They got Carter Knox back Saturday.
I, I said this Saturday night. I thought he looked like the 10 man, just totally rusty.
[00:14:53] Speaker B: Yeah, no, it didn't score.
[00:14:55] Speaker A: Yeah, he got four rebounds, four assists. Those aren't bad numbers. But he also committed four turnovers in 18 minutes. I think you're going to get a lot better. Carter Knox.
[00:15:03] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:15:04] Speaker A: In a week or two once that toe injury is not affecting him as much.
[00:15:07] Speaker B: Yeah, I thought, I thought you could definitely see that. Carter, Carter Knox wasn't near his, wasn't anywhere near his best. And, you know, I think he's, you know, among the most important players on the team. So you're going to need him to, you know, turn it on and be ready to, to be that guy for, for this team. So he didn't, he didn't play very well. Like, I think you could maybe see it kind of getting to him too, as, as well. Just in some of the moments that I looked over at the bench, you could kind of see that it was, you know, it was upsetting him, which you, you want it to because you obviously, you want your guys to care a lot. And you know, he's, he's a guy who I, I don't think you can ever, you know, question that.
And you know, it just, it just wasn't a banner night for him. Obviously he's coming off the, the toe injury. We don't know, you know, how long he had that before the first game. Obviously he played in both exhibitions and, and all that, but we don't know how long he was out before for, you know, out from practice before the, the Southern game. And obviously he, you know, he returns to play against Michigan State and just wasn't, he wasn't the Carter Knox that I think everybody knows. And you know, so that, that was, that was, I think, very tough. If you get, you know, Carter Knox at full strength or, you know, Carter Knox maybe even at half strength, you know, you have a much better chance of winning a game like that. But yeah, it was, it was certainly, you know, among his worst performances since he's gotten to college.
[00:16:30] Speaker A: I think if I were one need.
[00:16:31] Speaker B: Him to be better.
[00:16:32] Speaker A: Yeah, I think if I were one of the coaches, I would say look at what Michigan State did in the last six minutes of the game offensively. And that's whenever you started really making them work on the defensive end. They're not a good shooting team anyway, but what they are good at is they are good at being patient and finding a good shot. And in the last, you know, five, six minutes of that game, they weren't patient. And I don't know how many turnovers they committed during that time frame. I know they had eight of their 14 turnovers in the second half and I would venture to guess that a good number of that eight came in the last five minutes of the game. Arkansas did a good job of, you know, they were double teaming inside, they were taking away some of those passing lanes.
They really made Michigan State work on both ends of the floor. And I think that those last six minutes, those are going to be a really good teaching opportunity for this coaching staff to say, look, if you make them work on both ends of the floor, you're going to have a lot of success here. Arkansas's got to work for shot selection a lot better than they did But I just go back to if you've played five games and then you. Because some coaches, they want to ease into the tough one.
[00:17:38] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:17:39] Speaker A: They want to be 4 and oh, 5 and oh. Before they ever get.
[00:17:41] Speaker B: Coaches don't take the tough ones.
[00:17:43] Speaker A: Some don't.
[00:17:44] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:17:44] Speaker A: And so I just, I think that whether you're KU losing in Chapel Hill the other night, Arkansas losing in East Lansing, the value of getting that loss on your.
Or not even that loss, like maybe you win, but just the experience of playing that level of a team this early the first week of the season, that's. That's a huge deal because it can take some bad. Ha. You know, it's hard to, you know, it's hard to get rid of bad habits. And some bad habits can form in games where you're just totally more athletic and you just roll the ball out there and you're probably going to beat that team even if you have your C night. Right. And so now they have. I think they've learned something about themselves here in the first week of the season that can maybe head off some of those, you know, things at the pass, so to speak.
[00:18:36] Speaker B: Yeah, no, for sure. Like, like you mentioned, that's why you want to play a game like this this early in the season. You know, I think you're seeing that a lot more from, you know, a lot of different teams. I mean, Baylor played against Washington last night and it was a pretty good game. You know, obviously we mentioned it. St. John's Alabama and Kansas, North Carolina, games like that. I think, you know, beyond, you know, being good for, you know, college basketball just in general, to have games like that early in the season, that also gives you an opportunity to see, you know, what your. What your team looks like against teams that are, you know, at your level or, you know, in some cases above your level, some cases a little below your level, you know, the level you expect to see in your conference. I think that's. That's very important, especially, you know, early in the season, like we had mentioned.
[00:19:22] Speaker A: So are we worried about Arkansas defensively at the rim?
[00:19:25] Speaker B: I think you can certainly have some concerns. You know, I didn't get the opportunity to look too in depth at the shooting numbers for Michigan State, you know, at the rim. But I'm trying to remember. I remember I wrote my takeaway story at like 3am Central Time. I was sitting in the airport and Lansing kind of delirious, so I can't really remember exactly what I wrote. But, you know, there were some times that it was concerning you know, you still get six blocks, so, I mean, that's obviously going to be, you know, something that is a plus. You know, you get 3 of those from Nick Pringle, one from Trevin Brazile when Trevin Brazile wasn't anywhere near his best. And I don't think Nick Pringle was at his best either, but, you know, you get some of that.
But, you know, obviously teams are going to want to attack the rim, so.
And I think Michigan State did that pretty well, especially you look at a guy like Cam Ward who, you know, as a freshman came in and played, you know, extraordinarily well. You know, I, I wasn't super impressed with Jackson Kohler's night, but, you know, he got some looks inside.
Yeah, yeah, you know, Carson Cooper as well. I thought, you know, had some, some moments in there where he, he had gotten to the rim. So, you know, can you. Are you concerned? I think maybe a little bit, you know, but, you know, like we keep mentioning, that's why you play a game like this, you know, this early in the season. So you can see maybe some deficiencies with your team. So you can, you know, prepare and, you know, fix those as the season progresses. And, you know, Arkansas's got a, you know, stretch of games here where you can, you know, certainly work on those. You wouldn't expect to, you know, be in any dog fights against, you know, Central Arkansas or, you know, Samford is an interesting team. You know, Lenny, Lenny Acuff's always been a good coach, so, you know, how much. But, you know, it's his first year there and he got hired really late. So how much is, you know, he been able to implement his system there at Samford? I'm not sure. But that's again, another game that you, you know, you don't expect to be in a, you know, you don't expect to be in a war against Sanford this early in the season and if you are, you know, maybe, maybe, you know, raise the red flags a little bit. But yeah, there's there, there, there are some, you know, some worry spots, but I think you're entering a stretch where you can, you know, really address those and, you know, not have to worry super, you know, a ton about the results. Obviously you don't want to get, you know, too, you know, looking forward too much, but, you know, you, you expect to win these games. I guess what I'm, you know, saying.
[00:21:47] Speaker A: We'Re going into a stretch of a lot of seven o' clock SEC network plus games. That's what you're trying to say. And we are. I think there's about 4 of those in a row now before they play Duke on Thanksgiving. I know this. They're going to be a lot happier that they played Michigan State.
[00:21:59] Speaker D: Oh, yeah.
[00:22:00] Speaker A: Before they played Duke. It just.
They're going to be a lot. I don't know if they'll beat Duke, but they're going to be a lot better team, I think because.
[00:22:06] Speaker B: Oh, sorry.
[00:22:07] Speaker A: They're going to play a lot better team basketball.
[00:22:09] Speaker B: Yeah, no, absolutely. And that, that Duke team looks, looks really good. You know, I've gotten to watch a little bit of them and you know, they haven't really played any, you know, super exciting teams yet in the non conference. Duke has. But you know, Cam Boozer looks, looks as advertised. I mean, they did beat Texas. Now that I think about it. Cam Boozer was really good in the second half of that game and wasn't very good. It wasn't good at all in the first half, now that I remembered that.
But yes, you're going to be much happier that you played Michigan State at this stage of the season. Got that exposure. You can learn from it before you go and play against Duke, Texas Tech, Houston, et cetera.
[00:22:46] Speaker A: Anthony, good stuff. You can read Anthony's work at our website, whole hogsports.com when we come back, Blair Cartwright's going to be in the studio with us. We'll talk about Mike Nail. First word from Kendall King, Kindle King.
[00:22:57] Speaker C: 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.
[00:23:22] Speaker A: It has been a somber week here for Razorback basketball. Last week we talked about Dave England passing away, the longtime trainer for the Razorbacks. And then over the weekend, Mike Neil passed away. Mike was the voice of the Razorback basketball team for 29 years. While he was known for basketball, that wasn't the only sport he did. He was the color analyst for Paul Eels and Dave Woodman on Arkansas football broadcast for a lot of years. I know he helped Chuck Barrett in the baseball booth for a time. And then of course he replaced Paul eels for one year on an interim basis after Paul died in 2006 in that car accident. Blair Cartwright is in studio with me. Blair worked with Mike Nell for a number of years. First at 4029, the ABC affiliate here in Fayetteville and Fort Smith, and then also worked with Mike over at the University of Arkansas. Blair.
I spoke to Blair yesterday whenever I was writing the obit about Mike at our site. We won't even be able to touch everything that was mentioned in that obit.
Hopefully you'll go to our website, wholehogsports.com if you want to read more about Mike. But I want to talk to Blair today about Mike Nell and his legacy. Because Blair, in my mind, and I'm not as old as some people, but the.
When you think about sportscasters in Arkansas, Mike Neil is to me, he's probably the second person that comes to mind. I think of Paul Eels and then I think of Mike Nail. And it's not that I think any less of Mike than I do Paul. I would actually say that if you wanted to talk about a technical sportscaster, someone who, if you just close your eyes and. And you're listening to them call the game and you kind of feel like you're there. I think Mike was probably the best that I've ever heard that's come through Arkansas. But he and Paul, as I was thinking about this growing up, you know, we didn't have every game on tv. You couldn't turn on the Internet and watch every game. You had to let them be your eyes at so many places. You might get three football games televised a year. You might get half the basketball games televised if you were lucky.
And so, you know, we had it so good here in Arkansas with those two. Paul and Mike. Mike and Paul, however you want to say their names, they were almost interchangeable. They were the voices of the Razorbacks of their, you know, their respective sports for so long. And they were so dad gum good at what they did.
[00:25:34] Speaker D: Oh, they were excellent what they did. And not only that, they were great people.
I mean, they were always just smile on their face kind. Yeah. I mean, talk about.
I remember growing up in Springdale, I'm shooting baskets in my driveway, listening to Mike call Razorback games. I remember 81, Eugene Nash, the walk on dunks against Baylor. That's Mike. And then it's like years later, I'm working with him. I mean, it was like, for a kid who grew up here, I mean, it was like a dream come true. I'm working with the Voice, and that's why I called him the Voice.
I never called him Mike. I said voice. It was always voice. I mean, he was just he was so warm to everyone.
He loved what he did.
He understood how important it was because, like, you mentioned games. KATV televised some games. But the majority of the time you listen to Razorback basketball on the radio and it was Mike's voice. He became a member of your family because you heard him all the time. You associated him with the Razorbacks and he understood the importance of that and took that very seriously. And I think that's why he was so easy to listen to and so conversational, because he. He understood how to relate to people.
[00:26:56] Speaker B: And he.
[00:26:56] Speaker D: He was the same guy that you listened to on the radio, that he was in. In the sports office where we had so much fun.
And just everywhere. He never. He was not.
He was the same for everybody, to everybody. It was phenomenal.
[00:27:12] Speaker A: You said he's the best boss you've ever had.
[00:27:14] Speaker D: Oh, without question.
Without. He got onto us because we'd spend too much time at the office.
I mean, we'd come in on our day off because we would just. We were having. We were young, we were foolish, but we were having so much fun. He's like, go away.
He would work the holidays so we could be off. I mean, it was just.
And I was talking with some of my co workers the last couple days and we've cried and we've laughed and I mean, it was just. It was a great time to be in television at that time, working for Mike. I mean, it was just an absolute joy.
[00:27:49] Speaker A: We want to play these clips and we'll talk more about Mike. Larry Foley, who's a journalism professor over at the U of A, he tweeted something yesterday that I thought was great. He said, as a broadcaster, you usually get one chance to nail the call that you are going to be remembered for for your entire life. And he said, mike nail nailed it. And really, it's two calls that he's known best for and they happen within a matter of minutes of each other. And we're going to play them back to back here. One is the Scotty Thurman three pointer to take the lead against Duke in the national championship game. And then the second is whenever Arkansas actually clinches the national championship. And we'll play both of those now.
[00:28:27] Speaker E: And was growing short. 10 to go.
15 on the shot clock. Cory Beck takes it to the left side of the floor.
Beck looking inside, nothing there. Spits it out to McDaniel. Exactly one minute to play.
Shot clocks at 10. Beck to the baseline. Spits it out to Stewart, right side. Thurman, he's open for three.
[00:28:47] Speaker B: Good.
[00:28:49] Speaker E: Scotty Thurman with his third. Three. Arkansas leads it by three with 48 seconds to go.
All of Arkansas held its breath. Still make a big player if he makes this last free throw. What a big one. This would be on the way.
[00:29:04] Speaker D: Good.
[00:29:05] Speaker E: Clint McDaniel with the free throw. Arkansas by four. 76, 72. Duke Grant Hill loses the ball. Dwight Stewart Allen to McDaniel. Arkansas wins the national championship.
The Arkansas Razorbacks have completed the dream season and the Hogs have won the national championship. 76, 72 over the Duke Blue Devils.
[00:29:34] Speaker A: So those two calls, number one. I'm getting chills here just listening to those. That came from the old arsn home video that they put together. After Arkansas won the national championship, I wore that VHS tape out. I mean, I could probably. I. It's. It's been.
It's probably been 25 years since I've seen that tape in its entirety. I think I watched it so much as a kid. And this kind of goes to show, like Mike's influence just on me that I could. I could probably still recite almost line by line verbatim the way that that tape went.
[00:30:07] Speaker D: I've had several people tell me that, that have texted me that or reached out and told me that, that they could recite those lines. I mean, yeah, it's still just.
I mean, he was a fan too, and I think he approached it that way with his broadcast.
And that's why he was never too wordy. I mean, he captured it and always had the right economy of words to capture it without being too wordy.
And the emotion and the inflection in his voice, you just feel the. I mean, good lord. That just. Yeah, listen to. That just gives me chills. I mean, it was just.
He just captures it perfectly.
[00:30:51] Speaker A: Mike's voice was. Was not as strong at the end whenever he was doing the games, but in that one. And I heard Chuck Barrett said that this morning on his radio show. He said Mike's voice was as. Like. That was like the pinnacle. Mike nail right there. Just a strong voice. And again it kind of goes back to just the how good he was technically. I mean, you close your eyes and you listen to that bet. Goes baseline, spits it out to Stewart, right side, you see it. And that's what makes a good play by play guy. I say this all the time, that there are people who are in high levels of doing play by play, like NFL play by play announcers, who technically they are not any good. They're just not any good. You cannot you know, if you're driving down the road and you're listening to a game, you cannot really follow what's going on in the game. A good play by play guy is the one who recognizes that.
You know, I am giving a, an account here to someone who maybe they can see the game, but there's a pretty good chance that they can't see the game. Maybe they're driving, maybe they're vision impaired. You know, I mean, like, there's all kinds of things that, that why people listen to radio and versus watching tv, you know, so if you can say, you know, top of the key dribbles to the right side, nothing there kicks it back out, you know, that's the type of color that really makes you a good play by play man. And that's why I say Mike Nehl was as good technically as I think any play by play guy we've ever had here.
[00:32:11] Speaker D: Oh, no doubt. He paints the picture.
You can see it. And that's why I love listening to games on the radio still, because it's the theater of the mind.
And he did it flawlessly.
Flawlessly. I mean, it was rough at the end. I'll admit, it was tough. I had a hard time listening to him because that's just. You could tell he was struggling and that's not how I wanted to remember him. But I mean, just, I can just always see that smile on his face. And he was always welcoming and he interacted with everybody. And sometimes, and you know, you've been in this business long enough, people in that position.
Some people can be a little prima donnas.
Mike was never that way, never big time to anybody. I always had time for somebody.
My gosh, that was before selfies were a thing. But I mean, he would sit and talk to everybody. He made everybody feel important.
And it was just. It was just a joy to be around him.
[00:33:17] Speaker A: And that's how Paul Eels was too. I remember I was a kid and we were at a bowl game and I saw Paul Eels at the hotel and I told my dad, dad, that's Paul Eels. He's like, well, go say hi to him. And I was scared to death. I was like, yeah, there's no way that this guy wants to hear from me. But I worked up the courage and I did it. And he was as nice of a man and Mike was the same way. I never had that interaction with Mike as a child like I did with Paul on a couple of occasions. But, you know, from everything that I've been told he was.
They were Basically, it's amazing. They were two different people, but they were very much kind of one in the same.
[00:33:52] Speaker D: Oh, yeah, without question. Two of the nicest people you ever met and always had. Always remembered everybody's name, no matter where you were on the totem pole, always said something to everybody. And if you made a mistake, it was like, well, you know, it happens. Let's move on. And I mean, just consummate professional.
[00:34:14] Speaker A: You heard that, the video, Arkansas wins the national championship. That's obviously, you know, that's the call.
I was reading a story and I put this in the obit that I wrote on Mike yesterday. In the fall of 94, Nolan said that he had been given a cassette tape by Mike of his national championship broadcast. And Nolan said that whenever he was traveling, he would put this cassette tape in and he would listen to it.
And then, I guess this happened a lot during that off season, going into the 94, 95 season. And he said that whenever he would hear the emotion in Mike's voice and the crowd going crazy in the background, he said that's whenever the magnitude of what they had actually accomplished would hit him.
[00:34:56] Speaker D: Oh, I don't doubt it for a minute. I mean, he.
He captured that moment perfectly. I mean, it's up there with Al Michaels. Do you believe in miracles calls? I mean, it's one of the all time best calls.
And he just nailed it. And it's just forever etched in our memories and. And it's just. We're gonna miss him immensely. But, man, we're so glad that Elsa and Gene and Michelle shared him with this, because there's a lot of people don't. I mean, there was a lot of interaction. I mean, he was on tv. He was the voice of the Razorbacks. I mean, he was an important person in this state.
And everybody felt like they knew him because he was in their homes or on their radios and people were always coming up to him. But he always took time to talk to everybody. And that can wear on a lot.
You've probably seen it, too. It wears on some people. Never bothered him at all.
He loved it. He understood that the voice of the Razorbacks was probably the most important position in this state, and he lived up to it.
But he was more than just the Razorbacks. He loved high school sports.
He was always adamant that we cover high school sports, and he wanted them to get their due. And he wasn't perfect. He got mad when we got our time cut because weather ran long or whatnot, because he wanted the local athletes besides the Racebacks to get some attention.
So, I mean, he was just, he was the ultimate sports guy, ultimate boss.
And always with a smile on his face and a handshake ready it was. And he loved his coffee. Man, did he love his coffee.
[00:36:42] Speaker A: I said he was, he was a multimedia journalist, Multimedia reporter. Before we even knew what that term was. You know, everybody's multimedia now. You know, if you're coming into this industry, you got to know how to shoot video, you got to know how to edit video. You know, you got to know how to get in front of a camera and, and do what we're doing right here. You got to know how to write, you got to know how to do all of this stuff, because those are the people who are the most versatile now. But you think about him coming up in the 60s, he was writing. We're sitting here in the Northwest Arkansas Times building, the old Times building. He worked in this building as a sports writer. Oh yeah, he worked over here, just across the way at KFAY at a news talk radio station. He started Sports Rap. We remember Chuck Barrett with Sports Rap. But Mike Nail is the one who started Sports Rap. And then of course, he spent 39 years up here in local TV or not. Not just here, but also in Oklahoma City and in Joplin too.
Again, he was, he was a multimedia reporter before anybody knew what that was. He was, he was 20 years ahead of the curve.
[00:37:43] Speaker D: Well, he ran the bureau in Pine Bluff for katv. Now, he wasn't the strongest editor. Cheese and I would have to go in and fix up his editing. But yeah, you mentioned sports Rap. My gosh, that was, that was a live call in show that they did on Sunday nights. And there was no delay, no filter. No filter. And he had Frank Brulls on one night. And we always kidded him about this. And people would call in and, you know, prank calls, because that was the thing people did back then. And he's got Coach Brulls on and someone's like, blah, blah, blah, and Coach Brulls, I want to know if you put baby urine on your hair. Well, Mike and Isbel, you could just see Mike just kind of like go.
And so he's not gonna say anything. And Isbel's like looking at Mike like, what do we do? And Mike's like, well, I think we lost that collar. And then Frank, I think Baba would kill me if I put anything on my hair.
I mean, that was probably one of the greatest things we ever saw on television up here. But he handled it like a pro and then they just moved on like it never happened.
[00:38:48] Speaker A: He. I read a story about him whenever he was in Oklahoma, or a couple. A couple of instances in Oklahoma. He said something on the air and he just had to, like, just, Just keep going. Because again, if you go back and you. You bring, you know, you draw attention to something you just said, it makes it doubly worse. And so he was really good at doing that kind of deal.
[00:39:10] Speaker D: Oh, he could ad lib. I mean, it was amazing because, you know, things go crazy behind the scenes and it's like, okay, we've got to fill 15 seconds or 30 seconds or whatever. And it was like, you just shoot him the number, man. He'd hit it the mark every time. It was amazing. Or if this.
[00:39:30] Speaker A: The.
[00:39:31] Speaker D: I can't tell you how many times the teleprompter would go down, the script would get left out of his pile.
You never knew. He never missed a beat. It was amazing.
[00:39:44] Speaker A: I'll be interested to see what the Razorbacks do to honor him and Dave. They play a game tomorrow night at Budwalt, and it'll be the first home game that they played since both of them passed away.
No one, you know, from what I've seen in the past, there'll probably be a moment of silence, I would think, for both of them before the game. But I would think that, you know, and especially I would say for both of them. I wrote something a couple of years ago about banners at Bud Walton arena and how they need to do a better job of recognizing the people who have built the program. And it's not just the players and the coaches. Players and the coaches, obviously, they. They deserve a ton of credit, more credit than anybody else.
But, you know, there are people like Mike Nell, like Dave England, like, like Jim Robkin, like John George. You know, these people who are like, they make Razorback basketball what it is, or they have made Razorback basketball you know what it is. And so I'm really hopeful that, you know, they've. They've got a big backlog of players that they need to have their banners in Bud Walton Arena.
[00:40:44] Speaker D: Something. Something to recognize.
[00:40:45] Speaker A: There needs to be something to. To rec. Because I'm going to tell you, there aren't five other people, I think, who did not serve in a coaching capacity or a playing capacity for the Razorbacks. And I'm talking about basketball in particular here, who had more of an influence on the program than Mike Neil and Dave England?
[00:41:04] Speaker D: Oh, without question. I mean, it was. And then, you know, he went back to the Lenny Van Eemen days, he.
[00:41:10] Speaker A: Started the Lanny Van. Mike Nail started the Lanny Van Eemen basketball coaches. So whenever he had been at katv, yeah, KATV and Little Rock had the rights to the Frank Broyle show, but nobody did a basketball show. And so Mike, whenever he got the job in Fort Smith, he saw kind of an opening there for, hey, this might be something that people are interested in. And they would rent a plane and fly it from Fort Smith out to Drake Field, pick up Lanny Van Eemen, fly him back to Fort Smith to do the show, and then fly him back to Clayettville.
[00:41:41] Speaker D: This is back before the interstate was there.
[00:41:43] Speaker A: Yeah, this was like early 70s, when.
[00:41:44] Speaker D: It would take you an hour and a half to get from Fayetteville to.
[00:41:47] Speaker A: If you're lucky.
[00:41:48] Speaker D: Yeah, if you're lucky.
[00:41:49] Speaker A: If a truck had no return in front of you.
[00:41:50] Speaker D: Yeah, if you didn't get caught behind a truck. So, yeah, it was just amazing. But, yeah, the foresight to do that, incredible. I mean, just the impact he had, not only, you know, with Razorback basketball, but covering sports in our state. I mean, we only saw him up here in the northwest corner of the state, you know, the whole state hurt him.
But, yeah, I mean, just. It was amazing.
[00:42:17] Speaker A: It's a little bit different than whenever Paul died. Paul was still working. He was still, you know, he was still on air. And that was such a shock. It was so unexpected, sudden. With Mike, you kind of knew this was coming. You know, he's been off the air now for 15 years. It's just. It's a different feeling than what we felt almost 20 years ago whenever Paul died. But I. I just go back to Mike. Nell was as giant of a sportscaster as we've ever had.
[00:42:42] Speaker D: No question about it. No question about it.
Legacy that just will live forever.
[00:42:48] Speaker A: Mike was 80 years old.
We don't know any memorial arrangements, not at this time. I would suspect there will be something that's announced here in the next day or two, and we'll be starting to pass that along whenever we hear it again. Mike Nell passed away at 80 this weekend. Just what an awesome legacy that he leaves here in Arkansas.
The sports world, the media world, you name it, it feels like he had an impact on it. Blair, appreciate you being in here and we appreciate you all being with us today on our show. We'll be back with another one tomorrow. Hope that we see at our website Whole Hogsports dot com. Have a great day, everybody.
