Arkansas women's basketball coaching search; role for new Razorback GM

[00:00:01] Speaker A: You're listening to the Hog Sports Network daily podcast. Now here's your host, Matt Jones. [00:00:09] Speaker B: Happy Wednesday to you. A lot to get to today. Mike Neighbors out as Arkansas's women's basketball coach. We'll talk with Ethan Westerman about that. Arkansas reportedly has a new GM for the athletics department. Razorback football continues spring practice yesterday. Arkansas baseball beats UCA last night at Baum Walker Stadium. We'll talk about all of that today. And oh yeah, there's SEC basketball tournament, which by the time you listen to this, the game may have already started, may have already ended. But we'll talk with Ethan about that too. He's in Nashville. He joins us now on Zoom. Ethan covers women's basketball and men's basketball for us. And Ethan, this Mike Neighbors news kind of, I would say it probably came a little bit out of left field yesterday because, you know, I think we all kind of had the impression that he was going to be back next season. What do you think changed maybe in the last 48 hours or so? [00:01:00] Speaker C: Yeah, it certainly gives the impression he's going to be back whenever. You know, they recognized Izzy Higginbottom at the last men's game on Saturday for her accomplishment of being the single season scoring record holder. And he's on the court with Hunter. You're checking Izzy and that just, that just gives off the impression that you, that you're still here and they're invested in you. It seems to me like something may have changed in the sense of, of course he, he did resign, but I mean, he had a buyout which just put two and two together. I mean, I think it's pretty clear they probably reached some sort of negotiation. And I don't think that you do that unless you have somebody on your radar who you think that you can get and that you're very invested in or I mean, maybe they got some financial backing for a negotiation. I don't know. It did come out of left field, you know, yesterday it's, we got in about a 30 minute span. Just all the news happened in the world regarding the athletic program. We had that happen and the GM hiring. It was just a crazy 30 minutes and it all came out of left field. I mean, I don't think anybody who watched their season this year is surprised that they're moving on from memory, needing to make a change. But I do think it's one of those things where the timing of it was a little bit off. [00:02:13] Speaker B: Mike Neighbors, eight years at Arkansas had a good run, really over the first. I would Say, half of his career. A little bit of a bumpy start to it, but they had three straight, or should have had three straight NCAA tournament teams. The tournament didn't get to play in 2020. That was probably Mike's best team. That team was 24 and 8. Chelsea Dungy was having a big time season that year, and Arkansas didn't get to play in the tournament. They went in 21, got upset by Wright State, went in 22 and lost to Utah, who was a higher seed. Both of those tournament games were down in Austin. And Ethan, you've made a good point before that. If the 21 tournament had been a normal tournament, you know, it had to be played at all those sites in and around Austin, down in Texas, that Arkansas would have hosted an NCAA tournament first and second round that year because they were a number four seed. It's interesting. I think we're always going to look back at Mike's tenure and say what might have been. What might have been had the 2020 team been allowed to play at the NCAA tournament. What might have been at Arkansas been allowed to host a 21 NCAA tournament. He coached at a very unique time. And I think that that certainly affects, you know, his legacy, if you will. [00:03:27] Speaker C: No, certainly. I mean, everything about that 21 tournament was just weird. And the fact that they played it at UT Austin, at their old arena down there, and then it was one of those games that, yeah, it just. It didn't feel like a normal NCAA tournament game. Arkansas was really good at home that year. They beat UConn and Baylor on their home court. They stomped Alabama on Senior Day. And it was not a bad Alabama team. I mean, they were really humming at the right time that year, like, as far as just playing well at home. And then they get. They lose that game. And that kind of. I don't know, it was kind of the start of the end, in my opinion. If you just kind of look at how things played out, I mean, because that was the team that could have made a run and, you know, really helped them out. It's. It's interesting because I think about it with him and Mike Anderson, both, same amount of time, right, that they were at Arkansas, but two different types of programs. Because we've talked about this with Mike Anderson. Arkansas men's basketball is expected, you know, to take that step that it's had in the past and, you know, make it to the sweet 16 and beyond and make those type of runs. The women's program just doesn't have that type of history. So I think that it was just different circumstances. As far as the leash that you get is to really to make a difference and get the women's program where it needs to go. I mean, Mike neighbors, people are going to look back at his senior and he's one of the better coaches that has been here. I don't know if that's saying more about the program or him, but he is what he accomplished here. Not many did, not many have. So, yeah, there's a lot of just go back in time and you wonder, had things gone differently, if it would have helped out, you know, his future at Arkansas. And it is one of those instances too, where you look at when it started to kind of tail off and the regression started to happen. It does coincide with whenever a lot of changes started happening in college sports with Nil, with the transfer portal, it all kind of hit at once. And it seems like the women's program was just not built to. In a position where it could handle all that. So he's a. He's a guy who. He worked his way to get that job. It was his dream job to coach the Razorbacks. And I don't doubt that he wanted nothing but success for the program. So you feel for a guy who just couldn't figure out or maybe didn't have the, you know, the resources needed to figure out all those changes that hit him all at once. And it was just. Yeah, this last year, I don't think it ended on a sour note because of how the season went. But if you look back on his tenure as a whole, I think that he's a guy who kind of like Mike Anderson, I think, put him in a better. Got him in a better situation than they were when he took over. [00:06:01] Speaker B: And there were some good moments when he was at Arkansas. You think about it. I mean, think about the coaches he beat. He beat Gino Auriemma, he beat Kim Mulkey, he beat Don Staley. That's pretty incredible when you kind of step back and think about it. I think there was a lot of. [00:06:13] Speaker C: Gary Blair, his mentor. [00:06:15] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. You know, I think when you. I think there's a misconception that Mike took over this, you know, program and ran it into the ground. I don't think that that's the case at all. He took over a program that was in a very bad spot after three years of Jimmy Dykes. They were really bad in Dykes last year. Not as bad in Dykes last year as they were in Neighbors last year, I will say that. But from A record standpoint, it was really bad. I think they were 2 and 15 in the SEC. Obviously, this year they had three SEC wins, but their losses were so bad. I mean, like, was it nine of 30 points or more in SEC play? Just to point out, though, what Ethan said is, you know, it may say more about the program. Neighbors, third most wins by an Arkansas women's basketball coach. Gary Blair and John Sutherland are the only ones who have more. And then this. The stat that you had in your story yesterday really stood out to me, Ethan. Gary Blair has the highest SEC winning percentage of any Arkansas women's basketball coach at 41.9%. Neighbors was right there with them at 40.2%. And Gary Blair has thought very highly of in the years that he had at Arkansas. But it just goes to show you that this is a program that has not really ever had a whole lot of success. And it feels like there's going to have to be some sort of new commitment on the, you know, department level for women's basketball to take another step at Arkansas, because it just feels like they're. They're stuck. It feels like from a resource perspective, they're not anywhere near what some of the other SEC teams, like South Carolina and Tennessee and LSU and others are doing. Texas is in that conversation, too. Now, it's going to take a real change, and I think it's going to take a real change more than just whoever's at the top of the program to get women's basketball on a different level in the sec. [00:08:07] Speaker C: Yeah. And I'm going to start here. I think you got to get the fan base just excited about it again. I mean, this was by far from the years that I've gone to the games, though. And it all correlates with record and talent and how you're doing. But, I mean, number of the amount of people in the seats was just down. I mean, it just. There were not many people going to their games. And I think that it's one of those deals where you have to start with getting the try and get, you know, like a grassroots type of effort. I think Mississippi State's always done a pretty good job with their women's program of getting kind of a grassroots, like, fan engagement there. I think that that helps out with just. I don't know, it's just where you have to start is giving the fans, like, a reason and a coach that's getting them excited to get there and to get behind a team. But, yeah, a lot of these programs that are, you know, kind of taking over the limelight in the sec. You think of South Carolina, you think of lsu, Texas, these programs all either come from a place of their. Historically, a great program like Tennessee is going to always support women's basketball. South Carolina's built that legacy under Don Staley, or they get players that just really excite people. And so it's whoever comes in, it's just you got to, you got to find ways to excite a fan base that, quite frankly, hasn't been excited for the past few years. But it's been a. It's been a weird last couple years for the program because there was that excitement for a lot of his tenure. Whenever they had Chelsea Dungy and some of those other really great guards, there was excitement and people were starting to get behind the team and then it just kind of tailed off. [00:09:45] Speaker B: So. Okay, so let's talk about. Oh, go ahead. [00:09:48] Speaker C: I was, I was going to say a long way to say, I think that you just got to find a way to get the fans excited again. [00:09:53] Speaker B: Well, so, I mean, this kind of, you know, feeds into that. I don't know that I necessarily want names, Ethan. You know, I mean, there's. There's some so called, you know, some hot names out there in women's basketball right now. People who think, you know, might be on the move this off season, whether it be Arkansas or one of the other big jobs that has come open. I wonder what you think, Joe, just from a qualifications standpoint, like, like, what qualities do you think Arkansas is looking for in the next women's basketball coach? [00:10:27] Speaker C: I think right now, maybe more than ever, you need young and hungry. Just a coach who can relate with this younger generation really well as far as. I just think there it goes. So far, if a player can look at their coach and really relate with them and feels like they are wanting their best on and off the court, but it's also something that, like, I don't know, that they can respect. Like, a former player is always great. I think, I think that there's what Tennessee did at hiring Kim Caldwell, who was a pretty dominant Division 2 coach, had a really good year at Marshall and so proved she could win at a higher level than they hired her. And she's in one year gotten that program really invested in there. I mean, Tennessee's always going to be invested in women's basketball, but like, they ascended to like, I think number 10 or 11 this year in her first season, and they really weren't expected to do that well. And I think it's because they have a team that really bought into this younger coach who's hungry to win and had played before and kind of just knew how to relate with players. I think they got to have somebody who with all these changes we've mentioned with the NCAA and Nil and all the things that come with it now, somebody who doesn't shy away from it and kind of embraces it. I think that if I'm, yeah, if I'm naming like my top three or four qualities, I'd say young is preferable right now. I think hungry to win, I think proven winner. I think that's important. And I think former player, those are kind of the boxes that I like to check in the women's game right now. [00:11:58] Speaker B: There's. I want to ask you about two coaches in particular. Two that I think are going to be, you know, big names in this cycle. There's Molly Miller who kind of fits that Kim Caldwell model. You know, she was, I think she won a Division 2 or certainly had a lot of success at Division 2 up at Drury in Springfield. She's at Grand Canyon right now. And then the Fairfield coach who we saw at the beginning of the season, they're in the midst of another really, really good year this year. [00:12:26] Speaker C: Yeah. And I think that something interesting about both of those, yeah, they've proven that they can, they can coach these, these smaller teams and sustain success. And I think that that's what's important is not one hit wonders at their, at their level. They've kind of taken over their conferences and proven that they can kind of maintain that stronghold at the top. I think that Miller is certainly right now the hottest name on the market because she has been honestly since before the season started. And then they had another great season. She was already kind of looked at as she could be next. And then Fairfield's coach, she's. She hasn't coached Fairfield as long as Molly Miller coach Grand Canyon, but she's already just proven that she has what it takes to, to run a program and keep them maintained at the top. I just think that they're both younger, they both have a big time like basketball background. Fairfield's coach, her brother and her dad have had WNBA coaching experience. Experience. I just think that there's a lot of these younger coaches who have what it takes for the next level and they just need an opportunity to be honest. [00:13:38] Speaker B: Fairfield coach Carly Thibaut Adonis and we saw her earlier this year at Bud Walton Arena. They came in and you know, beat Arkansas in the season opener was really impressive. All right, so you're in Nashville. You're, you're sitting in, in, in Bridgestone arena right now somewhere back in the, you know, back in the dungeon downstairs. Argus is going to play there here in a little bit. I don't want to spend a whole lot of time talking about this game because again, a lot of people probably going to listen to this after the game is over. But you spent some time yesterday watching their practice, talking to the players, just, just what's the feeling there around town? [00:14:15] Speaker C: Yeah, you know, it's interesting because I think it got blown up this week, the whole comment that John Calipari said about. I mean, I don't want to quote him verbatim, but the gist of it was like, we're not super concerned about the SEC tournament, we're concerned about the NCAA tournament, but I do think that there is the sense of they want to win a game, at least a game or two here. I don't think they're coming to Nashville. Just wanting to, I mean, losing to South Carolina puts yourself in a pretty precarious situation as far as if you're trying to, number one, make the tournament, number two, avoid playing in Daytona. So I think that the vibe is kind of from Arkansas fans who are here, which there's quite a few. We've seen them out and about. They want to see Arkansas win a few games here. The team they were. It was interesting because in that arena they, they kind of started off, it wasn't a true practice. Like it was labeled practice. It was really just like a shoot around. But they were kind of cold at first. I was noticing like, weren't hitting shots and by the end of it they got really warmed up to those goals and they. I was seeing a lot of shot making. So I'm, I think that's like the number one thing you watch for in a tournament like this is how a team shoots kind of off the bat. And I think that if they can shoot like they did at the end of their shoot around yesterday, they'll have a shot. They just can't do what they did against South Carolina the first time and miss everything. So anyway, it's the vibe around here. I just, I sense exactly what Cal's quote was. It's almost like we're coming here, we don't want to, we're not coming, coming here to lose, but we're not like living or dying by results at the SEC tournament. [00:15:47] Speaker B: Yeah, his direct quote, and this was from his video coaches show over the weekend. He said, I don't care about the conference tournament. And then he went on to say the tournament that matters is the NCAA tournament. Hey, I was wondering, Bridgestone arena is a hockey arena. It's where the Predators play. Is it cold in there? [00:16:05] Speaker C: Yeah, it is. It's funny because I was a manager in college for a few years and came here and worked this and this tournament like, and I remember rebounding for the guys. I was like, it's kind of chilly in here. And I was kind of reminded yesterday of that. It just, I mean, it's, yeah, like you said, it's a hockey arena, so they gotta keep it a little bit cooler than typical. And it's, yeah, it's, I, you can feel it a little bit. [00:16:31] Speaker B: I mean, there's a hockey rink underneath the basketball floor for these games. [00:16:35] Speaker C: It's a cool, it's a cool arena. I'm, I really like. Well, number one, I think most people like just the feel of Nashville in general out. It's one of those big cities that has a distinctive feel to it. And this Bridgestone arena is just, you know, smack dab in the middle of all of it. And it's, yeah, it's a cool vibe here right now with all these teams flowing in. And now with the conference at 16 teams, you know, two more fan bases getting to come to Nashville. It's it. You can feel a buzz here for sure. [00:17:02] Speaker B: So you can get the latest breaking news on all Razorback sports at WholeHogsports.com, most in depth source for all Arkansas sports analysis, latest in recruiting, unique stories on all your favorite teams. Subscribe [email protected] right now you can read Ethan's story. Arkansas women's basketball coaching Search five potential candidates. It's on our site and obviously Ethan and Anthony and our photographer Hank Layton are in Nashville and they'll have plenty of coverage from the SEC tournament later today. Ethan, enjoy yourself. [00:17:31] Speaker C: I'll try. It's been a pretty hectic 24 hours, so expecting nothing less from this basketball. [00:17:38] Speaker B: Tournament, hopefully it'll calm down a little bit for you, Ethan Wesley. Ethan from Nashville. When we come back, Christina Long's going to join me here in studio. We'll talk Razorback football, Razorback baseball and this new GM that reported higher for the Razorbacks. 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You can come by and see them now at 507 South Main in Bentonville or online at bentonvilleglass.com Report yesterday says that Arkansas has hired a general manager for all sports. This is reported by John Rothstein of CBS Sports and he says that the new GM is going to be Remy Cofield, who is with the Boston Celtics right now as their director of scouting. You know, this kind of Christina Long's here in studio with me. It kind of jives with what we heard or let me take a step back when a week or so ago Sam Pittman referenced the general manager, he was asked about it a couple of times at his press conference. You talked to someone and they told you, hey, I don't know that I would call this a football gm. And, you know, you and I were talking about what that might look like, and I said, you know, it wouldn't surprise me if they had a GM for all sports or maybe at least for the big sports on campus. And that appears like this is what this is. It's going to be somebody. Arkansas hasn't confirmed this hire yet, by the way, but it appears that they're going to hire somebody who's going to be in charge of distributing this 20 and a half to 22 million, whatever the number might end up being in revenue share next season. They're going to be in charge of that. How, you know, how they interact with the different sports I think is probably yet to be seen. Wouldn't surprise me if maybe you have some assistant GMs from those sports who they report to this GM over everyone who says, hey, this is what football needs. And so, you know, and we'll see. Maybe they. It wouldn't surprise me, Christine. I guess where I'm going with this, it wouldn't surprise me if maybe some of the directors of operations in these sports if they may take on like an assistant GM title because, you know, they're already kind of the go between sometimes between, you know, the head coach and different elements of the administration. So what Maybe wouldn't surprise me. Some of them take on assistant GM titles and you know, they go and they tell this gm, hey, here's what we need. But this is interesting because what we've seen is whether it be, you know, usc, Alabama, ou, you know, the trend is to hire a football gm and Arkansas is going a little bit different direction with this, where they're going to, it appears, have someone who's over everything. [00:21:23] Speaker D: Yeah. So this is a really interesting move. You know, like you said, we had talked, we were writing about the football GM thing after talking to Coach Pittman about it and somebody told us, you know, maybe don't call it a football GM because it might not be that title. And we said, what's the title then? And they said, we don't know. So and then, and then we learn this information. So I mean, I think it is interesting. I do not think that there is another power conference school that has gone this route as far as an athletic department wide gm. Now, not every other power conference school has hired any form of gm. So it's not necessarily like Arkansas is the only one doing this. You might see other schools do this. I think some non power schools have maybe done this. I don't know in specific which ones, but I think that's kind of some of how some of the, you know, group of five schools are going about it. And you know, so we learned a little bit more information about this because Hunter Yurichuk, he did not go on the Chuck and Bo show, but he did speak to Bo Mattingly and so kind of spoke through, threw Beau Mattingly on their show this morning and he said the eventual plan is going to be to have an assistant GM for every sport. You know, whether that comes externally or somebody who's already within the program, like a director of ops. You know, he, he talked a lot about how he basically said, you know, we have not officially made the hire, like it's not a done deal. But he said this is the guy that they're going for. So sort of confirmed. And you know, I think one, there, there's a couple of points of confusion that have come up, I think as, as we've been talking about this. And one is, okay, what is this? Where does nil come into this? This is not because Arkansas Edge is also looking for an executive director. This is not that. This is very clearly not that. This person will not be over nil funds. They will, I'm sure, work with Arkansas Edge. That would make sense to, to make a plan for the full, you know, Compensation picture for some of these guys, but they are not actually in charge of that money. And they. I don't think we'll be able to tell them necessarily what to do. [00:23:11] Speaker B: The. The pay for play wheel has got a lot of parts to it, whether it be the nil collective, this position, Obviously the head coaches, they want to have a say in what's going on. You got the. I mean, I don't from. From. From a pure pay for play. The Razorback foundation is not part of it, but they're part of a grander conversation that I think you have to have with this. It's crazy. I mean, it's crazy. All the different parts that are going into this. I know that you thought about this because you wrote about it, and I'm going to read it. Remember Sam's quote whenever he was asked about the gm, and it was something that we both thought about kind of right away when we heard this news. He said on March 6, quote, I want somebody that's done it. So you may have to go to the NFL, NBA, whatever, to find somebody like that. He said, we need a negotiator. Be honest with you. I need someone that takes the. Well, Coach Pittman won't give money to me. Coach Pittman won't give it to me. I need that taken off my plate. I need somebody to be ahead of what the market is. And if you work in an NBA front office, certainly you've got, you know, I don't know exactly, you know, what his role is, but you are at least familiar with agents, contract negotiations, you know, salaries, contracts. This is somebody who at least has got some familiarity in those areas. [00:24:38] Speaker D: Yeah, it's. It's so funny. As soon as we got this, the word about this NBA person, I thought back to that quote, because at the time, I thought it was kind of weird, because at the time we were talking to him, we were asking. We were all kind of under the impression, okay, they're going to hire a GM for football, like everybody else in the country has done. Because we had been told, you know, he had told us we're aiming to have one around April. So we were kind of trying to follow up. Like, where are you at with that? Where's your. What do you want in your gm? And so I thought it was kind of weird at the time that he would mention NBA. I was like, it would be interesting if they brought in an NBA person or somebody with an NBA background for the football club, and here he is. It's so funny. So. But I think that's the other point of confusion that we're seeing early in this, is that people are like, why is an. And why is a basketball guy going to be in charge of football? And the answer is, he's not just in charge of football. And also, he is not the understanding. And this is something that, you know, Bo and Hunter Yurichek kind of talked about on their show, or at least that Bo said he had talked to your check about. This is not somebody who is going to be evaluating football talent and saying, this is who you should go get, Sam, the coaching staff, you know, he might be involved. He might be in the room when those things happen, and he will be involved in saying, this is what you can pay for. [00:25:46] Speaker B: Football coaches aren't giving up that. [00:25:47] Speaker D: Exactly. And. And Pittman said that somebody asked, you know, what will this be? And he said, I am, you know, as long as I am the head coach, I'm making these final decisions. Like, this is my role. This is my staff's role. And so this, you know, he might be. He. And whatever, you know, if they have an assistant gm, something like that, those people will be involved in conversations because their job is to actually go to those people, negotiate the contracts. Their job is to tell the coach this is. These are the resources that you have. Do with them what you will, basically. And so, you know, his job is to, like Pittman said, kind of be the bad guy. You know, he's the guy that is, you know, not giving the money to. To a certain player rather than a player, you know, so a player's not coming into Sam's office and going, why won't you give me this money? And I. So I think that's. That makes sense. But. So I think people are getting a little bit hung up on the basketball of it all. And. And this was something that Beau talked about, and that I'm sure hu impressed upon him in their conversation is, you know, this is not something. I think there's an idea that Caliperi, like, hired this person or connected them. [00:26:43] Speaker B: I can see a connection. [00:26:44] Speaker D: Apparently, Caliper doesn't really know him. Apparently. I mean, and this is what Bo said from your check. I recommend listening to that clip they posted on their social media. [00:26:53] Speaker B: He said this visual of speaking through Bo. [00:26:56] Speaker D: Yes, that's exactly what I mean. That's exactly what it sounds like when you listen to it. Okay. And he met him through Doug McMillan and Stevens, which is interesting. So supposedly. So, you know, this is not necessarily a Caliperi, you know, strong arming or Making a hire or serving as a AD in any way is the understanding. So I think people are getting a little hung up on the basketball of it all. I think it's more about the fact that this person has dealt with agents, and dealing with agents is something that coaches like Sam Pittman do not want to have to do. [00:27:29] Speaker B: For those who don't know, Doug McMillan is the CEO of Walmart here in Bentonville. Now, you got me all thrown off. I wanted to make sure that I said Doug McMillan's title correctly. So I googled it here as you were talking, and now I've totally lost my train of thought. Where we were going. I know where I was going. It's hard to find a lot of information on Cofield. [00:27:52] Speaker D: It is. [00:27:53] Speaker B: We know I played college basketball at Penn for a couple of years, and you. I thought this was funny. [00:27:59] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:28:00] Speaker B: Usually you go to a team's website and you find stuff about him. You had to go to his LinkedIn. [00:28:04] Speaker D: I went to his LinkedIn. Yeah. I couldn't find it because, you know, NBA front office is. It's not like an athletic department necessarily, where they have, like, the staff directory and everybody's got a bio. [00:28:12] Speaker B: Oh, and everybody. I mean, it's not just a bio. It's like. [00:28:14] Speaker D: It's a resume. Yeah. And you can't really find. I'm going to pull up the. I'm going to pull up the LinkedIn. So, I mean, he's been with the Celtics organization for, like, 11 years. Almost 12. He has an MBA from Bentley University. I don't know where that is. I would guess it's in the Northeast. He's from Massachusetts. [00:28:28] Speaker B: Keep talking. I'll Google it. [00:28:30] Speaker D: Google Bentley. I meant to look it up before, but, yeah, he's from Massachusetts. He's been with the Celtics for, I think, most of his professional life. Where's Bentley, Massachusetts. Okay. That's what I thought. I guessed right. So, you know, he has Walton, Massachusetts. He's worked with the main. Can I say something? [00:28:44] Speaker B: I'm always, like. I'm always afraid to say the names of towns in Massachusetts because, like, about 70% of them. How you think you would say it's like British towns? [00:28:53] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah. [00:28:54] Speaker B: I mean, it's like. Well, I'm not even gonna say the name of that town. So anyway, continue. [00:28:57] Speaker D: So, yeah, I mean, he's. He's been a scout. He's been, you know, director of scouting. Most recently, he's been a basketball operations assistant. He was the GM of the Maine Celtics, which is their G League operation. There so, you know, he's. He's worn a lot of different hats, mostly in kind of scouting and management type of roles. I think he's fairly young. I mean, you know, I think it's an interesting move. I'm. I'm curious, you know, somebody on our message board was asking, do you think we'll get a press conference with this person? I would be kind of surprised if we do. But that's mostly based on other schools have mostly not had them. I think Oklahoma had one with their football GM that they hired the Senior bowl executive and. But I think the norm has been not to. But also the norm has been hiring sports specific general managers. Not one for the whole department. Maybe because it's the whole department, they would be more likely to have one. I don't know. That'll be up to them. Obviously, there's. We have a lot of questions for Mr. Cofield, if and when he gets here, if and when they make it final. So I think it'd be great to have that availability, but I am not expecting that we will get a chance to talk to him. [00:30:01] Speaker B: It's like I would look at this word and I would say Gloucester, isn't it? [00:30:05] Speaker D: Gloucester. [00:30:06] Speaker B: Gloucester, yeah, Gloucester. [00:30:07] Speaker D: I think I've been there. [00:30:08] Speaker B: Well, you don't say ours in Massachusetts. [00:30:10] Speaker D: Oh, right, right, right. [00:30:11] Speaker B: They sell these shirts, you know, havid H A H V A H, D. [00:30:17] Speaker D: So I like it. Lean into. [00:30:18] Speaker B: I talked to someone like that. I talked to someone whenever I went there, the last. Or there once. I'm not a world traveler, trust me. But when I went to Boston, you know, they. Where are you from? And Arkansas. Well, the way you know. Arkansas. Arkansas, yeah. I mean, it was. How do you spell that? [00:30:36] Speaker D: Yeah. You said your son really wants to go to Boston, Right. It's like his dream right now. [00:30:40] Speaker B: It's like he won't get off our backs about it. It is. And he thinks he's going to Boston this summer. [00:30:44] Speaker D: That's so funny. [00:30:44] Speaker B: He's seven and he wants to go to the JFK Presidential Library. [00:30:47] Speaker D: That's amazing. [00:30:48] Speaker B: So, yeah, you can ask. [00:30:50] Speaker D: You can. Hey, DM Remy Coviel on LinkedIn and ask for Boston recommendations. [00:30:55] Speaker B: There you go. It's all been figured out. We come back, we're going to talk Razorback baseball. Their win over UCA spring football continued yesterday. We'll talk some about that, too. But first, another word from our sponsors at Kendall King. [00:31:08] 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 Shop Cart. 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. [00:31:40] Speaker B: Welcome back. Somebody asked Sidney, our producer asked during the break about Pat Bradley. Did you ask about Pat Bradley, Sidney. [00:31:48] Speaker D: Or was it you that was Sidney? [00:31:49] Speaker B: Okay. I thought so. [00:31:50] Speaker D: You're confusing your two blonde girls in the office. [00:31:52] Speaker B: Well, I'm losing my mind is what's happening. And I'm trying to tell a story from 30 plus years ago, but I was asked how Pat Bradley says Arkansas and I'm sure he says it with an accent. He's never lost his accent. I'm not sure where Pat lives now. I know he lived in Little Rock for a number of years and he never lost his accent whenever he was living in Little Rock. But the story goes that when Nolan Richardson found Pat Bradley, he was actually going to somewhere in the northeast to recruit Ron Mercer who ended up playing at Kentucky and being really good for them. And he saw Pat Bradley at this AAU game and Bradley was having just a phenomenal game. And I guess, and I hope I'm telling the story correctly, but Nolan went up to him and said, what's your name? And I'm Pat Bradley. He said, what position you play? He said, I'm a shooting God. And after four years at Arkansas, Nolan said he actually was a shooting God. [00:32:51] Speaker D: So funny. That's amazing. He just thought he was real confident. [00:32:56] Speaker B: Yeah, the shooting God held the SEC three point record for about 20 years. So Arkansas baseball beat UCA nine to two last night over at Mom Walker Stadium. Christina and I were both there. Three, four big swings, I would say in this game, three home runs, a couple of two run homers by Brent Iredell and Kahil Aloy, and then a three run home run by Cam Kozol. Bren Iredale also had a two run single. You know, just kind of you, you never know what you're going to get from a midweek game. But also I feel like when you watch Arkansas right now, you kind of know what you're going to get from them. From an offensive standpoint, they've been very steady. You know, outside of a game or two here. You know, Sunday against Charlotte would be an outlier. Sunday against Portland would be an outlier. But for the most part it's been. You expect them to score somewhere in the, you know, eight, nine plus runs per game against this type of competition they're playing. That's what they did last night. Got, you know, fairly good pitching. Colin Fisher was really good at the start and I'll talk about him more in a minute. You know, but you bring some veterans out of the bullpen on a Tuesday night, which is a real luxury and just kind of, you know, ho hum, this is, you know, Arkansas wins another game by a lot of runs. [00:34:07] Speaker D: Yeah, they win, what, 12 in a row. So, I mean, yeah, we had talked before about, and we talked yesterday on the show about how sometimes these Tuesday games, you don't know what you're going to get. And then yesterday we saw South Alabama beat Ole Miss 14 to 5. So, you know, it's one of those things where, yeah, you just don't know what's going to happen in these midweek games. But Arkansas is well suited for them in part because of some of the arms they're able to throw. And that was what you and I talked about and what we wrote about last night was, you know, the, the level of experience that they're able to throw on a Tuesday and how it speaks to the depth that they have on the staff, which is something we've been kind of tracking all season and something that I think they feel really good about going into SEC play. But yeah, I mean, it was, it was an interesting game because it felt like it turned on just a few pitches. There was just kind of that one sequence in the fourth where it went from 4 to 1 to 9 to 1, really, really fast, which was kind of interesting. And, you know, you, you were enlightening me while we were in the press box about. It seems like whenever Arkansas plays UCA, you get something interesting. We didn't get anything quite at that level always, you know, Arkansas, we talked about midweek games. You never know what you're going to get. A midweek game versus uca, apparently. You might just get something crazy. Every time. [00:35:10] Speaker B: When Arkansas plays UCA in the midweek, it usually, you know, there's this old saying in baseball that says show up to the ballpark because you might see something you've never seen before, like an immaculate inning by Parker Coyle a couple of weeks ago. And against uca, they haven't played them a whole lot. That's a game. Robert Moore hit for a cycle, first time a Razorback had hit for a cycle since 1994. And then the next year, Dylan Leach hits for the cycle against UCA and hits a home run from both sides of the plate. That's Never happened at Arkansas last year. Stone hewlett had a 4 strikeout inning against UCA. Talked to Norm De Bryan and Dave Van Horn after that game. They said we've never seen that before. And so there have been a lot of things that have happened. Even they played UCA down in North Little Rock about three years ago and it ended up being a 2 to 1 game that Arkansas won in 10 innings because Robert Moore scored on a basis loaded wild pitch. You don't see that a whole lot, although that's, you know, a little bit more, you know, maybe not as rare as the other things that we mentioned. But yeah, Arkansas, uca, it's been one of those series where, you know, you just kind of never know what's going to happen. And I think that worried Dave Van Horn going into the game last night. This was Arkansas's last game before SEC play begins. He'll play at Ole Miss on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. And he talked last night about feeling like this was a little bit of a trap game for the Hogs and. [00:36:33] Speaker E: Some, some, you know, sometimes. And you know, this is one of those games that you worry about as a coach getting ready to go on the road. You've had pretty good success, SCC play starting and just really proud of the guys for coming out, taking care of business again. Didn't make any mistakes really in the field or base running and didn't give them too much. You know, we walked him I think three times and I don't know, just a good win on Tuesday. It was good to play under the lights and really good crowd. I know the weather was good, but it was good to see all the fans out here on a Tuesday. [00:37:11] Speaker B: They announced the attendance last night at over 10,000. That's based on tickets sold. I don't think there were that many people in the ballpark, but it was a lot more I think than you see for a typical Tuesday night game. Arkansas scored nine runs. They easily could have scored a lot more. They had four balls that went to the warning track that could have been home runs. Vahiba Loy had a couple. Cam Kozal had one in the the seventh inning or the sixth inning with a runner on base that could have potentially initiated a run roll. Zane Becker hit one to the right field warning track with the bases loaded in the third inning. But you know, Aloy, he had a weird night. Two strikeouts. Got on base once because of an error. Had the two flyouts. Not a great night for him. Dropped his average down to.400. But Kahil Aloy Kahil, pretty good night. Hit a home run, averaged at.460 now and then. I'll tell you the player that I am most impressed with right now is Brent Iredell. It just think about his last four games. He's got 15 RBI in the last four games. He's had an eight RBI game, a three RBI game and a four RBI game during that time. His batting average now at.431. He and Cahillo are tied for the team lead in home runs with seven apiece. And Iredell's cute, catching up with Kahil pretty quickly right now in RBI. Kahil with 31, Iredell with 29. I've been impressed with Iredell since I watched him in the fall last year. I mean, he is just a true dirt bag baseball player. Do whatever you need him to do, he's going to do it. And we've always known he can swing. But, you know, there was a play last night on a little, you know, maybe two hopper to third base where if it hops another time it, I don't know if he gets the guy at first. And a lot of times the third baseman might sit back and wait for that ball to come to his glove. He went up and he attacked that ball and got a guy on a bang bang play at first baseball. It feels like his defense has gotten a lot better since what we saw in the fall. [00:39:11] Speaker D: Yeah, he's been really impressive and he was a guy that, yeah, I think had a lot of hype coming in. We all kind of knew he was one to watch. It's not really been a surprise to see him perform so well, but I think Kuhio Aloy has been more of the surprise. But it's been interesting because it's like, you know, Kuhio has drawn all the, you know, the admiration in the headlines, but Iredale has been so consistent as well. And you know, the average isn't like he's. But it's, it's consistency. It's. Those RBI numbers are crazy. And you know, I don't necessarily think he's getting underrated or overlooked necessarily, but I do think, you know, when you have a guy like Kuhio who is doing what he's doing and then you also have Iredale. And that was something that Brent said, you know, because they were hitting back to back, right? [00:39:46] Speaker B: Oh, it's the most confident quote I've ever had. [00:39:48] Speaker D: It was amazing. Brent was saying he was like, you know, even if Kuhio can't do it, Then they have to face me, find the actual quote, because it was the way he said it was awesome. And he was so matter of fact about it. And he wasn't even really being, you know, arrogant really. He was, he was pretty matter of fact about it. And he's right is the thing. You know, he's right about it, so. But he's been really fun to watch and, you know, he's, I like talking to him and I think, you know, they've been really pleased with what they've been able to get from him. [00:40:12] Speaker B: Should I say it in his accent? [00:40:14] Speaker D: If you can, I'll be impressed. [00:40:16] Speaker B: I can't do it. Maybe if I, if I took a bite of Vegemite, I could, I could do it. No, he said this was his quote from last week. He said, I don't think any pitching staff wants to pitch against Cajillo right now. If he gets on base, I'm coming up and everyone's seen what I can do. If Kahiyo can't do it, I can do it. If Kahiyo gets out, it's a sigh of relief for them. But then they realize I'm up. [00:40:37] Speaker D: So awesome. So cool. [00:40:39] Speaker B: And he says it, and he says this very. Just confident. [00:40:42] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:40:43] Speaker B: Confidently. And yet you don't sit there and think, well, that was pretty boastful. It's just, that's just how he was. [00:40:50] Speaker D: So matter of fact about it. And also he's right. That's the thing. It's not like, you know, sometimes you'll hear guys that say stuff like that about themselves and you're like, all right, you're not going to play, you know, whatever. But like, he's right. So it was very, it's been fun to watch him. [00:41:01] Speaker B: You know, I talked to Matt Hobbs earlier this week on Monday, and he said they wanted to stretch Colin Fisher out. And I think Fisher is just, he's pitching too efficiently, you know, for this to happen. Maybe, you know, like, like stretching him out. Maybe they think he's going to throw, you know, 50, 55 pitches in three innings. Well, that's not happening because he's averaging less than 14 pitches an inning right now. Last night he had 39 pitches and three innings scoreless. Only a one out base hit against him in the first inning. He retired the last eight batters that he faced. There's, there is a value in having a pitcher like Colin Fisher, who, number one, he can start for you on a Tuesday night, get you off to a good start. But then also, you know, he's Been a good weekend guy for them. And, you know, the other thing that people forget or overlook is that when you get into the regional or you get into the College World Series, a lot of times you got to have a fourth starter, and a lot of teams don't have a fourth starter. A lot of teams have to piece that fourth game together. And a lot of times recycling pitchers who have pitched earlier. And that's not to say Arkansas might not have to, you know, have an element of that, but I think that right now they've got five starters, once Gage Wood gets back, that they feel like they can trust, and that is such a huge deal for them. [00:42:20] Speaker D: Yeah, I mean, that's. That's rare that you have that. I mean, like you said, postseason. That's what's so hard about baseball's postseason, right. Is. Is how you are going to use those arms and how much depth you have. And so, yeah, Fisher is a huge part of that. And Coach Van Horn said yesterday, you know, nothing set in stone. You know, he could work his way into a weekend role whether, yeah, whether it's, you know, somebody needs a day off or whatever. If you want to play the sound by now. [00:42:41] Speaker B: Here we go. [00:42:42] Speaker D: I can quote the whole thing if you want me to. [00:42:43] Speaker B: No, this is. We'll hear from Dave. This is what he had to say about Colin Fisher last night. [00:42:49] Speaker E: The reason we took him out after what he Throw 39 pitches, three innings is because we got to have ready for the weekend. And I mean, he could get in the rotation on the weekend. Nothing set in stone. Guys. Don't, you know, things aren't going good or, you know, somebody needs a week off or whatever the case may be. We have no problem starting him and league player whenever. So, yeah, we, we got him out of there because, you know, league play starts and we plan on using him. [00:43:16] Speaker B: David Horn last night on Colin Fisher. Fisher, now a.082 ERA and a.073 WHIP. He is pitching really well for the Racebacks. And if you wonder if you're, if you're watching the podcast and you saw Dave in that clip, why are they wearing yellow gold hats? They do this every year, once a year for a childhood cancer awareness night. You know, every cancer has got kind of its associated color, like pink is breast cancer, childhood cancer. Gold is the color for childhood cancer. And so Arkansas does this every year. They had some young kids who have been battling cancer, some who were still battling cancer throughout first pitches last night. They had some on field recognitions for some families who had lost children to cancer. So that's a real neat deal that they do every year. That's why they were wearing those hats last night against uca. We asked Dave afterward, what's your pitching rotation going to be against Ole Miss? And he said it's going to be the same three pitchers. But we saw Zach Root charting pitches last night and a lot of times that's a telltale for who's going to pitch next. And I asked him, I said, are you going to pitch the same three in the same order? And he wasn't willing to commit to that. So. So it's going to be interesting when the rotation is announced tomorrow. Do you see Zach Root on Friday and Gabe Gackle on Saturday and Landon Vital Seas on Sunday? Possibly. So, I mean, Roots been pitching really well for Arkansas. I think if you ask anybody, they tell you that he's been Arkansas's best starter to this point in the season. And another thing that I was thinking about, Christina, is remember the game three against Portland? By, you know, some point in that game they had thrown a left hander like 13 straight innings because they started Root, then they bring Fisher in to finish game two, then they start Vital Seas and then Coyle is the first one out of the bullpen. And they felt like Portland got comfortable seeing left handers and you know, they could have done some things like bring a right hander in to change up that look. But I think there's something to be said for if you have two left handed starters and you throw them back to back days, even if you're throwing some right handed relievers in there too, that an opposing lineup, they may get kind of comfortable seeing that look on back to back days. [00:45:33] Speaker D: Yeah, and it's so interesting that they were able to pick up on something like that in the Portland series, you know, right before they're about to go into SEC play. And that's the kind of thing that, you know, you would expect an SEC opponent to maybe be able to capitalize on. And so that's something that it's, it's good to realize something like that early before you, you know, go to Ole Miss and start getting these, these opponents in that where you know, when you make, if you make a mistake or if there's something like that that they can take advantage of, they will. And so, you know, I think that's really smart by them if this is what they end up doing. If Root does end up throwing on Friday, I'll be interested what Bubba thinks about it when you have him on tomorrow. I'll be curious for his thoughts about what this could do for them. But yeah, I mean, I think I'm now kind of expecting that we'll see. Rude. Especially after I didn't even know to look for, you know, that was something that you taught me yesterday to look for who was charting the game. So I thought that was really interesting. And I think, I think Dave probably caught on was picking up what you were putting down with that. [00:46:26] Speaker B: We'll see. You know, and then again speculating a little bit, but wouldn't surprise us to see Zach Roots start Friday night against Ole Miss. Who? Ole Miss. I got a left hander, Hunter Elliott, who's really good. Really good. And Arkansas needs to have a pitcher who's going to be able to match him if they're going to have a chance to win that game. Spring football, real quick, continued yesterday. Did you learn anything? [00:46:49] Speaker D: Matt does not like spring football. [00:46:50] Speaker B: I hate spring football. I mean, let's just get that out in the open. [00:46:54] Speaker D: Learn is a strong word, I would say. No, I mean, I think we do. The way we do it is we go and we do interviews with a couple players and that's kind of where you, I guess, learn a little bit more because you actually get to talk to them about what's going on. And then we've been doing practice after that so far this season. So I mean, it's kind of designed to where we don't learn that much from. From practices. [00:47:16] Speaker B: Can I backtrack? I don't hate spring football. I do not enjoy being at spring football. [00:47:21] Speaker D: But you haven't, you don't have to be, which is great. It was a beautiful day yesterday. I got to spend time outside, which was nice. [00:47:27] Speaker B: I got to spend outside. [00:47:28] Speaker D: That's true. [00:47:29] Speaker B: Last night at baseball. [00:47:30] Speaker D: That's true. [00:47:31] Speaker B: Watching a game, that counts toward the record, you know. [00:47:34] Speaker D: Yeah, no, I mean, I think, you know, it's been interesting to watch. You know, the hard thing about these practices is we get to watch some of these team periods. You know, the closest thing they do to real football is, you know, these team periods like their fastball starts period or, you know, things like that. And you know, that's where you, I guess, learn the most and you start to see kind of the early makings of a depth chart. But you also can't put 100% of stock in that because what happens is we watch fastball starts and we, we, you know, we take account of who's on what, who's with the first team, second team, third team. But then sometimes they'll do team periods later and guys move teams and that's not a, you know, that's fine, but. So it's, it's hard to know kind of how much stock to put into it, but it does give you kind of an early idea. Now a lot of times what they'll do, especially in spring and what they did last year is some of the new transfers, they won't put them on the first team right away. Sometimes they'll start them with second or third team and then they'll kind of move up over the course of the spring, depending on, you know, it depends on the depth at a particular position. But the big thing that I wrote about yesterday was, you know, and we had talked about it on the show about Fernando Carmona moving inside and he. We've seen him at guard in the two practices we've watched. We haven't seen him at center. And it kind of sounded like he's learning center as kind of a just in case, a break, in case of emergency type thing. But I don't, you know, it doesn't necessarily look right now like he's actually going to be. Be at center. I think they kind of expect him more at guard. And he was saying he's. He's never done that in a game. You know, he's had such an interesting football career. I mean, he was a tight end in high school, becomes a tackle for college football because, you know, coaches tell him this is probably where your future is, his offensive line. And then now he's kind of talking to coaches about your future actually is probably interior offense, defensive line. And that's something that, you know, he said that he's been all about. He's got a lot of learning to do. He said he likes there's more physicality involved in, in the inside as opposed to, you know, some of the. I guess he, he used some kind of. He made up a word that was kind of funny yesterday. I can't remember it now. But he likes that he can just hit people at guard. So, you know, so that was something that we've been watching and I'll be interested to see if we see him snap at all. But it's kind of sounds like it's just kind of something he's starting to learn. Just in case. [00:49:39] Speaker B: Little bit of news this morning, too. Arkansas's got a receiver. He's going into the transfer portal. [00:49:43] Speaker D: Chaffery Brown, I think is. I think it's Chaff. It might be Chaffery. I know it's ch. I think It's Chaffery Brown. He was not on the roster when they started spring and he is going to go in the portal, I assume when it opens. You know, the language in the report from. From on three is that he has entered but I don't know that one can enter right now. I don't know. There's always particular exceptions for some people. But I believe, you know, basically he will be at a new team come come fall practice. [00:50:13] Speaker B: He's got one of those Massachusetts names. It starts with a kh. I wouldn't think to say Cha. [00:50:17] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:50:18] Speaker B: At the front of it. [00:50:19] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:50:19] Speaker B: He hadn't done anything for Arkansas. Two catches. [00:50:22] Speaker D: Catches against uapb. [00:50:24] Speaker B: Yeah. So. And he didn't play after that game. At least not on. [00:50:26] Speaker D: He'll be on school number four after this. Yes. He's a six year, I believe. [00:50:30] Speaker B: Wow. Yeah, that's a lot. Okay, so Arkansas losing a receiver there doesn't sound like that's much of a loss for the football team. We appreciate you being with us. Hope that we will see you on our website this afternoon again. Anthony and Ethan and Hanker in Nashville for the SEC basketball tournament. We'll have a ton of coverage from this Arkansas South Carolina game this afternoon and got a baseball story coming up this afternoon too that hope that you'll read. Hope we'll see you on our podcast again tomorrow. Bubba Carpenter will be here in studio with us. Talk raised back baseball and this weekend's series against Ole Miss. Have a great day everybody.