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.
[00:00:05] Speaker A: Tough loss for Arkansas Saturday. 95, 73 down at Auburn. I heard somebody say over the weekend that in the NBA you call these scheduled losses because it was just the way it worked out on the, on the schedule. Auburn playing at second straight home game, obviously had that loss to Texas A and M earlier in the week. Arkansas playing the back end of two straight road games. Ole Miss, they beat last week in the midweek, and then they go to Auburn and they lose. But even in scheduled losses, you would expect the team to play better.
And after the game, you heard John Calipari kind of pulling out the greatest hits. We're going to burn the tape. This isn't my team, you know, I.
[00:00:40] Speaker B: Mean, I'm not going to watch it.
[00:00:41] Speaker A: Yeah. Not going to watch the film. And Anthony Christensen's here with me. Anthony, you were down there. Just as you've had a couple of days and one heck of a long drive back to Fayetteville. I can't believe you drove.
But as you've had a couple of days to kind of digest what happened, like, like, how do you, how do you put your finger on why things went so poorly for Arkansas?
[00:01:01] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I think first you have to give credit to Auburn. I thought that was the best I had seen Auburn play this season by a healthy margin.
[00:01:09] Speaker A: Stephen Pearl said the same.
[00:01:10] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, I've watched a decent amount of those games, just kind of waiting for everything to click because there's a lot of talent on that roster. You look at, you know, to hide Pettiford and Keyshawn Murphy and, you know, Keyshawn hall obviously had a great game as well, and early the great game, I guess. But, but I think, yeah, first, all credit, I think, should go to Auburn. It was by far Auburn's best defensive game of the season. I thought just because, I mean, they clogged the lane really well. They didn't, they didn't allow Arkansas to get any clean looks from three. Didn't allow you really, really anything. I mean, they held Darius Acuff to one assist, which was his season low. And, you know, if you, if you can keep him limited like that, you're going to give yourself a chance if you're, if you're an opponent of Arkansas. So I thought, I thought Auburn was phenomen then. Conversely, I thought it was probably the worst that we've seen Arkansas look this season. I, I, by a pretty healthy margin maybe, aside from the 21 to two run against Houston. But even then in that Houston game, they, they, they fought back and kind of made it, you know, semi interesting there at the end. This game was just after, I think the first two media timeouts. This game just was never a contest.
[00:02:18] Speaker A: There was a 15, 15 to 3 run and Arkansas never had a response to that run. I think after that point, maybe the closest they got was eight points. And it just felt like, you know, every time you kind of thought, okay, maybe they're going to make. And I, And I don't think he ever had that feeling like, hey, they're about to make a run here. It was more like, this is the time for them to make a run.
[00:02:37] Speaker B: But it's not just.
[00:02:38] Speaker A: And it just never came. Yeah, and you didn't, you didn't feel good about it. You didn't feel good about it happening. Darius Acuff didn't play his best game. Now, I think he ended up with what, 19 points?
[00:02:48] Speaker B: Yeah, 19 points.
[00:02:49] Speaker A: Which is kind of, I mean that, that tells you something about the level of expectation he set for himself. When he has 19 points and now he only had one assist, but he has 19 points, you're like, eh, that was all right. You know, a lot of times it's like, hey, that's. But with him, you know, he set a different bar. I thought not just at Auburn on Saturday and all three of these games were at home, but I thought Arkansas at Auburn, Tennessee at Florida. And I know Mississippi State is a step down from Tennessee and Arkansas, but even Mississippi State at Kentucky maybe a few steps down, but even Mississippi State at Kentucky, I thought, you know, all of them won by 20 something points, 24. And those other two, 22 in the Arkansas game. It was a good reminder of these teams that have talent when they can get it going.
[00:03:32] Speaker B: They can, they're on their floor.
[00:03:34] Speaker A: They can really. Like we talk about, hey, is Vanderbilt the favorite? Is Alabama the favorite? And Alabama had a bad loss at home to Texas.
You know, Arkansas had its loss.
Like, we can talk about all the favorites. I still say those three teams, Kentucky, Florida, Auburn. Watch out for all three of them because maybe they don't win the conference, but they may have a big say as to who wins the conference because I don't think this is the only weekend that they're going to, you know, pick some teams off like this.
[00:04:00] Speaker B: No, absolutely. And you look at all those teams, there's talent on all of them, right? I mean, there's, there's talent in every team in the league. I mean, even I mean, you probably look at Mississippi State or Ole Miss probably being on paper the least talented teams on the roster in the league. And you, you still have Josh Hubbard at Mississippi State, you still have Malik Dia at Ole Miss and you know, those are still teams that can go out and win some games. Ole Miss beat, you know, a Missouri team that came in with, with some momentum, beating both Kentucky and Florida and Ole Miss got that win. So yeah, there's, I mean there's parity across the league. I think that's, that's something that's pretty evident and it seems like there's a lot of parity just in college basketball in general right now. I mean, Michigan lost to Wisconsin, you know, Iowa State, excuse me, got, you know, a decent game out of Oklahoma State this weekend and you know, Arizona is kind of just beating the crap out of everybody. But Purdue had a, you know, a contest I guess against Penn State and that Penn State team is not very good. So there's a lot of parity just throughout college basketball this season, which is awesome to watch, makes it makes for, for fun viewing. But yeah, I think, you know, it's Vanderbilt and the rest right now in the sec, which is not something I expected.
[00:05:11] Speaker A: There's actually two undefeated teams in the SEC right now. Do you know the other.
[00:05:14] Speaker B: It is Vanderbilt and it is.
Let me, let me run through. I should know this off the top.
[00:05:19] Speaker A: Of my head, but you got two seconds.
[00:05:22] Speaker B: Oh, that, that's ridiculous.
[00:05:23] Speaker A: Texas A and M. Oh, I was.
[00:05:25] Speaker B: Going to get that.
I was going to get that. Yeah.
[00:05:28] Speaker A: Texas A and M could easily have.
[00:05:29] Speaker B: A loss because of what happened, what happened at Auburn.
[00:05:32] Speaker A: I think what happened in the Auburn A and M game had a huge impact on, on what happened in the Auburn Arkansas game.
[00:05:38] Speaker B: Oh yeah, they were.
[00:05:39] Speaker A: Arkansas was stepping into a hornet's nest.
[00:05:41] Speaker B: Yeah. You know, and John Caliper said it, you know, they were, Auburn was desperate for something. Right. I mean Auburn was.02 in the SEC and you know, arguably could have been or should have been two. And oh, I mean you look at the Georgia game, you look at the Texas A and M game, those are two games that, that Auburn could have won.
And I felt like, you know, the Arkansas game was the game where Auburn just put it all together. Everything just kind of came together for, for, you know, if, if only for just that one night. But yeah, I was just impressed with Auburn's all round game. Like, like Stephen Pearl said, like I just said it was, it was Auburn's best game of the season, I thought. And I was, yeah, thoroughly impressed with, with just about everything Auburn did.
[00:06:25] Speaker A: Keyshawn hall had 30 points, 11 for 14. What did you make of the comments that he made afterward that basically said it was personal against Arkansas because, and correct. Say this wrong, but basically he said that he felt like Arkansas did not recruit him hard enough. Like there were other players that they were more interested in.
[00:06:41] Speaker B: Yeah, that's, that's, I think pretty much verbatim what he said. And you know, I.
Recruiting's a very weird world, especially nowadays.
So, you know, and you know, good players like him are going to, you know, find ways to, I guess, give themselves a little extra motivation. If that's the way he needed to do it then, you know, he, he did the right thing for himself and his, for his team. Right. I mean he was, he was phenomenal in that game and he's been phenomenal all season. Right. I mean, you know, he's, he's right now probably a first team all conference guy just because, I mean he's just, he, yeah, he does everything. I mean he's, he's a great driving threat. He's good from the three point line. He's a good defender. He can, you know, he gets a good amount of assists. I think he had five against Arkansas. You know, he leads Auburn in both, you know, points and rebounds and you know, he's, he's a threat from everywhere. He's a good defender too. So, you know, yeah, he's, he's just a great player. And you know, I think that, you know, guys like that are going to, you know, find ways to give themselves extra motivation if and when it's needed and you know, that, I guess, you know, he, you know, if. How much of a slight he actually felt in the recruiting process from Arkansas, I'm not sure. But if he clearly used it as some sort of motivation and you know, it very clearly worked out in his favor and he was, you know, he looked untouchable that, that game and really against Texas A and M too. He was phenomenal in that game too.
[00:08:09] Speaker A: I'm concerned about Arkansas's defense and I have been for a while now. I mean, I would even go back to.
They played okay against Louisville. Louisville shot way too many threes in that game, but they shoot like 41.
But Houston, I thought, really exposed some things defensively for Arkansas. And then, you know, three games into SEC play now, what is it? 85, 86 and 95, they've given up.
[00:08:30] Speaker B: Or 86, 75, 87, 95.
[00:08:33] Speaker A: Yeah. So the point being like they've given up a ton of points, especially in these last two against Ole Miss and Auburn. I thought Auburn beat Arkansas at its own game. The transition offense for Auburn was great and Caliperi said after the game that, you know, why is that? Well, Arkansas, they weren't driving, they weren't getting to the free throw line. They shot and the stats can, they can look a little misleading. The final stats, you know, you look at it, Arkansas is 8 for 21 from 3. It's like, well that's not too many threes. They shot 17 of them in the first half.
They were settling for too many threes. They could not keep Auburn from driving to the basket. They couldn't run Auburn off the three point line. I mean like it felt like the first half it was like Murphy's law for Arkansas. And especially after that second media timeout, it's like whatever could go wrong is going to go wrong for this team.
Just, you know, it's the defense I think is a concern. But I think that what helps Arkansas defensively is doing those things like driving to the basket, getting to the line. The things that you can do offensively if you make the other team work defensively, that helps you on the other end of the floor. And I just, I felt like Arkansas did a lot of things on Saturday that just didn't make Auburn, you know, have to work very hard on the defensive end. And that certainly led to a lot of those transition baskets they had.
[00:09:48] Speaker B: And I think some of it also goes back to Auburn's approach as well. I mean they, they were clogging the lane and, and really just making driving almost not an option for Arkansas and kind of forced him to try to beat him from the three point line, which is something Arkansas can do. I mean the number 13 three point shooting team in the country. But you look at the distribution of shots. Arkansas is number 180 in three point attempt percentage.
So you know, yeah, they shoot them very well typically when they shoot them, but they don't shoot a ton of them. So it does kind of, they take.
[00:10:19] Speaker A: Better looks than they were, than they were taken at Auburn. Everything felt forward or not everything, but a lot felt forced.
[00:10:24] Speaker B: Absolutely. Yeah. So, you know, Auburn was I guess making them uncomfortable in that, in that area of the game. You look at the amount of free throws Arkansas gets, you know, if Arkansas is your top 100, top 90 ish in free throw rate, I believe in, in the country. So you get, you basically take a ton of that away in Auburn, I thought did a great Job with that on its own defensive side. And then you look at Arkansas defensively, you know, John Calperi's talked about, you know, the need of getting, the need to get better, you know, in pick and roll situations. I thought, you know, they really struggled guarding against high ball screens and in, in those areas. And then the paint defense I thought was bad.
So if I were.
[00:11:08] Speaker A: They can't keep Nick Pringle out of foul trouble.
[00:11:11] Speaker B: Yeah, and that was tough. And if I remember correctly, Auburn outscored Arkansas in the paint. It was, it was 48 to 28, if I'm not mistaken.
And I mean, it was just Auburn got whatever it wanted, you know, driving, like you said, kind of beating Arkansas at its own game. But then also Auburn had the opportunity to, you know, throw it in to, to, you know, Keyshawn Murphy whenever he was there and you know, he could put up some good, some easy points. And you know, they were driving, you know, Elijah, Elijah Freeman had a really nice drive, if I'm not mistaken. It came off a high ball scre and got to the, got to the rim just almost unimpeded and, and got a big dunk near the end of the first half. So it was a lot of, you know, that kind of stuff. And the defense, you know, it has been concerning and I think it's been concerning from an Arkansas standpoint in a few different ways. I mean, you look at, you know, the Winthrop game, they really couldn't guard the perimeter. And some of that, it obviously does sometimes come down to teams are just hitting shots or teams are just finding good looks. But, you know, you want to be, I guess, better against a team like that. Obviously Auburn, it was everything. You know, sometimes you.
That's just something that happens. But you know, even James Madison hadn't really been shooting all that well and got 74 points and you know, Queen scored 80. So there's, there are some concerns. Arkansas's defense is number seven, 73, excuse me, in the country. And right now through the three conference games, it's 14th of the 16, so it's 73.
[00:12:38] Speaker A: Number probably has gone down pretty significantly since before they played Houston.
[00:12:43] Speaker B: I would think I probably, I don't have the number, the numbers right in front of me, but I would assume so. Yeah, after the Auburn game, it went from 61 to 73.
[00:12:52] Speaker A: So it's worth noting the SEC is the most offensive league in the country this year. I mean, like this, like, you know, part of, part of what's going on, I think with Arkansas is just a Byproduct of. No different than, no different than what Arkansas is doing to opposing defenses in a lot of games.
It's just you've got some really high, you know, caliber offenses.
[00:13:11] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure. I mean, I think maybe this has changed, but entering SEC play, I mean, Georgia was the highest scoring team in the country. And some of that does kind of come down to, you know, who teams played in the non conference and you know, some teams challenge themselves more than others and yeah, every team in the league can score, but I think you're.
[00:13:29] Speaker A: Seeing it even in the conference games. I mean, look at the finals on Saturday. 92, 68, 92, 88, 76, 69 in Ole Miss. Missouri 95 73. The Arkansas game. 88 83, 76 A&M over OU, 7570 Georgia over South Carolina. Vanderbilt 84, 73 over LSU and Florida scored 91 to Tennessee 67. So I mean, I didn't count there, but I would guess that's probably about six teams that scored 90 or more or right at 90.
[00:13:55] Speaker B: Close to. Yeah, yeah. No, I mean there's, there's a lot of, you know, really potent offenses like we've said. And I mean, I think just about every team in the league could. Can pour it on, on a different, you know, on any given night. I mean, even you look at, you know, a team like, you know, Oklahoma for per se. Like, I mean that team has, you know, scored in the 80s in two of its three games and you know, kind of got worked by Mississippi State, oddly enough in the other one. And you know, Mississippi State is a team that can pour it in, especially when Josh Hubbard gets hot. So I mean, just all throughout the league there's going to be, you know, guys, individual guys who can hurt you and teams in general who can hurt you. So you know, it's not necessarily stunning to see them put up these kinds of, these kinds of numbers throughout, you know, up, up and down the league. So. But yeah, no, it's, I believe it's the highest scoring conference of any of the leagues this season. So you know, there's, you know, there's a lot of offensive talent in the league and you know, once, once you get into, you know, postseason play, you know that then it kind of becomes a question of defense and stuff like that because the SEC didn't necessarily perform all that well against the other power conferences yapping now. So I'll stop.
[00:15:00] Speaker A: It was just, it's kind of telling. The 8375 felt like a low scoring game.
[00:15:04] Speaker B: Yeah, the Other day.
[00:15:05] Speaker A: I want to tell you about Bentonville Glass. They've been serving their community since 1971. They're committed, professional, and versatile. You can choose Bentonville Glass for all your glass market needs with the highest quality products at 507 South Main and Bentonville or Bentonville glass dot com. I don't think you can talk about Arkansas, Auburn without mentioning that Carter Knox missed most of the game, only played seven minutes left with a hip pointer. Caliperi said after the game that he said, from what I hear, he took a pretty good. Pretty good shot when I guess an Auburn player fell on him. We had a photographer at the game on the baseline, and he was texting me. He said, you know, he could overhear Carter saying, I can't jump. And, you know, so he was. He was having a lot of trouble, you know, certainly in that game. And it's one of those games where, like, you hate to lose Carter Knox, but you don't like, you want to have Carter Knox. Right. You know, down, down the line. And so I can certainly see why they were very careful and maybe it was a significant injury. We just, we simply don't know. A hit pointer. Those can be.
[00:16:07] Speaker B: Yeah, that can be.
[00:16:08] Speaker A: They can be out of things, keep you out of wild or something, you know, that you can come back from. Yeah, but, you know, without Knox, you know, you talk about Pringle didn't play well defensively and struggled to keep himself on the floor.
You know, Malik Ewan is. He's a good rebounder. I don't know that he's a good defender.
Knox is a. He's an okay defender. And I think that, that, you know, that you talk about, they get beat 48, 28 in the paint. You wonder how much that changes if Carter Knox is able to play a full, you know, 32, however many minutes that he use a place.
[00:16:39] Speaker B: Yeah, no, it's obviously a significant loss. And, you know, John Calipari didn't give any. Any details about, you know, the extent of the injury or how. How I guess serious it was. And maybe obviously you don't.
[00:16:53] Speaker A: We don't know the severity. We just know that he only played seven minutes.
[00:16:56] Speaker B: Yes. So, but, yeah, I mean, we. We got to talk to Malik, you and after the game, and I asked him about how significant of a loss that was, you know, just, you know, in the context of just that one game. And he's just like, it, it was huge. I mean, you look at the way Carter Knox, even though his scoring and rebounding numbers maybe aren't what was expected in the preseason. You know, he's still a guy who affects a lot of things, you know, on both sides of the ball.
So defensively I thought it was a big, a big miss. And I think you could, I think you could tell just because of how one sided that game ended up being. But yeah, it's a, it's a huge miss, you know, especially if it's something that keeps him out for, you know, for a while. I don't believe we get an SEC availability report today. I don't think so, but probably tomorrow. Yeah, we'll, we'll, we'll get one. I'm sure. Just kind of in the lead up to that South Carolina game, you know, hopefully he can, he can play. You know, you never want to see any, any player get injured, but, you know, it'd be a cool, a cool moment for the Knox family, I'm sure, to see him and Kobe Knox play against each other when South Carolina comes to town. But yeah, it's concerning. I think is. Is is the word if you're, if you're looking at it from an Arkansas.
[00:18:08] Speaker A: Perspective, that Auburn arena, what, what is it called now? Neville Arena. Neville arena, yeah, it was Auburn arena for the longest time, but, you know, it only seats about 9,100. But everybody talks about how just kind of intimidating it is. It's not a whole lot smaller than Barn Hill arena was. And obviously Barn Hill was, was what it was.
Duke, it's got about, what, 9,000 seats at Cameron Indoor. So, you know, the size does not necessarily equal intimidation.
But I wonder. You were in there. What was the, the atmosphere like? Was it, was it kind of what you expected it would be like?
[00:18:42] Speaker B: Yeah, no, for sure. I mean, I was telling, you know, Matt and Hank, who were obviously on the trip with me, you know, like, Neville arena is one of my favorite arenas to go to in the SEC of the ones I've been to. And after this season, I'll have, I'll have checked off all the boxes, which I'm looking forward to.
But yeah, I mean, it was, it was a great environment, I thought. And you know, I, like, I always say it's not something that I don't really pay that much attention to the environments, or at least I try not to just because, I mean, that's. I'm not there to, I guess, take in the environment there. I'm there to write about basketball. But, you know, sometimes it is something that's noticeable. And I thought it definitely was in that game and, you know, it was it was a lot of fun. I think you could tell, you know, the, the fan base there was, you know, hungry for, for something like that, was hungry for, you know, a big time win and you know, to get, to get moving in SEC play. And you know, it's, it's, it's a, it's a neat little arena. I like it a lot. It's, you know, you can, you can get from the top to the bottom in like three minutes, which is, which is nice.
But. Yeah, no, it's, it's, it's, it's a cool little arena and you know, the media room is kind of packed because there's a lot of people who cover the team. So there was, there was a, there was a ton of people in there and you know, so.
Yeah, but no, it's a neat arena. It's a good environment and all that.
[00:20:04] Speaker A: Yeah, it's amazing how much things have changed. I've never been to a game there, but I did go walk around the arena and I think this was right before it opened.
Arkansas played. I was at an Arkansas Auburn football game down there and we got down there well beforehand and you could walk into the arena and it's just crazy to think about what Auburn basketball was thought of then, which was an afterthought, and just how far that program has come. And it's, it's like Bud Walton, they opened it and that was a national championship year the first year they opened it. And then Bud Walton has just kind of had this mystique and this charm since then, which I think is largely. Well, I mean, I think that is partially based on the success that they had there very early. It's just weird how that works in maybe reverse there at Auburn Markets will play South Carolina on Wednesday night. We'll have a show where we preview that game a little bit later in the week. But for people who don't know much about South Carolina, what would you tell them?
[00:21:03] Speaker B: Yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's going.
I mean, they.
[00:21:09] Speaker A: Are they better than last year?
[00:21:10] Speaker B: It's hard to be worse than last year, but yeah, I would say so.
I mean, they've, they, they haven't lost anybody. Like, terrible.
You know, they, they, they gave Georgia a really good game the other day. The other day.
[00:21:24] Speaker A: They're 1 and 2 in SEC play real quick. They're 1 and 2. Both of their losses are at home. But to rank teams, Vanderbilt in Georgia by 12 and 5 points. And then they went to LSU in.
[00:21:33] Speaker B: The Midwest last week and won by 10 road win. And so I mean they're, they're not losing to bad teams. I mean, on paper you would look at it and say I guess Virginia Tech or Butler or Northwestern. No, those are teams that you don't obviously want to lose to, especially the Virginia Tech game at home. You know, it's a. But you know, I do think they're better than they were last year. I mean, I think Kobe Knox has been a nice addition for them coming up from usf. And you know, Michi Johnson coming back after, after going to Ohio State after being, he's gone back and forth and back and forth between Ohio State and in South Carolina.
[00:22:11] Speaker A: Does he make more moves than Keyshawn Hall?
[00:22:14] Speaker B: I, I don't, I don't know if it's, if it's more moves because I think it's because he's gone. Let me, let me pull it up.
[00:22:22] Speaker A: Real quick, you know.
[00:22:24] Speaker B: Yeah, he's been, he's been at four schools.
[00:22:25] Speaker A: Four schools in four years now.
Didn't he play at multiple high schools too?
[00:22:31] Speaker B: That I do not know.
[00:22:32] Speaker A: I think he played at multiple high schools. I think he went from a high school to a prep school.
[00:22:36] Speaker B: Now.
[00:22:38] Speaker A: It may legitimately be like six schools in six years for him.
[00:22:41] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't know for sure. But with Michi Johnson. So he started his first, he's in his fifth year of college basketball. He started his first two years at Ohio State, transferred to South Carolina two years, then went back to Ohio State and is now back at South Carolina.
[00:22:55] Speaker A: So he's a six year guy.
[00:22:56] Speaker B: Yeah. So he's.
Goodness, he's, he's going, he's. Yeah. So it's, it, I don't know. It's funny.
[00:23:03] Speaker A: Arkansas's number 17 in the AP poll.
Where'd you have him?
[00:23:07] Speaker B: 20.
[00:23:07] Speaker A: 20.
[00:23:08] Speaker B: Yeah, I had him 20. I, I felt like it was necessary to put Auburn above Arkansas just at least for this week just because of how much better our Auburn was in that game than Arkansas. And our Auburn also hasn't lost anybody bad by any means. So it's not like it's like an egregious pick.
[00:23:25] Speaker A: Well, they haven't lost any bad teams. They've got.
[00:23:29] Speaker B: Yeah, they've gotten killed in some games, but they haven't lost any bad teams. But, but yeah, so I've got Auburn 19, Arkansas 20 just for, just to kind of respect what Auburn did and you know how long that stays the case is what it is. But yeah, I was the highest voter on Auburn this week. So you're welcome to the planes, I guess.
[00:23:52] Speaker A: Are they unranked?
[00:23:53] Speaker B: They are Unranked, yes.
[00:23:54] Speaker A: Okay. Arkansas number 17.
You can read all of Anthony's Razorback basketball coverage at our website, wholehogsports.com Razorback baseball preseason began today at Balm Walker Stadium. We got baseball coverage at our website. We know a lot of people on here who listen to our podcast are big baseball fans. Hope you'll come to our website to read our baseball coverage as well. Hope to see at our website or on the show tomorrow. Have a great day.
