Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: You're listening to the Hog Sports Network daily podcast.
Now, here's your host, Matt Jones.
[00:00:11] Speaker B: On today's show, Anthony Christensen joins us from Memphis, where John Calipari spoke to a Razorback roadshow last night. We'll hear what Coach Cal had to say during that appearance. Christina Long will also be here in studio with me. We'll talk Razorback baseball as the Hogs get ready to take on Tennessee tomorrow night at Baum Walker Stadium. Also, some thoughts from Dave Van Horn ahead of that game. But first, a word from Kendall King.
[00:00:33] Speaker A: At Kendall King, we're proud of over four decades of design.
We're continuing the legacy of great creative design by combining our brands of Kendall King, Soapbox and Shopcart. Together, these brands represent a new focus in marketing design with individual attention to specific areas. Through our design expertise, supported by a team of talented professionals, we showcase our best.
We are Kendall King. We are Soapbox. We are Shopcart. We are Design.
[00:01:09] Speaker B: We go to Anthony Christensen in Memphis to start off the show. John Calipari spoke there at the One Razorbank Roadshow last night. This is one of two appearances from Calipari at this or as part of the road show. He'll be in Little Rock tonight as well. But we sent Anthony over there. It turned out to be a pretty good idea on our part because we got some news yesterday. Boogie Fland has announced he's withdrawing his name or it's been reported. I'm sorry, that he's withdrawing his name from the NBA draft. Anthony was able to ask John Calipari about that. Also able to get some thoughts about potentially playing Memphis in an exhibition game. We'll get into all of that.
Anthony, let's start with.
You know, the feeling is that I don't know if this is 100% the case, but it feels like both of these sides may have already kind of moved on in their mind because nobody expected him to be back at Arkansas. I thought it was kind of interesting when you ask about Boogie Fland, John Calipari said he hadn't spoken to him at all about this decision.
[00:02:12] Speaker C: Yeah, and I do kind of agree with that. It does kind of seem like it's.
It seems unlikely that Boogie would return to Arkansas just because I don't think. I don't think he expected to be back in college for a second year. And I don't think John Cal Perry expected him to be back in college for a second year. And it seems like Arkansas already has his replacement lined up with Darius Acuff. So there's those aspects of things. And yeah, I don't think there's any bad blood or anything. There's just the way things kind of played out. Bogey just kind of seemed like one of those guys who was kind of on that borderline first round, second round kind of area and was kind of thought to be one of those guys where it'd be interesting to see where they landed and whether or not they wanted to stay in the draft. And obviously Boogie and his camp, it's kind of seems like they decided that it was for the best of the he come back to school and maybe get another year. So it'll be interesting to see where. Where he lands because he's instantly, you know, one of the top, if not the top player in the portal. So it'll be interesting. There seems to be a lot of buzz about Florida being interested in him, about St. John's potentially being interested in him. We'll be gonna get to go back home for him if he ends up doing that. But, you know, nobody really knows. So it'll be. It'll be an interesting recruitment for sure. But yeah, it just kind of seems like a.
A different kind of just the way things turned out. It just kind of seems like nobody expected him to be back and Arkansas has already kind of gotten what it needs to move on, and that's just kind of where it seems things stand. That doesn't mean it can't change, but that just kind of seems like where things are right now.
[00:03:54] Speaker B: Jeff Goodman reported last night that he had spoken to Boogie's agent, who's Mike Miller. The former player at Florida said that Boogie's now focusing on finding a new spot via transfer. So certainly does not sound like it's in the cards for him to come back to Arkansas next season. You got Carter Knox still in the NBA draft process. Seems like he's having a decent week up at the combine right now.
Do Thiro also part of the draft process? I know you talked more with Calipari last night about what's going on with Carter Knox, but where do you think those two players stand in potentially coming back to Arkansas? I know that it seems more likely that. That Knox would come back. Probably much more likely that he would come back than Theo.
[00:04:41] Speaker C: Yeah, that's kind of where things stand. I would be very surprised if it do Theo returned just because it seems like it seems like this is as high as his stock is going to be just as a prospect. That's not to say if he decided to return that he couldn't. You know, boost that stock. But, you know, it does kind of seem like it's, it seems like he's going to stay in the crack and I think that's a good decision for him. I think, you know, he's, I think he's the first round guy. When you look at this draft and who's in there and everybody who is kind of in that middle to late first round discussion, I'd be very surprised if a duo fell out of the first round.
And I think it's just in his best interest to stay in the draft. And you know, I'm not in the room with him. I'm not, I'm not an advisor by any means, but if I were, I think that would be my, you know, my kind of advice. But with Carter Knox, it's interesting because he, he's, he was very open about maintaining his collegiate eligibility when he declared for the draft. And I, I do kind of think that if, if I were being made to, to make a prediction on what Carter Knox would do, I would think he'd be, he'd be back at Arkansas next season because, you know, the portal window has shut and nobody can, can enter with, with, with the exception of maybe some IU indie players who are going through the coaching change there, which was kind of strange news. But there's, yeah, there has to be, you know, a different circumstance to enter the portal at this stage and Carter Knox never entered the portal. So if he does withdraw from the draft, he has to or he would be back at Arkansas. And I do think that it seems that that is the most likely scenario at this, at this point in time. Not to say that doesn't change because it does seem like he is having a, a good performance and good showing at the combine. But if I, if I'm being made to make a prediction, I, I would say I would expect to see Carter Knox back at Arkansas next season. And I mean, asked John Caliperi about that yesterday and he said he also hadn't talked about, about that with Carter at all. So that'll be another interesting story to follow for sure.
[00:06:44] Speaker B: What's the time frame for when these players have to. Because there's two different time frames, Ryan. I mean, I think we saw this with Isaiah Joe a few years ago. There's a time frame that you have to withdraw to keep your eligibility for the next season, but then there's also another timeline for you to actually withdraw from the NBA draft.
[00:07:01] Speaker C: Yeah, I believe the, the timeline to maintain collegiate eligibility for next season is May 28th. If I'm not mistaken, and then just to withdraw in general, I believe is June 15th. And I apologize if I got any of those dates wrong, but I'm fairly sure that is, at least in the ballpark of where those dates are.
[00:07:20] Speaker B: I mean, I mean, that's a good point. It's a couple, couple and a half weeks still that these players have got until they have to make that determination. And like we said, the, the NBA combine has been ongoing this week. We got a couple of sound bites to play for you here from John Calipari's time speaking with reporters last night. The first is Anthony asking him about these new additions to the team this year. We haven't heard Caliperi talk about the new players they've signed. We've, we've, we've heard from them and we've heard from others around them, but this is the first time that we've had John Calipari able to speak on him and this is what he had to say.
[00:07:56] Speaker D: One of those physical can put a body on you, you know, rim run, lob dunks.
And I really think throwing him the ball in the elbows in different places, he can do some stuff. Malik is one of those unique talents.
I've played guys like him where you play through him a lot and not just in the post. You play through him at different places where you're throwing it to him because one, he can score it on the balance. He's got a talent to him and he's got a physique to him. So it's physically he's going to be able to do it. And with TB and those two, you got three guys that are 6 10, 6 11, whatever they are.
So it gives us some size.
[00:08:44] Speaker B: The first player he was mentioning there, by the way, was Nick Pringle, the transfer in from South Carolina. Also mentioned Malik. You and what were your thoughts, Anthony, as you heard him discuss these players? Because I know he talked about them a little bit more as well.
[00:09:00] Speaker C: Yeah, I think that's just kind of nothing super surprising in what he said. I think those guys are brought in for those reasons. I think especially when you talk about Nick Pringle, I think you're looking for a more physical presence inside compared to, you know, what you had this past season. I think you're.
You look at Zavona, Miravisich and Jonas. They do. They're not the most physical guys, though. They are big and, and very talented as well. But I think when you're, when you're looking for, you know, physicality I think Nick Pringle probably brings up more than those two guys, though. Obviously they have skill sets and everything along those lines. With Malik Ewan, I, I think he's from, from what I was gathering when I was standing there listening to him after I asked the question, it seems like he's really excited to coach him. You know, he's, he's an exceptional athlete. He's really good with the ball in his hands. He's a great passer. I think, I think that's one of the more underrated aspects of this game. And I think you can, like, like he said, you, you can play through him. I think you can use him as kind of a point forward. And you know, he's not, he's not, you know, going to be taking shots from outside by any means, but, you know, you can use him as somebody, as a distributor. You can get the ball to him in the post and he'll kick it out or you can really even put the ball in his hands on the perimeter. He can attack the basket. He can, you know, find other guys as well. So he's, I think, a little bit more versatile than Nick Pringle, but I think they're both big time additions. And when you especially look at, you know, some of the rebounding was last season, you look at not Even just the NCAA tournament games against St. John's and Texas Tech, you look at maybe that Tennessee game or the Missouri game or, you know, whatever game you want to look at, and Arkansas was just getting out, rebounded a lot. I think both these guys are going to come in and be, you know, guys who can be reliable rebounders, which I think is going to be big for this team.
[00:10:48] Speaker B: One more sound bite to play for you. Of course, there's been a lot of talk, especially they've been talking about this for years, but especially since John Caliperi came to Arkansas, about the potential of a renewal of a series between the Razorbacks and Memphis and basketball. Of course, Calipari is the one who ended it whenever he was Memphis's coach over 20 years ago, said Memphis didn't need to play Arkansas anymore to fill up their gym. This is what he had to say last night when he was asked about the potential of these teams getting back together.
[00:11:16] Speaker D: We talked about an exhibition game and I think that would be something, you know, with St. Jude's involved, if they could bring back my players and do something that celebrated that group, I'd have a great interest in that.
[00:11:31] Speaker B: So it sounds like if they were going to play it Obviously an exhibition.
If St. Jude's is kind of the benefactor of this, which there has to be some sort of nonprofit involved for these teams to play each other in the preseason. The expectation is that it would be over at the FedEx forum in Memphis, most likely.
Anthony, I know you're fairly new to the Razorback beat, and so, you know, I don't know what your historical perspective is on, on playing Memphis, but just when you hear this, I wonder what your thoughts are.
[00:12:03] Speaker C: I know a little bit about it. Obviously, the series ended kind of early in my life, so I didn't get to, you know, watch it a ton. But, you know, I know, I know it resulted in a lot of exciting games. I know Penny Hardaway wants to bring it back, which, which is exciting. And you know, two very good historic programs as well. Especially, you know, when you look at the success Memphis had and under John Cal Perry, or the success Arkansas had under, under, you know, Dolan Richardson, every, everybody else along those lines and, you know, it'd be exciting. You know, I, I would, I would never complain about another trip to Memphis. I thoroughly enjoy this city.
It's a, it's a fun town and I get to find really cool coffee shops like this one. So that's, that's selfishly a good one. But also I think it would be a good kind of litmus test for both teams kind of going into a season. Right. We look at Arkansas looks like probably a top 10 to 15 team in the country for the next, you know, preseason. A people which I have not started my, my own preseason top 25 just yet. I'm.
I'm starting to think about where I'd have certain teams, but I haven't put down a list yet. But you're looking at it. You know, for Memphis you're going to play against the top 10, 15 team in the country in the preseason, and for Arkansas, you're playing against, you know, Memphis, which is consistently among, you know, the better, the better non power conference programs, which, you know, Memphis kind of operates as a power conference program and in the aac. So it's, it's kind of a weird little middle ground, but it would be, I think, very beneficial, especially preseason to kind of get used to that kind of environment that they're going to see in the sec.
It'd be a lot of fun, I think, and I think it'd be beneficial to both programs for sure. And then especially, obviously the charitable aspect is nice and nice as well.
[00:13:56] Speaker B: It's too bad they couldn't play it the night before the Arkansas Memphis football game over in Memphis. That would make that a neat little weekend. But that's just a little bit too early for teams to be having preseason basketball.
[00:14:06] Speaker C: Well, too convenient.
[00:14:07] Speaker B: Yeah, no, that's exactly right.
But I mean, that's, that's. That would be an ideal, you know, with Memphis, it's just totally different situation than 40 years ago, you know, when you didn't have a lot of your TV or a lot of your games on tv. You know, Nolan wanted to go recruit Memphis because that's where the players were. You get Ron Urie, you get Todd Day, you get Corey bank and Dwight Stewart. I know they, you know, they went to a JUCO first. But, you know, a guy that I think is forgotten because he never really did anything here was Marlon Towns. I think that was a McDonald's all American that came out of Memphis. And there were others during that time, Elmer Martin and Arlen Bowers. And the.
It's just different now. You don't have to take your show on the road over into a city to be able to recruit that city, and certainly not when you've got the name appeal of a John Caliperi. You know, I mean, his name opens doors. It doesn't matter if he was coaching the, you know, a community college, he'd still be able to open doors and get in and recruit players. And so, I don't know, it's just a different time now than it was whenever this series was in its heyday. But I know for a lot of people, including Penny Hardaway, who played in the series in the early 90s, there's a little bit of nostalgia to an Arkansas Memphis series that I think they would like to see renewed. So we'll see how that goes on all of that. None of that's been finalized.
It's just something, I guess it's been talked about.
Anything else, Anthony, that stood out to you last night?
[00:15:36] Speaker C: Not a ton. You know, I, I thought Kelsey Music seems excited about the roster that she's kind of putting together. You know, she. She's talked a lot about the offense. She wants to run high octane dribble drive. So I think that'll be. That'll be interesting. She's brought in two players from. From Oral Roberts who are going to help her kind of put that system into place, I would think.
So that'll be. That'll be interesting. And, you know, for just kind of overall, I, I talked to. I asked John Caliperi not just about, you know, Memphis, but kind of the Schedule in general, it seems like they want to do something similar to what they did last year where they'd have some neutral sites against, you know, major power conference programs. Obviously we know about the Duke game, but you know, it seems like he wants to add, you know, some more of those before kind of getting into, you know, those guarantee by games, you know, against some mid major opposition, which, you know, I think they're going to look for some quality teams there, which, you know, we saw that last season when they brought in Lipscomb and Troy and Oakland as well. So I think those are, those are some things to look out for. We didn't give away too, too much in that regard. But you know, I think those are, those are kind of my main takeaways from the evening.
And yeah, it was fun too. It was a cool little, cool little brewery that was that it was at. So shout out to Ghost River Brewing Company.
[00:16:53] Speaker B: I guess he's kind of stretched himself a little bit thin and all the. I'd like to, you know, like I'd like to play in Dallas every year. I'd like to play at Madison Square Garden every year. I want to play on Thanksgiving every year. You got to play in north Little Rock every year. So there's a lot of buckets to potentially fill there on the schedule. All we know about is, as Anthony mentioned, was they're going to play Duke in Chicago on Thanksgiving. They're going to play Baylor at Bud Walton arena. And at some point in the season, we don't have a date yet on that game. And we know they're going to host a game as part of the SEC ACC challenge in the upcoming season. Anthony's going to be in Little Rock tonight to listen to John Caliperi again. You can see what he has to write about it at our website, wholehogsports.com what's that?
[00:17:36] Speaker C: I was saying I would not complain about a neutral site game in St. Louis. Yeah, I think that'd be fun.
[00:17:41] Speaker B: I mean, who knows, maybe they'll hood every regional city during the season here in the upcoming year. Anthony, be safe coming back.
[00:17:47] Speaker C: Check off the boxes. Absolutely. Thank you.
[00:17:50] Speaker B: All right, we come back. Christina Long will be here in the studio. We will discuss Arkansas baseball and this upcoming series against Tennessee. But first word from Kendall King.
[00:17:59] Speaker A: At Kendall King, we're proud of over four decades of design.
We're continuing the legacy of great creative design by combining our brands of Kendall King Soapbox and Shopcart.
Together, these brands represent a new focus in marketing design with individual attention to specific areas through our design expertise. Supported by a team of talented professionals, we showcase our best. We are Kendall King. We are Soapbox. We are Shopcart. We are Design.
[00:18:31] Speaker B: Hey welcome back. Want to tell you about our friends at Bentonville Glass. They have been serving their community since 1971. Committed, professional, versatile. 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. You can come by and see them at 507 South Main, Bentonville or online at bentonvilleglass.com want to tell you you can get the latest breaking news on all Razorback sports at whole hog sports.com most in depth source for all Arkansas sports analysis, latest in recruiting, unique stories on all your favorite teams. Subscribe today @wholehog sports.com we just got done listening to Dave Van Horn preview the Arkansas Tennessee baseball series. You can find that video on our website. We're going to play any sound bites from that today. We'll probably have some when Bubba Carpenter's in studio tomorrow. But really the the big news I guess is there was anything real newsworthy was that Gage Wood is going to be held for a Game three start this weekend.
Because it's a Thursday, Friday, Saturday series, they'll start Wood on Saturday to keep him on his normal rest set rest schedule. We'll start Zach Root in Game one, tba Game two Gagewood in Game three against Tennessee. I don't believe we have Tennessee's rotation yet. I haven't seen it. If we do, we do know Tennessee's gonna throw Liam Doyle on Thursday.
Dave Van Horn said he thought that Doyle is probably the SEC pitcher of the year.
I think I'd probably agree with that. Although I think, you know, there's Kate Anderson, Kyson Witherspoon, those two probably have a pretty good case for it as well.
A lot of respect I know there's everybody's got their opinion about Arkansas and Tennessee. I think there's a lot of respect between these two coaching staffs. I think everybody remembers what happened at the end of game three in Knoxville in 2021 and think that everybody hates each other. I don't think that's the case now. I think that they have their own separate styles and ideas of how they're going to run a program and some of the things they're going to let their players do and not do during the course of a game. But I think there's a lot of respect between Dave Van Horn and Tony Vitello. I certainly know that from Tony's end, he has a lot of admiration for Van Horn because Van Horn got him out of a situation in Tennessee and got him at TCU and got him into a better situation at Arkansas and really elevated his profile to where when an SEC job came open, they said, hey, let's try that guy. And it's worked out as well as probably better than any of them thought it could have.
[00:21:03] Speaker E: Yeah. And it's something they've both talked about quite a bit. I mean, Tony Vitalo especially. That's what's so strange about that kind of fight in 2021 is, you know, how it felt out of character. Maybe not out of character for him, but like, out of character in terms of their relationship.
[00:21:18] Speaker B: Tony said, too, he's like, I was immature.
[00:21:20] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:21:20] Speaker B: I shouldn't have brought that up then. Yeah, I'm learning.
[00:21:23] Speaker E: Yeah. And so I think. And so they've talked about that, and I think even before then, and since then, he has talked a lot about, you know, the impact that Dave and Horn has had on his career. And Dave just now earlier said that, you know, they talked after the national championship and he called him and they talked about it. And, you know, I think there is a lot of respect there. And I think, you know, a lot of, you know, Dave was kind of a mentor for him, as he's been for several coaches that have been on his staff and still is for the ones that are on there now. And so I think that is something that even, you know, it adds intrigue to the matchup. Even if they hadn't gotten in each other's faces a few years ago, it's, you know, there's always something interesting when you have that kind of connection there.
But I think. I think that having happened does add a lot from a fan perspective. Like, fans love to hate Tennessee, and so they love to go back and look at that moment, even if those. The two men involved have actually moved on. And it was, you know, it was fine.
[00:22:13] Speaker B: How many people had disagreements?
[00:22:15] Speaker E: A lot.
[00:22:15] Speaker B: Everybody. I mean, we all had disagreements. Sometimes disagreements with people that you work with.
Cameras aren't always running.
[00:22:21] Speaker E: Exactly.
[00:22:21] Speaker B: When you have the disagreements and you.
[00:22:22] Speaker E: Don'T have people cheering and egging you on and all of that kind of thing.
[00:22:26] Speaker B: You know, I think a key for Arkansas in this series is to get to Liam Doyle, and that's way easier said than done. I mean, this guy is really good. I talked about Kate Anderson in the last week, the LSU pitcher, the left hander. If Kate Anderson is not the first left hander taken in the draft.
Liam Doyle might be.
You know, these two are really high profile prospects. And you look at Doyle this year, his ERA in SEC games, 2.82.
His WHIP in SEC games is 0.91. Now, all that said Tennessee, they've got okay pitching numbers, but Doyle, because he pitches so deep into games, he has been responsible for a lot of that. You take him out of the equation.
The rest of Tennessee's team in sec play, a 5.55 ERA and a 1.51 whip. So the rest of the Tennessee staff, basically almost three full runs a game worse than Doyle and their Whip is, is 60 points higher than his. And so, I mean it's, it's like I said, it's easier said than done. But if they can get Liam Doyle out of the game, then all of a sudden this becomes, I feel like a very advantageous series for Arkansas. They're playing at home number one. They've been so good at home this year. They're, they've got the best record in the country at home, 30 and 3.
I think their offense plays totally different at home. But Tennessee, when you get them into their bullpen in game two and game three, it's been pretty topsy turvy for them. And so if you can get to Doyle, maybe you get him out in the fourth inning or the fifth inning, it certainly has a little bit of a down the line effect as to how the rest of the series could go.
[00:24:08] Speaker E: Yeah, it's interesting because we talked before the LSU series about how, you know, they were going to be facing a really good pitching staff, but they were coming off a performance against a really good Texas pitching staff that we talked about being one of the best they would face and look how they made them look. So that was something going in the LSU series that we were like, all right, that's something you can, you know, have some confidence in. You've done it before or whatever. And then what happens against LSU happens. And so, and so now it's kind of okay. We've got some mixed results going on, which is fine. That makes sense. That's baseball. You're not going to shut down every single pitcher that you, that you face the same way. Not every pitcher is going to shut down every lineup that they face.
So I think now this is an interesting time for Arkansas to be facing a guy like this because they've kind of had both sides of that where they've made some really great pitchers look bad and then some great Pitchers have made them look a little silly now too.
[00:24:52] Speaker B: The, the elite like draft pitchers have, have, have confused them a lot. Like, you know, Texas, they are a great pitching staff.
[00:25:00] Speaker E: That was more.
[00:25:02] Speaker B: Yeah, but they don't have that elite arm on their staff with their, with their number one guy Spencer going out. Volantis, he's going to be a high round draft pick, but he's a freshman. He's pitching on the road. First time he's pitching on the road in a real tough environment.
Liam Peterson at Florida shut him down.
Kate Anderson, they did a good job of getting his pitch count up, but they didn't do a great job of pushing across runs against him. They stranded a lot against him.
So what I, Andson did the other day and so now you got another chance here with Liam Doyle again. I go back to the, the first three that I mentioned. They played them all on the road. This is a different team hitting in their ballpark. So I'm very interested to see how this is going to go tomorrow night.
[00:25:45] Speaker E: Yeah, me too. I think it's going to be a really fun series. I've been looking forward to this one since they announced. I think every, a lot of fans, everybody has. Yeah, everybody has. You know, we've been, I remember when we kind of started to think or we heard that it was going to be on the schedule here and we knew that was going to be some, some big news for some people. So I think it's going to be really fun. I think it'll be really packed. I'm, I'm, you know, there's a lot that I think can be learned from this last home series and we'll kind of have to see what happens.
[00:26:07] Speaker B: And it's rare that Arkansas has been able to play the last regular season series in Fayetteville. I've been told in the past that this has to do something with the schedule for final exams and how they, and how they schedule teams at the end of the year. I don't know exactly how that works, but I've been told that that's why Arkansas ends the year on the road quite often. The only time, maybe the only time in the last 14, 15 years when they played at home was to end that 21 season and Florida came here.
You know, it's been on the road ever since then. I mean, Alabama in 22, Vanderbilt in 23, A&M last year and there have been a lot of instances even, you know, before that.
So I, I, I don't know something about it being the last regular Season series at home.
Something about Arkansas still being in contention for the sec.
It's, it's a big, it's a hot ticket. I know that.
[00:27:03] Speaker E: Yeah, it's definitely a recipe for a lot of intrigue and a lot of excitement. And I think, you know, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, I think. What time? I don't even remember what time it's at tomorrow. Is it at 7?
[00:27:11] Speaker B: 7.
[00:27:12] Speaker E: Okay, so that helps.
Yeah. Because last time they had Thursday, Friday, Saturday at home, there was kind of a late arriving crowd. It still ended up being a really good crowd, but it was a little bit late arriving. So it was at six on a weeknight. But yeah, I mean, I'm expecting really good crowds. I think it's going to be really fun.
[00:27:26] Speaker B: News item here. Just came across Will McIntyre named to the SEC community service team.
Mentions here the second year in a row that he's offering $5 for every strikeout he records to cancer research. His dad, Madison, it's been in remission with cancer since Will was in high school. So neat deal there for Will McIntyre to be on the community service team going on.
First off on the SEC race, Arkansas, I think they.
I'm very interested to see what happens with Texas and Oklahoma because I feel like Texas is in this little bit of a valley right now. They didn't play well against Florida last week. Obviously they didn't play well against Arkansas.
They go to an Oklahoma team, it's in Norman. And so they go to an Oklahoma team that's coming off this series sweep at Kentucky, but before that they'd been playing pretty well. So you got two teams that are kind of a wild card here.
You know, is Oklahoma with their back against the wall, potentially trying to get back into that regional host conversation?
Are they able to take Texas down for two of three or maybe even three of three? I don't know. I know Texas has got his work cut out tomorrow whenever they face Kyson Witherspoon because that guy is really good. Yeah, really good.
Yeah. I don't know. I mean it's. I don't know that the SEC race is as open and shut as it appeared a week or two ago.
[00:28:48] Speaker E: Yeah, I think you're right. I think it's been interesting how things started to change with that Arkansas, Texas series and what an impact that had. And so yeah, I think this is definitely more of a conversation. I don't think we expected to of kind be talking about it as, as big of an option, just not because of Arkansas but because of Texas.
And is. Is Oklahoma, Texas Is that a Friday? Saturday, Sunday.
[00:29:06] Speaker B: Everything starts Friday.
[00:29:07] Speaker E: Saturday. Oh, yeah, yeah.
[00:29:08] Speaker B: Because of the tournament.
[00:29:09] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:29:10] Speaker B: Afterward.
[00:29:10] Speaker E: Yeah. So, I mean, that'll definitely be one to watch. I. It's hard for Arkansas having, you know, when you're right on the edge there and then having an opponent like Tennessee for that, you know, that you have to get over to also try to make that, that push in the sec.
[00:29:25] Speaker B: Yeah, Tennessee's hungry, too. They're. They're out. They're probably not going to be hosting a regional. As things stand right now, they come into this series this weekend, they've lost five of six SEC series. D1 baseball says Tennessee would not host.
As of right now, Baseball America has Tennessee as the number 16 host. So they're right there on the bubble, and certainly a series win in Fayetteville could go a long way toward helping their resume. I want to talk about this, too. I wrote something on our website, wholehogsports.com D1baseball. And I got a great amount of respect for them. We've, we've have their analysts on our show quite often, but they, they, they have different standards for their top 25 and for their, for their regional projections. This week, Arkansas is number eight in their top 25. And if you look at that, you would say, okay, well, they're right on the bubble of being one of those top eight national seeds.
But then their regional projections come out the next day, and Arkansas is the number three national seed. And they say that if Arkansas would have beaten LSU in game one in Baton Rouge, Arkansas would be the number one national seed right now. So, like, explain to me the number.
[00:30:34] Speaker E: One national seed if you're the number 18?
[00:30:36] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. I mean, it's weird.
[00:30:38] Speaker E: It's almost if we're maybe like a top 40, like, I can understand, but eight feels like a real reach.
[00:30:42] Speaker B: Yeah.
I think what happens is that with the top 25, I think there may be evaluating things more on, like, here and now. Like, you know, hey, what have you done the last however many weeks?
Whereas the regional projections are more a comprehensive look at the full season.
But to me, it's like if you're number three, you're number three, or if you're number two.
I feel like with some of these rankings, it's setting up some angst in people's minds that Arkansas may not be thought of as highly in the selection committee's eyes as I really think they are. I think they're thought of very highly. If the season ends right now, I don't know what order it's going to end up in. But I think it would be lsu, Texas and Arkansas as the top three seeds.
[00:31:31] Speaker E: Yeah. Yeah. I think when you look at the resumes, that makes a lot of sense. And yeah, that's why it's so weird that they'd be down 8. It reminds me of when you and I would get on the podcast and do our college football playoff brackets, and we did them in different ways, so they would look super different because one of us was thinking about that week and one of us was thinking, thinking where they're going to end up, like, what the final would look like.
So, yeah, I mean, it is weird. I, like I said I could understand if it was maybe like they had Arkansas somewhere in the top four, in their top 25, but to go from eight to being the number one national seed seems a little.
[00:31:59] Speaker B: The num. The number of national polls and the number of projections that are out there, I think, you know, it adds to the confusion. I wish college baseball.
And I've come around all on my way of thinking about this. Cause I used to hate the college football, you know, the show and October 21st, and we're ranking the football teams for the playoff. But I've kind of come around to it that I like the idea that I like the idea of the selection committee having some transparency in the process and saying, okay, here's what we're thinking about. Here's, you know, hey, yes, Arkansas went 1 and 2 at Baton Rouge, but that one win, it was a really big win in our eyes.
[00:32:37] Speaker E: Right.
[00:32:37] Speaker B: I think that this more transparency would do the game well.
[00:32:40] Speaker E: Right. It helps you, you know, as, as the public kind of see where they're at and, and kind of help you. And then it helps you kind of look at the games coming up and help you kind of see, okay, here's what they might need to see from these teams and in these different series based on what they've shown us so far.
[00:32:55] Speaker B: It would educate the fan base, or not just the fan, but it would. It would educate the college.
[00:32:59] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:32:59] Speaker B: And I honestly, it would grow some interest in the game if you're doing this on a weekly basis.
[00:33:06] Speaker E: I think it definitely does. I mean, it's something to talk about. I mean, we talk about it on the show during football season. Everybody does. It's. It's another thing to talk about. It's something to, you know, gain some intrigue. It's something to wait for the rankings to come out on, on early in the week. And.
Yeah, I mean, I think I, I don't mind the weekly. I think the show thing is like, kind of annoying, but I mean, they.
[00:33:25] Speaker B: Drag it out too long. They really do when they do the march because, you know, the basketball selection committee, they put out like their top 16 teams at some point before the selection show. And I think it's just a tweet. It's not even a show. It's just a tweet.
[00:33:42] Speaker E: I'm surprised they haven't made it a show yet.
[00:33:44] Speaker B: Make it part of inside the NBA or something. Moving forward, D1 baseball says again, Arkansas be the number three national seed of the season today.
They project Kansas, Western Kentucky and Wright State to be in the Fayetteville bracket.
[00:33:59] Speaker E: Wow. A new installment in the Arkansas Kansas burgeoning rivalry.
[00:34:03] Speaker B: A lot of postseason games.
[00:34:05] Speaker E: Playing a lot of postseason Games recently.
[00:34:07] Speaker B: Yeah, KU's been a good team this year.
I don't know that they're quite like the Big 12 teams that have come in here the previous years. I say that Kansas State, that that floored all of us, that they played that way last year, but I think we knew they were dangerous because of the way they could manufacture runs. Western Kentucky, they've got as many wins as Arkansas. They're tied with Arkansas and a couple of other teams for the national lead in wins, or at least they were going into yesterday. I actually think Northeastern might have overtaken Arkansas last night for the most wins in the country. They're on like a 21 game win streak or something in baseball America. They've got Arkansas as the number five national seed right now and their bracket looks like this. They've got Southern Miss coming to Fayetteville. Is the number two seed. Western Kentucky and Kent State.
[00:34:54] Speaker E: Hmm.
I don't really know much about Southern Miss. I know they've been, you know, I remember them being good recently, but I don't really know a lot about how they've been this year.
[00:35:03] Speaker B: Well, they play in the Sunbelt and the Sunbelt's been a pretty good conference. So you got Coastal, who's going to be a regional host. You've got Troy, who's been really good and, you know, obviously Southern Miss. So, I mean, they've had three or maybe four teams that have been, you know, teetering in and out of the top 25 this season. So it's one of those deals where it's like, you look at the Sunbelt. Nah, but I think the Sunbelt's gotten a lot better than baseball this year.
[00:35:25] Speaker E: Yeah. Yeah. I hadn't kept up with them. I mean, obviously Coastal, you are always Kind of keeping an eye on them. But, yeah, I mean, I'll be curious. You know, it's always fun to see what teams end up in the regional. And, you know, it's talking to somebody about this recently about, you know, how difficult the college baseball postseason is and how hard it is to win, how hard it is to advance. And, you know, we were talking about a lot of it is the draw. But honestly, even in years when you get a favorable draw or on paper, you just don't know. I mean, that team will come in hot. Like you were saying Kansas State. We knew maybe they were dangerous, didn't expect them to come out the way that they did. So even if you get what looks like a pretty good draw, you just don't know.
[00:35:58] Speaker B: Well, and I mean, I thought the last two years Arkansas had the regional set up the way they wanted to. One and, oh, Hagan Smith on the mound. I mean, it's. You're on your home field.
Just didn't work out. Sometimes, I mean, sometimes people just don't have the performances that you think they're going to have. It wasn't a hitting problem, it was a pitching problem. The last two years, a starting pitching problem from the best starting pitcher they've ever had.
[00:36:20] Speaker E: Yeah, it's. It's crazy to think about it. And, you know, and I know fans think about it all the time. It's the thing race rec fans will always think about until they, you know, until they get that national championship under their belt. But, I mean, yeah, it's, It's. That's why it's so hard to predict. And I, I can. It's interesting how you can kind of feel the fans trying not to get too excited or too ahead of themselves, you know, like after the Texas series.
[00:36:42] Speaker B: I don't understand that, but get excited.
[00:36:45] Speaker E: I mean, I think people are.
[00:36:46] Speaker B: Enjoy your.
[00:36:46] Speaker E: But I think they're also, they're waiting. They've. They've been burned so many times, they're waiting for the, you know, the problem to happen or they're, you know, they're just, they're not going to believe that this team can do it until it does it, you know, because that's no.
[00:36:59] Speaker B: Way to live your life.
[00:37:00] Speaker E: I, I don't know. I feel like it's. I understand why it feels that way and I understand why it happens, because there have been teams that you thought were a lock to do it and.
[00:37:10] Speaker B: They didn't get excited. Enjoy your life. That's what I would say. Enjoy your team. Like. Like, don't don't, don't sit there and just hand wring and think, oh God, you know, the things. When is it going to happen when things gonna go wrong? Like enjoy yourself, watch your team enjoy it.
That fun.
A lot of things other in the world to get worried about. It's interesting. There's a lot of SEC teams that are in or that I think are in the top eight discussion right now. One of them, and I write about this in this story. Alabama has kind of come out of nowhere. They. Last week they played Troy in a midweek game at Troy and just ran laps around him.
Troy, a top 25 team. And then they won two of three over Georgia over the weekend in Tuscaloosa. Now all of a sudden, Christina, they're 39 and 13 overall. They have got a 15 and 12 record in the SEC. They've got 12 quad one wins. RPI is number nine. Strength of schedule is number 18. And they play Florida this weekend in Gainesville. Florida, the hottest team in the sec. If they were to go there and take a series from Florida and maybe win a game or two at the SEC tournament, I think you're looking at Alabama being in a really good spot to be a top eight seed when the Memorial Day rolls around.
[00:38:27] Speaker E: Yeah. These comparisons you've got are really helpful to kind of see all the resume metrics that the committee might be considering and that you kind of need to keep an eye on going into these last couple weeks because. Yeah, that's something that, like, I wouldn't have even realized. You know, I hadn't really been thinking about Alabama as, you know, one of the upper teams in the country.
So. Yeah, I mean, the series of Florida, I mean, it's that you have worst series losses. Mississippi State. That's not terrible. Not terrible. There's other teams with far worse.
[00:38:55] Speaker B: Oregon lost to Ohio State, whose RPI is number 218.
[00:38:58] Speaker E: That's pretty tough. That's pretty tough.
You know, Arkansas is worse. RPI is 59. Series lost. Texas A and M. There's a few.
[00:39:07] Speaker B: Teams that have got Texas A and M as their worst year. I mean, think about Arkansas, LSU and Tennessee. That's all their worst series loss.
[00:39:13] Speaker E: That's crazy. So, yeah. I mean, which. I mean, how much does Texas A and M and the Missouri series. How much does that hurt?
[00:39:19] Speaker B: Oh, my God. Yeah, it's. Yeah. Well, I mean it.
All you need to know is Texas A and M, going into that Missouri series, their RPI was like high 30s.
[00:39:27] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:39:28] Speaker B: And then it just dropped like a rock every day. Every day it was like, okay, it fell 9 today. It fell 7. It fell 6. And just.
I still cannot wrap my head around what happened in that A and M Missouri series.
[00:39:41] Speaker E: It was insane.
[00:39:42] Speaker B: It's the most. It's the most unexpected series outcome. I've been covering SEC baseball for 17 years. It's the most unexpected series outcome I can remember.
[00:39:51] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:39:52] Speaker B: Ever.
[00:39:52] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:39:53] Speaker B: It's like, even Long Beach State beating Mississippi State the year after they won the national championship did not surprise me as much as what Missouri did. Going to College Station 1 and 3.
[00:40:02] Speaker E: It's insane. Especially given, like, I was talking to somebody about this recently at this point in the year, how miserable must that locker room be?
Nobody wants to be there. The coaches probably don't even want to be there, you know? So to actually find a way to care enough to win a series like that is crazy.
[00:40:21] Speaker B: And, I mean, they got to go to Georgia this week. Hey, A and M, congratulations. You just lost to Missouri. Now you got to play a national seed on their home field, where they've been very hard to beat.
[00:40:31] Speaker E: Yeah, it's insane. So, yeah, that was a crazy result. It was funny, the first game, when they got their first SEC win, I was in Kansas City. I was at a Royals game, and you were texting me about it, and my friend's dad was texting her about it. And so I pulled up the last inning on my phone. We were watching it while we were at the Royals game, and the people next to me, like, started watching it over my shoulder, and I was like. They were like, what's going on?
[00:40:54] Speaker B: What is this sport?
[00:40:55] Speaker E: I was like, missouri baseball might win their first SEC game. They're like, oh, we went to Mizzou. And I was like, me, too.
[00:41:00] Speaker B: Did you ask them if they went to a Mizzou game?
[00:41:02] Speaker E: I don't think that they.
[00:41:03] Speaker B: Chances are slim.
[00:41:04] Speaker E: They said they've been to some. They go to all the football games, and they go to a lot of the basketball games, and they said they've been to a couple of baseball games, but I don't think any have been this year.
[00:41:12] Speaker B: I don't know that I've ever seen a Missouri fan at a Missouri baseball game. Like. Like, when Arkansas goes there, it's. It's like, all red in the stands.
[00:41:19] Speaker E: Yeah, I had one of their series on recently.
I think it was maybe the week before last when they. Whenever they were last at home, and I turned it on, and there were more people there than I would expect it. I mean, there were not a lot of people There. But I would have thought you couldn't see a soul in the background of the TV shot. Like I would have guessed there would just be absolute nobody there. And there were actually more people there than I would have guessed.
[00:41:39] Speaker B: Parents and girlfriend games probably. So a lot of divorced parents remarried. Maybe they got two or three girlfriends a piece and they all came in and they got 150 people in the stadium.
[00:41:50] Speaker E: Yeah, that tends to be how it goes. It's not like an exciting, it's environment.
[00:41:54] Speaker B: Yeah, I feel bad from Zera and you heard their AD come out recently and say we are not supporting the program at the level that we need to.
[00:42:02] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:42:03] Speaker B: So, I mean it's like.
[00:42:03] Speaker E: So, like what are you going to do?
[00:42:05] Speaker B: Well, it's interesting like, like what happens with them now is, does this open their eyes and hey, we start supporting baseball.
Well, in order to do that, you got to take money away from, you know, drink, what's. And you got to take money away from here. And I just don't see it happening.
[00:42:19] Speaker E: Yeah, it's.
[00:42:20] Speaker B: Unless the only thing I can see happening, you know, they've got some well to do alumni. Scherzer went there, Ian Kinsler went there.
You know, Vitello went there. Although I don't see Vitello, you know, taking.
[00:42:33] Speaker E: Imagine if he was donating to the Missouri baseball program.
[00:42:35] Speaker B: But you know what I mean, it's like they've got some, some, some baseball players who have gone on and they've done well for themselves. If they start giving back, maybe that helps level the playing field a little bit. But I mean, it's, it's such a wide. It's like the Grand Canyon between Missouri and the 15th best baseball program. And I say program, I'm not even talking about this year's team. I'm just talking about the program, the facilities, everything that goes into determining a program. It's like the Grand Canyon between them and number 15.
So imagine what it's like between them and number one and number two and number three.
[00:43:09] Speaker E: Yeah, I feel so bad for them. It's like, how do you recruit to that after, you know, after a year like this? How do you. What is the pitch? What is the pitch for that play in the sec?
[00:43:20] Speaker B: You get some money.
[00:43:21] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:43:21] Speaker B: You get some money much?
[00:43:23] Speaker E: Not much. So that's, you know, it's, it's the age old problem of college sports is like, how do you recruit to it, to get out of the hole and then. But once you're, you know, you just keep digging deeper because you can't you have to win in order to get better players, in order to get money to get better players, things like that. But you can't do. You can't get the wins without those players. And so it's just the perpetuating sort of cycle.
[00:43:45] Speaker B: Here's the bottom line. There's like seven SEC teams right now are in the top 12 conversation because you got Texas. Vanderbilt is surging, and you go tying all this back together before you finish tying this back to Arkansas and their resume. How big does that series sweep of Texas look? We knew that was big. But going back, the series sweep of Vanderbilt in Nashville, it has just looked better and better and better as the season's gone along because Vanderbilt's gotten pretty good.
[00:44:12] Speaker E: Yeah, they've also, you know, you talked about Alabama and it's a, it's a different scenario, but it is something that you have kind of. I kind of looked up a week or two ago and was like, oh, Vanderbilt has really come on. And so, yeah, it really does give them a significant boost that they were able to do that early in the.
[00:44:25] Speaker B: Year and against the teams, excuse me, the teams that are projected to be regional hosts from D1 baseball. Arkansas's got a 9 and 4 record this year against the projected regional host because TCU's in that conversation. They beat TCU down in Arlington. So you're not going to find a lot of programs that are going to have that type of record against the teams that are expected to be regional hosts this year. So anyway, that's. That's a lot. You can read more about this on our website. The the headline analyzing Arkansas baseball's case for a top eight seed entering the final series of the regular season. Arkansas, Tennessee, tomorrow night. Bubba Carpenter is going to be in studio here tomorrow. We'll break down this series with him. Always fun when Bubba comes in. Christina, we appreciate you being here. We hope that we see you at our website, wholehogsports.com or tomorrow on our podcast. Have a great day, everybody.
