Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: You're listening to the Whole Hog Sports podcast. And now here's your host, Matt Jones. Today on the show, Ron Higgins, the Louisiana columnist, will join us to talk about what's going on at lsu. We'll also be joined by Ethan Westerman in studio to talk about Razorback basketball. The women beat UCA last night. The men play UCA tonight. First, a word from Kendall King.
[00:00:18] Speaker B: 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 spec 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 Shop Cart. We are Design.
[00:00:43] Speaker A: Arkansas and LSU will play Saturday down in Baton Rouge. It's going to be an 11:45 kickoff on SEC Network. It's always fun whenever you play these games and there's nothing going on at the other school that's. Well, it's actually the opposite of that at lsu. Ron Higgins, a longtime columnist, he's with the Shreveport Bossier Journal, joins us now. Ron, what's the last few weeks been like there?
[00:01:05] Speaker C: Well, for any other state, it'd be chaos. Louisiana is kind of normal.
You have a governor sticking his nose into LSU's business and, and don't even know that. Can't keep his facts straight.
He was hell bent on getting an athletic director fired who was probably one of the best ADC LSU's ever had.
He hired Kim Mulkey, he hired Jay Johnson, he hired, promoted the gymnastics coach. All those people won national championship team. And this governor, Jeff Landry really just had a, a vendetta for Scott Woodward. And that that happened after Scott fired Brian Kelly.
I didn't. We were all shocked that Brian got fired. We thought they give him another year considering what he had to dig out of. Orgeron left him with like 37 scholarship players and he had to kind of dig out of that. And they also nil started and he had to deal with that. That was a transition for him.
And then the transfer portal, it was hit or miss the first couple years. The second year when Jay and Daniel's second year there, their defense was awful because he got almost like 4, 4 portal defensive backs he got were all awful. LSU couldn't stop anybody and you know, they wasted a Heisman trophy year because the defense couldn't stop anybody.
Last year they were a little bit better defensively under Blake Baker's first year as defensive coordinator. But the offensive line was not. This is a great thing, the offensive line. LSU had last year, I think all the starters now, except one guy who came back or in the NFL yet they could run, block anybody, nobody.
And basically teams started playing LSU like they, like they did this year because this year's offensive line is even worse than last year's. This year's offensive line is non existent. It's the reason LSLU has lost four games. It's all on the offensive line.
And teams basically are just, you know, dropping 7 and 8, you know, rushing 3 because they don't, they don't really have to. LSU can't run. They can't anybody. There's no threat of running. Nussmeier is not going to run. He doesn't run.
Which is why last week for the first time, Frank Wilson interim. His first game against Alabama, you know, get put the quarterback, the back, you know, from. I'm sure Arkansas fans are familiar with Michael Van Buren. I think he threw for 300 on y' all last year. He's a hell of a talent and he's fast and he's. What honestly would lsu. This is the debate that Frank Wilson has in his head. I think. I think honestly Brian Kelly had it too.
Do I. With Nussmeier, who's doing the best he can with an offensive line, doesn't block anybody. And I know this kid has enough experience to get us in the right play.
Or do I go with Van Buren who doesn't have as much experience but who can escape really quick because this offensive line is so bad? And I think that's a debate that Kelly had and he really never really played Van Buren very much. But last week Wilson had seen enough against Alabama from the second half and he played okay. He really did. He played fine. So the debate this week, who's going to play?
And Frank Wilson says both of them are going to play.
We'll see. LSU's defense hasn't been the problem this year. I mean, that it's had one really bad game and that was the A and M game. And of course, you know how good A and M is. They're loaded in LSU again, this. They stayed on the field too long that game. A lot of these games this year, LSU's defense has been on the field too long. But they've held up. They've been, they've.
Kelly made some great portal buys on defense.
I mean, he's got. He's got great Russians.
Jack Piper from Florida, Jamari Butler from Nebraska Patrick Payton, Florida State. Their, their defensive backfield got really great overnight. Mansur Delay in the cornerback. Virginia Tech who probably the best cover guy in the league.
Tamaris Cooley, a safety. I think, I think He's North Carolina. A.J. halsey, Houston safety. LSU defensive back. LSU's defense is good. They give them their chance. But what's happened lately is that Whit Weeks has been hurt. Bone bruise on his ankle. He's out of last two games. I don't know if he's gonna play this week or not. And he is the heart and soul their defense. And of course again Arkansas fans remember him last year man made a play for LSU to the goal line and, and his brother west is starts and he's, he's good but he's not wit which is really intelligent and kind of a, a sideline to sideline. Wild man, great closing speed and that's kind of hurt him defensively. But more than anything, this offensive line has been so horrible, so inexperienced that they bought two guys in the portal and both of them have been really good.
Virginia Tech center Braylon Moore and left guard from Northwestern, right guard Josh Thompson. The rest of the guys, unless you had a retro freshman or freshman and they're just awful. I mean they're inexperienced but by this time you figure they get a little bit better.
And as a result the last two or three games Nussmar has taken a frightful beating. I mean every time, every time he throws he's getting hit.
Last week finally LSU started rolling him out more which, which helped him somewhat. He throws really well off the run.
But the, the problem is that they have no running game. Their, their running game is on pace to be the second worst in LSU history.
No, Smart doesn't have time to throw down field. So LSU throws little short, quick passes to running backs and screens and they, and for some reason he won't throw the middle of the field. Defenses have figured this out and they're leaving the middle of the field wide open and he won't throw to it.
The receiving core is kind of beat up somewhat, but they got, they got enough depth to get by.
But they had too many drops. Last week against Alabama they self destructed offensively in the red zone like they've done all year and, but again their defense gives them a chance.
The only problem is this week they're facing an RPO quarterback and last week Alabama's quarterback was the first stationary quarterback they faced since Kate Clubnik.
And they're great against that. Against RPO, they're awful RPO starting quarterbacks this year, all of them SEC, they've given like 2, 280 yards a game to just those quarterbacks average alone. So, you know, and of course one of the best ones comes in this week to bat Ranger. I mean they, they've seen, they've seen him before. Last year, Thalen K.J. jefferson played really well against LSU.
LSU doesn't do well against option quarterbacks. And Arkansas can score. LSU can't score. They just can't. And it's amazing with all this talent they have, they just can't score. And it comes back to the fact that their offensive line is soft and confused. And last week the, their first play of the first of the game offensively and their first play, offensive play of the second half were both false starts. Which tells you how bad this team is that they self destruct or they don't block anybody. Yeah. So Arkansas fans, you got a shot. I'm telling you.
I know you're thinking there's no, you know, you know, I know y' all had a tough this year, but I'm telling you, this LSU team, it hasn't played well and can't afford to get in a shootout with anybody else. Use the LSU's defense has got to hold this in the 20s. And as you've seen by the game this year, except for A and M, they've done that. They've given offense a chance to win. Their offenses can't get it done.
[00:09:23] Speaker A: Yeah, I think most Arkansas fans would say, hey, look, you know, we played Auburn, they had quarterback issues, played Mississippi State, they had quarterback issues and they both still came out of Fayetteville with wins in the last couple of games. How much do you think all the stuff that's happening around the program with Brian Kelly and the coaching search, how much of that do you think might be seeping in and affecting players? And then even, you know, the coaching staff that's there right now, I'm sure they probably got an eye on the future. Hey, you know, this is the time you got to go out and talk to other people about potentially having jobs players. Are you going to be here next year? Are you thinking about transferring? How much of that just starts to seep in in the midst of this kind of lost season.
[00:10:00] Speaker C: But that's got to be part of it. But I mean, I mean, I'd say Frank Wilson, the interim who's been there, you know, associate head coach, running backs coach, a veteran guy, he'll, he's real good at, you know, study the obvious to the team and, and kind of get them centered and focused, but it still doesn't.
To me, they can give all the rah rah talk they want, they can say they're. They cut it, we're going to shut out all the noise all they want, but they can't trade for a better offensive line. Mm.
And honestly, that's been.
That has been the sole problem. Yeah, there's a lot of stuff going around. I mean, it was just a bizarre, you know, open date weeks for most teams. You know, they, they have a nice sedate week. They review game films. He might correct mistakes. No, no. Here at lsu. Here at lsu, you basically, the governor comes in, he helps fire the coach, he fires the ad, and then he lies about not knowing the facts of the case. And then they name an interim athletic director, and then they name the permanent athletic director, then the governor, who. Then the president of the university who they just named last Tuesday, on Tuesday backtracks and said, well, I haven't seen enough of sample size.
He's permanent athletic. So are you an interim or you're an athletic director.
And this is the kind, this is the kind of stuff that's going now. And now, better yet, the latest, everybody's going, well, you know, LSU is a great destination. They'll get a good coach.
Who is going to come in here and coach when you know, who's the boss? Is it the ad? Is it the president, university?
Is it the board of supervisors who are handpicked by the governor? Is it the governor and what, what head coach with this right now and coming to place where the school is trying to screw Brian Kelly out of all his, his buyout.
You know, Brian Kelly has to take him to court to get his buyout. And it's like. And then they're claiming, they fight him with cause. What cause he didn't know it was without cause. Now they're trying to dig stuff up to see so they get out of paying his full 54 million. So. But if I'm, if I'm a coach anywhere, look at this mess and saying, okay, well, then, you know, obviously they, you know, I can't trust him on the contract.
And I don't know who. I mean, look at the, this circus going on. All these people. Who's my boss? Yeah, it's a great job. I love me and means. Yeah, but do I really want all that?
And you're gonna have to find somebody, I think a bit desperate to get this job. And I know people outside of, outside of Louisiana Find it hard to believe because they think, well, God, lsu, you know, great tradition. You know, three national championships under three different coaches and two of them who were.
Who. Nobody knows how. How in the hell they coach championship teams with Les Miles and Ed Orom, not two of the more brilliant football minds in the history.
But I think. I think that was attraction for Brian. I think Brian Kelly came here thinking, man, those guys want. I can sure win one here.
But, you know, he came in a time we had to, like I said, rebuild. And then INIL kicked in, and LSU wasn't ready for nil, but didn't have a lot of nil money until this past year. That kind of put him behind. But if I'm a coach looking at this thing, they got a lot of things to consider. And like almost every week, lsu, the administration does something to make the coaching search a little tougher on their athletic director, Virgil, a former LSU football player who's been in the department for like 30 years. A good guy.
It makes it even tougher.
And, you know, Arkansas is kind of like LSU right now.
You know, there's a rest of the season left and you'd like to get some wins. But there's more interest in the coaching search thing than the game.
[00:14:01] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:14:02] Speaker C: I mean, it really is.
It mean at this point. And then that's what. That's strange because this game is rarely. That, you know, rarely has. I don't know if they ever had two interims at once coach each other in this game.
[00:14:20] Speaker A: I don't think they have.
[00:14:22] Speaker C: You know, you know, it's a battle for the golden boot, but it's also the battle of the coach who had been boot, who got. Got booted.
[00:14:31] Speaker A: I want to ask you more. You mentioned some about RPO quarterbacks, and it's something I noticed about LSU this year. And what's interesting is that they actually had some success defensively earlier in the year against Trinidad Chambliss of Ole Miss and Lenore Sellers from South Carolina. Now, I know Sellers is having a pretty bad year. What do you think went well, though? Maybe in those first two games that didn't go so well. Whenever they're facing Diego Pavia and Marcel Reed.
[00:14:55] Speaker C: I thought that they did a better job of closing the middle. Those guys would escape up the middle.
The guys who really hurt him. I mean, LSU's defensive ends, I mean, and also the LSU brings. LSU brings a ton of blitzes and looks. That's kind of Blake Baker, his. His mo.
That's why I knew they would play well. Against Alabama last week also because is, you know, their quarterback stationary.
[00:15:26] Speaker A: He didn't move.
[00:15:27] Speaker C: He's not going to run. You just get off the platform and he has, you know, he has trouble and, and he didn't. I don't think he ever took off up the middle ever.
But, you know, when you got guys who rpo, guys who are fast and the, the pockets collapsing and all of a sudden they're gone in a blink. That's, that's, that's LSU's weakness right there. A lot of times they don't spy the middle. I guess, like I thought.
I guess a M. We couldn't figure out why they didn't spy Marcel Reed. And I think Perkins was trying to do it, but he just like half the time was confused about, about what he was doing.
Pavia. It's just, it's the same thing.
That little son of a gun. I mean, every. Everybody in the leagues, it's like more you watch him, the more you just like.
I mean, even if he beats your team, you just admire the guy because he's just a baller and he just makes plays.
What he did this last game against Auburn was unbelievable. And, and you know, he might, he might be the SEC player of the year. I mean, honestly, I think he should be. But LSU's. LSU's weakness is that they'll claps a pocket and gats will escape in the middle. And so I don't know if there's a confusion on staying in your rush lanes or basically they'll run blitzes. Teams will pick up and they'll find gaps, but that's, that's been the problem. But LSU will throw a bunch of different looks and blitzes at you and you know, it's, you know, it's like rolling the dice every time. But against his RPO quarterbacks, they've been, you know, Chandler's hurt him some too. I mean, like, he didn't. I mean, they did a good job on Lenore Sellers, who's really not surrounded with as good as players as he had last year.
But again, Taylor Green can play and I'm out. I mean, Frank Wilson talked about this week. He was. This might be the best, the best. Of all the quarterbacks we played this year, this, this guy might be the best.
[00:17:29] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:17:31] Speaker C: So, I mean, they're definitely, they're definitely worried about him.
[00:17:34] Speaker A: Is it a personnel issue this year at lsu? And if so, how does it get to that point? Because, you know, you mentioned some of those earlier, whether it be Jay Johnson or Kim Mulkey, it seems like LSU across the board has maybe done as well, and I'm talking about all sports as any program that's been out there in this nil collective era. That seems like they've got a real robust collective there. So, I mean, did they identify the wrong players? Was it a matter of. Did they not have enough money? Because as I look at lsu, I say, hey, if LSU can't put together a better product on the field in this era, thank you. Then it's, it's just kind of odd. You know what I'm saying? Ron?
[00:18:10] Speaker C: Yeah, all the guys they got in the portal this year have been good.
Problem is the guys that who came back, it's a soft team physically. They're soft on, on. On offense.
Defensively, they've missed some tackles, I think. And you know, this, this last week when Wilson took over, Blake Baker requested like, let's have some drills where we actually tackle and hit.
One of Kelly's deals was that he didn't like to have physical practices in the season. He was afraid of getting people hurt.
And so there was a lot of thud stuff.
And it may have softened LSU's defense a bit, but last week they, they really hit. And both, both the offensive defensive guys saying how much they enjoyed that. Like, man, this is like real football.
But I think this, I think they're a soft team. And I mean, and look, they, by definition, they've recruited well. They've been a top five, top six recruiting team under Kelly every year.
They've got good guys, but the line has kind of failed them. And since he's been there, either the offense has been good and the defense bad or defense has been good. Offense been. There's never been the same in the same year.
And his offensive line really, I mean, LSU hasn't run the ball well since he's really been here. I mean, I know people look at like Jaden Daniels last season when, you know, LSU had a great rushing number. It's because of Jaden Daniels, a phenomenal talent. I mean, the first time we saw the LSU practice, you know, in fall practice, you know, you wear a red jersey. You can't touch him. You can't touch your quarterback, you can't tackle him.
He drops back to pass, he takes a shotgun snap and nobody's open.
And he runs 25 yards downfield before anybody can even put a hand on him, like, to touch him down. We all looked at each other like, oh, my God, who is this guy?
But they, this his second year, they won the. Heisman basically their running game was him.
It was an aberration.
It was an offensive line that just had to give you a little him a sliver and he was gone. He could go the distance, but the last two years, their lines haven't been good. Last year again, last year's line, which could pass block, couldn't run block. This year's team can't really do either.
And people go, how did NAR gets so bad so quick? My wife be just at the start of the year, he had an injury, a lower torso injury.
Maybe just started pulled muscle in the stomach or something. It really bothered to the point where he couldn't throw downfield. I mean, his first couple of deep balls in the games after Clemson, they hung up in there so long. I mean, they were picked. Me's got receivers that can just blow past defensive backs.
The guy they got from Kentucky, Baron Brown, is a fast human. There's been so many times this year where he's just blown past defensive backs and Nussmeier can't get to him. He didn't have the strength to because he was hurting, but his arm strength is back now. But now he's really getting hit hard every game. And, you know, and. And the fear is that Arkansas is going to come after him this week because, I mean, they have great rush ins and Bill blast him too. So they got to figure out somehow, Olivia, that. That said Frank Wilson said he hasn't named the starting quarterback, but he said Musmeyer and bam. German will play, but I don't know who to start.
[00:21:50] Speaker A: Let's get you out here on this, Ron. LSU fans, do they love night kickoffs more or hate morning kickoffs more?
[00:21:57] Speaker C: Oh, my God, I hate morning kickoffs. Oh, my.
It's like. It's like it holds.
It screws up their whole drinking schedule. I mean, like, they look at they. But you know, LSU's play has a pretty good record in the morning, even in morning games. But the fans are like 11:45. That means like. Like what, 3:00 in the morning, we're gonna start drinking. Really?
Frank Wilson does said this week, he goes, you know what?
[00:22:25] Speaker A: You know, I'm.
[00:22:25] Speaker C: Do you know, I'm gonna tell the fans, listen, you need to get there Friday. But I'm on Friday night. I'm gonna go around. I'm gonna get a golf cart, go around and thank all the tailgaters who show up on Friday night to make sure they're there for kickoff on Saturday.
But, you know, I know LSU fans, you might be there on Friday, but you might not like to kick off on Saturday because you're, you're too hungover.
[00:22:49] Speaker A: We'll see how it goes. I know our guys has played down there. Rarely have they played down there in the morning. I can only think of one other morning kickoff. You know, for all those years it was the Black Friday game and it was a mid afternoon game. There have been a few Death Valley at night experiences, but I can't remember a whole lot of times when Arkansas played here in the morning. We'll see how it goes this weekend. Ron, we appreciate you joining us.
[00:23:10] Speaker C: Great. Thanks for having me. Good talking to you.
[00:23:12] Speaker A: All right, you too. Thanks, Ron. Ron Higgins of the Shreveport Bossier Journal. When we come back, Ethan Westerman will join me in studio. But first, a word from Kendall King.
[00:23:20] Speaker B: Kindle King we're proud of over four decades of design.
We're continuing the legacy of great creative design by combining our brands of KendallKing, Soapbox and ShopCart.
Together, these brands represent a new focus in marketing design with individual attention to specific areas. Through our design expertise, supported by a team of talented professionals, we showcase our best. We are Kendall King. We are Soapbox. We are Shopcart. We are Design.
[00:23:46] Speaker A: Hey, welcome back. Want to tell you about our friends at Bentonville Glass. They've been serving their community since 1971. Committed, professional and 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 buy and see them at 507 South Main in Bentonville or online at bentonville glass.com Ethan Westerman in Studio with me now. We'll talk Razorback basketball here in just a minute. It's UCA week. They played UCA last night. The women did beat them 89 to 77 in overtime. The men play UCA tonight, 7:00 tip off on SEC Network plus SEC. First we'll talk about this. Kind of the story of the day, I guess is the comments that David Basel made at the Little Rock Touchdown Club yesterday. Basically, if you haven't seen this, he's upset about the trophies that used to be housed in the Broyles Center Museum.
I guess they're in a storage facility somewhere here in northwest Arkansas. They're certainly not on display in the football stadium anymore.
The only trophies I can think of that are on display over there. The public can't see them. There are a handful of trophies and I think the Grantland Rice trophy may be One of them, the national championship trophy that Arkansas got in 64 that are inside the Fred Smith center, the football operations building.
Now, you need, like, CIA level clearance, I think, to get inside that building. Maybe not that much, but, you know, I mean, it's that. That's not a building that you just walk into.
You know, there's some trophy cases in there that, you know, I think the Burlsworth trophy is on display in there because of its ties to Arkansas. I think the Grantland Rice Trophy' in there.
There might be another trophy or two, like some, you know, national position player of the year, like a Doak Walker award or maybe a Remington trophy, something like that, you know. But all of these old Southwest Conference championship trophies, they're nowhere to be found.
You know, the bowl trophies, cotton boll trophies, things like that, they're nowhere to be found. And really, there's kind of a bigger story here that at the U of A, the trophies just in general, are kind of hard to find. Like the national championship trophy, the actual NCAA trophy that the men's basketball team got, 94, that's inside the men's basketball practice center. Again, like, the public can't see that. I think there's still the old Sears trophy, the crystal ball that they also received for winning the title. That's down in that old museum at Budwalton arena, which is sorely in need of being renovated.
At baseball, you can see all of the trophies that they have. They're inside the baseball building, the Hunt center, but that is open on game day, where you can walk around and look in that little museum area.
Track, they've got all their national championship trophies that are inside the indoor facility. They've got so many other trophies, though, that they don't know what the heck to do with them. Ethan, you walk into the track building and there's like SEC championship trophies just on the floor because they don't know where else to put them. I mean, think about how many conference titles there. You go around Fayetteville, and you see pin relay wheels just on the walls of local businesses who support the track program. You know, it's like, hey, thanks for supporting us. Here's a pin relay wheel. This is a really prestigious thing that we got for winning at the Penn Relays.
You know, so I'm kind of a. I'm big on museums. I like going into some of these colleges where, you know, like Alabama, the Bear Bryant Museum is on campus, and it's really well done. You go into Fog Allen Field House at Kansas, and they've got an incredible basketball museum there.
So I think Arkansas could do better in terms of having these on display somewhere. The problem is where are you going to put them?
And in this era right now where you're just kind of searching the couch cushions for every, you know, dollar you can find, I don't think anybody's gonna be building a, you know, million, two million dollar facility to house trophies.
More than anything, I think it was just kind of a lack of foresight whenever they rebuilt the north end zone over at Razorback Stadium, that they didn't have a better museum in the plans for the one that they took away from the Boreal center. Because again, that old museum at the, at the Boreal center, that was actually a pretty cool old museum that they had.
[00:28:01] Speaker D: Yeah. And it's. There's nothing to get, I think anybody more riled up than bringing up, trying to erase our past. And that's what just kind of got brought up from this whole discussion.
[00:28:11] Speaker A: Or a trophy to David Basil. And we say that. Loving David.
[00:28:14] Speaker D: Yeah, for sure. But I mean, that's what came from.
First of all, Little Rock Touchdown Club always has some just great storylines that come from there. It's crazy how much it keeps producing.
[00:28:24] Speaker A: There's always something that keeps them in the, in the news of the day, for sure.
[00:28:28] Speaker D: But I mean, that got people pretty fired up because it was just kind of like a big emphasis on trying to not preserve history and all these great players that have come before. And you're right, it's like, what is the solution right now, practically? And David Basil said he'll, if he needs to go up here and get it in Old Main or something along those lines on campus, he'll find a way to get it done. But he said that they're going to get it done.
It is. It is funny because it's like I went to Jordan Hare last year when they played at Auburn, and I just thought it was a really nice recruiting tool, to be honest. I get it. Arkansas doesn't even have a Heisman winner. Derek McFadden probably should have won it. But they. In like kind of the recruiting area, they had a lot of trophies and it just made it come to life. I saw it on my way out of the stadium. They had like the three, two or three Heisman trophies from their winners. A lot of trophies on the wall. And I was like, you know, as a recruit coming in, that's got to be kind of cool on your visit to walk into an area where you can really see what the program has accomplished. I get it. Arkansas doesn't have as much recent success as in Auburn, but they have enough history and in the past that, you know, just putting those on display somewhere, I think it can be a recruiting tool.
[00:29:37] Speaker A: I thought Jeff Long was doing a good job toward the end of his career of bringing back, you know, like, they had all those banner ceremonies at Budwalton. They brought back Eddie Sutton, Nolan Richardson, Corliss Williamson, Sidney Moncrief, couple. Couple of women's basketball players, too, that they brought back and they did some things with. That's really been. Since Jeff got fired here up until the Darren McFadden. I don't even know what that was a couple of weeks ago, to be honest with you. Like, they didn't retire his number. They just put his number up in the stadium. It was kind of an odd ceremony, to be honest with you, but up until that point, like, they had done nothing in terms of bringing back great players and, you know, more than just a brief, hey, look, here's such and such. And let's call the Hogs with them.
You know, I think that I've said this a number of times. Basketball. They are sorely behind in basketball in terms of doing things to recognize the.
The history of Razorback basketball. Like Todd Day, you know, my son asked me all the time, he's like, dad, who's the best player in Razorback basketball history? I said, it's one of three players. I said, it's either Sidney Moncrief, Corliss Williamson or Todd Day. And the fact that you have. You don't have Todd Day, who's the greatest scorer in program history, like, they don't win the national championship probably in 93, 94, if they don't have the foundation that's built in the Mayday years. Mayberry and Todd Day and Oliver Miller and that group.
You don't have anything about Todd Day in the arena. I mean, really, like, what are we doing here? And there's so many others, the three I just mentioned, the Mayday years.
You know, I would say that at Bud Walton arena, if you go into Rupp arena and you look up in the rafters, same thing at UNC at the Dean Dome, it's just lined with players like great player after great. And these numbers aren't retired. It's just their jerseys up in the rafter. And I'm not saying Arkansas's got the history of Kentucky or North Carolina or Duke, because it doesn't. But it doesn't mean that it doesn't have History.
You go into the Ole Miss basketball arena. What kind of basketball history do they have? They got like 13 players up in their rafters. And so there just hasn't been enough done to recognize those groups. And, you know, I hope it happens. I was listening to David's radio show this morning. He had Bruce James on there, the great razorback from the 1960s. And, you know, kind of the thought that I think that there was kind of being kicked around at that point was that, you know, anything from the Southwest Conference days is really not appreciated as much because it didn't happen in the sec.
I've made this comment a number of times. You go to Bomb Walker Stadium, look on the wall in the outfield.
SEC championship. SEC tournament championship, sec.
None of the Southwest Conference titles are listed on the wall there. So I do think that there is some of. There's some truth to that, that those SWC years just are not as appreciated maybe as the lack of whatever's happened in the sec. In the case of football.
[00:32:48] Speaker D: Yeah. And I mean, in a lot of sports, that's where you have some really golden years, was the Southwest Conference days, where it really does stink if you're not going to give it the same type of recognition.
[00:32:58] Speaker A: Bottom line, you wouldn't have any SEC logos on the wall if it wasn't for the Southwest Conference years, for sure.
[00:33:03] Speaker D: And it's just.
It's something that I know John Caliperi keeps on beating the drum of wanting to do stuff like that. And usually you have a coach as influential as John Caliperi.
[00:33:14] Speaker A: Bet they've got one or two players that they bring back to Bud Walton this year because he was so adamant about that last season.
[00:33:20] Speaker D: And it felt like. I know you mentioned the Darren McFadden thing at Razorback Stadium. Like, it's like you can't really capture it as well as you can in an arena by, like you said, to where you aren't retiring the number, you're just honoring it. It just, for some reason, in a football stadium, it doesn't have, like, the same feel to me. You just aren't looking up at it all the time.
[00:33:36] Speaker A: That was a very weird deal. It's like we're bringing Darren McFadden back to honor his number, but we're not. We're not retiring it. We're not like, we're not really doing anything other 15 up in the stadium.
[00:33:48] Speaker D: Which is, I guess, I mean, in theory, the same thing that you're doing when you put basketball jerseys up.
[00:33:53] Speaker A: I guess there's some truth to that.
[00:33:54] Speaker D: But it's not, it's just, it just feels different in basketball, in my opinion. Yeah, I, I mean, I went to Fog Island a few years ago and I felt like I was like, don't touch anything. You're on sacred.
[00:34:04] Speaker A: Basketball is awesome. Do you look around the museum?
[00:34:07] Speaker D: Oh, my gosh.
[00:34:08] Speaker A: If you've never been to Fog Allen Field House, by the way, they've got the original roles of basketball in there actually being read by James Naismith.
It's, it's a really, really cool deal. Again, Arkansas, they just, they could do, they could stand to prove their basketball.
[00:34:25] Speaker D: There's enough really good players in program history that, I mean, I think, I.
[00:34:30] Speaker A: Think we could sit here like, like, you know, if you put, if you kind of put parameters around, what players would you bring back? Okay, I would say anybody who was an All American, anybody who was a conference player of the year, anybody who has like a major program record, you know, like Pat Bradley, three pointers, Kareem Reed, assists, things like that.
Even if they don't fit into the.
[00:34:53] Speaker D: I think even a Joe Johnson who was turned into an NBA all star, I think he's the type of guy that you put his jersey up and recruits walk in and they go, oh, I didn't know he played here type of deal.
[00:35:03] Speaker A: But they recognize the name I mentioned yesterday, Mike Nell. I mean, you go to Kentucky, they're long time. K. Wood. Is it K with Ledford? I think, you know, they've got a banner with his name up at Kentucky. Why isn't there something like that for, for Mike Nell or Jim Robkin who was so influential, or, you know, John George, who's been the voice of the arena for over 40 years now, both at Barn Hill and Bud Walton. There's just a number of people.
So there's a number of people and there's, and there's a huge backlog, especially when it comes to basketball in terms of people who should and could be recognized. All right, let's transition real quick. We'll talk just a couple of minutes about what happened last night with women's basketball. They beat UCA 89 to 77. They pulled victory from the jaws of defeat. It looked like they were going to lose this game. You're watching it in the third quarter and uca, you know, it'd be a four point game, then it might get down to two, then it'd go to five, and then it might get down to three and it's like at some point Arkansas is going to catch back up. But then the fourth quarter, UCA starts to increase its lead. I think it got up to seven points with about what, two and a half, three minutes left in the game.
And Arkansas did a really good job of extending the game, making UCA shoot from some free throws. Arkansas hit some threes, they force overtime. And then I just thought that honestly it kind of looked like UCA just got tired in overtime and Arkansas kind of, you know, was able to, to pull away.
Bonnie Dees, that is a really good looking freshman.
I mean she looks like she could. She has got superstar potential and she's one of these that because she comes from Australia, I don't know that people know a whole lot about her. But when you start kind of digging into the, you know, the type of accolades that she had on the, on the international level or at least with the national team there in Australia, I mean, I guess this probably doesn't surprise people who have watched her for a while.
I think my big takeaway because last night was really the first time that I've been able to watch them a whole lot this year is they've got a lot. I know about a lot. But they've got multiple young players who I think could be pretty good here. It's just a matter of they're young players and they're probably going to take their, you know, there's going to be a big learning curve this year.
[00:37:20] Speaker D: Yeah, they've got several players that you want to retain and kind of build around and Dees is at the center of it all because she's. It's crazy to see a guard who's so influential in every aspect of the game. Like she's getting double digit rebounds. I think she's 57 or 5 8.
[00:37:36] Speaker A: She might be their best defender.
[00:37:37] Speaker D: She's oh, by far their best defender. I would say it's not even close right now. She's up in everybody's grill the whole game. I think Kelsey Music said wherever the ball is, she's going to be. She just has a knack for like finding the ball and being involved in the play. She's really good. But yeah, it doesn't surprise me too much because of what she did at the Phoebus stage this, this past summer where she was in the All Star five, which they took on the USA in the finals and USA has always been just really ahead of the curve in women's basketball. And I think she let us let Australia in that game in scoring and they lost by like 10 or 11 or something like that. So it was actually pretty close for international play against a respectable score. Yes. Because usually the USA wins in landslides and things like that. But yeah, she's, she's a good player. They definitely last night had to, almost everything had to go right for them over the last minute and a half to even just get to overtime. Even a review on a three pointer by de's that it really might have been a two, but I don't think there was enough video evidence to overturn it. But it's like little things had to go right and then they got into overtime and all the players said that they could feel on the court that they were just more condition to be honest than UCA for that and that they felt UCA getting tired. So it was, you know, here's the thing I'll come back to over and over this season with their team. I have no clue what their final record will be. It could be not great. It could be better than people expect. But you have to search, I think in the first year of a coach for culture wins. And that's a game that I'm not sure in the past that this program wins just with what was going against them. And they found a way to win. And into the day winning and losing is what matters. And it's uca. I, I hate to say this over and over about little teams, but it's true with them that they're actually a pretty good team for their conference. Like they're picked second in the A sun. They had Missouri tied late in their opener about a week ago before Missouri closed that game strong over the last like minute and a half. Like it's a team that really could win their conference this year. And I'm not saying that like Arkansas doesn't want to be in a place where it's just having battles with good mid major teams. Like you want to be able to still handle teams like that. But it's year one under a new coach and this is a game that you could very well lose.
And it's not like a terrible mid major. But you're looking, I think in year one for culture wins and for a team that honestly every time that they've kind of been hit with adversity so far this year, they found a way ultimately to get it done.
[00:40:01] Speaker A: Well, you talk about culture wins beating Louisiana Tech in the first game, that was another one where they were down 17 to 2. And you know, if that's the game last year, they may lose that by 30.
[00:40:08] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:40:09] Speaker A: Or you know, UCA last night they hit the three. That really felt like a dagger with what couple three minutes left in the game and it's a seven point game. I think last year that ends up being a double digit loss. There just seems to be more of a want to with this team and I think that, you know, like you say in year one when it's clear that they don't have the roster of the teams they're trying to compete against in the sec, that just having that want to and being able to pull out some of these in the non conference, I feel like that, who knows, maybe that helps them in the sec. Maybe they're able to, you know, pull one or two out in the sec because not every game in the SEC is going to be a blowout. Not every game in the SEC they played last year was a blowout, but they just weren't very good at end of game situations and I thought last night they were just a little bit better than UCA when the game was on the line in regulation and then a lot better in overtime.
[00:40:59] Speaker D: Yeah, there's about, I'd say six or seven teams in the SEC right now that I fully expect. When Arkansas plays them it should just be a pretty lopsided game. But there's a whole group at the bottom too that I really do think they could finish as high as 10, as low as 16. It's just like there's going to be some games out there for them to, to, to go and win. The SEC at the bottom has a lot of teams that are, have some red flags so far, but so far you know, they're undefeated and that for year one under a new coach, they found ways to respond, which is an encouraging sign. And I told Hank Layton, our photographer at the game last night, he asked me ahead of time, like Arkansas should beat them, right? And I told him, I said hey, I mean they should on paper. I said, but if they aren't ready to play against uca they will lose this one. Because I knew UCA was pretty good and I don't think they were ready to play. I really don't think they played a very good game at all. And they still found a way to win. So that's important for them. I think the, the non conference slate they have, they could theoretically enter SEC play double digit wins. I would say pretty favorable schedule. So if you can head into SEC, you know, at the 12, 13, 14 win mark, then it really doesn't take that many conference wins to start pushing a 21 season in year one.
[00:42:15] Speaker A: Ethan, you're from Hot Springs. Have you ever heard of champion Christian basketball?
[00:42:19] Speaker D: Yes. They actually were on the losing end of a game, I believe against Southern University when I was like in the seventh or eighth grade. That I think might still remain the most lopsided score in Division 1 men's basketball. I don't remember the score, but it was ugly.
[00:42:33] Speaker A: Well, the reason I ask because Arkansas plays UCA men tonight. The UCA men played champion Christian over the weekend, beat him 110 to 63 down at Conway.
The only game that they played so far this year against a Division 1 team was North Carolina over in Chapel Hill on opening night last Monday. And they lost that game by 40, 94 to 54. Champion Christian, they play in the NCCAA, which I think stands for the National Christian College Athletic Association.
I don't know where this is, but I would venture to say that that's even below the talent of what you would see at the NAIA level.
So that kind of gives you an idea of what Argazole's got coming in here tonight. I would say, I don't know. Have you looked to see what the betting line is on this game? I would think it's a really big number just given the reputation Arkansas has and what happened with UCA against UNC last week. But the point being that UCA just has it. They, I guess they've been tested by playing North Carolina, but it just feels like this ought to be kind of a cakewalk, so to speak tonight.
[00:43:41] Speaker D: Yeah, I think the betting line somewhere around 35 to 40, which feels right.
Yeah. They.
I just don't think that this is the type of game that Arkansas should have any trouble with. It'll be concerning 34 and a half right now. 34 and a half. Okay, I, I gave Arkansas too much credit, I guess, but they, yeah, I mean this is just the practical example of Arkansas just has the talent and athleticism should just overwhelm this team.
But yeah, no, it's, it's definitely a game that if you're Arkansas, I think you just want to see improvements.
Even if, you know this is the type of game that you want to, even if you win by like 40 or something, look back and not see some of the same problems they had against Michigan State. I thought that against Michigan State over the weekend, some of the biggest things that stood out to me obviously I think the offensive rebounding by the defensive rebounding got talked about enough, but I also just thought like their half court offense got a little bit too much hero balls at some times.
[00:44:37] Speaker A: They didn't work for a shot enough.
[00:44:38] Speaker D: Yeah, they, it was too much dribbling around and having to just create something which they have talented enough players to do that.
But I just don't think in that type of road game you want to rely on that. Like it's, it's nice you have players that could ultimately score even in bad situations like that, but you want to see an offense that's moving the ball a lot better. And I just think against UCA you want to see them kind of just fix some of those things. I didn't think that Michigan State, it's encouraging for Arkansas that you can still barely lose a game playing like that, but you ultimately need to make fixes. And by the way, I do want to say I found the ESPN in 2015 had the most 100, the hundred most lopsided games in like sports history. And Champion Christian did make it on that list for the 116 to 12 loss to Southern in 2013. So I just wanted to give that score.
[00:45:29] Speaker A: I played an eighth grade basketball game one time where we were down 38 nothing with a minute left and lost 38 to 4.
Basketball, not football. Basketball.
[00:45:39] Speaker D: Well, nice little four zero run.
[00:45:41] Speaker A: Yeah. To end the game. Let's see Arkansas, they're kind of in this stretch where now this is, this is where you learn a lot about your team. You played Michigan State and you learned a lot about them there too. But now this is where, you know, in the next two weeks you get the chance to really kind of fix things before you got to go play Duke again. They are on the, what I like to call the 7 o' clock on SEC Network plus schedule right now. Next four games, 7 o' clock games on SEC Network plus UCA tonight, Sanford on Friday night. That's Samford. The Bulldogs out of Alabama, not Stanford, the tree Winthrop next Tuesday night at Bud Walton in the Jackson State next Friday night.
This is kind of like that, you know. And I, a lot of times I go back to baseball and I revert back to, you know, just baseball early in the season, you know, you kind of, you go on the road.
So like for the Razorbacks, they go on the road and they play in Arlington, they learn a lot about themselves and then they come home for like a 9 game, 13 game home stand or something, you know, and they're playing a bunch of mid major type teams and that's where they get really good before SEC play starts. That's where you really learn a lot about your team is during that home stand. I Suspect that we'll be saying kind of a similar thing about Arkansas once they get through these next four games and they're going to Duke on or to play Duke in Chicago on Thanksgiving.
[00:46:59] Speaker D: Yeah. You don't expect anything less than Arkansas to win its next stretch of games going into that Duke game. And you just hope that in those games they learn enough, learn enough lessons to where they're ready to play Duke and that's going to be obviously a big time game. But I think that the biggest thing over the next couple weeks is you just want to see them really hone in and treat. I think one of the things you always like to see in a team that's talented like Arkansas is how do you treat these games that you should win? How do you go in in a game that honestly if you bring your C game you should still win by double digits. But are you going to go in and treat it like is if you are playing a Duke and going with that type of mindset. I think that's what John Caliperi probably wants to see in his team right now is these freshmen, especially because you're going to be leaning on them a lot this year. I think that's clear enough through the first few games. Darius Akuff, Malik Thomas, even Isaiah. Isaiah Seeley's gotten some run. How do those players grow over this next few games to where the next time they they play a big game they got Duke and Louisville back to back coming up at the end of the month and at the beginning of December.
I, I just think you want to see those players really start to treat all these games with the same seriousness that you're going to need down the stretch. But a lot to fix from last Saturday.
[00:48:16] Speaker A: We'll just talk real quick about a few things that we're looking for tonight. I'll give you three for me. Number one, Carter Knox. Is he, you know, does he look more like himself tonight? Because he didn't look like himself the other day against Michigan State. Number two, Trevin Brazil. How does he bounce back from that game? And then number three are, you know, and when you can out athletic team. Is that a word? Out athlete teams. Basically you have better athletes and Arkansas is going to have better athletes. Scottie Pippen's not suiting up for the Bears tonight and even if he was, I think Arkansas would have better athletes at this point in his career. But you know, when you can, when you're more athletic than teams and you score 110 points. Well, that was a great offensive game. May not be a great offensive game. It may just be that you just were a lot more athletic. What I want to see tonight is are they running their offense better? Are they, are they working more for their shots? Because I just thought that was the most disappointing aspect of what I saw from them over the weekend.
[00:49:12] Speaker D: Yeah, and I think that that's.
You just want to see the ball swinging around, getting good ball movement, good open shots, because I mean they're going to get there. I'll be shocked if they don't get their fair share of fast break dunks and transition layups, all the stuff that adds up in the scoring column. I think you want to see that half court offense though, take a real leap up because that's what was ugly against Michigan State was the half court offense. In my opinion, I just thought it was too much.
You get late in the shot clock and you really haven't done anything. So then it's make your own shot. And I just don't think, I think Arkansas, like, they're lucky that they have players that will be able to score this year in those situations because they're so talented. But that's not. You don't want that to be your offense. I think that against Michigan State, the difference from my perspective, it felt like Michigan State on the offensive end really worked to get what it got. It just felt like they really ultimately, obviously even if they missed a shot, we're getting the offensive rebound and creating another possession. But even in just their half court offense, it felt to me like they were working a lot harder than Arkansas.
[00:50:15] Speaker A: And what does that do? It takes away the other team's legs on offense. And I thought that that's what it kind of looked like at the end. Arkansas just didn't have the jump shot.
[00:50:23] Speaker D: And Arkansas needs game, to be honest, like that was. I'm not sure you want. There's like a better learning game than going to Michigan State. If you're going to lose a game. Like, that's a program that's well respected. Tom Izzo, I think has lost once in his career in November at home. At home, like that's a, that's a game that if you're going to, you know, not look your best and put up a fight like on the road at Michigan State is not the worst game to lose, but it is, you know, nonetheless, it was the first time this year that you kind of got to see Arkansas exposed in some areas because they, they really met every challenge in the exhibition slate. And then against Southern, I know Memphis exposed them a little bit early in the game, not being ready for physicality, but after that it was like it was hard to nitpick them to be honest. And now against Michigan State there's plenty of areas that you can say they need to work on and that's ultimately what you want in non conference play because if you don't have things to learn from in non conference, you'll get exposed in SEC play. And I think that's what happened to Arkansas last year whenever they just got punched in the mouth by Tennessee the start off SEC play. They have enough opponents on this non conference schedule that if you don't. If they don't get ready for a football game versus Houston in December, they got Tennessee first to start SEC play again this year. So I think that they'll learn their lesson with the physicality and they probably already should have with Michigan State.
[00:51:40] Speaker A: Yeah, I think they will too. Arkansas and UCA seven o' clock tonight. SEC Network plus will be there. We'll have plenty of coverage on our website @wholehog sports.com Hope to see you there tonight or on our podcast tomorrow. Have a great night everybody.
