[00:00:00] Speaker A: No Razorback football, but a big weekend nonetheless here in Fayetteville. You got the Arkansas Gonzaga basketball game at Budwalton arena on Saturday. Razorback baseball in action tonight or this afternoon, really going to be taking on UCA at Baumwalker Stadium, an exhibition game. We'll talk a little bit about both of those. We'll kind of look around the SEC football weekend. Ethan Westerman here in studio with me. This Gonzaga game, I mean, it's AP Pole. Arkansas's number 12 in the preseason. That came out earlier this week. Gonzaga number 15.
I think what Arkansas does from a scheduling standpoint leaves a lot to be desired during the regular season. You know, they don't have any marquee games that actually matter at Bud Walton arena before SEC play starts. But this, this is one of those games that it's a lot better than the old days when you're playing, you know, East Central, Oklahoma State or something and you know, there's no interest in it and there's, there's no television from it, there's no radio.
This is going to be a game that's going to be on SEC network. Plus I know Razorback Sports Network, they're going to have Chuck and Matt there. So, you know, they're giving it the big game feel even if it doesn't count in the records. I think anytime you bring in Zaga in that, that's going to, it's going to generate a lot of interest. What Mark Fuze down there with that program has been nothing short of amazing, really. I mean, when you think about the fact they're not in a, you know, a marquee conference or anything and they just keep it going year after year after year.
And I'm interested to see how this goes tomorrow.
I'm always, always a little leery about exhibition games taking too much away from it. Remember when Kansas came in here a couple of years ago and we found out after the fact that Calipari had asked Bill Self not to play any zone defense because Arkansas hadn't put that part of its offense in yet.
So, you know, you never know what kind of agreements are in place in that regard. But it is fun to see two high level programs get out on the floor tomorrow.
[00:01:47] Speaker B: Yeah, him and Mark Few did the same thing with this game where they're saying what they want to do, what they don't want to do. I mean, that's. Whenever you schedule these games with friends, I mean, it's kind of like, how can we help each other out? I prefer, like, I definitely prefer this over, like you said, playing just a kind of random school in the middle of Kansas, you know, or something, bringing them in. I prefer getting a big, big time field game. But I actually, I don't like this trend of like the Iron bowl of basketball happening in the preseason. Like, I don't like.
[00:02:17] Speaker A: Wasn't that amazing last night?
[00:02:18] Speaker B: Yeah. Alabama and Auburn playing and there's been other teams that have played kind of rivals or conference teams. Like I've seen. I'm blanking on them right now, but I've seen some more of them. I don't like that.
[00:02:29] Speaker A: You don't like it in the preseason?
[00:02:30] Speaker B: No, I don't like.
[00:02:30] Speaker A: Even when it doesn't take away from the fact they're going to play each other during the regular season.
[00:02:33] Speaker B: Exactly. If you're going to play each other in the regular season, wait till the regular season. If you're Arkansas, like it was coincidental that Arkansas, Kansas a few years ago ended up playing in the NCAA tournament. There's always that, that possibility. But like Auburn, Alabama, I just don't like that in a preseason thing, exhibition. I don't know, I just, I'm all about, like, don't diminish the value of whenever y' all are on the court and it counts. Maybe it doesn't diminish it at all, but I just don't like it. Maybe I'm too much of a traditionalist with the schedule and that, but.
But I do like a game like Arkansas, Gonzaga, where it's really like, when else are these teams going to play unless they meet in the NCAA tournament or we're in like a preseason tournament type thing in the future. But you're not going to get those really with Calipari, because I don't think Caliperi is wanting to go to Maui anytime soon.
[00:03:20] Speaker A: Well, they're supposed to go to Maui next year. I keep, I'm very interested to see if they keep that in place because that was scheduled when Muscleboom was the coach. I think they put that in place somewhere around 2023 or so, 22, somewhere in there to go to Maui in 2027.
And you're right, Cal does not like Maui.
I remember there was something very, you know, it was very visible, public, whatever you want to say. Whenever he was at Kentucky, he took one of his really young teams there. You know, it's hard to keep which really young Kentucky team it was, but I think it was somewhere around 2010. He took a team out there and you know, he just, he didn't like what it did to like about a two or three week period with all the travel, how they played when they came back.
And I think that, you know, at that point he kind of vowed never to take Kentucky back, back to Maui.
You look at their schedule, they never played Battle for Atlantis. I don't think they didn't play, like you said earlier, any of these big regular season tournaments.
They always went and played the Champions Classic and they played the CBS Sports Classic. A lot of the type of stuff that we're seeing him do now with the game in Detroit on Thanksgiving, that's become an annual thing. And Arizona and I mean this is right out of the, like Calipari has said this many times. We just took the operation from Lexington to Fayetteville. And I think that is inclusive of everything in the program down to scheduling. Yeah.
[00:04:50] Speaker B: And the reason I mentioned Maui is because I actually do remember watching Arkansas Gonzaga play in Maui.
[00:04:56] Speaker A: I do too.
[00:04:57] Speaker B: That was one of those. And I also think that Maui and tournaments like that have lost the charm that it had maybe a decade or so ago too, just because of what other teams are doing, like with these other types of marquee games on neutral site floors and how you're not having to, you know, I think there's a lot more emphasis now on rest and recovery between games and stuff. And yeah, it's just. I don't think we're going to see it as much. So I'll be interested to see if Arkansas sticks with being in the Maui field next year.
[00:05:24] Speaker A: The Players ERA tournament has really changed things. Or Players ERA Classic, whatever they call that in Las Vegas where there's a, like there's a pool of money available to the teams that do the best at the end of it.
I mean, Maui's not offering that now. Does Maui change how it does things and potentially get into that game? I guess we can see. Same thing goes for Battle for Atlantis some of these others. But we've seen over the years with these big early season basketball events like do you remember the Top of the World Classic?
See, I do, but you don't because it was in Alaska every year and it was a big deal at one point in time. I'm not gonna say it was like the, you know, it wasn't bigger than Maui, but you know, it went away. There was, there was one that Arkansas played at in Hawaii the year after they won the championship, the Rainbow Classic in Honolulu. You know, that doesn't exist anymore. So. And you know, the preseason nit, that was always a really big one.
I don't. Do they still play the preseason in it? If they do, I haven't noticed teams
[00:06:23] Speaker B: that I don't think have as much of a draw.
[00:06:26] Speaker A: But I mean, like, for years, the preseason nit, it was like you wanted to be in that because if you did well enough, you got to Madison Square Garden at the end.
[00:06:34] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:06:34] Speaker A: Arkansas and Duke played a game there the year after they played in the Final Four. And you had Laitner and Todd Day and like a. Like a really great cast of players playing at Madison Square Garden. So I guess all of this stuff, it just kind of comes and goes. But I'm with you. I do love the charm of Maui and I hope it never goes away. I'd love to get out there for a basketball game at some point. I've been to the arena, just never for the Maui Invitational. And I know when I was there I was like, man, this would be really cool to come up here and watch basketball for three days in a row.
[00:07:03] Speaker B: Yeah. And so I think that.
I think that anytime you get a team like Gonzaga to come to Bud Walton in the preseason for an exhibition, it's just like that's the type of game that I like for. For, you know, a game if it's not going to count on your record. Because these are two really random teams, but they're both good and can push each other. I know that they've been doing this. This is the second year in a row that they'll play Memphis in exhibition two. And that's a more natural. Y' all could play regular season type of game. But maybe they like keeping that preseason as well. But.
But yeah, it's. It's exciting. I think that this time of year, everybody just wants to see how the team looks and it's going to be overreaction city probably one way or the other, whether they win or they lose. It's to be, you know, this went so well or this went so bad. That's just kind of how it is whenever. But we got to take it with a grain of salt because it is, like I said, like friends kind of trying to help each other out with what. What each team needs to work on.
[00:07:58] Speaker A: I felt like we all overreacted, or at least I think I did. The Cincinnati and Memphis games last year.
[00:08:02] Speaker B: Well, how about Purdue a few years ago?
[00:08:04] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:08:05] Speaker B: That was an overreaction, too. And even. Even that season, Kansas was number one
[00:08:10] Speaker A: when they lost in here in the preseason.
[00:08:12] Speaker B: Yeah. And they. The year that was it. The same year that they beat Purdue in the preseason that they beat Duke in a, in a game that actually counted and then ended up having a pretty bad year.
[00:08:20] Speaker A: It was in the same, it was in the same vicinity.
[00:08:23] Speaker B: I don't know if it was the same or not. It's like there's results that we can see early in the season that really don't indicate how good a team's ceiling or floor will be. I think you definitely, like, I'm not sitting here saying you want to tune into this game tomorrow and if Arkansas just looks terrible, not be a little bit concerned. But I also think that you have to on the reverse side. Like, we've seen teams look like world beaters in the preseason. And yeah, it should get you excited because you can at least see some glimpses of, of what a team can be. But at the same time, there's just so much that changes over the course of a year.
[00:08:54] Speaker A: Yes, it was that year. They beat Purdue on October 28, 2023, and they beat Duke at Budwalton on November 29, 2023. And in between they had some losses at the Battle for Atlanta. So Arkansas and Gonzaga tomorrow. We'll talk more about that here in just a couple of minutes. I want to tell you that our podcast is brought to you by Eglin's Best and Arkansas greatness starts early, before the pads go on, before the crowd roars, the day begins at the breakfast table. Eglins Best delivers superior nutrition with more vitamin D and less saturated fat than ordinary eggs. We start strong with Eglins Best, better taste, better nutrition and better eggs. Also by Bentonville Glass, who's been serving its 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 come by and see them at 507 South Main in Bentonville or online at bentonvilleglass.com you can find our podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Search Whole Hog Sports we get it on our YouTube page too.
If you go back this week, we had Brandon Marcelo in studio on Wednesday talking about all the things going on with college sports yesterday. If you really want to go in depth on Arkansas Gonzaga, I would go back to yesterday's podcast when Anthony Christensen was on.
You know, he does a pretty good job about going into the weeds on teams. Ethan and I will stay a little bit higher elevation today because there's some more things that we do want to talk about, but you can find our podcast by searching Whole Hog Sports on Apple Podcasts, YouTube or Spotify.
What does this look like? What does success from tomorrow look like for Arkansas? Because it doesn't feel to me.
I think anytime you play, you want to win, but it doesn't feel like winning is the ultimate goal in this game tomorrow. Because if it was, you wouldn't see the, you know, tinkering with rotations and making sure that a lot of players get an opportunity to play the way I think it's going to happen.
[00:10:50] Speaker B: Well, I think once the players get on the floor, like, that's the thing, like from this standpoint, the biggest thing I don't think is necessarily from a spectator standpoint, like, of course Arkansas fans are going to go in there and want to watch them to win, but once those players get on the floor, like, that is all that matters. You can't turn a competitor's competitiveness off like they're going to be playing to win.
[00:11:07] Speaker A: But you don't coach this game the way you would coach if you were playing Gonzaga on November 24th.
[00:11:11] Speaker B: Yeah. Or in March. It's just. It's just a little bit different feel. It's like both teams need stuff. They have stuff they want to work on now. They know they want to work on pressing, I think, is what Caliperi said last week. So I think we'll see both teams press.
I think that I always like to like I've been watching some of these early season NBA games and I think that it's very telling when a team can defend right away to start the season because I think a lot of times it maybe takes a little bit for your offense to get going, things to kind of that type of gelling to happen to where everybody's on the same page and it's getting just, I think within your offense, you like to see it get polished over time. And by the time you hit the most important part of your season, you're. You're what you're going to be. I think that if your defense is really good from the starting point though, that that just stands out to me because that, that like offense you'll get, you'll get better on that end. But I also think that there's a lot of things defensively that you can pinpoint early in a season and you're not sure that that's going to get, you know, necessarily fixed all the way. I think that with the way that this Arkansas team is kind of, at least on paper, built to be pretty good defensively, I think you want to see what that actually looks like against another opponent. I want to see the freshmen. I want to see how they compete their first game.
It's always exciting for, you know, 17, 18 year olds whenever the first time the lights actually turn on in an arena and they're playing a college game, like it's. There's just such a, like, I don't know, excitement about them, I think. So I want to see how they perform.
And yeah, it's just more than anything, it's a chance to see is this Arkansas team, in my opinion, like, this is a good team they're playing. So you don't want to show up to an exhibition and then just be like super. If you were to get just beat pretty badly, that would be discouraging. But, but at the same time, like, like I said, results aren't necessarily the most important thing from this game.
[00:13:03] Speaker A: I'm just, I'm about to choke here, I'll say.
[00:13:06] Speaker B: I was kind of wondering what was going on.
[00:13:07] Speaker A: I was hoping you would just keep going on.
[00:13:08] Speaker B: Yeah. And I was going to just hold
[00:13:09] Speaker A: on my mute button. I'm just interested to see all these athletes that Arkansas has in person. I like what I saw from them in the preseason. And now you get to see them in a game setting.
[00:13:17] Speaker B: Yeah. And also it's just two kind of different teams. If you look at how they're like, Arkansas is such a young team. They're going to be different from most every team they play this year. I think just from the roster construction standpoint that Caliperi said, it's almost like he took the challenge of everybody else getting older. He's like, how can I get younger? Like going and getting two reclassified players.
But Yinzag is a team that, I mean, you look at their roster and they have Braden Huff, who's back, who's a really good big for them. I think he missed portions of the end of their year last year with some sort of injury, but he's averaged 18 points a game last year. So you're facing a good big.
Massamba Diop. I think I said his last name right. Transferred in from Arizona State.
He's a good big. He averaged almost 14 a year last year. Xavian Lee, the point, who was at Florida, transferred to Gonzaga, which I'm blanking on where he was at before Florida, but I want to say he was on the West Coast.
[00:14:15] Speaker A: Yeah, it's like you gotta have.
[00:14:16] Speaker B: Or he was at Princeton. Nevermind. I was just completely honest. But he transferred to Gonzaga Chauncey Wiggins, who averaged 13 a game at Florida State last year, like they have a team made up of good transfers facing an Arkansas team that's a bunch of young players and some good transfers, like Jeremiah Wilkinson is a good transfer. Cooper Bowser, I'm ready to see kind of what he looks like. I know he was limited in some of the preseason stuff, I believe with a hand injury, but I think Cal Perry said that he's at least at media days, it's like he's pretty much getting to be where he's close to being back.
So, yeah, just more than anything, anytime you have a new team like this, you just want to see how they perform. Like it's.
It's such a. It's not like. I know in the past some we've had some Arkansas teams that had a high level of retention, and you kind of know what you're getting going into it. I mean, last year was kind of an example of it. But honestly, with that team, they had some newcomers, obviously with Malik Thomas and Darius Acuff, but they had enough pieces that you already knew what you were getting. Anytime you have a roster like this where really it's only Billy Richmond, you just want to see what it all looks like when it comes together.
[00:15:22] Speaker A: I was going back, I was thinking, you know, I'm used the example of East Central Oklahoma State, East Central University from Ada, Oklahoma. Have I ever told you this story? When they played here, were you a manager at that point?
[00:15:33] Speaker B: I had just. I wasn't anymore. But I knew their head coach well.
[00:15:38] Speaker A: Remember, Remember, it was very close. Yeah, like. Like Arkansas was down, I think with less than two minutes left. I was not there.
But, you know, there's no television.
Arkansas is not doing radio because I think football was out of town or something.
And the only way you could find out if you weren't there, what was actually happening in real time.
They had brought their own radio crew. It was like little AM radio station in Ada, Oklahoma, and somebody had put out there, hey, you can listen to the game here.
That's how you. It's just amazing how you go from that to now. It's going to be televised. And given the five years ago, if that just.
[00:16:25] Speaker B: Things have changed pretty fast. But yeah, no, that team was their head coach. Max Pendery was a graduate assistant at Arkansas with me. And so I was like, oh, wow, going in there and trying to knock off Arkansas in the preseason. They almost did it. But it's funny because that was an Arkansas team that had a really Good year.
Maybe one of the elite eight years. Maybe sweet 16.
[00:16:47] Speaker A: It would have been one of those teams, I think.
[00:16:49] Speaker B: Yeah, I could probably figure this out real quick. But all that to say these preseason games, you just never really know like exactly what type of team you're still going to get. They could look incredible in it. Yeah. It was 2021, 2022 that they beat East Central 77 to 74 to start exhibition play. And they ended the season losing to
[00:17:10] Speaker A: Duke in the Elite eight, beating Gonzaga, the number one overall seed in the Sweet sixteen.
[00:17:14] Speaker B: It's just, it's like these early season what, what teams are doing, it's like you expect there to be like I'm honestly expecting with this Arkansas team not only exhibition but this gauntlet of a non conference. As far as the marquee games, there to be some serious growing pains. That's just natural. Whenever you have a young team, I mean they're extremely talented, but it's just like you expect there to be growing pains. Like I think coaches put together schedules most of the time wanting to like the whole goal of your schedule is how can we get our team in the best position it needs to be in for by the time we get to conference play and by the time we get to March.
[00:17:52] Speaker A: Also to give you like a simulation of the types of teams that are going to be the toughest for you to face once you get into, you know, conference play. You know, you want to play a team that's you know, like Michigan State, they're going to play with a physical, defensive minded nature that's probably get ready for like I don't know, maybe a Tennessee, you know. You know I'm saying it's like, like you want to try to simulate as best you can these teams that you're going to play in SEC play where it really, not that it doesn't matter in non conference, but where if you're chasing a conference championship, it matters a lot more when you get to conference play.
[00:18:25] Speaker B: Did you see John Calipari's interview with Matt Norlander of CBS? Like a 30 minute interview at tip off, but it was hilarious. He was talking about how last year they just didn't have what it took when it was time to play the Mooses is what he said. And then he was talking about these things with big guys and Orlander was basically like, I think it's just Moose.
[00:18:44] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:18:45] Speaker B: And then Cal wanted to argue that maybe it's me. It was just a really funny bit for. About Moose, Elk. They went at it for a Little bit. But the main gist of it was that Caliperi said that they weren't ready to play the Mooses last year. And I think mooses is a hilarious term to describe some of these teams that they played. But I mean, it's true. Like you, you need to face some
[00:19:07] Speaker A: of the Mooses, like Shirell at Alabama. That was a moose. Yeah, right.
[00:19:11] Speaker B: For sure. And Florida had a whole herd of them.
Arizona kept coming in waves with them. So I think that Gonzaga is a team that you're going to get a little bit of moose feel, I think, you know, I think you want to get these type of games, at least in your system to where you know what you have. Arkansas obviously constructed its roster to have a lot more size, a lot more length this year because I think that you always see coaches kind of counteract what killed them the year before. But I think that they also still have a pretty dynamic backcourt from the look of it. It's just you want to, you want to play these games where you're going to get tested by different looks of teams and I think that they've done that.
[00:19:50] Speaker A: But does Arkansas have a Moose?
[00:19:52] Speaker B: I think they, they have quite a few candidates.
[00:19:54] Speaker A: Like they got some big guys. I still don't, I think, I still don't know that they've got. And this is what the first few weeks.
[00:20:00] Speaker B: Caleb Origu is a Moose.
[00:20:02] Speaker A: Like did they have.
Is he going to be able to get down low? Yes, and bang with the big guy.
[00:20:07] Speaker B: He's a young guy, but yes, he is 6, 11, 250.
[00:20:10] Speaker A: See, that's the thing that I've just felt like they've really missed the last two years.
[00:20:13] Speaker B: He gives them a big deal.
[00:20:14] Speaker A: They've had tall players but whenever it comes time for the guy that's really going to get in there and, you know, fight you, so to speak, on the post. They haven't had. They've had guys who I feel like have kind of stood down in a lot of cases.
[00:20:27] Speaker B: Well, he's one that I just. You just look at him and you know, he can. He looks like he should be on a SEC football field, but this are the high. They have four guys on the roster, 7 foot or above. Mika is 7 foot 220. I don't know if he's necessarily.
[00:20:45] Speaker A: He's not a Moose.
[00:20:45] Speaker B: He could be an Elk. Like, I mean he can probably do some stuff down low, but he can also. He can shoot the heck out of the ball. It's impressive.
The pear maker, 7 foot 215 elk.
And then Ilya Frolov, 7 foot 240.
I. I also think that there's like a kind of physicality aspect. Like you can be a moose build but you gotta have the moose in you.
I just need to see that. Paulo Semedo, 71 2, 25.
The Caleb is 611, 250. Cooper Bowser, 611, 230. You know we might. There might be some extra moose candidates on this roster, but we'll see. I'm never going to stop using that term by the way. Now ever since I heard that because it's such a hilarious description. But you can't tell me that whenever they were getting just absolutely pummeled down low against Florida and Arizona that that was not a great description.
[00:21:45] Speaker A: You have got me to a website now that's comparing moose and elk.
[00:21:49] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:21:49] Speaker A: It says moose are significantly larger, darker and more solitary than elk and feature broad flat paddle shaped antlers instead of branching tree like points. Whatever. Here's the point size and weight of a moose. A moose is five to seven feet tall at the shoulder 840 to 1550 pounds. An elk four and a half feet to five and a half feet tall at the shoulder, 485 to 730 pounds. I think this is a very good comparison.
[00:22:15] Speaker B: And then you want your deer on the team too. I think just your white tail.
[00:22:23] Speaker A: Throw an antelope or two in and you'll have the whole kingdom covered.
[00:22:27] Speaker B: Yeah. Anyway, now that I wish that I gotta show you this clip of caliperi after this though because it was a great interview that Matt and Warlander did. There was also a segment in there where Cal was talking about how well he was at the Knicks game last year. He was intimidated to talk to Taylor Swift. She was right there. But he pretended to be on his phone because he was a little bit intimidated.
[00:22:51] Speaker A: Isn't that interesting? Matt Norley, you're like one of the best recruiters in the world and you're intimidated by anyone.
[00:22:58] Speaker B: He got a really funny Cal interview out. Like that is one of Cal was just in pure Cal form in that interview with him. Hilarious.
But I would advise anybody listen to those 30 minutes. It will brighten your day.
[00:23:12] Speaker A: If you want one more mos Elk comparison here. Their vocalizations. Moose low grunts, moans and bellows.
[00:23:19] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:23:20] Speaker A: Elk high pitched bugles during rating season.
[00:23:22] Speaker B: Say let's, let's not do those.
[00:23:26] Speaker A: We got a baseball exhibition over at Bomb this afternoon. Arkansas is going to play usage. This is the last day of fall ball for the Razorbacks, they're done after this. After this scrimmage, they step off the field, they step into the weight room, and they really get after it for, really about three months during their winter conditioning until the preseason begins in January.
I've liked what I've seen from him. A lot of people keep asking me, you know, hey, what are your thoughts on this year's baseball team?
And we're going to have Matt Hobbs and Nate Thompson and Bobby Werness at the Hogs Illustrated Sports Club next Thursday, by the way, and we'll get a lot of thoughts from the people who really evaluate the team. But, you know, my. I think kind of my standard answer this fall, Ethan, has been, they're deeper. They just look deeper. To me, I think they look deeper on the mound. I think they look deeper at, you know, in the position players. I think they look deeper at catcher. And what I mean by that is I think they've got more options who are going to play. You know, like last year, it felt like this. It felt like the team got.
I don't know, it felt like it kind of got condensed, where it was kind of the same, you know, 10 players or so that were going to be in the lineup. It's just, how are you going to, you know, move the pieces around on a given day?
You know, you had a catcher who was playing every single game. Some of that was because, you know, the talent level, I think some of it was because he just didn't want to come out of the game.
Some of it was because of what was behind him. And, you know, Carter Rutenbauer not being ready to play at that position at a high level a year ago, and then on the mound, you know, I mean, this is how it always is on the mound.
It always shrinks as the season goes along.
Bubba and I, we call it the circle of trust that you develop by the time the postseason gets here, you know, and so depth is always. You always feel like you're deeper, I think, in the fall than what you really are. When the season rolls around, I'm sure there's going to be some injuries that'll happen, and it'll affect what we think at this position and that. But what I mean by more depth, it just feels like there are more players who are capable of playing at more positions around the field than I think there were a year ago. I mean, I could go to third base and say, I think there's a couple, three players who could play there. Same with first, same with second, same with short. Now, there are certainly people who stand out at those positions.
You know, catcher, I think they can go three deep at catcher if they can stay healthy at that position where you're not having to have Nolan Traeger, who's going to be the starter, catching every game. And then in the outfield, that's where you really see the depth. I mean, I think there's probably, I'd say five to seven players who I think could, you know, could be contributors in the outfield. A couple of them are freshmen, so some of it's going to depend on how they, you know, acclimate once the regular season comes along.
But like, I watch a Javorsky lane right now, and you watch him scrimmage, and you don't think that's a freshman. There's just a lot of confidence there with him. And so, I mean, I've been impressed with what I've seen. I think they've got some guys who have stepped up. One of the big questions going into the fall was, you know, who are going to be the starting pitchers, and we'll see how this plays out during the season. But I think you got three really strong candidates in Michael Malky and Mark Brissey and Cole Gibler, maybe another one or two that are, you know, right there off to the side who could step in and be starters, too.
I like what I see from this team. They just. They look really athletic to me. And, you know, I think when you've got athletes across the board, it gives you some flexibility and some things you can do. They'll play uca. It's going to look different today.
I have likened it a little bit to a JV game because there are going to be a lot of frontline pitchers for Arkansas who they've been shut down and they've gone into winter conditioning. Manny Marin hasn't played in about three weeks.
He's dealing with a quad injury. He's not going to play in this.
Max Holland, who's one of their catchers, he's been dealing with an injury. You know, Brenton Clark, still coming back from the shoulder.
He didn't scrimmage last week. So I think there's going to be. It's going to be very interesting to me to see how they play against uca, because it's going to be a number of people, whether it be on the mound, maybe to a lesser extent, in the field, getting an opportunity to play more than they have.
So I don't know that you're looking at the final score. I mean, everybody wants, you know, everybody's going to want to win the game.
But I don't know, it's. This feels very much like a Wednesday game in the regular season where it's all about development.
[00:27:49] Speaker B: But to your point about like they just feel deeper. If this is the type of game that I think that if you see guys like that really play well, you're just.
It doesn't make you feel worse about your depth, certainly, I think it, I don't know, it feels really bad to know that you don't have depth. I think that conversely, if you kind of can see some things in a game like this where it's maybe not who you project to start and they show you some things that they can compete, you feel really good about knowing that if push comes to shove, you have these people on your team. So I don't know. It's also interesting just to have a, like we're talking about basketball exhibitions these in state games. It's interesting because I've seen like the baseball team really likes these in state preseason things and I assume it's probably just some good.
That's just good camaraderie among the in state coaches.
[00:28:38] Speaker A: Well, I think part of, I think the teams have gotten better in the state of Arkansas. I mean Little Rock is the poster child for this. But we saw with Arkansas State last year, like they're a lot better than they were two years ago before this coaching staff got in there. I think Central Arkansas, they've taken a step forward in the last two or three years and a lot of these teams have joined new conferences and I think it's just helped elevate or a couple of them have joined new conferences and I don't know, I just feel like they're competing better within those conferences than they did in their old conferences.
Ned Fruci is going to start for Arkansas today. He's a right hander. He's a juco guy from Sacramento City College. He's thrown a team high nine and a third innings this fall and they want to get him into a starting.
They want to see how he does in a start against outside competition so he'll get the ball. They're going to look at a lot of younger pitchers today. They'll get another look at Braden Krenzel, who I've really liked watching this fall.
Real efficient pitcher. He's a right hander who transferred in here from Tennessee. I think he's got a chance to be their closer when this regular season rolls around. Him and Lance Alexander Seem like the, the top candidates there. So Arkansas, UCA. It's a 3 o' clock start. No TV, no radio, no streaming, nothing for this. We are going to have updates on our website
[email protected] if you want to come there. There's a softball inter squad scrimmage tonight and a home run derby that's going to follow at Bogle. This is the last day of the Diamond Classic, which has been this scheduling. I called a consortium when they announced all of this between baseball and softball, where they've got events where, you know, one team plays or practices at one time, get about an hour in between, get some autographs. I think some of the baseball players are going to try to get over to Bogle if they can, before the Home Run Derby begins and be part of an autograph session. There's.
But it's been kind of interesting how this is how this has worked this year. And softball, they went undefeated against all of their outside competition and beat Oklahoma State a couple of weeks ago, which I think anytime you beat Oklahoma State in any type of setting, that's a notable outcome.
[00:30:47] Speaker B: Yeah, they've kind of had a tendency which they've had some lopsided wins too, but they've had a tendency this fall to play a lot of times just kind of to their competition. At least what I've seen.
Um, but it's like they, as soon as they played like a Tulsa or at Oklahoma State, like they won those games pretty big, which is really encouraging. So I think that I'll be curious to ask Courtney Diefle tonight just kind of if she thinks they've gotten out of their fall what they needed to because they have got a very new look team. But I'm excited to see a home run derby tonight over there.
I can only imagine had Briella been on the, in the program when they started doing home run derbies though, like that just would have been unfair. It would have been just nukes going into the parking lot by Bud Walton.
[00:31:32] Speaker A: So gonna be a busy night around there. There's a Fayetteville High School game there. It's always interesting. Like it seems like whenever there's one event there's four in that little radius
[00:31:42] Speaker B: and it's not a.
It's gonna be trying to get in and out of parking lots over there. Tonight is gonna be a headache.
[00:31:48] Speaker A: Oh yeah.
SEC football this weekend. LSU goes to Auburn. LSU is a seven point favorite in that game.
I like LSU to beat Auburn, don't you? This feels like for Auburn. Okay, you Got the high last week by beating Georgia. Now you come back and you play at home and it just feels like the teams that have had that high one week, and we'll talk about this with Tennessee too, here in just a second. Whenever they, you know, they come back the next week, it just doesn't. It's hard for them to replicate that.
[00:32:17] Speaker B: Yeah, I think LSU is still pretty good. I think that kind of the two losses might be a little bit deceptive as far as just what they're capable of. But I mean, on these predictions, I'm after last week, I'm about to just. I'm not even going to try and overexc.
[00:32:30] Speaker A: I said it on Monday. We should put bags over our heads whenever we're predicting these games.
[00:32:35] Speaker B: I'm not going to even try and over explain these. I'm just going to tell you what the vibes feel like because who knows what's going to happen. We can't predict it anymore because it's. I mean, last weekend was unpredictable. In the insane. I'm going to go. But yeah, the vibes are saying LSU should win this one.
[00:32:49] Speaker A: South Carolina is a 2 1/2 point favorite over Tennessee. Tennessee obviously beat Alabama. This feels to me, this plays out a lot like, or it sets up a lot like last week when Georgia played Auburn. Now it's different in that South Carolina's at home and Georgia was the home team last week. But where you've got a team who had the big win the week before, like the really noteworthy win, and Tennessee had one of the noteworthy wins last week over Alabama.
And then you play a team that's coming off a bye. South Carolina's coming off a bye. You know, they typically play a little bit better late in the season. I know that wasn't the case last year with them, but, you know, it seems like that's kind of been one of the tricks for Shane Beamers to get his team to play better late in the year.
I'm not going to fall for the trap. I'm going to go with Tennessee to beat South Carolina because I think their defense is really good and I think it can muddy this game up and make it real ugly. And I think Tennessee's got the defense and the run game to maybe overcome some of those traps. But this is one to watch. Again, South Carolina is a 2 1/2 point favorite, which if you look at the way their seasons have gone right now, you'd say, why is that? Well, I think a lot of that is people looking at kind of the trends in college football and saying, hey Tennessee, you're in trouble going in there
[00:34:07] Speaker B: this weekend and I'm going to pick South Carolina. I just think that, I mean even for Tennessee, like it's just been kind of grind after grind game for a while now.
[00:34:17] Speaker A: Tennessee's quarterback situation is the thing that would give me pause to pick them.
[00:34:21] Speaker B: I mean they were in a battle with Arkansas before they played Alabama. They were in a battle with Auburn, they were in a battle with Texas. I just think that adds up. And South Carolina, like you said, coming off a bye and I think they start to do what Beamer does, getting closer to November at least has historically. So I'm going to pick South Carolina. I also think that they showed me something with how they played against Florida.
[00:34:40] Speaker A: All the people ready to run him out of town like three weeks ago and then if he comes back with like back to back SEC wins over ranked teams Florida and Tennessee, I don't know that they'll be running him out of town this year. A and M goes to Alabama. Bama's a 13 and a half point favorite. I think they're just way better than A and M and I think there's probably an urgency there for Bama to get this win this week.
[00:35:02] Speaker B: It's hard to call it a bad loss because of it was, you know, in College Station and Arkansas was the worst team on paper. But I think that this year that's how they got lost.
[00:35:14] Speaker A: It's their most inexplicable loss because I don't think they. I don't think A and M is as good as they looked against Arkansas
[00:35:21] Speaker B: that was probably about as good as A and M's looked.
I don't think they're very good this year and I think Alabama beats them pretty big.
[00:35:28] Speaker A: Do you know if Camaro Taylor's available? Have you seen anything about that?
[00:35:31] Speaker B: I think it's been going back and forth what I've seen, but I'm not
[00:35:33] Speaker A: because oh you is a three point favorite on the road in Starkville, which is very surprising given OU's offensive troubles.
[00:35:40] Speaker B: Yeah, well I'm this Mississippi State had
[00:35:44] Speaker A: their own offensive troubles for Taylor wasn't their quarterback.
[00:35:47] Speaker B: Isn't this a. Levy was at Oklahoma, right?
[00:35:49] Speaker A: He was, yeah.
[00:35:49] Speaker B: So this is kind of an interesting matchup. I'm going to.
The vibes are telling me to pick Oklahoma. I don't know if I should trust that. I picked him last week against Kentucky.
[00:36:00] Speaker A: I really think it may come down to if Kamario Taylor's available, if he's Available. I mean if he's available, Ethan, and he's leads two touchdown drives that might be enough to beat Oklahoma.
[00:36:08] Speaker B: Let's just look up real quick to Mario Taylor's name and see.
I think he's questionable. That's.
[00:36:16] Speaker A: I think if he plays I'm going with Mississippi State. If he doesn't, I'm going with. Oh you. I know that's, that's. But I've the rules here.
[00:36:22] Speaker B: I'm going to. I haven't seen the availability report yet, the official one but I'm going to pick Oklahoma just because I think that I don't know if, especially if Camario Taylor isn't playing, I don't think that
[00:36:33] Speaker A: that's the key to the game. I feel like is if he plays because you know, I think that you know Oklahoma's defense is really good.
You know, maybe they score a defensive touchdown in this game and that's the difference. That feels like that's how Oklahoma, that is their recipe to win is going to get a score on defense or special teams.
[00:36:49] Speaker B: Well, my thing is even if he does come back, I'm still picking Oklahoma because I think it's hard to come back against a good defense and that be your first game back.
[00:36:57] Speaker A: All right, so you got ou.
That game is in Starkville tomorrow at 2:30. A lot of 230 games tomorrow in the SEC. Ole Miss goes to Texas and this feels like kind of a play out game for the playoff. Like the loser of this game probably is not going to make the playoff and maybe neither team makes it.
[00:37:12] Speaker B: Yeah, there's. I mean I've been listening to enough radio this week just to kind of hear the Texas fan callers and stuff. I mean the disappointment down there right now is crazy high if they lose this game. I mean we're so used to hearing this from the Arkansas standpoint. It's kind of weird to hear a team like Texas fans saying this after they were just number one not long ago. But they were saying if they lose to Ole Miss this week there's going to be a whole sense of apathy down there in Austin. And they said that's the worst thing that you can have. I think Ole Miss beats him. I think they have the better quarterback. I think they have the better team.
[00:37:45] Speaker A: Ole Miss's defense still concerns me. I'm going to go with Texas. I think Texas figures out a way. If this was in Oxford, I might go with Ole Miss.
Ole Miss, they're one of those two where like they had a little bit of a High last week from beating Missouri as bad as they did. Can they?
Yeah. Texas, who's a little bit desperate. And I like Texas's defense. Like a lot of people look at the offenses and rightfully so, you got to score points. But Texas's defense, I feel like is a lot better than Ole Miss's defense. Longhorns are a 3 1/2 point favorite in that game. And then Vanderbilt goes to Kentucky.
Would this not. I mean, Kentucky's a 10 and a half point favorite, but this just feels like one of those games where you're going to turn it on Saturday night and somehow Vanderbilt's going to find a way to be in this game late. Maybe I'm totally wrong because I know Vanderbilt's really bad, but I don't know, I just feel like Kentucky is due for a letdown. Maybe not a loss, but I feel like they're due for a letdown where, hey, you know, they're, they're, they're number 12 in the country and they've never had this many wins this early in a long time where they just kind of get caught sleepwalking a little bit. And I wonder if Vanderbilt can do that to them.
[00:38:55] Speaker B: I'm not, I don't think, I don't personally think that's going to happen. I think Kentucky wins pretty big. I just think Kentucky has it going right now. Like maybe it's one of those teams that just knows how to win at the moment.
And Vanderbilt I have seen enough of to know. I don't think this is going to be that close.
[00:39:12] Speaker A: I think Kentucky wins, but what Lee Corso always say, closer than the experts think.
[00:39:16] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:39:17] Speaker A: I think I could see Vanderbilt like yucking this game up and making it uncomfortable.
[00:39:22] Speaker B: Vanderbilt could have really used a bye week. I think after playing Arkansas.
[00:39:25] Speaker A: I like Vanderbilt's quarterback.
[00:39:27] Speaker B: He's good.
[00:39:28] Speaker A: I like him.
[00:39:28] Speaker B: He's a freshman.
[00:39:29] Speaker A: He's a freshman and he doesn't have a whole lot of players around him.
[00:39:32] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:39:32] Speaker A: And I wonder if they're going to be able to keep him long term. But man, the arm talent on that guy is like, it's you. It's one of those, you know, you just can see that once he's polished for another year or two, it feels like he's going to be a very special player.
[00:39:49] Speaker B: That touchdown pass to Junior Cheryl that I think it was Christian Harrison was trying to kind of like diving to try. I mean, it was like you just tip your cap after that. Like, I think Arkansas could have been better in coverage there, but that was just a beautiful ball. I mean, it's one.
[00:40:02] Speaker A: And it wasn't the only one. I mean, he had. He had probably three or four deep balls last week that just. You don't see.
[00:40:07] Speaker B: You're ever.
[00:40:08] Speaker A: You're, you're running the mill quarter. We don't see K.J. jackson making those throws for Arkansas.
[00:40:12] Speaker B: He's made some.
[00:40:12] Speaker A: He's made some.
[00:40:13] Speaker B: The one to Chris Marshall.
[00:40:15] Speaker A: But that was what stood out to me about watching last week's game was like how more downfield Vanderbilt's passing game was than Arkansas's. Like Arkansas is more kind of 8 yards and in Vanderbilt's felt like 10, 15 yards and out.
[00:40:31] Speaker B: The thing about Curtis, he's got the arm down, but I mean, it is so clear right now that he's still a freshman just with some of the turnovers and stuff. I think he's. I don't know in SEC play, the exact numbers, but the touchdown to turnovers just isn't good right now. So I think Kentucky wins that one at home pretty big.
[00:40:46] Speaker A: What's the other big top 25 games this weekend? Anything stand out to you?
[00:40:50] Speaker B: Where's game day at?
[00:40:51] Speaker A: I don't know.
I haven't paid attention.
[00:40:55] Speaker B: Let's see.
[00:40:55] Speaker A: Oh, they're at Utah. Yeah, this is the game. They're going back to Utah this week. They're Houston and Utah. Houston is number 14 and Utah's number 10.
[00:41:03] Speaker B: This is a battle of the logos that look way too similar. They look very similar.
I'm going to go with Utah.
[00:41:09] Speaker A: Not a great game. Not, not a great week for college football. And I've said this a couple times this week, like put the bad week for college football on Halloween because I feel really bad for the people who have kids who are having to kind of choose between, hey, you know, we're going to go to the game or we're going to trick or treat because your kids are always going to win or most, most often they're going to win.
So I will say Arkansas, they. This is the first time they played a home Halloween game in 11 years.
And the last two times they played on Halloween, they were smart. When they scheduled it, they scheduled Eastern Michigan.
[00:41:40] Speaker B: I was just Eastern Michigan.
[00:41:42] Speaker A: And they scheduled. The last one was UT Martin. Remember when Alex Collins ran for five touchdowns? And so that was a, that was a Halloween game.
So maybe think about that in the future. Like put, put your crappy games on Halloween where people don't have to make a choice.
[00:41:56] Speaker B: Well, I'm thrilled that it's going to be a night kickoff for that game on Halloween just because I think it's going to be fun. I'd like to see how many kids do you have?
[00:42:06] Speaker A: Yeah, there you go.
I think a lot of people, there are a lot of people who are like why couldn't this be in the afternoon?
[00:42:14] Speaker B: I like that there's the potential for fun uniform stuff and fun stuff in
[00:42:19] Speaker A: the stadium that feels like that. I'm interested to see what that's going to look like next week because it feels like it could be just an
[00:42:24] Speaker B: if it wasn't for this game, I would be spending Halloween night with combo.
I'm going to be spending Halloween night with 70,000 ish of my closest friends.
[00:42:34] Speaker A: I guess I'm going to guarantee you Missouri finds a way to break the mustard yellow into its uniform that night.
[00:42:40] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:42:41] Speaker A: Are they going to wear their home jerseys here? I think they are usually do.
[00:42:45] Speaker B: I'll be curious to see what they do with that. I think there's been a lot of people on social media like being like blackout Arkansas, but I don't see maybe they'd do that. That Arkansas would bust out some. I like the spring game ones that the quarterbacks wear. Not the anthracite but the actual just like black.
But we'll see.
That game has potential to be just crazy. I know we'll get into that a lot more next week.
[00:43:06] Speaker A: We got plenty to talk about. Arkansas, Missouri next week. Arkansas Gonzaga Tomorrow at 3 o' clock at Bud Walton Arena. We'll all be there covering that. Like we said, Arkansas baseball at 3 this afternoon at Baum Walker Stadium and all the other sports that are in in action this weekend. We'll have coverage of it at our website, old hogsports.com hope to see you there throughout the weekend and back here on the podcast on Monday. Have a great weekend, everybody.
