Recapping Louisville and remembering Nate Allen

[00:00:00] Speaker A: You're listening to the Whole Hog Sports podcast. [00:00:02] Speaker B: And now, here's your host, Matt Jones. [00:00:06] Speaker A: On today's show, Arkansas beats Louisville at Bud Walton Arena. We'll talk about it with Anthony Christensen and Clay Henry will be in studio with me. We'll remember Nate Allen, the great Arkansas sportswriter who passed away yesterday. First, a word from Kendall King. [00:00:17] Speaker C: Kendall King, we're proud of over four decades of design. We're continuing the legacy of great creative design by combining our brands of Kendall King, Soapbox and Shopcart. Together, these brands represent a new focus in marketing design with individual attention to specific. 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. [00:00:42] Speaker A: Arkansas beat Louisville 89 to 80 last night at Bud Walton Arena. The Cardinals, the sixth ranked team in the country, first time that Arkansas has beaten a top 10 team at Bud Walton in two years. Duke, when they came here a couple of years ago, Razorbacks fans stormed the court that night. It wasn't that last night. Although John Calipari did get upset and grabbed the mic after the game. And you knew it was coming, by the way, because the student section started the overrated chant. And we know from experience last year when they played KU in the exhibition, KU was number one at the time and they were overrated. But. [00:01:20] Speaker A: They started the overrated chant toward the end of Arkansas beating Kansas in this exhibition game. And Calipari. No, no, no. Well, last night they start the overrated chant in about the last minute. I mean, he just starts going crazy. He'd already gotten a coach's box warning and he's like halfway out on the floor like pleading for them to stop. And they didn't stop. I think it stopped temporarily. Maybe somebody was at the free throw line or something. And then it started back up. And so the game ends and everybody's kind of packing up and Calipari grabs the house. Mike and first, thanks everybody for coming. You know, it's a six o' clock tip off. It was difficult to get there. I'm sure I'd drop off my kids in Springdale yesterday. And it took me an hour to get to the arena. I actually walked in right after the ball had tipped. It took a long time to get there. It's a tough thing when you start a game like that at that time. So he thanked everyone for getting there and that he said, no more of this overrated stuff, okay? [00:02:17] Speaker B: I mean, I would agree with them. [00:02:19] Speaker A: Actually, when he grabbed. Can I Say this real quick. When he grabbed the microphone, Ethan was sitting next to me. I go, oh boy, here we go. [00:02:26] Speaker B: I mean, like, why, why try to downplay your own win? I don't know. [00:02:31] Speaker A: I do agree with that. [00:02:32] Speaker B: Yeah, I would agree with that. [00:02:33] Speaker A: I mean, I don't like Louisville's overrated. I think Louisville was a bad matchup for the Razorbacks and we talked about that yesterday. I thought Arkansas was going to have success being able to, number one, to limit Louisville's second chance opportunities, and they did that. Louisville had 12 offensive rebounds. They had nine second chance points. What I did not know was going to happen and what really surprised me was how well Arkansas was able to attack the glass. 27 second chance points off of 18 offensive rebounds. And we knew Arkansas had the length advantage over Louisville. I just don't know that I knew that it was going to, you know, manifest itself in the way that it did last night. [00:03:10] Speaker B: Yeah, no, for sure. And you know, I would be lying if I, if I didn't say I've indulged in an overrated champ from time to time when I was a student. So. But, but I digress. No, the rebounding was, was really good. I mean, prior to last night's game against power conference opposition, Arkansas had gotten out, rebounded. I think it was 82 to 61 if I remember, off the top of my head. So, you know, you needed, you needed a, a performance. [00:03:36] Speaker A: It wasn't just Duke and Michigan State, I mean Winthrop and UCA and those. [00:03:39] Speaker B: Teams, they were having success, Samford even as well. And Sanford's one of the smaller teams in Division 1, so they, they needed a performance like that. They out rebound them 30 or 46 to 36. Excuse me. And yeah, it was, it was, it was impressive. And Louisville's not a bad rebounding team by any means. They're, they're typically out rebounding their opponents by about 12 rebounds per game, if I'm not mistaken. So it, yeah, it was, it was a very good. [00:04:07] Speaker B: Rebounding performance. The 18 offensive rebounds, obviously 27 second chance points were huge. [00:04:12] Speaker A: Sometimes you get a big rebounding edge because of the shooting. There wasn't a shooting discrepancy in this game. Arkansas shot 41.8, Louisville shot 41.4%. It was just a matter of Arkansas. I just thought they wanted it more and not just on the offensive end, on the defensive end. That game, the way it was playing out in the last 6, 7, 8, 10 minutes last night where Louisville's trying to make the comeback and you know, they'd get within seven, they'd get within six, and then Arkansas would score four or five in a row and kind of pull the lead out again, these little spurts. It felt like every defensive run, rebound or say, like there was a pass that wasn't great and Trevin Brazil sticks his long arms out and he steals it with about three or four minutes left. It just felt like every stop. [00:04:58] Speaker A: Whether it be a defensive rebound, and I say defensive rebound every time that you could rebound the first shot of the possession and you know, the steals and things like that, it felt like watching a football game where a guy makes a great tackle on third down out in space and they can't get the first down and you force them to punt. That's what that felt like last night. And Arkansas just. I thought they were really good defensively. Louisville, they shot a lot of threes, 37 threes last night, the mo. And they made eight of them. They were actually better from three point range in the second half than they were in the first half. They were really bad in the first half. I think they were 3 for 17. Not that they were a whole lot better in the second half, but hard to get worse. Yeah, yeah. [00:05:38] Speaker B: No disrespect. I love that Louisville team. [00:05:40] Speaker A: You know, it's. Trevin Brazil said that that was a big focal point in practice during the week leading up to the game to be really good defensively from. From three. And I thought they were just the energy last night, not just in the crowd, but. And maybe the players fed off of the energy from the crowd. But, you know, Carter Knox, he didn't have a great game. Again, five points, five rebounds. But there was a rebound early in the game where he got in and just almost went to the ground with the guy I think maybe ended up with Jumbo. And you know, it was just like you could just tell these guys were ready to play and they needed this. They needed this kind of win because, you know, and we mentioned it yesterday, you don't want to have the same things being said about you this year that were said about you last year, which is that, you know, your record is okay going into non conference, but who did you really beat? And now they've got Louisville, they've beaten them. They've got a couple of more opportunities. They've got Texas Tech in about a week, they've got Houston the weekend after, and, you know, we'll see what this does for them. I think this is a better team than last year's team. I think there's still a lot of growth potential for this year's team. But the hustle and the effort, that's what you expect to see out of the Razorbacks at Bud Walton Arena. The crowd last night, that's what you expect to see at Bud Walton Arena. I'm glad that people finally showed up. I know that it took a brand name for him to get there, but you know, it all just, to me, Anthony, it just all kind of plays together. It's, you know, you get the hustle and you get the energy from the crowd and the crowd gets it from the players. It just, it's. [00:07:11] Speaker A: Like I said, it all just kind of goes together. [00:07:13] Speaker B: Yeah. No, I don't think that there's any debate as to whether or not this was their best performance of the season. [00:07:20] Speaker A: Here's a question. Will they have that kind of crowd for Queens? [00:07:23] Speaker B: They better. [00:07:24] Speaker A: I don't think they will. [00:07:25] Speaker B: Look when the Royals come to town, I mean, come on. [00:07:28] Speaker A: You know where I think they will have a good crowd is this weekend over at Fresno or at North Little Rock when Fresno State comes to come in. That's always a really good. Now Arkansas, they. A lot of times they don't play well down there. And it's not just Simmons bank arenas like when they go to Dickey Stevens park on a Tuesday night for baseball and all of a sudden you're in extra innings against Grambling State. It's like what's going on here? It happens in basketball too, but the crowd. And then there have been a number of times where in North Little Rock the crowd has willed them to win games down there when they probably shouldn't have won. The game against Lipscomb comes to mind a couple three years ago. [00:08:03] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean that was before my time and the only time I've been down to North Little Rock was when they played UCA last year. [00:08:08] Speaker A: I'm sorry, it wasn't Lipscomb. It was. [00:08:11] Speaker B: I think it was Lipscomb. [00:08:12] Speaker A: I think it was Valparaiso. I think Valpo took him to the mat down there one year. Lipscomb just took Lipscomb game. Arkansas was up by like 17 and Lipscomb went on this furious rally at the very end and I think had possession with a chance to tie it. I think I'm thinking of a game against Valpo where they. But point being, you don't want to disrespect the Beacons. I'm sorry for, for poo pooing on your mid major teams here, but you should, you shouldn't be. You know a lot of these Teams shouldn't be in that game with those type of teams. I'm being, and I would say the same thing about Fresno on Saturday. [00:08:47] Speaker B: That Fresno team is better than I think people thought they would be coming into the season. [00:08:52] Speaker A: They're not Louisville. [00:08:53] Speaker B: They're not Louisville. [00:08:54] Speaker A: No. And you get that kind of energy. [00:08:56] Speaker B: You get things better than. [00:08:56] Speaker A: If you get that kind of energy in Central Arkansas on Saturday, you ought to beat that team by 15, 20 points, easy. [00:09:02] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I, I, you wouldn't think it'll be, you know, a necessarily close game by any means, but. Yeah, no, I'm, I'm looking forward to getting down there. It's, it's, you know, a nice easy drive or not maybe not an easy drive, but you know what I mean? It's not like it's, it's not driving down to Dallas and back, but going. [00:09:21] Speaker A: Back to the want to. I didn't mean to cut you off, but going back to the want to. There was a play late in the game last night. I think you're going to remember what I'm talking about where I can't remember how much Arkansas was up by maybe seven points at the time. Malik Thomas gets the ball in the corner in the backcourt and he's trapped and he's in trouble and he made a beautiful around the back bounce pass to Billy Richmond. I think it was around the back. Maybe it was, but it was a bounce pass to Richmond to get him out of that spot. Richmond gets it up to Acuff. Acuff has a driving layup and at that point it's like, game's over. [00:09:54] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:09:55] Speaker A: And everybody knew the game was over, but it was just, it was play after play after play like that last night where number one, it, it was a huge play on the court. But again it just the crowd, they were really appreciative of the type of effort that was being shown. [00:10:12] Speaker B: Yeah, no, for sure. I, I, I was thoroughly impressed by, by that, you know, and obviously you're going to be more up to play against Louisville than you are going to be to Blake. Jackson State and obviously they beat Jackson State by 600 points or whatever it was. But yeah, I, I, I was, you know, like, like you mentioned, really impressed by, by all of that stuff. I thought, I thought that they, you know, moved the ball pretty well against a pretty decent Louisville defense. You know, we mentioned a three point defense. Like, I mean they, Isaac McNeely's a, a really good shooter who is typically really good at getting better looks off shot fakes. I can't remember him ever getting a better look after a shot fake. Every time he went for a shot fake, it led to a worse look than it was initially, which is not something you think of when you think of Isaac. Isaac McNeely. And yeah, it was, it was, you know, it was just an all around really good performance for, for Arkansas and you know, it was a, it was a great environment. I know I mentioned last, like one of the times I was last on, on the pod that, you know, I typically, I'm not really all that focused on environments and stuff. I am more on the road than, than I am for home games. But last night was, it was a lot of fun. Yeah. [00:11:29] Speaker A: So it was good. And you're going to get that a lot, I think this year with the type of. I mean, assuming the team continues to play well and there's no reason to think they won't, you're going to get that a lot this year with some of the, some of these teams that, that come here into. Into Bud Walton Arena. [00:11:45] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, yeah, I was just going to say, I mean Tennessee is looking really good. Auburn is looking good. Ish. I still don't really know what to think about Auburn, but I mean, Vanderbilt. [00:11:57] Speaker A: I think Kentucky may play themselves out of having a good atmosphere here. [00:12:00] Speaker B: I don't think that's going to be the case. [00:12:02] Speaker A: I don't. [00:12:03] Speaker B: I think that one is going to be a really good environment regardless. Just like it was last year in Europe. [00:12:09] Speaker A: It's going to be like the old days when Kentucky comes in here. [00:12:11] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean Vanderbilt is a home game this year. That Vanderbilt team looks awesome. You know, be beat a good smu. That was my underrated game of the day yesterday. And Vanderbilt really just handled us a really solid SMU team. And you know, you get Alabama. Oh no, Alabama's on the road. [00:12:31] Speaker A: Excuse me, but Texas comes in, you know, Tech. Anytime Texas is at Bud Walton. That's always a, a big game. [00:12:37] Speaker B: Yeah. So it'll be a lot of fun. [00:12:39] Speaker A: Hey, we want to tell you about our friends at Bentonville Glass. They've been serving their community since 1971. They're committed, professional and versatile. If you're looking for a quality leader in northwest Arkansas or we're looking for skilled craftsmanship. I'm sorry. Choose Bentonville Glass for all your glass market needs with the highest quality products. You can come by and see them now at 507 South Main in Bentonville or online at bentonville glass.com Speaking of glass, Malik Ewan last night nine rebounds. [00:13:05] Speaker B: His best game for RP. [00:13:07] Speaker A: And it would. It was the effort. And again, it goes back to effort. Sometimes you watch Ewan and you wonder, hey, is. Is he all in right here? And last night, I don't think there was any doubt about that. Caliperi said that he had challenged him, said that he had watched his film from Florida State's game against Louisville the year before games. [00:13:24] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:13:24] Speaker A: And said, where's this guy? You know, And I think he even said he brought it up in front of the team. You know, kind of challenging him in front of his teammates, like, why aren't we getting this guy? And you. And he. He clearly responded to that challenge. [00:13:36] Speaker B: He was phenomenal last night, I thought, you know, not just offensively, but I thought he had some nice moments defensively as well. You mentioned the rebounding. You know, I thought. Yeah, he was. He was stellar on the glass. He had some really nice post moves. [00:13:49] Speaker A: 6 for 8 at the free throw line. [00:13:50] Speaker B: Yeah, he. He was. He was good. He was good. I. And, you know, let me pull up the stats real quick. You know, when you think about Malik Ewan, you think about, you know, you know, his. His passing and, you know, he only had the one assist, but I did think he had some good passes out of the. Out of the post and everything like that. And, you know, three or four from the field and, you know, he was getting to the line. He was physical. You know, a lot of things we talked about yesterday, you know, you know, he. You know, he. [00:14:15] Speaker D: He. [00:14:16] Speaker B: He was. He was awesome. It was, I think, beyond any shadow of a doubt, his best performance for Arkansas. I don't count Jackson State. I know he scored a bunch of points against Jackson State. [00:14:25] Speaker A: I feel like the. The identity of this team is kind of becoming this. You know, you're going to get most games, Acuff or Thomas, in a lot of games, both of them. Acuff and Thomas are going to give you a solid performance. Billy Richmond's going to give you unbelievable hustle, and that's probably going to lead to a nice stat line for him. He had 10 points and four rebounds in this game last night. The glue to this team, though, like. Like, what makes it go or makes it fail is Trevin Brazil. If Brazil is on, you're going to have a good chance to win games. If he's not on, like, against Michigan State, you're probably going to have some trouble. You're going to need 21 points for him. Last night, he had a few threes. [00:15:06] Speaker C: He. [00:15:07] Speaker A: There was a stretch there for about two to three minutes of the first half where he just absolutely took over the game. [00:15:12] Speaker B: Oh yeah. [00:15:12] Speaker A: Had an alley oop, hit a couple of threes, finished in contact, got himself a three point play, opportunity, missed the free throw. But it was just. He was clearly the best player on the court and there's those spurts with him. But then there's also times where it's like he just kind of disappears. He'll get into foul trouble sometimes. That wasn't the case last night. But you know, if you can get the Trevin Brazil, the 21 points and the five rebounds that he gave them last night, 8, 11 from the field too, that's, that's going to win you a lot of games. [00:15:41] Speaker B: Oh yeah, no, he was. [00:15:43] Speaker A: And it's like, especially that. And the other thing is like he's kind of the heartbeat of the team. I feel like it's like it's one of those deals again where if he's playing well, it's elevating the play of everybody around him. If he's not playing well, I feel like maybe the play around him is a little suspect too. [00:15:59] Speaker B: Yeah, no, for sure. You mentioned the first half. I mean, he was everywhere in the first half. I know he had, he kind of got dunked on a little bit by Mikel Brown and thankfully for his sake, he did come back out of the locker room after that and still looked fine afterward because he did have to go to the locker room for a moment. But you know, he was, he was everywhere. He was awesome. You know, he, you know, he was, he. Obviously it's not the same as what happened in, you know, against Duke, but you know, we mentioned yesterday about, you know, how guys, you don't really see a bunch of front court guys take over games quite like that. He, like, like Cameron Boozer did. He did in kind of a similar way, obviously. Much different players, different play styles and everything. But you know, he is a, he is a front court player who has that, that capability. And that by no means am I saying Cameron Boozer and Trevor Brazil are the, the same level of player. [00:16:51] Speaker A: But I think we saw that in Chicago. [00:16:53] Speaker B: Yes. [00:16:55] Speaker B: Just want to make sure that I, yeah. Don't get called dumb, but you know, he, he took over the game, you know, as, as a front court player. And that's something that you are going to need at some points. And you know, he, he was, he was great. Like, I mean his, you mentioned that stretch in the first half. There were some points in the second half where, you know, he came back into the game and gave them some big time, big time moments. [00:17:17] Speaker A: That block, block, hit a three pointer, had a dunk toward the end that really had everybody up on their feet. [00:17:23] Speaker B: Yeah. So, I mean, he was, he was everything. And you know, he's always kind of. [00:17:27] Speaker A: Had the defensive capability. I mean, the rebounding and again, the couple of steals, like, it was just. It felt like. It felt like with him, it wasn't so much the play, even though the play was good, it was the timing of some of the plays. It was like he came up with a lot of big plays in moments where it felt like maybe, maybe not the game hangs in the balance, but maybe Louisville's momentum hangs in the balance and you make a big play that kind of kills that momentum a little bit. [00:17:56] Speaker B: Yeah, no, for sure. And he's always kind of had a little bit of that capability. [00:17:59] Speaker A: Ability. [00:18:00] Speaker B: You know, I'm, I'm the rare, the, the rare. I think I'm the only person who's, I guess, covered him since his freshman year, because his first, his freshman year was my senior year at Mizzou, so. But even then, you know, he, he had come up with some, some big moments for, for them and their, their few wins that season. I, I think you, you look back at, I think they upset Alabama at home that year, and he had a really nice game. Obviously, if, if that's, if I'm thinking of something else, you know, that was a long time ago. But regardless, you know, he, he can come up with those moments and he has a lot, you know, throughout his college career and, you know, especially this season, it kind of seems like he is a huge focal point for the team. And, you know, especially if you're, you know, you mentioned, you know, Carter Knox not having the best of games, you know, last night. If, if, you know, if Trevin Brazile plays to that level, I think it maybe takes some of the pressure off of. Pressure. Some of the pressure off of guys like Carter Knox or Billy Richmond to, you know, really have, you know, huge games. So. Yeah, I know I keep rambling. I'm sorry to everybody. I've not had any coffee today, so. [00:19:09] Speaker A: D.J. wagner, but that's, that's still kind of the. Is enigma. Is that the right word? It's just, it's, it's like, what's, what's going on there? How do they figure out how to get him more involved? And I think that's kind of, if you're looking at the Razorbacks, he and Knox both, it's like, I mean, these are two guys who we have seen what they are capable of doing. [00:19:29] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:19:30] Speaker A: But we haven't seen it a whole lot this year. And so I think that's where if you, if you are, you know, optimistic about that team or about this team, that's one of the areas where it's like, hey, you know, there's a lot more in the tank. It's just how do they fit in with the pieces that are on the roster this year? Because a team, they change year to year. Atuff running the point. That's certainly been a huge adjustment, I think for Wagner. I think what we're seeing with Wagner is kind of what we saw from him early last year. [00:19:58] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:19:59] Speaker A: Where he's not as comfortable playing in that off guard position or the off ball guard position. And. [00:20:07] Speaker A: Brought him in at Winthrop. He ran the point at the end of that game and helped bring him back. So it's how do you figure out how to utilize him better? You know, this was a big game for him last night. His grandfather, Milt Wagner is a Louisville legend. He played at Kentucky. You know, so you get. [00:20:23] Speaker B: He was heavily recruited by Louisville when Kenny Payne was the coach there too. [00:20:27] Speaker A: You know, and so sometimes maybe you're, you're pressing a little bit. I don't know if that was the case with him last night or not. But there, it feels like there's a lot more in the tank from Carter, Knox and D.J. wagner. And that's got to be one of the reasons that you feel good about this team. It's just a matter of how does it fit in with what they're doing. Well, right now. [00:20:46] Speaker B: Yeah. And how much does the ceiling raise when you get those guys playing to. [00:20:50] Speaker A: You know, I think it can be a lot. [00:20:51] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. So, you know, with, with D.J. wagner, you know, it's, it's, it's interesting because, you know, in my conversations with, with NBA people, obviously, you know, he was, you know, once thought as a potential one and done guy. You know, one of the, one of the big things that you hear from NBA people when you talk about DJ Wagner is like he's got to be more comfortable off the ball. He has to be there. There are other things too. Like his jump shots got to be more consistent. You know, he's got to be, you know, X, Y and Z. [00:21:21] Speaker B: So there is that. You know, I don't know if there's still just kind of an adjustment period for him, you know, needing to be more off the ball with this team because I think you saw some flashes of of potential of him being more of an off ball guard last year, especially, you know, in some of those, I guess earlier on games when they were playing well. And then obviously he took over the point guard position when Boogie Fland went down and that's when things really turned around for Arkansas and, you know, things went really well for them down the stretch of the season. But, you know, I don't know what the, the antidote is because obviously you don't want to take the ball out of Darius Akov's hands just because, you know, he's been, you know, phenomenal this season. He made a ton of, you know, really great plays last night down the stretch that, you know, kind of carried them, not carried them to the win, but I guess secured the win. [00:22:17] Speaker A: It. [00:22:18] Speaker B: But yeah, I don't know what the, I don't know what the, the D.J. wagner answer is. You know, I, I'm fully confident that there is an answer because I, I feel like DJ Wagner is still a good enough player to, to fit into. Into a system. I think you can, you can find a way to make him off the ball work and I think it, it has it at certain points this year. But the key to that is finding the consistency. And, you know, that's not just for him in this season. That's him. That's for him and his professional ambitions as well. [00:22:52] Speaker A: So they give big win last night, 89 to 80 over Louisville. They needed that win. It gives a little jolt of. [00:22:58] Speaker B: It's. It's a much better resume win than last year's win at Miami too. Oh, yeah, no doubt that Miami team stunk. [00:23:05] Speaker A: So. [00:23:06] Speaker B: But yeah, and then the, the SEC ended up winning the sec. Acc, acc, sec. [00:23:10] Speaker A: The SEC won. They. [00:23:12] Speaker B: The one. [00:23:12] Speaker D: Yeah. Wow. [00:23:12] Speaker A: They came back. [00:23:13] Speaker B: Well, I consider it a draw because LSU had to go to overtime with Boston College. And like we mentioned yesterday, Boston College stinks. So that counts as that counts. [00:23:25] Speaker A: You're probably. You're probably for Notre Dame over Miami into the playoffs too, huh? [00:23:29] Speaker B: I haven't put that much head to. [00:23:31] Speaker A: Head, to be honest. Head to head matters. [00:23:32] Speaker B: Head to head does matter. But I mean, Boston College stinks. That's the biggest. That's the big takeaway of the day. All right. Boston College bad at basketball. [00:23:41] Speaker A: Anthony, thanks for being here. When we come back, Nate Allen's gonna. I'm sorry. Clay Henry is gonna be with us. We'll remember Nate Allen, the great Arkansas sports writer. First, another word from Kendall King. [00:23:53] Speaker C: Kendall King we're proud of over four decades of design. We're continuing the legacy of great creative design. By combining our brands of Kendall King, Soapbox and Shopcart together, these brands represent a new focus in marketing design with individual attention to specific areas. Through our design expertise, supported by a team of talented professionals, we showcase our best. We are Kindle King. We are Soapbox. We are Shopcart. We are Design. [00:24:18] Speaker A: One year ago today, Bob Holt passed away in Columbia, Missouri. And in the 12 months since then, we've lost two other media giants in our state. Mike Neil passed away a few weeks ago, and then Nate Allen died yesterday here in Fayetteville. He was 75 years old. Nate covered the Razorbacks for 52 years. He began his career with the Springdale News in 1973. He also worked for the Arkansas Gazette for 14 years, 11 years with Don Ray Media, which later became Stevens Media. And then he ran the Nate Allen Sports service for over 20 years. He worked for practically every newspaper in the state of Arkansas. Dailies, weeklies, big papers, small papers, you name it. Even papers out of state like the Tulsa World, the Joplin Globe, which is where Nate got his start in print journalism. It's where he graduated high school. They took his copy about the Razorbacks. Nate. The tributes have been pouring in for him over the last several hours since the word of his passing got out. From coaches to players to other media members, it's been just a steady stream of condolences and remembrances of a really great guy. And we're going to talk about him here now with Clay Henry. You know, when Bob passed away, and we're going to talk about Bob and Nate interchangeably here today, because you can't really talk about one without talking about the other. When Bob passed away, it was such a shock. And none of us ever got. None of us had the ability to say goodbye to Bob. But with Nate, we knew this was coming. And he's been in such poor health for a long time. It's one of those deals where you are sad to see him pass away, but the same time you're also happy in a way and relieved that all these years of pain that he's gone through. [00:26:05] Speaker A: It'S over now and he's healed. [00:26:07] Speaker D: Yeah. You can't talk about Nate without talking about Nancy, his wife. [00:26:18] Speaker D: I did some radio earlier today, and. [00:26:22] Speaker D: Chuck Barrett and I talked about that. They were a Fayetteville power couple. If you had a dinner event, whether it be a banquet or just a Christmas party, like, say, at the Bassett Law Firm, Nate and Nancy were front and center. And if you went to bowl games, you were going to have Nate and Nancy, you know, we would be it function. So you can't ignore. [00:26:53] Speaker D: The impact that she had both on us and on Nate. And I think without question that Nate's ability to go this long was partly because the encouragement that Nancy would give him to. We all have. [00:27:13] Speaker D: Are very aware of his technology problems. And Nancy would calm him to. [00:27:21] Speaker A: At least to the extent you could calm him. [00:27:23] Speaker D: Yeah, it was. Yeah. But so I want to make sure we mention Nancy as well. [00:27:30] Speaker A: Well, and we talk about Nate, you know, for those who don't know, in 2017 he was given a diagnosis of oral cancer. And it's been very hard on him for eight years. He has undergone numero surgeries that has totally transformed how he looks. It has taken away his ability to verbally communicate with people. And then all the while Nancy was dealing with, I think it was dementia and he was having to be a caretaker for her too. So there was the physical pain and toll that that took, but then there's the emotional and the mental toll that it took too. And despite all of that, and I wrote in his obituary today that there were no athletes that were tougher than him. Like he was tougher than every athlete he covered over 52 years because no one ever played through the pain, so to speak, like Nate did. He had all of this stuff going on, and yet he never missed his deadlines. He would be sitting in a hospital bed with pneumonia and he'd send in a column at 2:30 in the morning just this week, his last column that he wrote for the newspaper. His son David showed me a photo of it when I went over to his house this week. He was up at one o' clock in the morning. He was determined he was about to pass away and he was determined to get that last column in to the newspaper. And one of the last things that Nate said to me before I left his house on Tuesday was that he said, I'm not going to have a column on Saturday. Please let the editors know. [00:29:06] Speaker D: Well, part of that, I think, was therapy for Rene. [00:29:12] Speaker D: The writing. And he loved to write. [00:29:18] Speaker D: And sometimes it was incredible prose. And the other thing that you have to say about Nate is that he always hit the right tone. And that's easier said than done. And there's sometimes that I write something and sometimes you write something and you'll say, did I hit the right tone, do you think? It's not so much. Did you put your sentences together and have all the right quotes, but hitting the right tone and having the Judgment to understand. [00:29:53] Speaker D: Both the coaches, the players, and then what needs to be given to the fans. [00:30:02] Speaker D: Isn'T easy. But Nate, that was really one of his strengths. And also one of his strengths was the incredible wit, sarcastic wit at times, that he could interject into columns that I know I've never had the courage to do some of the things that, I mean, he could. He could shoot some arrows. [00:30:27] Speaker A: He wasn't afraid to take people on. [00:30:29] Speaker D: I mean, if. If he wanted to criticize Frank Borroles, he did it. [00:30:34] Speaker A: Yeah, he was very critical of John White and the meddling that he had in athletics. He did not like what Bobby Petrino did. Even before the motorcycle ride. Some of the ways that just Nate knew behind the scenes that he had treated people. [00:30:52] Speaker A: The changes that Jeff Long and even Hunter Jureczyk brought about, those did not always sit well with Nate. Even Chris Bucknham, who became one of the closest people to Nate. Chris called me when I was sitting with Nate on Tuesday and asked me to pass along a message to him. In fact, he and Nate had actually planned on going to lunch next week. And Chris told him, he said, nate, I expect you to be at Bordino's next, whatever day it was. And obviously that will happen very early in Chris's career here or his time here. Nate did not like that Chris fired Dick Booth as his jumps coach. Dick Booth had been really kind of the, you know, a pillar of Arkansas track and field for all those years with John McDonnell, like a brother to John. And, you know, a lot of people thought Dick Booth should. Should have been the head coach, that he should have been the replacement for John. And Nate wrote a very scathing column called, called Chris Bucknham Out. And, you know, Buck obviously didn't like it, but he told Nate, he said, I appreciate that you care. And that began a real, I think, mutual respect. And that eventually formed into a relationship and a friendship between those two. But it started, you know, really kind of on a rocky path. And not everybody has the skin that can be thick enough to be able to get past something like that. But I do give the coaches who, you know, they would take an arrow, like you said, from Nate, and still be able to see it for what it was. It wasn't personal. It was more professional than anything. I give them a lot of credit because Chris Bucknham's not the only one I think that would fit that bill. [00:32:35] Speaker D: Well, I think you can do that if you have balance. And Nate always had balance in it. If there were arrows, there was also some sugar. [00:32:46] Speaker A: Kevin Trainer gave me this great quote yesterday. Kevin, who's now with the Arkansas Alumni association, of course, spent 35 years with the Razorbacks. He said, quote, nate was really the conscience of Arkansas. I often said that if Nate Allen was praising us, we deserve the praise, and if Nate Allen was criticizing us, we deserve the criticism. He always had a good sense of Arkansas, of the Razorbacks, and just always had a viewpoint that could see through lots of things to the heart of the truth. [00:33:10] Speaker D: So he was not just the conscious of. [00:33:14] Speaker D: The program, he was the conscious of the media room when. When there was somebody and it could be a veteran like Bob Holt that was taking up too much time, was asking the same question too often, there would be this incredible sigh. [00:33:34] Speaker A: He kind of throw his head back. [00:33:35] Speaker D: And look around and wave his recorder. [00:33:39] Speaker A: He'd have a pencil that he'd kind of like erase his palm with to kind of like. I guess maybe it's kind of like a nervous thing to put up with, Bob. [00:33:47] Speaker D: But a young reporter could. I mean, he could. He could set them down without even setting them down, that they know that this is. I'm going the wrong tact. I'm not asking the right questions or. [00:34:02] Speaker A: Asking a question, period. One of the things that he hated was when everyone say, talk about whoever he hated, that it was like, ask a question, don't say talk about. Ask a question that has some meaning behind it. [00:34:14] Speaker D: Yeah. And his questions in press conferences sometimes were predictable, but I'll never forget. And it was the wild press conference that Nolan Richardson, his really last one in Bud Walton arena, he'd be fired a day or two later. [00:34:37] Speaker D: He'd had that blow up at Kentucky. And then that Monday, he talked about the tanks will roll and this and went on and on. And he finally paused and Nate grabbed the microphone and he thought, well, what's he going to ask? And he says, have you had a chance to look at the Mississippi State film? And. [00:35:01] Speaker D: It was two things. One, I think he was giving Nolan a soft landing spot. And two, he needed quotes for his advance and knew that everybody else did. And I think he was dearly afraid that Nolan was going to get up and walk out and that he wouldn't be able to write in advance. And we all kind of looked at each other and it was like, that's our Nate. [00:35:26] Speaker A: By the way, we've got a floral arrangement here. The Arkansas Razorbacks, they actually set this on Nate's seat last night at Bud Walton arena. On the seat where it has his name and where he's been sitting he's been in hospice, in home hospice care, and he's still been going to the games. I mean, you talk about going back to. Nobody else is tougher than Nate. He's in home hospice, and he's still. He was still insistent that he go to the games, which is just incredible. I think that tells you a lot about Nate. We've also got a couple of books here. These are actually my copies of this book, of these books that Nate signed. We've got Tales from Hog Heaven and more Tales from Hog Heaven. I didn't realize, Clay. There was a third one of these that Nate wrote about 12 years ago called Amazing Tales from Hog Heaven. They showed that to me at his house a couple of days ago. He wrote a book with Dudley Dawson after the Razorbacks won their national championship in 1994. So just. He had a great career. A lot of people may not realize that. He was also on the Razorback baseball broadcast for a time in the late 1980s. Ed Froning, who owned the KNWA radio station here in town, he was the play by play guy. This was really before there was a baseball network. And so the rights for baseball, I think, kind of jumped around for a time in the years before Chuck became the baseball play by play guy. And there was a time where Nate and Mike Nail would kind of. I think that they would basically switch places and, you know, you'd do one game, I'd do the next one. Anyway. He was the baseball. Not the baseball voice of the Razorbacks, but the baseball analyst, you know, very similar to what Bubba Carpenter does right now. [00:37:15] Speaker A: I say similar. [00:37:16] Speaker D: There's probably a lot of difference what Nate brought professionally. And you mentioned the track coaches. Track wasn't covered. I mean, spring football is going on and there's track, and nobody really had the staff for that. But Nate early on started asking for budget from the editors at whatever outlet he was covering to go to NCA cross country meets or NCA indoor meets. And they weren't here. And so it would be, you know, you need the funds for the budget or the pin relays. And I can remember. [00:37:55] Speaker D: The folks at the Gazette, there was some consternation. It's like, what are the pin relays? Nate had to explain to them what the pin relays were and how important they were. And. And he got the budget to do that. And he put a lot of pressure on the rest of the media because no one else was covering track. And all at once, it exploded. And he had the inside path with the athletes, the track coaches. John McDonald, if there's anybody that loved Nate Allen, it probably was John McDonald and Norm de Bryan to the same degree that they. They gave Nate credit for covering them before. It was cool. And it became cool to cover both those sports. [00:38:44] Speaker A: And that was in a day where you get the newspaper coverage, and that brings interest and information about your team. [00:38:53] Speaker A: There weren't Twitter accounts that could promote your team. You were much more reliant on the local beat reporter. [00:38:59] Speaker D: I'll tell you who else understood what kind of a track rider. The track coaches at Texas, the track coaches at Oregon, the track coaches at Villanova. He. He could get an audience with any of those, with. With just, you know, a quick phone call that they took his calls. [00:39:17] Speaker A: Yeah, Lance Harder told me. He said he was nationally understood as a really great track reporter. He was there the first day, the first time, and Nate was proud of this. This is one of the things. So let me back up for a minute. When Nate went into hospice, I sent him an email. I said, nate, this is a hard message to write to you. I said, but I want to be able to honor you appropriately whenever the time is right. I never used the word obituary. I never used the word death, but we knew what it meant. And typical Nate, he sends me an email back. He goes, not everyone gets a hand in their own obituary. I'd be happy to help. But he never sent the answers. And so I was real. It's been on my mind a lot here lately, even though his condition only really took a turn for the worse, so to speak, in the last four or five days. And so Monday night, I was a little frustrated, sad, upset. I don't know what the word would be that he had not sent the responses to it. But, you know, I knew his college roommate's been here, you know, visiting with him. I think his. His children are over there. His sister came down this week from Illinois, I believe is where she's from. And I knew that I was going to be able to get it all together. So I went over there Monday night. I'd heard his condition was really bad. He was asleep. And, you know, I thought I walked out of there Monday night, kind of looked back at the house, said a little prayer for him, looking at his bedroom, you know, light that was on. And I thought, that's the last time I'm going to see Nate. Tuesday, I'm sitting here, and I get a call from his daughter. Actually, it's from Nate's phone. It's his daughter on the line. And she said, you know, dad really Would like you to come back over here. He wants to answer your questions in person. And so one of the things that he was really proud of was the fact that he was the only reporter who was at the indoor championships in 1984 when John McDonald won his first national championship. This was at Syracuse at the Carrier Dome. And Nate, that day I went back and found the story that he wrote in the Gazette. He said, quote, the rest of the nation's track coaches may soon learn firsthand what the Southwest Conference coaches could tell him now. And that's when John McDonald's Arkansas Razorback secure title. They're apt to hang on to the deed for a long, long time. And in the story that he wrote Clay, he kind of predicted, he said this might be the start of multiple national championships. He could not have predicted this, but it was the start of 12 consecutive indoor national championships. And I think that kind of just gives you an idea of, you know, I'm sure that McDonnell and Dick Booth and those types probably helped inform this, but he had a. He had a keen understanding of what the roster looked like, that they won the championship in 1984, really, kind of with a down roster relative to what they had had the year before and what they had coming in the next year. And to your point, he just was really well respected as a track reporter. [00:42:18] Speaker D: When I started Hogs Illustrated in 1992, I sat down with two or three people, including coaches. [00:42:29] Speaker D: To kind of explain what the mission was. And they said, well, who are you going to be? Your writers? And every single coach suggested Nate should be one of the writers. And he was almost from the start. And what he did was these where are they now? Features on old coaches, old players. And I would just leave that up to him. But a lot of those stories are in these books that you held up. They were in Hoggs Illustrated. And we had an agreement that he could take those and basically compiled a book. And they are wonderful features. And. [00:43:16] Speaker D: He could get to the heart of each one of these stories that are. They're individual in nature, but they told the history of the Razorbacks. And some of them were, you know, old time players like an Eddie Bradford that he would run down. [00:43:37] Speaker D: Through the years. I would run across some of these men or women and they would tell me that those stories gave them a sense of pride that they had not been forgotten. [00:43:52] Speaker D: And what Nate meant to them personally. And now. [00:43:59] Speaker D: You talked about his autographs in that book with little notes that you gave. And I don't know whether we can. [00:44:05] Speaker A: Pick that up I was in high school when he wrote this first book. And I came to a Razorback game with my dad. We had season tickets, and we were in the union. We always stopped and ate lunch at the union before a game. And we walked by, and Nate's sitting at a table. [00:44:24] Speaker A: And signing this book. And I think I'd heard about the book. Maybe I'd read about it in the newspaper, that it was about to come out or something. Anyway, he writes a note here, and his handwriting is not great, but he said to the real Matt Jones, this is when Matt was playing. He said, hope you have a great career as a sportscaster. Nate Allen. And then kind of like Nate, you know, I had a sports broadcast degree, but went into writing. Same thing happened with Nate. He was the manager of the student radio station at the University of Missouri, but he went back to Joplin, interned for the Globe for a summer. And one of the sports writers that he worked for there, Larry White, ended up coming to Northwest Arkansas and was a sports editor at the Springdale News, Called him right out of college, Said, hey, would you be interested in coming down here and doing this? He did, and he never left. [00:45:12] Speaker D: So you can read that. It is legible. [00:45:17] Speaker A: It's shaky, but it's legible. [00:45:18] Speaker D: It's legible. But if you took one of his legal pads. [00:45:23] Speaker A: Oh, my goodness. [00:45:23] Speaker D: And you looked at it from a press conference or maybe he covered a practice. [00:45:31] Speaker D: It is unbelievably. Squirrely is the best word I can say. I mean, it's just wiggles and dots. [00:45:38] Speaker A: It's Nate code. Only Nate can read what. What that says. [00:45:42] Speaker D: And I've looked at it, and, I mean, there is nothing on that. Any of those pages that would tell you that. It would be helpful at first. Clayton to regurgitate it later. [00:45:54] Speaker A: One of the first times I was at a press conference, I was sitting next to Nate and I saw him doing this, and I thought he was just doodling. And I realized later on that that's him taking some form of shorthand that he did. Only Nate could read it. Yeah, I mean, there was no stealing Nate's notes. The number of people who have just reached out and talked about him. I mean, Brett Bielema tweeted about him last night. Eric Musselman tweeted about him when I was there the other day. Houston Nut had sent him a text message, and Darrell Walker had sent him a text message. And while I was there, Lance Harder came in and saw him, and Norm de Bryan had just left before I got there. It Just. And that, I think, is the tip of the iceberg. I think there's been a lot of people who have reached out and communicated with him. And I know that, you know, a lot of times people who are in that state, when they're in their final days, it seems like they have, like, that one last great day. And Tuesday was a really good day for Nate. And he was up, he was smiling, he flipped off his computer twice because he was mad at it as he was trying to type out a note to me. So, I mean, like, the mind was still there. The body just was obviously shutting down for him. But I know that he was so appreciative of all these people who were able to reach out to him and just kind of give him a last message and say how much that he meant to him. Now, I don't want to be too somber. I do want to talk a few colorful hate stories. And I'm going to start with this. At first, I thought this was just legend, but it's true. There was a time, before the smartphones, when Nate would grab box scores from the press box, whether it be football, baseball, basketball, whatever, and that box score would serve as currency over here at Rogers Rec. And he would. One box score would equal one beer. You give the box score to the owner or whoever's working behind the bar that night, and they'd give him a beer. And I'd only heard that it happened at Rogers Rec. His son told me. He said, no, there were actually. I think I've got this right. He said, no, there were actually multiple establishments, multiple establishments that they had the same agreement. So Nate would give a box score here, drink the beer, go to the. [00:48:09] Speaker D: Next Maxine's Tap Room. So those are the ones that I've confirmed in the last 24 hours, but mainly Roger's wreck. And it wasn't a beer. It was a pitcher. [00:48:22] Speaker D: So it was worth more than a beer. But I've those Rogers Rick regulars, guys like Barry Thomas, Kingpin, my stepbrother Kirby Schoffner, they attest it happened. Brad Dunn, same thing. And it was legendary. Okay, there's the box score. And it wasn't just handed to the proprietor. It would go across the bar and around the room. And so it was celebrated. Nate's here. We got a box score. [00:48:56] Speaker A: I was talking to Kevin Traynor yesterday, and he brought up this analogy. I said, kevin, it's crazy that you said this, because I was actually thinking the same thing yesterday morning. If I were to describe Nate to people who had never met him and kind of what his role was like in the. Like, the local. And I'm not even gonna say the media. I'm just like. Just Fayetteville. He'd be Norm from Cheers. It's like when. When Nate would walk in. It's the culture everybody would like. The energy in the room would rise. [00:49:25] Speaker D: Norm. [00:49:26] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:49:26] Speaker D: Nate, Nate. Nate. [00:49:27] Speaker A: Interchangeable. [00:49:28] Speaker D: And it would be Nate the Great. [00:49:31] Speaker A: That's Nolan called him Nate the Skate. [00:49:33] Speaker D: Nate the Skate, Yeah. And. Yeah, and Nolan loved him, too. Yeah, it was. He celebrated the fact that Nate was going to write in Hogs Illustrated and others, too. But it was. Yeah, you're picking the right guy. And media from other areas, like John Klein, Tulsa World. And John. The first time he met him was in 79 in Omaha when Arkansas was playing the College World Series. And they would write their stories and immediately find a bar. Nate's notorious for being able to put down a beer, but John, I would say his legend in Tulsa was great. And he was 350. And everyone's like, man, he can knock down some beer. He said he never could keep up with Nate. He said Nate would finish two before he could finish halfway through one. And. [00:50:32] Speaker D: I'm not saying that he was, you know. [00:50:37] Speaker D: Didn'T do that on the job, let's put it that way. And then another thing that was just legendary in the press box, you've got the national anthems. He didn't time them, but he knew how long it should take for a national anthem. And when it went past what it should be, he would start moaning, groaning, and if somebody put in a few extra notes or. Or change the words. [00:51:06] Speaker D: He was critical. [00:51:08] Speaker A: So my favorite national anthem story was Nate. I just thought about this, and I hadn't thought about this in a long time. You remember the guy who was a University of Arkansas grad who was the president of the nation of Panama? Do you remember this? [00:51:20] Speaker D: Oh, yeah. [00:51:21] Speaker A: And I think the guy ended up being a crook and went to prison. But he was like. They brought him back a couple of times. I think he was a keynote speaker at a graduation one year. And then they brought him back at baseball. And at the baseball game, they played the Panamanian national anthem. And so they asked everybody to stand up. Well, this song is the longest national anthem in the world. I mean, I think it was like, every time you think it's over, here comes another stanza. And finally, about three minutes into this, Nate just sits down and starts working on his computer again until it's time for the American national anthem to be played. But I don't think we heard him complain about the length of our national anthem after he heard the Panamanian national anthem. But, you know, one thing I was going to say, too. [00:52:15] Speaker A: He hated his computer. I mean, just absolutely hated his computer and the meltdowns that he would have in the workroom. What was the funniest thing, Clay, was to watch the other people who were not from Arkansas, you know, say, like, somebody comes in from LSU or Ole Miss or South Carolina to cover a game, and it would start the, oh, no, don't do this. Not today. Why me? [00:52:37] Speaker D: Not now. [00:52:38] Speaker A: And. [00:52:40] Speaker A: You know, it was a slow buildup to just total chaos. And it was like, you would see people like, is that man okay? It's like, yeah, that's just Nate. [00:52:49] Speaker D: Just Nate. He'll get over it. And it would be incredible that, like, Bob Holt would lean over and they're writing for different papers, and he would hit a couple of keystrokes. Nate, this. This. Because they got the same type, light laptops. But it's like. And then. [00:53:10] Speaker D: I wished I had written this in my column. That's whole Hog Sports. But he talked to computers the way Bobby Petrino talked to officials. [00:53:20] Speaker A: I said, you're underselling it. [00:53:21] Speaker D: I said, same language. [00:53:23] Speaker A: Petrino was nice to officials relative to how Nate talked to his computer. [00:53:28] Speaker D: Well, I don't think Bobby ever told an official, if you could just feel. [00:53:32] Speaker A: Pain, I wish you could feel pain. [00:53:34] Speaker D: Yeah, of course. I guess officials can feel pain. [00:53:38] Speaker A: But there's a laptops couldn't. Steve Wright, who you know well, who was a writer here, he made a Sports Illustrated cover. And Steve Caldwell actually reached out to me, too. He said he was part of. He was there when it was presented. And it was a Sports Illustrated cover where they had taken Nancy Kerrigan off of Sports Illustrated and they put Nate's picture instead, and it says, why me? Why now? Why writer Nate Allen is brutally attacked by his laptop computer. Nate loved it. It was hanging above his desk at his home office. [00:54:10] Speaker D: I talked to Steve last night, and I said, I think you had something to do with this. And he goes, I think I did. And then you sent me the picture. And his mailing label was on the Sports Illustrated. Yeah, look, Aura, you know, it's like it was you, Steve. And he goes, yeah, yeah, I thought it was, but I was afraid to. It's been a few years, but, yeah. [00:54:31] Speaker A: Well, we could sit here and tell Nate stories all day long. [00:54:34] Speaker D: We will be telling. [00:54:35] Speaker A: We'll tell them stories. We'll still be telling Nate's stories forever, forever in the press box. There's no doubt about it. He is just a legend in our state, not just in sports writing. The Arkansas Press association put a message out last night that said that he was. [00:54:52] Speaker A: Influential. I can't remember exactly the words they used, but highly influential to just the success of newspapers in Arkansas. And so we miss Nate, but we're, we're certainly glad that he's healed from, from everything that has been ailing him for all of these years. So we appreciate you being with us and listening to our stories about Nate and there's so many others. We could fill up probably five of these with Nate Allen stories. [00:55:19] Speaker D: Both Matt and I have written pieces that, that you can find at Whole Hog Sports, that mine's a personal column, but I think your personal thoughts are intertwined in the piece that you wrote that I think is just fantastic. I think you called me and said, I think maybe I wrote it too long. You can never write too much on. [00:55:41] Speaker A: Nate and you can never write too much online. I think they cut it in half in the newspaper, but it's all there to read online. We'll be back with another podcast tomorrow. [00:55:51] Speaker A: Ryan Silverfield is being announced as Arkansas's head coach today. We're recording this in advance of that, and so we'll talk about what we think Nate wouldn't like to talk about. We'll discuss what Ryan Silverfield had to say during his introductory press conference on our show tomorrow. Hope to see you then or at our website, wholehogsports.com have a great day, everybody.