Sam Pittman speaks; New Arkansas basketball tournament projections

[00:00:01] Speaker A: You're listening to the Hog Sports Network daily podcast. Now here's your host, Matt Jones. Hey, happy Friday to you. Got a lot to get to on today's show. Arkansas basketball in action tomorrow at Bud Walton arena against Mississippi State. Baseball begins a series this afternoon at Baum Walker Stadium against Portland. We'll talk about both of those sports here in a little bit, but we'll kick off with some football talk after Sam Pittman spoke with reporters Yesterday for about 40 minutes over at Razorback Stadium, previewing spring practice, but also talking a lot of big picture stuff. You know, this is the first time that Sam Pittman had spoken in a press conference setting since the Liberty bowl in Memphis back in December. So a lot to get caught up with with the Razorback football coach Christina Long joins me here. Christina, you were there just kind of what were some of the big takeaways that you heard from Pittsburgh, Sam, yesterday? [00:00:55] Speaker B: Yeah, it was a far reaching press conference because like you said, there was so much to catch up on. I mean, there's so many new players. There's, you know, we had talked to him after a lot of the departures, but not really so much after a lot of the additions. So, you know, hearing a lot about some of the new guys they've added on both sides of the ball. You know, talking to him about lots of sort of bigger college football news. You know, we talked to him about the possibility of hiring something like a general manager, which is something a lot of teams have done and something he had told us before they wanted to do around this time of year. So talking to him about that, talking to him about kind of headed into spring practices because they start on Monday. Talk to him about, you know, the conversation about spring games that's happening right now and some schools have started to just go away from them entirely and not do them. You know, that was a highlight of him talking a little bit about, you know, some coaches have canceled spring games because they say, I don't want other, you know, other coaches to be able to see my good players and come and get them. And Coach Pittman basically said if they want your players, they'll already be working on getting them by that time. So as far as about the team itself, you know, he talked a lot about sort of the differences in the offense because there's so many new people on that side of the ball. And he did say one thing I thought was interesting was he, he said as far as the additions they've had on offense versus on defense, he feels like he knows what they have a little bit more on offense than on defense. So I think going into spring practices, you know, there's. There's lots to be shaken out on offense and lots to see, you know, who is actually going to emerge at different positions and figuring out how good they're going to be. But also on defense, he said he feels like, you know, there's. It's maybe more open there and there's more, I guess, questions about what they have there, how, what the talent level is going to be and who's going to slot in. [00:02:34] Speaker A: Where did you ever get good grades? Writing essays in college or high school? Because what you've done here, I've got three sound bites, and you just teed up every single one of them. You hit on all three of those bullet points. [00:02:43] Speaker B: That's the thesis. I wrote the thesis. We're good. [00:02:46] Speaker A: And we didn't even talk about what these, what these three sound bites were going to be. Let's start with the GM conversation because this is a. Kind of a. A big topic right now in college football. Arkansas doesn't have a gm, basically with Pittman. He is the GM of the Razorbacks in this nil era. And, you know, he mentions. And you're going to hear this in the sound bite here in just a second, you know, but he mentions that he wants that taken off of his plate. Basically. He doesn't want to be the bad guy anymore. Whenever players come and they ask for X amount of dollars, whether it be, you know, you know, whenever the case may be. And this is what he said yesterday, whenever he was asked about Arkansas's plans to hire a general manager type position coming up. [00:03:31] Speaker C: Done it. So you may have to go to the, you know, NFL, NBA, whatever to find somebody like that. You want someone who's kind of done that before, whether it be the top dog or the second, you know, somebody that understands that because we, that's something that I've never dealt with. Well, I have for three years and I don't. I want some help. But you'd want that. You want a guy to be able. You would want a recruiter. You know, you. Somebody comes in and says, Well, I need 500,000. You don't want to just. Hell, any of us can say, oh, okay, you know, I mean, we, we need a negotiator, to be honest with you. I need someone that takes the. Well, Coach Pittman won't give it to me. Coach Pittman won't give it to me. I need, I need that taken off my plate. I Need somebody to be ahead of what the market is. And I think the market is going to change again because of revenue sharing and your collective. It's not going to be, hey, we can pay you a million dollars out of the collective. No, we can't. We can pay you the max out of what you're worth. And a committee is going to say it's worth $5,000. You know, it's going to. It's going to change. So need somebody up on the rules. We need somebody that's a good talker, a good recruiter. We need a guy that's a good evaluator because we obviously have corners. And we'll go, okay, this is one, this is two, this is three, this is four. And you don't go, this is one. We can get. No, I don't want the ones we can't. I want. This is the number one guy we think we. That we're talking to. Number two, number three, I don't care. You know, we'll figure out if we can get them or not. You know, there's different boards now. One of them, you'll have a group of coaches that put up the ones they can get. That's number one. Well, hell no. I watch the tape, too. He ain't number one. He's number seven. You know, let's go after the number one guy. That's another voice in the room, and he's not in there, you know, in every single meeting. And he's going to be an organizer of the portal, organizer of the high school recording, organizer of junior college recruiting. And so there's a lot that he or she will be able to help us with. But that's what I'm looking for. And I'm looking for someone to talk to these kids, agents besides me. [00:05:56] Speaker A: So, Sam Pittman on the value of a gym, you know, in the NFL right now, I heard a really good comment during the playoffs, Christina, and it was in. It was talking about the commanders and basically how things had changed with them and how organizationally in the NFL you want to, you know, basically have a straight line in terms of people who are on the same page, from ownership to your head coach to your GM to your starting quarterback. Now in college football, it's a little bit different because I don't think the college, you know, the college starting quarterback has. Is quite the say as they do in the NFL, obviously. But I think now you kind of have to say, in college football, it goes ad headcoats. And now you got to have the GM as Part of that conversation, talking about the NFL, you think about the Eagles just won the Super Bowl. Howie Roseman got a ton of credit for that. The job that he did as a gm, Brent Veach at Kansas City has gotten a ton of credit for what he's done helping the Chiefs build the roster and then, you know, retain the type of big name players that they've been able to do for a number of years. John lynch, similar thing in San Francisco. And so now this is becoming a big piece of the puzzle in college football. [00:07:13] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, it's, it's a really interesting thing that we've seen take shape over the last few years and it's really kind of quickened now with revenue sharing coming. It feels like more and more programs have added this in the last few months even or the last year. And, you know, I think the way that Sam Pittman has talked about how they're going about their portal recruiting is smart for the situation that they're in. You know, he talked back in, I think, December about how, hey, you know, when everybody was freaking out about how many players they lost the portal, he said, hey, it's not because we don't have enough money necessarily. It's because these guys are asking for more than we're willing to pay them. You know, they had a 6 and 6 regular season. Do they want to spend all of their money on retaining a few favorites from a team that was not that good, or do they want to spend it on trying to get more guys who could be difference makers? And that's what he said at the time. And I think that's actually a smart approach, you know, and he talked about how as much as it sucks to lose a guy like Luke has, and, you know, that means something to us, he's important to us. We're important to him. You know, I think he knows that they have to try to make their dollars go further. So I think the approach he has taken is smart, but the other thing is focusing on that makes it. And that's just one more thing that these coaches have to do. And that's not really their area of expertise. You know, like, they're not trained in that. They are. They don't come from necessarily an NFL background or things like that. And so I think it's important that you have somebody that can sort of handle this area. Now he says he wants somebody who's done it, you know, maybe at the NFL or NBA or some professional level. And I think that is important. And I think you see a lot of teams doing that, they're hiring executives or administrators from, you know, different levels of professional or college sports. But at the same time, this is kind of an unprecedented position because it is going to be different than the NFL model. I mean, in Most cases the GMs are not going to be above the head coach necessarily. I know Stanford and Andrew Luck, he is, you know, ahead of the head coach on, you know, their org chart and he's really kind of an ad for football. He's. He's basically over everything in that program. More like an NFL style gm. But that's not the norm right now and I don't think that's what Arkansas is going for. And you know, Pittman was very strong in saying, you know, I will still be making final decisions on rosters. You know, all of this will go through me as the head coach. So, you know, it's an interesting difference and an interesting change that we're seeing happen. But I think the way that Arkansas is going about it, it is smart and I'll be interested. One thing I wanted to ask him but didn't get get a chance to yesterday just because it was so long and so many people had questions was I'm interested if, if it is important to them that this person has ties to the program or not. Because different schools have done it different ways. Obviously Andrew Luck at Stanford, massive ties to the program. Not everybody is doing that and I think that's fine. I think, you know, I think more importantly to me, you would want somebody that, you know can be effective and can be the bad guy or the good guy, you know, that can, can make a differ you whether he's been to Fayetteville before or not. But that was a question that I'm interested in but didn't get a chance to ask. But when they do make this hire, I'll be curious if it's somebody from. [00:10:20] Speaker A: Within the Arkansas fold talking about being the bad guy and being the good guy. There was a part in that sound bite that we played from him that really stuck out to me. And it's basically old coach Pittman won't give it to me. And in college, you know, in college sports, when it comes to football, that is where the greatest gap already exists between a head coach and the players. Like it is harder to get to a college football coach than it is, say John Calipari. Whenever he has a roster of 13 and a staff of, you know, five plus some support people, baseball, you know, and then as you get into, you know, the other sports, the Easier, I think the head coach is, or the more accessible I think a head coach is, you know, college football coach. They've got the biggest rosters, they've got the biggest that they've got to manage. Obviously, it's just a monster biggest budget that they've got to manage. And, you know, so I think this is interesting because it could potentially take one roadblock down between the head coach and the players, you know, in what's already kind of a complicated organizational structure, you know, where you don't have players who are upset with the coach that they're not getting 10, 15, 50 more thousand dollars a year. They're upset with this guy who, you know, works down the hallway. [00:11:42] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I think that's exactly what they're going for with, with positions like this. And, you know, to take some of that personal aspect out of it, you know, because, yeah, like he said, there's players. They'll say, well, Coach Pittman won't give it to me. And it makes him, you know, the, the bad guy, I guess, as we've been saying. But I think, you know, something that's interesting too is he mentioned that now with the, the 105 roster limit, you know, right now they're over that, I think. I think they're at like 110 or so. So there's gonna be five guys at the end of spring, at least that they have to tell, you know, and. And he said that, he talked about how that's really hard and that sucks. And I think, you know, I think a good coach will still be involved in. Obviously he'll be involved in the decision making, but I think would still be involved in the communicating that to players that they have to, for lack of a better word, cut. I think a good coach would still personal conversation and not shy away from that and just put that on the gm. And he mentioned, you know, talking about having to have that conversation with guys, having to say, can we help you find another school? You know, hopefully that is something that they do for some of these guys. But they'll probably have to cut more than five because we know they want to add some stuff in the spring because they've done it before. They'll want to add things in the spring portal window. So I'm sure there will be more than five or however many they're at right now over that 105 man limit. So I think that's another thing that will be key in this gm. It's not just acquisition, it's also figuring out what you have already and what. [00:13:08] Speaker A: You want to keep good transition into this next sound bite that I want to talk about. So, you know, obviously the spring Portal is a big piece of spring football now. You get your roster kind of assembled in December. In that December portal window, you kind of, you know, you use spring practice as a chance really just to kind of assess what you have. And then once spring practice ends, you've got another, you know, short portal window where you go out. And it seems like every year there's anywhere from, you know, maybe 8 to 10, maybe 12 positions or players that are added in the spring based on, again, what, how you feel about your roster in the spring and what you lose in the spring. Because there are inevitably going to be players who are going through spring football who, when the spring season ends, they're going to go into the portal. We saw it last year. Arkansas had a running back, I forget who, but went into the portal within like two or three hours of the spring game ending. This is just how it works now in the college game. This is what Pittman had to say yesterday about his offense and his defense and how he feels about the personnel that he has going into the spring and then what he may be looking for when the portal opens again in April. [00:14:21] Speaker C: I think if we win offensively right now, I don't know that I have one need offensively, from what we've seen in shorts, working ability, all that offensively, I just don't think that April Portal comes. I don't think that the University of Arkansas will be going. We need to go get this guy on offense, this guy on offense. And I'm talking about every. Any of those positions. Defensively, I think we're just, we just don't have as many guys that we do. Offensively, we're not as deep, let's say that. But so I think defensively, I think April would still be a. We need. We would need to add another big or two inside and then we'd certainly, secondary wise, we need to add some guys there, too. Not saying that I don't think that we can be good with the ones there defensively. I just don't know that we. We don't know enough about them to know if we've got depth or not, to be honest with you. [00:15:31] Speaker A: So I bring Christina back in here. You know, he talks about the depth of the defense and, you know, whether or not they've got enough. It feels like this is kind of a recurring theme with the Razorbacks and it's probably a recurring theme with Most teams, it's just hard to keep quality players who are going to, you'll be second and even third teamers. For you, there's a few schools that can do that, not as many as they're used to and probably nobody has the depth that they used to have anymore. But it seems like this is a recurring theme every year about, you know, the question, hey, they're probably pretty good across the first 11 defensively. What happens if they lose three or four of those guys? [00:16:10] Speaker B: Exactly. And yeah, that's a big concern, especially now that they're replacing so many starters. And so a lot of these guys are going to be new, I do think. Yeah, especially on the defensive line. The depth is a question. You know, I think they, they. I'm glad they were able to maintain some of those guys like a Charlie Collins and a K on Henderson, some of those younger players. I think those could be really helpful guys, whether it's as depth players or, you know, I think Charlie Collins is in contention to start for sure. And so I think that helps a lot retaining guys like that. But yeah, I mean, I think that's what's so hard about spring practice now sometimes is especially with the spring portal window you're talking about, guys are going to have to leave and then they're going to add some more. So it's hard sometimes with spring. And that's one thing. I know we'll talk about the spring game aspect too. You know, sometimes it feels like, okay, this might not even really be the team that we're going to see take the field in the fall. But I, you know, the building blocks are here and this is where they're going to start trying to answer some of those questions. Depth on the defensive line is definitely one of them. But I think it does say a lot that he is will, you know, that he's aware of what they have on offense and actually feels strongly enough about it to where he doesn't feel like he sees a big area of need right now. Now that might change, but I don't think it's going to change dramatically. Based on what they see in the spring, I think they have a pretty good impression now. I think obviously he's talked a lot about how he wants their practices to be physical because how can you evaluate particularly the lines if you're not hitting each other really? And he talked a lot about that yesterday and so they'll learn a lot in spring still and they might see some areas that they decide they need some more depth on offense. But I Don't you know that's not how we felt going into last spring? You know, we, we had a lot of questions offensive into last spring for sure. [00:17:51] Speaker A: Well, today you can get the latest breaking news on all Razorback sports@whole hogsports.com Most in depth source for all Arkansas sports analysis, latest in recruiting, unique stories on all your favorite teams. Subscribe Today@whole hogsports.com you can read on our website right now. Ethan Westerman wrote a nice piece about kind of an in depth piece about what the Razorbacks have offensively and about how Sam Pittman feels about the offense right now. So you mentioned the spring game. There have been a lot of teams that have canceled or maybe modified their spring game this year. Matt Rule was kind of the trendsetter here at Nebraska, said that he didn't want teams watching Nebraska spring game on TV and then start poaching players. Then Texas and Steve Sarkeesian come along. They say they're not going to have a spring game either. Sarkeesian talked about, hey, they played more games than they've ever played before at the end of last season. And so that was one of the considerations. I don't think Ohio State is going to have a spring game. I think I read the other day where Oklahoma is going to have something kind of modified. It's not going to be a spring game. It's going to be more, I think in line with maybe what you see at the Pro bowl now, kind of like a skills challenge thing that they're going to have there in Norman. So Arkansas is keeping its spring game. It's going to be on April 19th at Razorback Stadium. 1:00 is when it's going to begin. And Sam Pittman was asked yesterday about why he kept the spring game when it's kind of the popular decision right now is to get rid of it. [00:19:20] Speaker C: I don't know what, what the factors are. I, you know, someone's going to poach your player. They waiting on the spring game to look at it. They already got him. You know, I mean the agents already worked for three, four weeks of calling this team this team. How much you gonna give him? Well, that's not enough because I got this much from that's already been in the works. So I don't know that the spring game is going to cost you a player or not. So that didn't and the other thing too is I think we owe the state of Arkansas the opportunity to come see their team play. And so, nah, it never, never, never crossed my mind. And the other thing is, I think you can get better. You get a little bit when people are in the seat, you find out a little bit more about your team. And the spring game is, is a way to get people in the seats and see really what we have out there. [00:20:18] Speaker A: That last, that last soundbite there by. Or the last sentence there by Pittman feels like a Bobby Petrino influence. Petrino was the head coach at Arkansas. He always wanted people in the stands, whether it be for the spring game or a Saturday scrimmage, whether it be March, April, August. He wanted people in the stands because he always felt like having eyeballs on you kind of put a little bit of pressure on the players and they wanted to see who could perform in front of people, even if it was only 3,5000 people. If you can't perform in front of 3 or 5000 people, how are you going to perform in front of 100,000 people on a Saturday afternoon? So Arkansas is keeping its spring game. Christina, I guess I'm really not surprised by this, but I was struck. We found out yesterday they're not going to have a broadcast for this year's spring game. And that is a change from past years. [00:21:08] Speaker B: Yeah, they had announced that apparently like last week and I just, because I think it was when they put out some of the spring dates and I just missed that they were going to be not televising it. And then somebody asked a question about, you know, why, you know, is there any benefit to not televising it? And he basically said, not a huge benefit really. And then we kind of asked afterward, you know, why they're not televising it or, you know, I, you know, some of us had assumed that that was part of maybe the television deal that they had to televise it, but apparently you don't have to and they just kind of opted not to. Don't really know why. Don't have a clear answer on, on why that decision was made. But, you know, he, he talked a little bit too. You mentioned Oklahoma doing kind of the, the Pro bowl games style sort of event. And I think that's kind of more what spring games have become. I mean, I think I talked the other day about how at Clemson, Dabo is like emceeing the spring game. He's like on the mic the whole time and like narrating plays. And you know, it's, it's more of kind of a fun thing for fans and less, you know, not as much for the team. They are still practicing a little bit but not the way that they would if people were not present. And so I think. But Coach Pittman talked about, you know, I think he mentioned sort of the Pro bowl game style thing in specific and said that he doesn't really see the value in that. He doesn't really know what people, whether it's fans or the team, get out of that, which I think is fair. I think I kind of agree with that. I mean, it's nice to have an event for fans to come to whenever you can. Right. I think, you know, it's. I think his point about it being, you know, important to people here to get to come see the team now. I think that is important, especially now when so many of these players are new. They're wanting to try to help people get to know this team before they take the field in the fall. And so I think things like this are helpful. I don't, I don't. I think it's a good thing that they're having something, that they are having a spring game. I don't think there's a ton of value as far as what we're going to, you know, see in it, but it does help, right? It helps a little. It helps you get to know people. And I think it, you know, they always make it a big weekend now because they'll have baseball and softball at home. And so they kind of package that all together and market it as just. Just basically a big riz rec sports weekend. And I think fans respond to that really well. And I think it is a fun thing for, you know, a family to come do. You can go from baseball to softball to football and they'll, you know, usually they'll do some kind of a fan fest at football. And that's a fun thing for people to do. And I'm curious how people will respond to the lack of it being televised. I don't know how many people are watching the spring game on TV anyway, but I think it's something that people like to tune into when they do want to get to know the team and can't make it out here. So I'm curious. Yeah. How people will respond to that. But I think he's. I think the approach they're taking is fine. I don't. I am not necessarily anti spring game. And I think he's right that some of these other sort of more game style things aren't really valuable to anybody. [00:24:01] Speaker A: I think they'll react negatively. I just do. It's an interesting decision. I'll be interested to see and I want to, I want to follow up on this with some people over there about whether or not, like, are there some extenuating circumstances about, you know, other events on campus that day or anything and whether or not that affects it or if this was just a decision that was made because it's a very interesting decision to black out your spring game when, you know, for 10 plus years now, this has been something that people have kind of, you know, come to expect to be able to see on TV when the spring rolls around. So be interested to learn a little bit more about what went into that decision. Christina, we appreciate you being with us. [00:24:44] Speaker B: Yeah. Thank you so much. [00:24:46] Speaker A: All right, when we come back, Anthony Christensen is going to join me here in studio. We'll talk Razorback basketball in this game coming up against Mississippi State tomorrow. But first, a word from our sponsors at Kindle King. We're proud of over four decades of design. We're continuing the legacy of great creative design by combining our brands of Kendall King Soapbox and Shopcart. Together, these brands represent a new focus in marketing design with individual attention to specific areas. Through our design expertise, supported by a team of talented professionals, we showcase our best. We are Kendall King. We are Soapbox. We are Shopcart. We are design. Hey, welcome back. I want to tell you about our friends at Bentonville Glass. They've been serving their community since 1971. Committed, professional, versatile. If you're looking for a quality leader in northwest Arkansas or looking for skilled craftsmanship, look no further than Bentonville Glass for all your glass market needs with the highest quality products. You can come by and see them right now at 507 South Main in Bentonville or online at bentonvilleglass.com Arkansas basketball back at Bud Walton arena for one final time tomorrow. An 11am Tip off against number 25, Mississippi State. This game is going to be televised by SEC Network. And you know, it's if you're ever in town on a Friday in the fall and there's a football game on that Saturday, there's a buzz around town and you don't get that so much in the spring. But you know, there might be a big baseball series over at Baum and every now and then there's a big Saturday basketball game. And I feel that type of anticipation around town right now, Anthony, that there are a lot of people who are looking forward to being at this basketball game tomorrow and seeing if they can help, you know, push the Razorbacks across the finish line and into the NCAA tournament. [00:26:41] Speaker D: Yeah, no, I'm excited. I Mean, it's, it's kind of a bittersweet moment because the season's kind of coming to a close and you know, it's. I don't like when basketball season ends because I like watching and covering basketball. [00:26:53] Speaker A: So there's still a lot of basketball? [00:26:55] Speaker D: Well, I mean, yes, there's still a lot of basketball left, but you know what I mean, it's like, you know, you can see the finish line and I'm like, oh, now I'm going to. [00:27:03] Speaker A: Yeah, it's interesting because there are a lot of people who are unlike you, who they don't pay attention to. [00:27:09] Speaker D: Yeah. Until like now. [00:27:11] Speaker A: Yeah, they'll watch the Kentucky game and they'll watch like big ones, they'll watch on Thanksgiving. But you know, they don't really pay attention to the day to day until it gets down to about the last three or four games of the season. And yeah, you know, they think the SEC tournament's the biggest thing that's ever been played. And then, you know, the season's success or not based on whether or not you get your name called on Sunday. [00:27:32] Speaker D: Yeah. And I still think, you know, especially in a power conference, I think the season and it's kind of relative, different teams, your success kind of comes down to your name being called on Sunday. It's a little different if you're in a mid major league where if you win 25 games but don't win your conference tournament, you're still getting into the nit. That's still a pretty good year if you're in there. But if you're in a power conference league, I mean, it's kind of tournament or bust. Right. So there is that. But I mean, for all the people who don't pay attention all year, I'm like, what, what are you doing? Come on, it's. It's fun. It's fun. Come on in. We, we'll invite you. We'll. We're. It's a. Open arms for all those not, not watching. I'm, I'm doing all these hand gestures. Come on in. If you're not here in November, like, why show up just for March? You're missing out on so much fun. But, but no, it'll be a fun game. I think, you know, it's, it should be a good crowd. I'm happy it's an early tip just because of, so, just how many late tips we've had, especially the 9pm tip. I, I keep going back to that, but I'm still recovering. But yeah, it should be fun. It should be a great, great environment. You know, like you said, I think people are going to show up and try to push Arkansas over the edge and kind of, you would think if, if Arkansas is to win this game, that would kind of lock them in at least to a first four bid, obviously, kind of assuming we don't have a crazy year like last year with five bid Steelers. And you would think that would probably get them into the tournament if they win, if they win this game. But obviously there's still, you know, maybe, maybe you want to win one more game in the SEC tournament, maybe two to really feel good. But, you know, yeah, this, this game is, it's big for that and I think it, I think it'll be reflective in the, in the environment, at least I hope, because I like covering games in good environments. [00:29:21] Speaker A: John Caliperi had his radio show last night on Thursday instead of Monday this week due to the travel with the Vanderbilt series. He was not in attendance at Sassy's last night. He was recruiting. He was, he was in, he's on the road. Was it Thomas or Acuff that he was at their game? [00:29:40] Speaker D: I, to be fully honest with you, I'm not who plays in South Carol in South Carolina and that could be. [00:29:46] Speaker A: Okay. Well, anyway, he was, he was, he was at a game. [00:29:48] Speaker D: Thomas is, Thomas is at Overtime Elite and Acuff is at img. So it could honestly be either of them. [00:29:54] Speaker A: So he was at a game in South Carolina last night. I wish I would have looked up watching a signee play. So he called into his radio show. We've got a clip pulled up here what he had to say about this weekend's Mississippi State game. You'll see Chuck Barrett and Brad Caliperi on screen here. This clip is courtesy of Hogs +Beat. [00:30:15] Speaker E: Missouri, BEAT Kentucky, beat Texas on the road. I mean, they have done some great things. Now it's still in their hands. So now they got a game Saturday. It is going to be a really hard game, but it's in our hands. And what I'm trying to tell them is we got today's practice, which was good. Tomorrow it's going to be early because the game is early and then the game is in their hands. We've done everything to prepare. Be locked in, be focused. You'll have clarity. Now go battle and play free and loose, free and loose offensively and tough as nails on defense. Big thing is going to be the fans. We need the fans to do like they've done the last two home games and be crazy. I know it's 11 o'clock, but guess what? You get to spend the rest of Saturday with your family or having dinner out. But from 10:45 until this game ends, we need you into the game, we need you standing, we need you all over this. Our students have been great, but so have our fans. They've all been great. So now let's finish it. [00:31:30] Speaker A: John Caliperi, last night on his radio show on the razorbike Sports network. Yeah, he was, he's. He's animated there. [00:31:39] Speaker D: He's. He's always animated. He's fun. I enjoy covering him. I, I know, you know, he's not the most popular figure for a lot of people in college basketball, but I've had, I've had fun. I, I enjoy covering him. He, at this point in road trips, because I'm typically the only Arkansas media member who travels. So he'll. He'll, like. Because, you know, he, he, like, he'll ask these, like, rhetoric questions or not like, questions that he maybe sometimes expects answers for. And every day, like, and now on the road games, like, he looks directly at me and he, like, like point at me sometimes. [00:32:11] Speaker A: Comb your hair, right? [00:32:12] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah, yeah. After the Texas game, because I, obviously, I'm in a rush post game, my hair was, like, got down like this. Yeah. If you can't see on, like, yeah. [00:32:20] Speaker A: Why don't you fix that real quick? [00:32:21] Speaker D: Yeah, exactly. [00:32:22] Speaker A: Better. [00:32:23] Speaker D: But yeah, he was like. I mean, I, I can't say definitively that he was telling me to fix my hair, but, like, like, I was asking a question. You, like, wiped his forehead and then, like, smiled. And then I was like, did he just tell me to fix my hair? And then I watched the video afterward, and I was like, he definitely. I think he did. [00:32:36] Speaker A: You should get my haircut. You wouldn't have that problem. [00:32:38] Speaker D: I mean, I do. [00:32:39] Speaker A: There's also a little bit of a receding hairline going on here, too. [00:32:42] Speaker D: That, that I do need a haircut pretty bad. I will not lie about that. Like, I. My mom, last time I was. I was home, she was like, shoot, do you need. You need a haircut? I'm like, leave me alone. [00:32:52] Speaker A: Lori, you call your mom by her first name. [00:32:55] Speaker D: Whenever, whenever, whenever. I, I'm trying to be funny, I'll do it. But I always call her Mom. Love your mom. [00:33:04] Speaker A: Yeah, you need to be more nice to your mom. So there was some news that came out yesterday, too, about Arkansas and this game against Duke in Chicago, Thanksgiving Day. And we knew Arkansas was going to play a Game on Thanksgiving in Chicago. [00:33:20] Speaker D: John Sal, second biggest basketball news yesterday, men's basketball news yesterday, behind Lawson Blake being sec. Community service. [00:33:27] Speaker A: Okay, so we knew, we knew Arkansas was going to play in Chicago on Thanksgiving. John Calipari, he teased this after the game against UCA down in North Little Rock on December 14th. He said, can't tell you who it's going to be, but it's going to be ridiculous, and said that he thought it could be maybe the biggest TV audience in more than a decade or two decades or whatever the case may be. When he says that, I mean throws out numbers like 6 million people are going to be watching. Okay. There's only a handful of teams that are going to command that type of viewership. Duke, Kansas are the. Really the two. And then you could maybe make an argument for North Carolina, Yukon, Kentucky. Well, we know it's not. [00:34:14] Speaker D: Yeah, I know, I know that. [00:34:14] Speaker A: We knew it wasn't going to be. [00:34:15] Speaker D: Kentucky because, because it's. [00:34:17] Speaker A: They're not going to play in sec. [00:34:18] Speaker D: I'm just throwing out blue. [00:34:20] Speaker A: Kentucky obviously would be, but, but we knew with it not being an sec, we knew that it wasn't going to be an SEC team. So you can eliminate Kentucky from that. [00:34:27] Speaker D: Gonzaga, Yukon. So that. [00:34:30] Speaker A: Yeah, we had a feeling, I mean, I think we. [00:34:32] Speaker D: UCLA maybe, but probably not as much. [00:34:34] Speaker A: But we had a. I think we had a conversation in December and we said we think it probably would be Kansas. [00:34:39] Speaker D: Kansas. [00:34:40] Speaker A: That's what I think we said. Kansas. Duke may be an outside chance of one of those others. So it's Duke. It's going to be on Thanksgiving. It's going to be on CBS. It's going to tip off at 7:00. I don't know yet whether or not like a CBS can have the first game on Thanksgiving, NFL and then Fox or Fox and cbs. I don't know how that's going to work. But obviously this is going to be one of those deals where Thanksgiving is one of those days where you just sit around, you watch sports and. Or you just have it on in the background. You know, Cowboys played the Giants a couple of years ago. Like 42 million people watched the game on Thanksgiving. Now was on Thanksgiving. And so I've shown you the NFL. You look at the last 20 years. The two most watched games in college basketball in the regular season in the last 20 years have been the last two Thanksgiving days. You had Michigan State and Arizona two years ago. You had Arkansas and Illinois this past November. So it's going to be Arkansas and Duke. It's going to be a Chicago United center, home of the Bulls 7:00 tip off primetime game on CBS. I don't recall CBS ever doing anything like this on Thanksgiving in terms of having this on prime time. So this is what John Caliperi had to say about this game last night on his radio show. [00:36:01] Speaker E: We want to like two of the, two of the highest rated games this year were our Illinois game and our Kentucky game. Those are two of the highest four rated games. This game with Duke, my guess, it'll be one of the highest rated games in a decade. And why not be there? Why not? That's the games we want to play. Those are the opponents we want to play. You know, we're going to have an ACC home game. You know, we're going to have Baylor at home. And again this league is still going to be what it is. So we still have games to get and obviously looking for some home games, some neutral games, just anything that, that puts Arkansas where it belongs and it's on the tip of everybody's tongue. [00:36:53] Speaker A: So, you know, these neutral site games and I think we may have had a little bit of a conversation about this about three or four months ago, you know, Dan Hurley went nuclear about something out in Maui or something, you know, and he said I'm never playing in a multi team event again. [00:37:07] Speaker D: He goes nuclear a lot. He does, you know, and love him or hate him. It's good for the sport to have a character like it. [00:37:13] Speaker A: Well, but also when you, when you have someone with that kind of temperament. [00:37:19] Speaker D: It can sometimes be a little like, you know, what's going on in men's college basketball. [00:37:23] Speaker A: You tend to tune them out, tend to tune them out whenever they're going off about something all the time. Yeah, so. But he said he's never gonna play in a multi team event again. And I was listening to Bill Self talk before the Duke game. They played Duke in Las Vegas a couple of days after Thanksgiving and he said this is what college coaches want now. He said we don't want the going off somewhere and playing, you know, three games because, you know, he said it's more valuable to the program and it probably helps just from a, you know, a day to day standpoint, staying refreshed, you know, going and just playing these one off games as opposed to going off to Maui for a week or going off to the Bahamas or wherever the game is. Doesn't mean the Maui Invitational or you know, the, what is it, the battle for Atlantis, those are still going to be popular and they're still going to draw great teams, but they may not draw the big teams quite as much as they used to. And so whether it be Calipari, Kentucky or Arkansas, whether it be, you know, or Shire at Duke, Self at Kansas, ISO at Michigan State, there are a lot of these programs. Mark few does this at Gonzaga that they love these neutral site games and they're going to try to, you know, schedule two or three of them a year. [00:38:37] Speaker D: Yeah, you know, it's, it's, they're fun. They're fun. I do commend Izzo because Michigan State did go to Maui this year and I mean, they're having a great year. So hopefully that keeps Arkansas scheduled to. [00:38:48] Speaker A: Go into Maui 2027 to stay. [00:38:51] Speaker D: I want them to stay. I don't think they will just because. [00:38:54] Speaker A: Caliper, he said he does not like Maui. [00:38:56] Speaker D: Yeah, he doesn't like going into these. [00:38:58] Speaker A: This was scheduled before he got here. [00:39:00] Speaker D: I know. I hope it's an unbreakable contract just because I want the experience of covering Maui because I've heard it's incredible. I've heard it's like just an awesome event. And I mean, obviously it's in Maui, it's beautiful and everything like that, but I would like to cover Maui. So. John Calipari, if you're listening, I would too. [00:39:19] Speaker A: I may pull rank. You can stay here, I'll go out there. [00:39:22] Speaker D: John Calipari, if you're listening, stay in Maui, please. Yeah, but, but no, these, these neutral site games are fun. I, I, and for like the instance of like, you know, Thanksgiving, you're gonna get the NFL overflow crowd that doesn't include me because I don't watch the NFL anymore because they took my team out of St. Louis. Evil. So I've shown them, but they're fun. [00:39:45] Speaker A: Maui story real quick. [00:39:46] Speaker D: Yes. [00:39:47] Speaker A: 2013, fall of 13, Arkansas places the Maui Invitational. One of the teams they played there is Cal. Okay, California, Cal, Berkeley, the Bears. Fast forward six months or four months, five months, something like that. I am sitting at a restaurant across the street from the Lahaina Civic center on vacation on spring break. It was actually my honeymoon. And so we're sitting at a bar across the street watching Arkansas play Cal on the mainland in the nit. So that was, I'd watch the game from the mainland. It was kind of a weird, weird, weird deal. Okay, Tuesday and Friday of every week, Joel and Arti's new bracket comes out. And so we've got it here. Joe Linardi as Arkansas as one of the last four Buys. [00:40:42] Speaker D: There we go. [00:40:43] Speaker A: Okay okay. So Arkansas one of the last. One of the last four buys which means that they would not have to play in Dayton based on how this stands right now. This is obviously not scientific, but yeah. [00:40:59] Speaker D: I mean that would be big for, for them if they could avoid Dayton because obviously play in Dayton on I think it's a Tuesday or a Wednesday and then you have to fly out to wherever in the country. Denver, Seattle, Buffalo, Buffalo, Wichita, Spokane. Yeah I mean you don't know where. Somewhere very far away on short rest. So if they can avoid the, you know, the first four, that would be huge for, for them. But so yeah, they're one of the. [00:41:23] Speaker A: Last four buys right now with Utah State, Georgia, Ohio State. [00:41:28] Speaker D: Okay. [00:41:28] Speaker A: Obviously Arkansas one of those, the last four. And as of right now, San Diego State, Indiana, Boise, Xavier, first four out, Oklahoma, Texas, Texas, North Carolina, Nebraska. [00:41:40] Speaker D: Interesting. Okay. Not, not super shocked by any of those teams being on the four. [00:41:45] Speaker A: So basically what this tells me, Anthony, is that beating Vanderbilt, it was dead. Did more for Arkansas's NCAA tournament resume. Did more to affect him it than losing to South Carolina. [00:41:58] Speaker D: Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's probably down to some of the, some of the metrics and just kind of the computer stuff behind it because it was, it was a quad two loss if I remember correctly. So it wasn't like, you know, it wasn't like say, you know what's a mid made. It wasn't like if Drake went and lost to Valparaiso. So like it's not the same, same level as like say like a mid major or even like if, let's see who's a bubble team in like the big Nebraska losing to Minnesota which just happened. So obviously that, that tanked Nebraska more than South Carolina. Beating Arkansas did to Arkansas and then beating Vanderbilt on the road is quad 1. I don't remember if it's quad 1A or not but obviously that was a big, big deal for, for Arkansas to get that win and was. Yeah. [00:42:47] Speaker A: If they can beat Mississippi State and win one SEC tournament game, do you think there's a chance they play themselves off of this bubble line? [00:42:56] Speaker D: Yeah, sure. [00:42:57] Speaker A: Like, like where they're. [00:42:58] Speaker D: There's definitely a change. [00:42:58] Speaker A: I mean obviously they're not one of the last four in. But. But maybe they're not one of those first four buys. [00:43:04] Speaker D: Yeah, I mean, or last four buys. [00:43:05] Speaker A: However they say it. [00:43:06] Speaker D: I think you. Yeah, I think they absolutely could. You know, you, you beat Mississippi State. I mean it's going to be another, you know, another quad one opportunity Even at home. I know it's a Mississippi State team that has kind of been really up and down just kind of throughout the SEC play. Drop three of the last four. But the metrics say it's going to be Q1. So it's going to be Q1. So you, that's going to be a big resume booster and then you win a game in, in Nashville next week and that would be, that would be huge. So you win, you win two more games. I, I just. You're probably 100% in. I hesitate to say with certainty. So let's say 99% but just because you never know how many bid Steelers there can be. But yeah, I think that's just kind of where, where things stand. But yeah, they, they look really good right now from a, from a tournament perspective, just being on the last four buys, it'll be interesting to see if they can pass anybody up who is kind of beyond that. I mean you look at the teams in that kind of range, like a Baylor or I think a San Diego State maybe, you know, are those teams going to lose and kind of fall out of, you know, the, the 100% safe part of the bracket and fall into those last four buys and Arkansas surpasses them? I don't know. But. But yeah, I think they definitely can. [00:44:24] Speaker A: If Arkansas beats Mississippi State, they'll have won four of their last five regular season games. And that's a mighty strong close because it wasn't feeling real positive about the tournament after they lost those two games to Auburn and Texas A and M. Back to back on the road. We come back a little bit more basketball conversation. Also, I had a talk yesterday with Portland's baseball coach about this weekend's series of Baum Walker Stadium. We'll talk about that in just a moment. At Kendall King, we're proud of over four decades of design. We're continuing the legacy of great creative design by combining our brands of Kindle, King Soapbox and Shopcart. Together these brands represent a new focus in marketing design with individual attention to specific areas. Through our design expertise, supported by a team of talented professionals, we showcase our best. We are Kendall King. We are Soapbox. We are Shopcart. We are designed Arkansas baseball at Baumwalker stadium this afternoon. 3 o'clock, first pitch against Portland. The Pilots come in with a 5 and 8 record. This is a team that's predicted to finish second in the west coast conference. Not a bad baseball conference. San Diego, a team that's typically pretty good. They're predicted to win the Conference Portland's finished second in this conference two years in a row. They have the reigning WCC pitcher of the year. He's gonna throw this afternoon, right hander Carter Gaston. We talked about him with Bubba yesterday. Not a hard thrower is rarely gonna hit 90 miles an hour from the right side. But he's got a real good change up and so we'll see how Arkansas handles this today. The Razorbacks are gonna throw Gabe Gackel this afternoon. Obviously he needs to get back on track after a couple of rough outings against Kansas State and especially last weekend against Charlotte. The worst start Arkansas has had in 10 years. Gabe Gankel last week when he gave up nine runs on 10 hits to Charlotte in three plus innings. Had a conversation yesterday with Jeff Loomis. He's the head coach at Portland in his 10th year with the Pilots basically and you can read more about [email protected] but kind of the gist that I got from him is that from a pitching standpoint, frontline pitching, I think they feel good about what they have, whether it be Carter Gaston who I just mentioned he was a preseason all American. They're going to throw on Sunday. Ryan Rimbus who threw a perfect game about a week and a half ago against Seattle, just the 21st nine inning perfect game in NCAA history. Ryan Rembus is going to throw on Sunday against the Razorbacks and they'll throw a right hander on Saturday against Zach Root for the Razorbacks. Roots gonna start on Saturday. Landon Bino season is going to start on Sunday. From an offensive standpoint though, Portland very inexperienced, they're very young and in 13 games this year they've used 13 different starting lineups. So they're still trying to find out some things about their offense. This feels like a very good chance for Arkansas to sweep this series against Portland. But keep this in mind. Portland 2 years ago with some of the same pitchers, not a lot of the same players in the lineup went to Texas A and M during the non conference and won two of three games. So this is a Portland program, Anthony, that has got some experience winning these types of games. I don't know how much that really plays a factor now in this, you know, very transient world that we live in in terms of rosters overturning a lot from year to year. So you're talking about two years ago. That's potentially a lot of roster turnover and I think, I think there has been at Portland, but it does tell you they've got a coaching staff that knows how to go into an elite SEC ballpark and win SEC series. [00:47:57] Speaker D: Yeah, and I think that's kind of an important experience just for, for a team especially on that level in the, in the mid major ranks to have those, those kinds of experiences and the ability to go on the road in these big time places and get wins. I think that's, I think that's a really important factor not just in baseball but in pretty much every, every college sport. I mean you can go into, you know, some big time environments like a, like a Bomb Walker or like a Texas A M. I don't know Texas A and M's baseball stadium's name, Blue Bell park, like, like a bluebell park and, and you know, come away with some wins. I think that's a, you know, I, I think, I mean nobody's going to complain about having that kind of a trade especially you know, if you're, if you're a Portland or a San Diego or you know, I know the Big west is a big baseball league so I'm not going to go into like UC Irvine or anybody like that. I know UC Irvine is very good, but. Yeah, so I think that's an important trait and I, I think it's, you know, maybe it gives you know, the Portland guy some confidence. I know you, you mentioned that they're, they're a little bit kind of inconsistent. 5 and 8 I think is what you said the record was. But yeah, so I think that's, it's an important thing for them to have in the back pocket. [00:49:03] Speaker A: Yeah, they're having trouble scoring runs. They're having trouble fielding a little bit. 16 errors for Portland in 13 games. Just 967 fielding as a team. If you want to read more about Jeff Loomis and what he had to tell me, you can do that on our website right now. It's headlined Arkansas Baseball Host Portland program that has won at an SEC ballpark before. One of. To direct you to one other story on our website that I had a lot of fun writing this week. And Portland has a third baseman, Cole Katayama Stahl, who is the son of Carl Stahl who is a former Razorback. Carl Stahl played for the Razorbacks in 1992. In 1993 he actually played for Dave Van Horn before he came to Arkansas. Played for Dave Van Horn down at Texarkana Community College for a couple of years and then transferred up to Fayetteville to play for Norm De Bryan. Carl was a team captain in 1993. I talked to him yesterday. He said it's the first time that he's been back to Fayetteville in 28 years. And it'll be the first time that he's come to Baum Walker Stadium to watch a game. Says that he watches the razorbacks about 30 times a year. Whenever he can watch them out in Portland, he. Whenever he gets a chance, he watches them. Said his son grew up watching the Razorbacks with him. And so this is a big weekend for that family as they come to Fayetteville for this Arkansas Portland series. That story, headline, Portland third baseman is the son of a former Arkansas baseball team captain. You can read that right now on our front [email protected] these are fun stories. You know, last week, Phil Cibihar was the hitting coach for Charlotte and they came in. His dad played at Arkansas. Mark Siebahar was a pitcher here in the 80s. And then Phil was a GA at Arkansas. Grew up in Fayetteville, went to Harbor High School. So it was a big homecoming for him. Had fun, you know, writing that one. That one was a little bit more, you know, it was like, okay, I knew that one. This Carl Stall story. I didn't know anything about Carl Stall because this was well before my time covering the team. I actually had a professor. Carl was a journalism major at Arkansas. His wife was too. His wife is a television news anchor in Portland, a nighttime news anchor there. And so I had a former journalism professor reach out to me and said, hey, this is one of my former students and his son is at Portland. You might ought to think about reaching out. And so that was fun how that story kind of came in place. It's always fun to tell these stories that, you know, kind of underneath the surface, so to speak. [00:51:24] Speaker D: Yeah, and I always like finding, finding the fun stories like that or. Yeah. Kind of going off the. Or going not, not just telling the story of what happens, you know, on, you know, on the diamond or on, on the court or field or pool or wherever. I always like finding those, those, those neat little niche stories, you know, the personality profiles, stuff like that. So it was a great story too. Yeah, well done. [00:51:47] Speaker A: I enjoyed riding it. Arkansas Portland, 3:00 today, 2:00 tomorrow, noon on Sunday. First pitch is scheduled at Bomb. It's gonna be beautiful this afternoon. High of 72 here in Fayetteville. Baseball weather gonna be a big south wind though, today. So the wind is always the. Well, it's gonna be nice south wind. You're gonna get a warm wind. But you know, that ballpark is so unique. Where you know, is it south or is it southwest or is it southeast? Because that can really affect what kind of hitting day it is inside the stadium. All right, so I wanted to talk about this. You vote on the AP All America teams. Anthony's a voter for the AP Top 25. I've got a vote this weekend that's due for the AP All SEC teams and I'm voting on this. And I don't know how you're not voting on it, but be that as it may. So I've got kind of a list of players who I'm thinking about for this and I wanted to kind of get your thoughts on this AP All SEC team. [00:52:50] Speaker D: This is how I spent my morning, by the way. [00:52:52] Speaker A: To me, it feels like there's three no brainers on the AP first team. And the way the AP does is that they've got a first team that has five players, they've got a second team that has five players. And they also want you to submit a Coach of the Year and a Player of the Year. Compare that to what the coaches teams do. You know, we talked about Izzy Higginbottom and not getting on the Coaches All SEC team earlier this week and there's no AP team anymore for women's basketball, at least at the conference level for the coaches. They'll submit eight players for the first team, eight players for the second team. They'll have a Coach of the Year, they'll have a Player of the Year. But then they also look for some other stuff. Defensive Player of the Year. [00:53:31] Speaker D: I did all that this morning. [00:53:32] Speaker A: Newcomer of the Year, sixth Man of the Year, Scholar Athlete of the year, that kind of deal. And so here we go. I need five players on the first team, five players on the second team. To me it feels like there's three no brainers. Janai Broom at Auburn. [00:53:47] Speaker D: Absolutely. [00:53:48] Speaker A: Maybe the National Player of the Year along with Cooper Flag. [00:53:51] Speaker D: Cooper Flag? Yeah. [00:53:52] Speaker A: Mark Sears at Alabama I think is a no brainer. And to me, Trey Johnson at Texas is a no brainer for the first team. [00:54:00] Speaker D: Maybe just because Texas is kind of inconsistent. But he's. [00:54:04] Speaker A: There's not another scorer like him in the. [00:54:06] Speaker D: That's true. I would put Walter Clayton, Trey Johnson. [00:54:11] Speaker A: I was interested to hear. We'll get back to that for a second. I was interested to hear Rodney Terry talk about Trey Johnson the other day and that he was the number one rated player in his class until Cooper Flag reclassified. Johnson may end up being top. You know, we'll see what the NBA scouts think about him, but it wouldn't surprise me at all to see him be one of the top four, five, six players taken in the NBA draft this year. [00:54:33] Speaker D: Definitely. Yeah. No, he's, he's, I mean, he's awesome. Like, he's so fun to watch. I mean, he's got, he's got all the tools that you want at the next level too. I mean, he's, you know, he's, he's obviously a scorer. He can rebound. He's also a willing passer too, which I think is an underrated aspect of his game just because, you know, he is kind of Texas's go to scorer. So they want him to have the ball, they want him to take the shots. But I mean, he can find, you know, passes that you're not really looking at when, when just watching him. And I mean he's got the, he's got the right size that you want for, you know, an NBA, an NBA guy. And, and he's got, he's got all the tools. So I mean, I'm not going to go out and predict like, oh, Trey Johnson's going to be an NBA all Star just because, you know, that's not, that's not my job. I'll let the, the people who are more versed in the NBA, you know, discuss that. And I would like to think, I, I, I'd like to think I know some potential when I see it, but he's got all the potential in the world. I, I love Trey Johnson. [00:55:26] Speaker A: Okay, now here's a question because we had a little bit of a, a spirited conversation about this yesterday. A do thorough. I don't think he's a first hammer. I would give him a lot of consideration for the second team, though. I know that, you know, and I don't think he's going to play tomorrow. We don't have the availability report, but you know, from, from everything we've heard, he's not going to play tomorrow. And so, you know, he's going to have four games where he didn't play at the end of the year. But you look at the games where he played and I think he was about as impactful as anybody on any team in the SEC this year. Year. [00:55:58] Speaker D: Yeah. And I, I've got my, my list of 10 guys here and it, it kind of came down to three guys. For my last spot. It was Au Theo Mark, Mark Mitchell at Missouri and, and Miles Kelly at Auburn. Just because I kind of want, I, I, I, the way I, I approached it is I wasn't going to do More than two guys from a particular team. So I, I kind of was, was, was pretty selective in that, in that department and I, I ended up putting Theo on there and I, I was trying to not be a homer at all just because, you know, I'm not. I consider myself Big J journalism. I, I'm, I'm not, I mean I'm, I'm not an Arkansas fan. I'm an Arkansas reporter. So I kind of just try to come at things from a, an objective point of view. But I, I would agree, I think, you know, do Thero, you know, he's, he's certainly deserving of, of that honor of being a second team all SEC guy. I wouldn't put him first team but. And I think team success maybe comes into that as well just because of how much Arkansas struggled kind of at the start of the SEC season. But I would, I would, I mean certain. He's certainly worthy of, if nothing else, a conversation for that and it might. [00:57:09] Speaker A: And it might help a Theo that he at least like when it comes like in terms of getting all sec, that coach's team is bigger and a couple, three of the coaches, you know, maybe three coaches didn't see him this year. You think about. He missed the Texas game, but he did play against Texas earlier this year. So Terry saw him. So you know, we'll, we'll see with that. There, there are some others that again, I don't know if they're first team or second team, but like Walter Clayton at Florida, that feels like a no brainer. [00:57:38] Speaker D: I think I might put him on my all American ballot. [00:57:41] Speaker A: Jazz Lanier at Tennessee feels like he's a no brainer. Yeah, I mean Zakai Ziegler, I think, you know, we talked about Wade Taylor and just how, you know, I mean, important he is to Texas A and M. Here's a question. Colin Murray Boyle Boyles at South Carolina, one of the best scorers, one of the best rebounders in the league and. [00:58:00] Speaker D: One of the best NBA prospects. [00:58:02] Speaker A: But he plays on a team that's terrible. [00:58:04] Speaker D: Yes. [00:58:05] Speaker A: Kind of like an Izzy Hickman bottom. [00:58:06] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:58:06] Speaker A: Happened with women's basketball. Like, how do you, how do you view him from an all SEC standpoint? [00:58:12] Speaker D: I included him on my list of 10 that I, that I wrote up this morning just because of how impactful he is. I, I mean like, I mean the game plan when you play against South Carolina for a lot of teams is like you're not going to let him beat you. And then he still has found a way to beat. I mean Arkansas and lsu. So I mean, he's still, and he's still putting up numbers and he's being efficient. It's not like he's just, you know, chucking up shots and hope for the best. For hoping for the best. He's getting to his spots and he's getting good looks. And I, I just think he is one of the best players in the league and I think he's shown that despite playing for a team that is bad. So it, I, I included him. I, I, I wouldn't put him first team by any means, just because I do think your team success has to have some sort of bearing on it. But I would, I would, I would say he's probably like, worthy of a second team selection, but he's, he's another one I, I kind of was questioning because of that team success aspect of it. I mean, you look at, you know, again, like a Mark Mitchell at Missouri, Missouri having a really, really good season, bouncing back from, from the debacle that was last year. And yeah, I mean, like Mark Mitchell, Grant Nelson I think is maybe worthy of a shout. Josh Hubbard at Mississippi State, who we're going to see tomorrow. He's awesome. Malik Dia. Ole Miss, I think, doesn't get talked about enough. I think he's fantastic. So, I mean, Amari Williams, Andrew Carr, you know, guys like that, I think, you know, there's, there's a lot of guys worthy of discussion, and that's what makes this really hard when you, when you want to sit down and especially if you want to do it well. And, you know, I, I probably look too much into it and I think too much about it, but yeah, you. [00:59:47] Speaker A: Know, one thing we haven't mentioned. [00:59:49] Speaker D: What's that? [00:59:49] Speaker A: Kentucky. [00:59:51] Speaker D: I mentioned Andrew Carr. [00:59:52] Speaker A: Oh, did you mention Andrew? Yeah, I'm sorry, I don't, yeah, I'm not sure Kentucky's going to have an AP All SEC player. When was the last time that didn't happen? [01:00:01] Speaker D: Probably a while. But I think with Kentucky, and I think it was kind of something that was kind of mentioned going into the season and really throughout the season, is that it's more, it's, it's a team that is greater than the sum of its parts. Like, not to be too cliche about it, but I mean, you look at that team and there are guys who you would probably chew in if they, they, you know, hadn't gotten hurt. Jackson, Robinson, for example, or Lamont Butler, you know, guys like that. But I mean, Andrew Carr is a guy who maybe wasn't the most, you know, sought after guy in the transfer portal when he went to Kentucky. Same with, same with Amari Williams. I mean, they're guys who are getting, getting looks and people wanted them, but they really fit into Mark Pope's system really, really well. And you know, without injuries or, you know, maybe some more consistency down the stretch and you're talking about a Mark Pope who, you know, would be in that conversation for coach of the year. But I think with the injuries and maybe some of the, the, I don't want to say inconsistent inconsistency just because a lot of that does kind of come down to those injuries. Not to make excuses for Mark Pope because, I mean, he doesn't need me to do that for him. But, you know, I, I think that's kind of a big part of it is that the team is better than the, the names on the paper would suggest. [01:01:18] Speaker A: Kentucky has one player in the top 25 in the SEC this year in scoring. That's Otega away. [01:01:24] Speaker D: Yes. I can't believe I didn't mention him. [01:01:27] Speaker A: But I mean, usually you're gonna find three, four, five Kentucky players, you know, in this, in this list. And that's pretty amazing to me. [01:01:35] Speaker D: Okay, so coach, apologies to Ortega away for getting, for forgetting to mention you. I love your game. [01:01:40] Speaker A: Player of the year Janai Broom. That's, yeah, that feels like that's a no brainer. Even though I do like throw a. [01:01:46] Speaker D: Ball into the ocean. [01:01:47] Speaker A: Even though I do like to go against the grain a little bit. Like whenever I turn in my Heisman vote, sometimes I'm like, you know, like, here's a defensive lineman, here's a, here's an offensive guard. [01:01:58] Speaker D: I, I, I just don't know who you think I can, I would not make an argument anybody else. [01:02:03] Speaker A: And I mentioned this after the Razorbacks played down there a few weeks ago. The play that really stood out to me was nothing that he did, you know, in, in the game. It was whenever. Who's the guy that nobody likes? [01:02:14] Speaker D: Baker? Mazara? [01:02:15] Speaker A: Yeah, that guy. [01:02:16] Speaker D: I like him. I think he's funny. [01:02:17] Speaker A: Well, you must be a closet Auburn fan. I'm not, I don't know that anybody outside of Auburn likes this guy, but. [01:02:24] Speaker D: You know, he's also like Dan Hurl. [01:02:25] Speaker A: He's running his mouth and he gets his technical foul. And it's not the bench, it's Broom who goes and just chooses rear out. You know, I mean, it's just, it's just he lays down the law and shuts him up. Right. And so that really stood out to me. Like there's a, it's not just what he does on the floor with the points and the rebounds. It's the leadership that he shows. And that really stood out to me. Coach of the year. This one's interesting because do you go with Bruce Pearl, who led his team to a conference championship, or do you go a different route? I tell you, I'm really thinking about Dennis Gates because you go from 01, 18 in the SEC to potentially being an 11 game SEC winner in this conference. As good as the league is this year, that stands out to me. [01:03:14] Speaker D: Yeah, no, and I, I think there are three names that really stand out when you look at a coach of the year, obviously. Bruce Pearl and Dennis Gates. I would throw Mark Byington into there, into that discussion as well, just because, I mean, that's a Vanderbilt team that was picked to finish last in the league and is now safely in the NCAA tournament. And I mean, it's, it's kind of like, I don't want to say it's Kentucky because Kentucky is better than Vanderbilt, I think, but it's kind of, it's a team that's better than the sum of its parts. [01:03:39] Speaker A: What about Golden? [01:03:41] Speaker D: I'll listen to that conversation, especially with. [01:03:43] Speaker A: All the, you know, the noise that was around that program for a good part of the season to keep them locked in. I mean, they're what, 26 and 4, 13 and 4 in the SEC. [01:03:54] Speaker D: Yeah, I would listen to a conversation around Todd Golden. I think that, I mean, that Florida team is really fun to watch and they're very good. So there is that I would go and I just can't look past Bruce Pearl just because you're an Auburn fan. I'm not an Auburn. [01:04:11] Speaker A: You are. I mean, you have proven it here. Auburn will not be, if you like, bizarre. [01:04:17] Speaker D: If Duke wins this weekend. Auburn will not be the number one team on my AP ballot this week. So, but I, I just think when you look at, you know, the metrics, you know, this, this season's SEC is the best conference ever in the Ken Palm era. And I mean, this SEC is probably going to break the Big east record of, you know, 11 bids to the NCAA tournament. And so there's very solid argument that this is the best conference in men's college basketball history. And Bruce Pearl has won the league regular season title. But he was expected by multiple games. [01:04:56] Speaker A: But he was expected to. [01:04:58] Speaker D: Well, yes, but just, I guess it. [01:05:01] Speaker A: Really just comes back to if you do what you're expected to do. And I Understand, there's some, some. There's. There's a difficulty in that. But, you know, it'd be like giving Kirby Smart or Nick Saban the SEC Football Coach of the Year award. You know, of course you do that because you've got the best roster. [01:05:19] Speaker D: But I, I will, I will say Alabama was picked to win the preseason poll. [01:05:24] Speaker A: Were they? [01:05:24] Speaker D: Yeah, Auburn was picked second, but I do. Yes, Auburn was expected to be good. [01:05:31] Speaker A: But since Maui, Auburn's been like one or two in the country pretty much the whole season. [01:05:36] Speaker D: And I think that's kind of in, like, metrics wise. Auburn has been the top for the most part. I know Duke's past Auburn and Ken Palm and I think in, In Torvik, too, but. And then you look at all the resume metrics. Auburn is number one, like, in all of them. And I mean, it's just like, it's. It's almost unprecedented to have a team that is this good, not just in the metrics, but in, in practice as well. And I just, I. And to, to win the SEC by multiple games and to have that, that title locked up for, you know, like, two weeks or whatever, it's been like, I just, I, I can't look past that. And I mean, that's. And I, I don't mean, like, I don't want to sound like I'm disrespecting Dennis Gates or Mark Byington or Todd golden or whoever you want to throw into. The guys have had phenomenal coaching years, but I just struggle to look. To look past that. If we're going to call this season's SEC the best it's ever the best league there's ever been, and somebody has won that game, won that league, and not just won the league, but won the league going away. I, I just kind of can't really look else elsewhere. [01:06:44] Speaker A: It's fair. It. It's going to be tough whenever I turn this in this weekend. I mean, there may be a point where I go, yeah, close my eyes and just pick this guy. [01:06:52] Speaker D: Throw a dart at the. [01:06:53] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. So we'll see. We'll see how this goes. All SEC will be announced, I think maybe Tuesday of next week before the SEC tournament begins. All right, hope that we see you at our website this weekend. Wholehogsports.com in addition to basketball and baseball, there's a ton of other stuff going on this weekend. So we'll have it all covered there at our website. And we'll be back with another podcast on Monday. Bubba Carpenter will be here in studio with me. Me talk about what we learned from this Razorback baseball series against Portland. Hope to see you then. Have a great weekend, everyone.