Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: You're listening to the Whole Hog Sports podcast. And now, here's your host, Matt Jones. Some thoughts on the transfer portal. Also, we'll talk college basketball on today's show. First, a word from Kendall King.
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[00:00:36] Speaker A: It's January 7th, so we're six days into the transfer portal being open. It closes on the 16th, so we're about a third of the way through, maybe a little over a third of the way.
And I think it's fair to ask at this point, like, are you happy with what Arkansas has done in the portal? You look at these names and Ethan One of the things that I guess really kind of jumps out to me is that when you're portal shopping, if that's a word, you're looking for bodies to an extent, you got to build depth, and Arkansas lost a lot of players off of last year's team. And so I understand they got to have bodies, but you got to have some playmakers, too. And one thing that I have really yet to see, I think now maybe there's somebody out there that, you know, they're going to be a lot better next year than we think they are. I just see a lack of playmakers for Arkansas, especially offensively. We know they're going have K.J. jackson back as their quarterback. He did, you know, he did okay toward the end of the year when he got his chance, but he's certainly an unknown as he goes into this season or this next season.
And, you know, you look at running back, you get Braylon Russell back and you know, the production from him has been very hit and miss.
They get Sutton Smith from Memphis, who he's going to be playing in the same offense. And I think that's one of the.
The themes to this transfer portal is there's a lot of familiarity there with a lot of Memphis players who are going to be coming over here with Ryan Silverfield and several of his coaches from Memphis. But you look at receiver and it's like, what do you have at receiver? Who's your playmaker at receiver? You look at tight end. They got Jaden Platt back, but Jaden Platt is more of a Blocking tight end hasn't been, you know, really utilized a whole lot in the receiving game. Doesn't mean that he can't be in the new offense. It just means that he hasn't been to this point. And so as I look at the, the Razorbacks, I just don't see a ton of offensive playmakers to this point. Now there's still time to go out and maybe sign some of these, but when you're seeing, you know, this quarterback going here and this receiver going there and this running back going there and you see a lot of the, you know, the top flight teams that are getting, you know, they're, they seem to be improving themselves from a skill standpoint.
It's. You look at Arkansas and you say, boy, you wonder what you got there offensively right now.
[00:02:54] Speaker C: Yeah, and I think it's important to remember that the portal's different this year to where you just get this one 15 day window. Like this is kind of.
[00:03:03] Speaker A: They don't have to commit by the.
[00:03:04] Speaker C: 16Th, but they get in the portal.
[00:03:06] Speaker A: By then, most of them are going to be committing, I would think probably within the next 10 days.
[00:03:09] Speaker C: But I think where we've got to rewire our brains a little bit from recent years is you kind of could maybe get through spring practice and realize what wasn't there still and then you attack that spring portal.
I mean, this year you really got a hit in this, this one window because it's all that exists. I think that Arkansas, I think we'll see some more come in. I mean, these are like you said, I'm not, you know, trying to say that any of these guys cannot play at this level. It's just really, you haven't gotten the big splash yet. I don't think that we really have that. There's been some pieces come in defensively that, I mean, are a little bit more, but it's, it, there are a lot of unknowns right now. I mean, Arkansas is going to have to keep on adding more, that's for sure. I mean, you look at just kind of where they stand right now with number of people coming, going out, number of people coming in and you're still at a deficit as far as there's going to be a lot more people brought in. It's just a matter of, you know, how high of caliber athlete can you get in.
[00:04:04] Speaker A: You look at the skill players they have brought in. They've got this receiver from Memphis, Jamari Hawkins, he had 623 yards, two touchdowns at Memphis this last season, mentioned Sutton Smith the running back at Memphis, I think he ran for about 700 yards, seven touchdowns. Jasper Parker is one who went to Michigan out of high school and now he was a four star player, barely played there at all.
But he's in the fold. He signed with Arkansas and then they got the quarterback from Memphis, the backup quarterback, A.J. hill. That's really all there is from an offensive skill standpoint.
We know what they had last year. They don't have a whole lot of those players back. Obviously Taylor Green has been who the offense has been centered around. He's gone. Mike Washington, who was really good running back, out of the portal last year, he's gone. And I guess if you're looking for a silver lining, it would be that Mike Washington wasn't exactly the most sought after running back last year, but the coaching staff, they seem to really like him and for good reason. He gave Arkansas a good season in 2025.
Receivers, you know, I mean, not a whole lot of receivers going to be back off of this last year's team.
Boy, it just, I guess, you know, you look at Indiana and bear with me, they were a team that was built through the portal, but it was built through the portal and identifying players who maybe other teams didn't want as much and thinking, hey, Fernando Mendoza is the example, the poster boy of this, where they say we see something there, we think we can develop that and certainly they've done it. But for every Indiana, there's a ton of teams who say, why can't we be Indiana? But they never end up being Indiana, you know what I mean? And so I don't know that you can totally hang your hat on that philosophy and that way of team building, you know, more, more often than not the teams that are winning the most are the teams that are going out and getting the biggest, you know, four star, five star type players. And you just don't see that from Arkansas right now. You know, as I look at this roster without knowing, you know, in depth what everybody else has coming back in the sec, if they don't start getting some bigger splashes here in the next week or so, this is the type of roster, when you get to media days in July, people look at it and say that's the last place team in the conference.
[00:06:38] Speaker C: Yeah, and I do think that it is important to have a little bit of patience here too because if you look at, you know, the, the top portal players, you know, if you go to like some of these recruiting services that rank them, I mean, it's not like a Lot of these have already. I mean, there's quite a few who have picked a new school yet, but there's a lot of them still out there. So I do think, I mean, it's. Give them some time to maybe before we come up with just too harsh of a judgment on it.
[00:07:00] Speaker A: But the main thing, you've got to trust. I mean, you've.
You have no other. You have no other choice. You've got to trust the coaching staff that, you know, they see these people and they've evaluated them and say that we think they can play. Regardless of what you think, we think they can play. Now, it may not work out, but, you know, at the end of the day, that's. That's really all you've got. You know, you've got to have a trust that the people that you put into place know what they're doing enough that they're going to be able to put a competitive team on the field.
[00:07:29] Speaker C: Yeah. And I mean, it's one of those deals where, like you said, you have to trust that they're good talent evaluators. But I mean, I sit here and if I ask somebody, like, name me off the top of your head, the two receivers in the portal, that would be the splash that you're waiting for. Like, how many people can actually sit there and name you the players that they really want to see you land, if that makes sense. Like, I mean, there are a lot of times it's players that you don't really know, but maybe, you know, you turn on the film and you do see something. I know this.
You know the linebacker they got from Auburn, Jamonte Waller, who committed today, he hardly played for Auburn. But if you look at his high school stuff, you know, the potentials there, I mean, he was a consensus four star. He's the type of recruit that, you know, you get really excited about if you sign out of high school and maybe he just hasn't had an opportunity yet. I know he had like a foot injury or something last year. I just think that there might be some of these guys that, you know, you. It is good to just be in a little bit of weight in semo. But it would be nice, you know, if you saw Arkansas bringing in, you know, whenever you do see, oh, this is the number three running back in the portal. This is right now we're getting a lot of like, this is the number six. Like, they got a Kamari House, the linebacker for North Carolina. That was like top 20 linebacker in the portal. And that feels big to me.
[00:08:38] Speaker A: Yeah, but like a lot of the safety from Cincinnati who was one of the top players, but a lot of.
[00:08:43] Speaker C: These, it's kind of like, you know, if you're trusting the rankings, which maybe these rankings are very often. And I saw Ian Jaffrad was very high, and I'm like, how much do I really.
[00:08:51] Speaker A: Was it 247 who had him? The number 62 portal player?
[00:08:54] Speaker C: Yeah. And I listen, I like Ian Jafar, but I don't know if we saw the, that high of a, you know, of a player at Arkansas.
[00:09:03] Speaker A: I mean, if I see, Yeah, I mean, you see him in the top 100, to me, it makes you question the validity of the rankings. Yeah, because I certainly don't see that from him. And so this is all.
But there are certain players who, you know, they can play, you know, because you saw them do it elsewhere and, you know, so you, you would think that if they do it here, there's a pretty good chance they can go over and do it here, too. You mentioned the defense, and I did want to move over to the defense because one thing that, that stands out to me defensively, I think about Drew Sanders, who was here a few years ago. You know, he signed with Alabama. He didn't play at Alabama very much, but he came here.
And to your point, on the linebacker, a minute ago, he had the offer sheet out of high school. You knew it was there or the potential was there. It's just he had never really shown it on the field. And I will say this about some of the defensive players.
I'm really interested a lot of times to see where they went, you know, like, what's the reputation. And so when I see a cornerback who went to Clemson, who was like a three or four star recruit, that interests me. Or I see the linebacker who goes to Auburn. Auburn's always had a pretty good reputation for playing defense.
That intrigues me. And so, you know, Southern Cal, there's a defensive tackle yesterday who transferred from Southern Cal. I think he was a four star recruit.
That's interesting to me. You know, these are some bigger programs now. It doesn't mean they're going to work out. You know, there might have been a reason that they didn't get on the field, that they're old school beyond depth.
But I do think that if you look at defensively, it's a little bit more promising than what they've been able to do from an offensive standpoint so far.
[00:10:49] Speaker C: Well, and I also think that everybody should know at this point that, you know, the worst thing in the world isn't Arkansas defensive players leaving for the Portal and replacing them with new bodies.
[00:11:00] Speaker A: Because who do you want back from that defense last year?
[00:11:02] Speaker C: Quincy Rhodes. And you got him. And then I would say Bradley Shaw, the linebacker. I would, you know, you, you probably want to keep him. He's a guy who chose Arkansas over Clemson as a consensus four star. Other than that, I'm like, some of the ones that you would have maybe wanted to keep are out of eligibility. Like Julian Neal, he was great this year. But you, he, he's no longer has college eligibility, so you can't keep him. But I mean, as far as underclassmen, there weren't many that you're just sitting there like, like, man, it would stink to lose them.
[00:11:31] Speaker A: I don't think what they've done in the Portal so far matches the expectations that were set, however, many weeks ago. Whenever they introduced Silverfield as a head coach and they said, you know, we've got more money basically for football now. You did see this, I think with their coaching staff. They're paying top dollar for their coaching staff.
They've got more assistant position coaches in place. But I think the expectation was you got more money for your coaching staff, but you have more money for your roster, too. Maybe they do have more roster money. Maybe the market has just changed so much that what the market was last year is drastically different than what it is this year. And I've read some stories that basically kind of allude to that too.
[00:12:20] Speaker C: I always get confused whenever you hear a promise, like a promise that you're gonna be able to compete that way. And how is that adjusted with forecasting for what other schools are going to do? Like how much are they also increasing what they're doing? And it's just, it's very predictable.
[00:12:35] Speaker A: Jurecyc said something in the press conference when Silverfield was hired. He said that they were, you know, basically, they've got the money now to pay top half of the SEC in these four or five different categories.
But I have a hard time believing when I look at the other teams that are in the SEC that any of these teams would be outspent by Arkansas in football. And I'm just going to kind of go around the horn here. You got Oklahoma, Texas, Texas A and M, lsu, Ole Miss. Now, at one point I would think Arkansas might outspend Ole Miss, but I don't think it's that way now.
Certainly not with the way Ole Miss is playing and potentially going to play for a national championship. Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, I think that's 10 teams I just listed. I don't see Arkansas ever outspending those teams. And the minute Arkansas is able to, or, you know, South Carolina is able to, or Missouri or whoever else, I think that team's going to say, well, we can outdo that.
There's just certain teams in the SEC that I think that they are the, you know, they see themselves as being, you know, I guess maybe God's gift of football. And, and they don't, you know, they're never going to fall very far behind if they ever fall behind. And I just, I don't see a day based on, you know, the way we view the programs right now, the way that the programs have kind of treated collectives and portal and all of these different things that go into, you know, salaries for coaches, all these things that go into making up what we know the college football game to be right now.
I just have a hard time believing that Arkansas is ever going to outspend those 10 teams.
And if you can don't outspin those 10 teams, there's no way you're in the top half of the SEC and spending.
[00:14:24] Speaker C: Yeah, for sure. It's just, I hate these type of things where we don't actually get to see the legit numbers, where we're just left to speculate. And you say, I mean, we've said it since the press conference that the proof would be in the portal pudding. And I mean, I will, I mean, to give them credit, you do look at, like we said, put these rankings as much, you know, stock as you want to, but if you look at, on threes, like team rankings in the portal right now, Arkansas is eighth on there. So it's like, I guess they're doing something right to get, you know, in the top 10 of their portal rankings. And I clearly, this isn't all over with yet. A lot of those teams that are, which I'll ask you right now, I actually don't know, for the teams that are still in the playoff, do those players on those teams get.
Do they need to be in the portal right now or will they get their own window?
[00:15:09] Speaker A: That's a great question that I don't.
[00:15:10] Speaker C: Know because I think a lot of this always changes when those teams, their portal time starts because all of a sudden, like, I mean, you think about it, how much do we think Carious Kern, the offensive lineman who was the top player in the state of Arkansas, transfer from lsu, how much do we think that affected his decision when he goes on a visit to Ole Miss and he is watching them practice for a college football playoff.
He didn't even get, he didn't even go on his Arkansas visit because he committed there. I think that these teams that are in the playoff, I mean once their time to portal recruit starts, having that playoff on their belt really helps.
[00:15:42] Speaker A: Didn't Arkansas have like the number 22 portal class last year?
[00:15:45] Speaker C: Something like that? It's.
[00:15:47] Speaker A: Yeah. And so there's never any like the ranking. It's just a subjective ranking. Yeah, there's. I don't feel like there's a whole lot of correlation necessarily. I think that certain teams, you know, like when Ohio State went out that one off season, they got Caleb Downs and they got the running back Judson or help me on Judkins.
[00:16:09] Speaker C: You threw me off by saying Judson.
[00:16:10] Speaker A: Yeah, Judkins from Ole Miss, like okay, okay, that's legit. Like those are two big time.
[00:16:17] Speaker C: And they had the Kansas State quarterback, right?
[00:16:19] Speaker A: Yeah, they did.
But those two, especially Downs and Judkins, you knew that those two were big time players and that could totally, you know, enhance a roster and they certainly did.
You know, again I just look at Arkansas like at the skill positions. They've got Quincy Rhodes coming back at defensive end like you mentioned and I'm glad you mentioned him. And he's the type that can really wreck a game defensively. He's got the potential to.
But boy, you just look at some of these others where you say that's kind of your skill position, whether it be defense or offense. And that's where I feel like Arkansas is lacking right now. I think that they are putting together some depth pieces.
I think that.
But I just, I'm a big believer when you're looking at teams that are going to win, you say who's your star?
And I just ask for Arkansas right now based on the roster you put together for 26, who's your star right now and outside of Rhodes defensively. And there's only so much a defensive end can do to put points on the board.
[00:17:18] Speaker C: And I get it that like we have to preface all of this with let's not, you know, talk about, get carried away. Let's not talk about Indiana and make it a one to one comparison with everybody. Maybe we can use Ole Miss for example. They're a playoff team right now that's still going. Who would you have said, I guess is their real offensive playmaker on their team?
[00:17:34] Speaker A: Well, you wouldn't have said it was Trinidad Chambliss.
[00:17:36] Speaker C: You wouldn't have said him because he.
[00:17:37] Speaker A: Wasn'T even the, he wasn't even the starter at the beginning of the season.
[00:17:39] Speaker C: I mean, I don't think many people like Kewan Lacey, who transferred from Missouri. Right.
[00:17:44] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:17:44] Speaker C: I did not, I personally did not hear a ton about that transfer move last year.
[00:17:48] Speaker A: A lot of people thought Luke has might be one of their big offensive stars.
[00:17:52] Speaker C: It's like a lot of these teams, it'll be these players that you don't really.
[00:17:54] Speaker A: That's a good point.
[00:17:55] Speaker C: I mean, you don't necessarily know like maybe this Michigan running back is going to absolutely just wow us because he had a lot of praise going into Michigan.
He's I think a like one of the higher rated running backs in the portal. But I mean you look at Indiana and you would have, like I said, we can't make the comparison. But would anybody have really known their quarterback's name too? Well going into this year? It's like sometimes these players just emerge. But I mean, and they, and they.
[00:18:22] Speaker A: Benefit from new ways of coaching, new surroundings, new beginnings.
[00:18:30] Speaker C: It's hard to have a real indictment on a roster until you have seen them play. Yeah, until we've seen them scrimmage. Because let me tell you, things got a lot more real for this Arkansas football team this past year. When we started hearing scrimmage numbers about what the offense was doing to the defense and it was, it got to the point you're like, are these real stats that were here? Like, how much can we trust these? Because whenever you're hearing that Monte Harrison's catching three 45 yard passes and one scrimmage, you're like, oh boy, is this what we think happened? Or.
[00:18:59] Speaker A: Yeah, but no, going back to the point I was making a little earlier, Arizona State, weren't they picked like 14th or 15th out of 16 teams? The one that. Or the year that they won the Big 12. So there, there are, you know, there are certainly a lot of examples of teams that can come out of nowhere and compete.
But all you have to go on right now is, you know, quote unquote, on paper. And on paper I don't know that you look at Arkansas's roster against the other teams in the SEC and say that's one that is going to win you a whole lot of games.
[00:19:31] Speaker C: Yeah, but we'll see. Yeah, I'm about to say, well, wait till the dust settles and be able to actually compare.
[00:19:35] Speaker A: And that's always the danger of making, of having this conversation six days into a 15 day portal. Yeah, but because, you know, the big names, the big Dominoes have fallen in a lot of cases.
[00:19:47] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean there's. And there's still a lot of big dominoes out there left too though I think that it's one of those that Arkansas could maybe have one day that it gets really hot and all of a sudden you're like, wow, look at these three great players they brought in today. But there's also the very good chance that never happens. And it's just can you continue to get maybe these players you've not heard of. But you know, there is some promise there, you know, but we'll just have to see once it all settles comparing these teams. But I mean the good news for Arkansas, it's going to be hard.
I don't want to actually say this and then they go and do it, but you know, you were 2 and 10 this year. Hopefully improvement is there like you can improve with who you bring in from what happened last year.
[00:20:28] Speaker A: It'd be hard to be worse.
[00:20:29] Speaker C: Yeah, that's very hard. That I hope I don't. They, you know, I say this and then they repeat it.
[00:20:34] Speaker A: I mean you beat North Alabama in the season over. You're halfway to your win total from a year ago.
[00:20:38] Speaker C: Yeah. And beat. You can beat Tulsa, hopefully. And you've matched it.
[00:20:43] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:20:43] Speaker C: I don't even. Who's the other ones on there?
[00:20:46] Speaker A: So you got Tulsa, Utah and North Alabama. Those are the non conference teams and you got the nine conference games.
[00:20:51] Speaker C: So.
[00:20:52] Speaker A: Yeah, it's not like the schedule gets a whole lot easier this year.
[00:20:54] Speaker C: No. Yeah. I mean you're probably really thankful that Utah is kind of.
They've had a coaching change but you.
[00:21:01] Speaker A: Still got to go to Utah.
[00:21:02] Speaker C: Yeah. So you know, it's. It's tough sledding and the coach, by.
[00:21:06] Speaker A: The way, the coaching change at Utah, that's just their coordinator that they elevated. So I think a lot of the same principles that have existed inside that program are going to continue to exist. Have you paid a bunch of attention to this Washington quarterback?
[00:21:19] Speaker C: Not a ton.
[00:21:19] Speaker A: Desmond Johnson.
[00:21:20] Speaker C: Not a ton. But it does seem like something that is. You know, there's always the one case of something that happens that everybody then perks. There is like can this happen again other places? Seems like that's the case here.
[00:21:30] Speaker A: Well, for people who don't know he.
This is all according to reports, but he signed a contract and nobody knows what these contracts look like either. And like here in Arkansas you can't get a hold of a player contract because the General assembly last year passed some laws that made player Contracts not subject to the same scrutiny that employee contracts are at the university. But so nobody really knows what these contracts look like. But he signs a contract, Washington says it's binding. Washington says that they're going to pursue all legal options to enforce him to abide by the contract that he signed because he signs the contract and then four days later he gets in the transfer portal with this no contact tag, which typically means that you don't.
How much is this, that you've got a team that's in mind when you, when you put that no contact tag in. So makes you wonder, did somebody reach out? Is there tampering involved?
I say kudos to Washington.
The college football needs more of this in terms of.
They need more of these high profile breaks from the norm, so to speak, to really shed light on just how chaotic it is.
If you ever want real meaningful change to come about and you'll start basically making these. We saw it with Matt Neem Aliaba who left here last year in Arkansas and I don't know what the, I don't know what kind of resolution that ever came to, but you need more high profile events like that to make the athletes understand that, hey, when you sign a contract, you've signed a contract and you're going to have to stick to that, you're going to have to learn that your word is your word, your signature is your signature, however you want to say that.
[00:23:23] Speaker C: Yeah. And it is. I think we're in an era where everybody else breathes a little bit of a sigh of relief whenever you see somebody else finally stick up for, for something that you also like. I know whenever Arkansas was doing that, I think a lot of programs were like, yes, there's somebody finally doing it. I think whenever, you know, these schools stand up for, you know, these contracts and whatnot, it's like a lot of other programs benefit from that, you know, seeing the result of what happens there and seeing if it does anything. Because right now it seems like, you know, there's not a whole lot of enforcement of things.
[00:23:55] Speaker A: I just, I.
The game's going to be so much better. When you have contracts, like multi year contracts that players can sign.
It's going to eliminate so much of the chaotic nature of the way things work right now.
I think it'd be so good for teams and players because players sometimes they get somewhere and they get run off too.
I think it would be good for teams and players if you can offer a two year contract and say, you know what, two years, you come here, this is the money you get, you sign a one year contract, we can give you a one year contract too. But if you do that the money's not going to be the same and I just think it helps in your long term ability to build a team, you know what I mean? Where you're not scrambling every year trying to go out and get like 60, 70 new players between portal and high school recruiting.
[00:24:51] Speaker C: Yeah. What makes this all so crazy too is this the tie in of apparently academics still do matter to apparently you're talking about all these contracts and stuff. Like I'm like why are we, why is this even still under the umbrella of student athletes? I know there's a lot of students who really do like, like we're talking football here. A lot of these other sports, they very much care about their academics. But you know there's a lot of football players that you see how much they move around and you know that this isn't about what's happening in the classroom at all. And it's just, it's crazy that we still operate under this umbrella that when.
[00:25:25] Speaker A: I was in school it used to be that if you transferred and I'm not talking about for athletes, like if you transfer from one school to another like how many credits would actually come with you?
Let's say you got 30 credits here and you credit to this school you might only have like 18 or 21 that transfer. So imagine you do that three or four times and yeah, it's, it certainly does.
[00:25:46] Speaker C: It's funny to hear John Calipari, the master of the one and done how can I get you out of college and get you going him standing up for this because he always brings up about the academics, how what is this doing for people when they been at four different schools. He was on his radio show the other night and he loves to do this.
He'll like interject something in the middle of his whole speech about how he is the one and done coach but he was talking about like yeah, I'm going to keep doing the way that I'm doing it. I'm still going to have 18, 19 year olds playing against 27 year olds with beards.
And he interjected something in there in the mix just as far as like yeah, because I, I can still do it. Like I'll still win. But it's. He just does this a lot. But he, he's been talking about the academic side of this a lot recently too about how it's not really benefiting a lot of these players when they can up and Leave. And then you look down four years of the road, look four, four years down the road and they don't have a degree because that's very hard to do when you're playing at this many different places.
[00:26:42] Speaker A: I guess it depends on the individual. Some come to school and you know they're not going to be there very long. Some come to school and if you know they're going to be there three or four years, you do want to look out for their academic well being.
[00:26:53] Speaker C: I cannot imagine how exhausting it must be.
And I get it. If you're one of these, you know, transfers who's a high dollar, you're sought after, like, who cares? Go get your money. But like for a lot of these ones that are like, they just keep on transferring and they're never really playing meaningful football anywhere. They are, and they just keep transferring. I'm like, man, that has to be so exhausting to spend a semester. Yeah, you just live life on the road for a while.
[00:27:17] Speaker A: I wonder, you know, like the University of Arkansas, they have the UA Athletics hall of Honor, UA Sports hall of Honor and they, they, they induct nine every year. And I don't think we're at a point where there's any shortage of people who should be inducted, but I wonder what this is going to look like 15 to 20 years down the road. Who are you inducting?
When you've inducted everybody who you know now, now you've caught up, like, who are you inducting?
[00:27:43] Speaker C: You'd have to go the route. Are you just rare birds that stuck it out? Like, I mean, I mean, and honestly.
[00:27:49] Speaker A: And I think it's important to point out that in sports other than football, there are, is still a lot of loyalty or there is more loyalty than there is in football.
So you know, you're going to have, you know, a great track athlete who's here for two or three years or a great baseball player who's there for three years or whatever. But it's just, it's so much different.
[00:28:11] Speaker C: It's interesting when you go to things like that. You and they give their speeches, you hear these former players talk about their experience to Arkansas in the four years they were there and how they grew and all this stuff. I'm like, down the road, do you get that one year transfer who had a great season? They come back and they talk about how much that one year changed.
[00:28:26] Speaker A: Like, and then they go to another school and talk about how that changed them and another school and how much that changed.
[00:28:31] Speaker C: It's just like, it's not the same thing anymore. It's not the same experience. And I mean, that's not anything that nobody knows. I mean, it's, it's a different era, but is. It does change the concept of like a place actually being meaningful to a lot of people.
[00:28:46] Speaker A: All right, when we come back, Arkansas basketball going to be an action against Ole Miss tonight. We'll talk about it. First, another word from Kendall King.
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[00:29:18] Speaker A: Hey, we want to tell you about Bentonville Glass. They've been serving their community since 1971. They're committed, professional and versatile. You can come by and see them at 507 South Main in Bentonville. They've got all your glass market needs with the Highest quality products. Bentonvilleglass.com Razorback's going to play Ole Miss tonight. Eight o' clock. Tip off on SEC Network. Arkansas ranked number 15. Ole Miss is not ranked in the poll this week. Ole miss 8 and 6 overall. They lost their SEC opener the other day against Oklahoma. They got this big guy, Malik Dia, who really hurt Arkansas last year. I think he averaged a double double in the two games they played against him. Ole Miss won up here at Bud Walton arena, and then Ole Miss beat Arkansas in the quarterfinals at the SEC tournament.
I don't know what they've got around him. And, you know, the way you saw Arkansas play, I almost think that with Arkansas, Ethan, like when you've got so many players back from a year ago, you got four players back and, you know, certainly you got the coaching staff and everything back as well.
It almost feels like it's a revenge tour. You know, like revenge was talked about when they played Texas Tech and to a certain extent, not getting embarrassed on the boards was talked about when they played Tennessee. And so I think that there are enough things that happened last year that can maybe get this team motivated, not necessarily on a game by game basis, but I think that there's a lot of games where they can motivate themselves from something that happened last year. And I would think slowing down Malik Dia would be a challenge that's probably been issued to some of these players, especially in the Post.
[00:30:58] Speaker C: Yeah. And it's got to be. If you look at Ole Miss this year like it's the top of the scatting report, the second thing on the scouting report and the third thing on the scouting report, like, you stop Malik Dia and you're looking pretty good. I think against this team. They just. I mean, this was a Sweet 16 Ole Miss team a year ago. Like, let's not forget, that was a good team. But, I mean, I'll name some of the guys that were on that team that are no longer there. Sean Padula, we know him because he was the one who hit the shot against Arkansas at the SEC tournament to end it. Mikael Brown Jones, the guy from UNC Greensboro who transferred there and played at Ole Miss. He was good for them. Jalen Murray, Jamon Brakefield. I mean, these are guys that made their team who they were last year, and they just don't have them anymore. And it's, you know, it's resulted in what they are this year, which is. If you look at metrics, which I. The net rankings are so weird. I want more explanation on all on them every time I see them. But, I mean, they are the worst team in the net according to that rating in the SEC, they're number 99. Every team's in the top 100 again, like they were last year, but they're number 99.
I mean, they've really. Who do you look at that they've beaten? And you're like, wow, that's a really great win. I mean, they beat Memphis, but Memphis is not that great.
[00:32:05] Speaker A: They've underwhelmed.
[00:32:07] Speaker C: So they. They really don't have any quality wins yet. I do think that they. You have to watch out for A.J. storr. We know him because of. He was at Kansas last year when Arkansas played them and he really shot the ball well against Arkansas, if I'm not in the NCAA tournament, if I'm not mistaken.
So I think that AJ's between AJ Storr and Malik Dia. Those are the two that you really got to hone in on.
[00:32:30] Speaker A: You know, with Storr, you don't leave Kansas willingly, I don't think.
Right.
[00:32:37] Speaker C: I mean, yeah, I don't really know. He's. He's one of the ones that, you know, we were talking about players who have been everywhere he was.
This is his college journey.
St. John's for one year, Wisconsin for one year. Kansas at one year, Ole Miss for one year.
[00:32:51] Speaker A: I don't think you're. I don't think you're Leaving KU willingly.
[00:32:54] Speaker C: Yeah, well, he's, he's been at four different schools in four years, so I don't think he's really just found a home.
[00:33:01] Speaker A: He's averaging just over 11 points per game. He's their second leading scorer behind Dia, who's averaging just over 14 and a half and he's also averaging seven rebounds a game. But like you said, that's, that's the scouting report. It feels like take away Malik Dia and you know, maybe you've, maybe you've solved this team. I mentioned this yesterday.
I'm really interested to see what the crowd is going to be like there tonight.
I can't imagine how many people have led Mississippi for Phoenix this week for any number of reasons, but certainly because the playoff game is there, you know, like, like I would guess what they'll have 35, 40,000 people or more in that state. I don't know how the stadium sits seats in Phoenix, but I would certainly expect it to be a pro Ole Miss crowd just because they hadn't been this far before. Like Miami, they hadn't been that far in a long time. Ole Miss, they've never been this far. At least not in modern football. The Johnny Vaught days, that's a long time ago. And you didn't have playoff and championship games and things like that in the 1950s with.
So that's number one school's out. It's an 8 and 6 team.
Sometimes you get people show up for, for games when you've got, you know, like I think Calipari and Arkansas, they are a draw. Like they were a draw when Arkansas went to Michigan State. That's probably the biggest or one of the biggest crowds that Michigan State will have all year.
I just, I'm very curious to know what it's going to look like in that arena tonight and whether or not that's something Arkansas can take advantage of. If it is as dead as I suspect it might be.
[00:34:42] Speaker C: Yeah, it's going to be. I had, there's no question it's not going to be a great crowd. It's just Ole Miss does not have a very good basketball team this year.
They, you know, they have a big football game. It's a weird, you know, that early SEC slate where, you know, you might not have many students back yet. It's, it just sets up to me as a game and with an 8pm tip off that you're looking up and there's not many people. I watched the end of Michigan, Penn. Did you watch Michigan, Penn State at all?
[00:35:09] Speaker A: I saw the last shot.
[00:35:11] Speaker C: The crowd there was, but I think.
[00:35:13] Speaker A: Everybody had come down and like they were surrounding the floor, trying to storm the court of Penn State. One the people who were there, it looked like a.
[00:35:21] Speaker C: It was so empty that, I mean, if they did come down there, I don't know. All I know is I saw an entire side of the arena that was just bare empty on the lower bowl.
So there's a lot of these schools that I think don't really care about their basketball right now.
[00:35:38] Speaker A: Penn State, too. I think there were.
[00:35:41] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:35:41] Speaker A: I mean, you see what Michigan's been doing to everybody and so I wonder how many people actually wanted to come and watch that. Yeah, well, thinking that. And I think Penn State was without their best player, which was the craziest part of all of that, is they're playing this Michigan team that steamrolled everybody and you don't have your best player. So I can't imagine the enthusiasm was real high to go watch Penn State, you know, potentially lose to Michigan by 50.
I doubt there were a whole lot of people that went there that thought, hey, you know, this might be a one point game coming down to the wire.
[00:36:09] Speaker C: Yeah. But usually if you get a top team like that, like, regardless, you can pull.
It was just a very sad crowd. I was just.
[00:36:17] Speaker A: I was sad crowd and happy.
[00:36:18] Speaker C: I was laughing at it, like watching the game, I was like, I cannot believe this is in a, like a conference game in the Big Ten with Michigan. You have them on the ropes and this is what you have. But going back to Ole Miss, I don't think that they're in basketball mode in Oxford very much at all at the moment.
[00:36:32] Speaker A: There were some great games last night.
[00:36:34] Speaker C: Oh, my gosh.
[00:36:34] Speaker A: Yeah, I know. You were, you were caught up in Auburn, Texas A and M. That was phenomenal. Auburn getting the game winning shot waved off.
[00:36:41] Speaker C: Yeah. And I had never heard.
Oh, Texas A. Name is Coach Bucky, right?
[00:36:46] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:36:48] Speaker C: I never heard him speak. I did not know what his voice sounded like, but it was.
[00:36:52] Speaker A: Well, he couldn't hear his voice apparently in the post game press conference because the Auburn people were so.
[00:36:56] Speaker C: Yeah, well, he was trying to talk to the SEC network people on the set and he couldn't hear back in Charlotte. And he's got an accent, let me tell you.
[00:37:03] Speaker A: I think he's from Alabama, Right.
I think he's from the Birmingham area.
[00:37:07] Speaker C: Maybe, I don't know. But his accent and just hearing him not be able to hear him, it was such a confusing moment. But he was like, I Can't hear you all right now, but I'm just gonna go ahead and say it. Like, had the clock not malfunctioned in the first place, it wouldn't have mattered. Like, he went back to blaming the first clock malfunction. And it just. It was a funny scene that was, like, just drunk hoops late at night. But that game was good. The Kansas game was good. The game was good. I mean, it was that random Tuesday where you just get a bunch of great games.
[00:37:35] Speaker A: Yeah, I watched the Kutcu game, and I. I kept thinking about turning it off. I'm like, that's probably. I don't know. Something kept me on it. And then, lo and behold, there come the Jayhawks, and they're down. I think they were down 13 with 2 minutes left. They were down 9 with a minute 14 left. I heard somebody say last night it was just the 13th time in NCAA history where a team was down by 15 or more in the last five minutes and won the game.
And I think two of them have happened in Allen Fieldhouse, actually, which is kind of crazy. It's like, I saw somebody tweet this today. They said that place, like, there's some voodoo stuff that goes on inside Fog island that you can't quite.
Can't quite explain, but you can't. That's. That's one of those things where it's like, you got to cut the head off the snake, especially when they're at home. And that was an amazing comeback that was running simultaneous to that great ending with Auburn and A and M last night.
[00:38:30] Speaker C: Fog island is one of the places that you go inside of, and it's just the rafters, like, actually, like, encapture you. You're just like, this is incredible. Everything you have going up in the rafters and the. The. You know, the. The sign of the.
Whatever the saying is, pay heed to all. Pay heed. Yeah. I mean, if you're a basketball person, you get chills in there, but it was.
[00:38:54] Speaker A: They've got an amazing museum in there, too.
[00:38:56] Speaker C: Yeah. I felt like I. I genuinely was like, only your feet touch things. Don't touch anything in here. It's like sacred basketball ground.
[00:39:03] Speaker A: They've got the original rules of Baske. I think that's the neatest part of their museum is they've got the original rules of basketball in there where you can actually go in and you can see it. But then you also push this button, and James Naismith is at Madison Square garden in, like, 1920 something reading you the original Rules of basketball. And that's kind of a neat feature they have there.
[00:39:24] Speaker C: But. Yeah, no, that's, that's the type of arena that if you feel yourself blowing a lead and you feel it along and just like something about there. But they. Yeah, I mean, I was watching TCU in overtime just do silly mistakes like the pass on the baseline, out of.
[00:39:40] Speaker A: Bounds, even in at the end of regulation. They did everything you can do to blow a game. They missed the front end of a one and one twice. They had two turnovers in the back court in like the last 10 seconds. They foul a three point shooter, send him to the line to make three free throws with like a second 1.7 seconds left in the game. It was like everything you can do to ensure that you're going to blow this. TCU did it and then some.
[00:40:09] Speaker C: And what was crazy about the overtime with them is you just. I just expected like this is about to be a blowout in overtime. They kept on hitting tough threes though, to like make it interesting, but then they would turn around and just throw it away or something.
[00:40:20] Speaker A: So they're a scrappy team.
[00:40:22] Speaker C: It was, it was a fun, it was a fun Tuesday night of basketball.
[00:40:26] Speaker A: Yeah. A couple other scores from last night. Let's see here. Florida beat Georgia 92 to 77. That was, I think some people thought that was an eye opener that was going to come because Georgia had not played a great non conference schedule.
But still, to see Florida beat Georgia in the way that it did, I thought was maybe a little telling.
[00:40:45] Speaker C: I mean, their, their guard play, Boogie Fland and Xavian Lee, did basically nothing in the first half. And then the second half, those two woke up and started making shots in the front court for Florida just, I feel like dominated them. So I think Florida, you know, they're a team that if you see them getting confidence, it could be scary. I think Georgia finally, you know, met a team that could defend them a little bit too.
[00:41:08] Speaker A: Tennessee beat Texas last night. Tennessee bounced back, won that game by 14.
This is one that caught my attention. South Carolina went to lsu. Now, I don't think LSU is a real good team, but South Carolina went there and they won 78 to 68. They were about 25 at halftime. South Carolina, that's the next team that comes to Bud Walton this time next week.
[00:41:27] Speaker C: Yeah, that game was like 30 to 10 in no time was the score. I think South Carolina maybe hit 10 of their first 13 threes and then LSU did a good job trying to come back at the end, but South Carolina had that big man who scored like 30 and just stopped every single run. It felt like so.
But that's a, you know, that was the game that you're looking at those two teams and they're the two who, you know, last year was such a historic year for the sec and they're the two who did not get invited to the dance and they're both wanting to get back this year. I think lsu, certainly, with what they've done, has a much better shot than South Carolina, but that's a loss that'll hurt them for sure.
[00:42:04] Speaker A: Game of the night tonight. Alabama goes to Vanderbilt. Alabama number 13. Vanderbilt's number 11. That's going to be on ESPN, too. That's going to run simultaneous to the Arkansas game. It's an 8 o' clock tip off on ESPN. To the early games tonight. Missouri goes to Kentucky, kind of an interesting game on a lot of levels. And then Oklahoma goes to Mississippi State.
[00:42:24] Speaker C: Yeah, I think that SEC basketball, it's going to, not to the level that it was last year, but every single night's going to be fun because there's teams that can beat teams. I mean, it's, I think you're going to get a lot of upsets again this year where you don't see it coming. And look, look up and, you know, like Missouri beating Florida on Saturday. I think that that can happen a lot this year.
[00:42:44] Speaker A: All right, Anthony Christensen is in Oxford for us. You can read all of his coverage from the game tonight at our website, wholehogsports.com hope to see you there or back on the podcast tomorrow. Have a great day, everybody.
