[00:00:00] Speaker A: It's finals week here in Fayetteville. Not a lot of games going on, but there's still plenty to talk about. Razorback baseball coach Dave Van Horn at the Swatters Club yesterday. A lot of newsworthy items came out of that. Also, Razorback softball going to be in action beginning tomorrow at the SEC tournament, which is being played where, Ethan In Kentucky. In Kentucky.
We'll get to that here in a minute. I want to tell you first that our show is brought to you by Eglin's Best. When it comes to your game day, you want the best in your lineup. That includes your eggs. Eglin's Best delivers more of the nutrition you need with six times more vitamin D and 20 25% less saturated fat than ordinary eggs and score now with Eglins best. Better taste, better nutrition, better eggs. Visit eglinsbest.com for more information.
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Talk about the Razorback baseball win over Ole Miss over the weekend. You can find that there. We've got plenty more planned for you here this week. We'll get to Razorback softball here in a bit. We've got Ethan Westerman in studio who covers the softball team for us. He was in Austin last weekend as they beat Texas in a series the reigning national champion Texas Longhorns two out of three last weekend. First, we'll get to these comments made by Dave Van Horn yesterday at the Swatters Club over here at the Fayetteville Public Library.
The big news is that Carson Wiggins is not expected to pitch for the Razorbacks this year. There had been some hope.
There had been I think I would go so far as to say, let's just put it this way. I think in the last two to three weeks, the tone has changed as it regards to Carson Wiggins. I think there was a lot of optimism about him playing this year, about him pitching. In fact, at the last or at the April Swatters Club, the last Swatters Club meeting, Dave Van Horn had even gone so far as to say, I think he'll pitch for us this year and I think it'll be in May. Well, now here we are in May and the tone has changed. Van Horn clearly, you know, pretty upset, I would say, as he was asked about this by a fan yesterday. This was his quote to the fans. He said, quote, carson has been to the doctor and he's 100% healthy, but as of right now, they're not going to let him pitch.
That's all I'm going to say. Not real happy about it. Now, the way the Swatters Club works for people who have not been there is that you go in, you have lunch, you listen to Van Horn speak on the stage. He goes for typically about 40 to 45 minutes.
It ends, everybody leaves and then Dave will walk out to basically a backdrop and he'll do a Q and A with reporters who have been there. And so there's the 40 minutes and then you got maybe another 10 to 15 minutes of Q and A with him with just the reporters. And so he was asked a little bit more about this after his speech.
He was basically asked, when you say they are not going to let him pitch this year, who are you talking about?
And he said, the doctor. The doctor, I would assume the doctor who performed the surgery. And obviously he has to be cleared.
I asked him, I said, do you think the doctor might change his mind this year?
He said he doubts it.
Then talking a little bit more about Wiggins and next year, you know, they continue to think that or they hope that Wiggins will come back for them in 2027. Carson is a draft eligible sophomore. You look at the rankings right now like MLB Pipeline has him the number 83 prospect for this year's draft. Baseball America has him at number 141. So that right there tells you there's a little bit of variance about him. But what it really tells you is he hadn't pitched this year. And you know, he's really only pitched a handful of times in college. Didn't pitch just a whole lot last year either before he got hurt.
But when you throw 102, which is what he was throwing before he got hurt last year. That gets the scouts attention. And of course, you see what his older brother Jackson, who is built similarly. I think they're very comparable pitchers. Jackson is the number one prospect in the Chicago Cubs organization right now. So there's a lot of projectability there with Carson Wiggins, Arkansas hoping that he could pitch for him this year. But as of right now, it doesn't look like that's going to happen.
[00:05:04] Speaker B: Yeah, and it's always tough whenever you're getting maybe contradicting timelines throughout the year. I don't know, you know, we don't know really what all those conversations were going on between the doctors and Wiggins. But like, it does seem like, you know, Dave Van Horn thought he could maybe count on getting one of, you know, your more talented arms back late in the year. Probably not the case though, but that, that's tough because it adjusts your pitching plans and what you think you can do in the postseason. I do think it's interesting that, like the situation that Wiggins will have now between deciding whether to come back or go, because I think, you know, you look at the, the draft where they're projecting him right now, the different outlets, and it seems like it would make sense to maybe go.
[00:05:48] Speaker A: All it takes is one team, that's what I tell people when it comes to the draft. All it takes is one team to really like you. But as Van Horn has said, it's going because he's a draft eligible sophomore. And the reason, if you're not familiar with the draft, the reason he's a draft eligible sophomore as opposed to having to wait until after his junior year is because he'll turn 21 on June 1st. And if you're 21 by the time the draft takes place, then you can be eligible as a sophomore.
But, but you know, it's going to take a lot of money to buy him out of next year's experience as a college player. And as we've seen with him before, I don't know if this has any bearing. Obviously this was before he got hurt, but he has passed up the money before. He could have gotten a significant amount of money out of high school and never come to college in the first place.
I don't know if that has any bearing on what his decision will be, coming back for his junior year or not.
But that's, you know, that's, that's certainly, I think, worth keeping in mind. I also think this is worth keeping in mind.
This is what Van Horn said. He said talking About Carson Wiggins, he said he's not happy about it. Believe me, he wants to pitch. And he said that's probably all I should say on it.
[00:06:59] Speaker B: I've always been, you know, kind of wondering with baseball players since so many leave early college to go mlb.
Say a player like Wiggins, for example, say he did decide to go to the MLB and he got bought out of, I guess, how much it would cost to come back to college.
Do they. I mean, you've already done a lot of school at that point. Do a lot of these players do online school and finish up their college degrees when they get minor leagues or how does this usually work?
[00:07:28] Speaker A: Well, so a lot of times when you get drafted, and I don't know if this works when you get drafted out of college. I do know that often when you get drafted out of high school, the organization that drafts you, they will pay for your college. I don't know if they. I don't know if that agreement's in place for players who have already, you know, completed most of their coursework. I don't know exactly how that works, and I don't know how many come back and finish school. But you do see, you know, pretty often a player will come back. I say pretty often. You do see instances of when a player will come back and finish his degree. So I don't know the answer to that.
[00:08:04] Speaker B: I just feel like that's got to be tough to do that much school and then leave. And you have your degree that you're pretty close to finishing up, I'd assume.
You know, I just. There's so many things that go into play whether people leave for pros if they can or not. And it's just one of those elements that I think you definitely have to take into account that a lot of these guys have already taken a lot of. Lot of credit hours, and they're probably nearing their degree, which is still important to a lot of people. Like, I know people all the time with college athletes now kind of diminish, and I think maybe there's. There's, you know, this is coming from a pretty grounded place in a lot of sports, how much they care about their education, but there is a lot of athletes that still like the degree is extremely important to them. So I don't know, but it definitely.
You hear Dave Van Horn's comments on this whole situation, and it's. It's easy to know that there's not many people that are super happy about this right now.
[00:08:56] Speaker A: I've been pretty consistent, you know, on saying all year that I felt like there were going to be a lot of voices that were going to be involved in whether or not Carson could pitch this year for the Razorbacks.
Clearly it seems like you've got coaches want him to pitch the player. By all indications, he wants to pitch. But there are more voices than that that are part of this process.
[00:09:19] Speaker B: And I was asking you before we started this, just like what is the normal timeline for Tommy John surgery? And it seems like this is probably pretty on pace to just how it goes most of the time it varies.
[00:09:29] Speaker A: But I mean, kind of just my general rule of thumb has always been with Tommy John, at least 12 months, there have been players who have come back from it sooner.
There have been players who. It takes longer for the rehab.
But that's just kind of always been my general rule of thumb. And that's why whenever, you know, Carson got hurt last year, he got hurt, I think it was April 27th at Florida. And then it took a little while, I say a little while, like maybe a couple, three weeks. I'm not exactly sure of when it happened, but for him to have.
We didn't realize that he had had the surgery. Actually, what tipped us off to it was the selection show. And you know, they show Arkansas watching the selection show and he's there, he's got the brace on the arm. And Van Horn got asked about it, you know, on Memorial Day after the selection show, said, hey, we saw Carson Wiggins, you know, did he have surgery? Because I think the initial thought was that he had gotten injured, but it didn't rise to the level of needing a surgery. But all of that is to say the timing of it last year and the fact that he was a draft eligible sophomore. I think there was a natural inclination last year to think that he may have thrown his last pitch as a Razorback. Whether or not that's going to be the case, you know, we'll see. But as of right now, does not look like he's going to pitch for Arkansas this year. Another big story or a news item, I guess that came out of the Swatters club Yesterday is that DJ Baxendale is going to become the baseball GM. This is going to be effective July 1st, although I suspect he's probably going to be doing some GM type work beforehand. And I think that there's, there's a little bit of a dovetail too between the work that he does for the program already, which is as a director of analytics, and what a GM will do because, you know, in in that analytics role.
You're watching a lot of video, especially during the off season, trying to, I think, figure out which players or, you know, kind of comb through data and figure out which players fit what we want to do, which players fit the needs that we have on the team. And so that's going to be his role. He's going to be the GM for baseball.
The best I can tell, this is going to be kind of an extension, a branch off of Remy Cofield's office. Remy Cofield, obviously the GM for the athletics department, you know, the. Maybe, I guess I would just say the athletics department at large.
But D.J. is going to be the baseball GM. He's been in a support staff role with the Razorbacks for seven years. I asked Van Horn, you know, what. What makes him the right candidate for this job?
And he said, you know, basically, he knows us, he knows professional baseball, he knows agents. He had, you know, he spent some time in. In professional baseball, I think, with the Twins organization.
But he knows. He knows that world.
You know, he obviously, he's got a lot of familiarity with Arkansas, the fact that he played here before he went to pro ball.
And Van Horn said the players really trust him. They like him. They like talking to him. So we've heard Dave in the past make comments about.
He was on a SiriusXM show. This has been three weeks ago now, probably.
And, you know, he was talking about this brave new world of baseball that we're in, where he said, you know, we're fundraisers now, we're GMs now. He said, we just like to coach our team. And so this is one thing that can take a little bit of that responsibility off their plate. I did ask about the fundraising aspect, and he said coaches will remain involved in the fundraising part.
[00:13:00] Speaker B: I think it's always important, people in roles like this, like, what you hit on about somebody that just the players like and trust is super important for somebody, you know, making, you know, personnel or pay, whatever decisions.
It's tough when it's the head coach doing all of it that you're gonna. You have a rift in your relationship maybe, and then you're supposed to go to practice. And I don't know, it's like they were wearing so many hats that it's like, how can you balance just actually coaching your team with all the stuff and the relationship aspect that goes into that, how you can upset some players
[00:13:31] Speaker A: a lot, having that buffer. Remember, that was something we heard Sam Pittman talk a lot about in the football before they had the Football GM hired it. Was that exactly what you were just saying? It takes. You need somebody to have. You need somebody to buffer that business side with the coaching side between you and the players.
[00:13:52] Speaker B: And when it's the coach wearing both of those hats, that's just really tough to navigate. I think those relationships, I know Sam Pittman for sure. Like, I think coming into Arkansas was really considered a. Like a player's coach. A lot of players like him. And I think that just the Nil ERA and all the decisions that he had to make just personally and that he had to be the one making a lot of those conversations with the player. And there's not that middleman. I think that probably. I don't know if by the time he was done here, I know a lot of players still like Sam Pittman, but I just don't think he was. Maybe it made a lot of players, coaches, maybe less of that, I think, because they kind of had to turn on this really rigid side where you're just strictly business telling them how much you can afford to pay them.
[00:14:35] Speaker A: Well, you don't see this in professional sports very much, if at all, anymore. You used to see it a little bit, but I don't think you see it anymore where the head coach is also the gm.
[00:14:43] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:14:44] Speaker A: You know, because you, again, you need that person who can be the bad guy, so to speak, or maybe you can be the bad guy. And, you know, it's like you, you. You balance that good cop, bad cop type relationship when it comes to, you know, contract talk. But I just think the fact that we don't see that type of activity going on in pro sports is probably a pretty good indication that it shouldn't be happening at the college level either.
[00:15:09] Speaker B: Yeah. And that's why somebody like Baxendale that players like. I think it's just important to have somebody that they, you know, is having to make maybe some of those tougher conversations. But the players generally like and will respect and a player who's been there, played professionally, so they know what it, you know, what, what lies on the other side. I think that's tough to maybe get told some of these things from somebody who doesn't have any clue how the, you know, whenever you are a professional, what that looks like. But Baxendale is certainly somebody who has been there, done it.
[00:15:39] Speaker A: David Horn said Reese Robinette will be available probably within the next couple of weeks. Doesn't sound like he'll be available for the OU series, although he didn't rule out the fact or maybe the idea, the possibility that Robinette could come in and play in a defensive type role this weekend, he said. We'll see. They'll probably know more on Wednesday. They did not practice yesterday, which they never practiced the day after a series ends. But they won't be practicing today either because it's finals week at the U of A. They'll have their first workout of the week on tomorrow, which is Wednesday.
And he said they'll know more about Reese Robinette's availability for the OU series by then.
The ABs is coming to the SEC tournament. This is the other big news yesterday, and for people who don't know what that is, it's the automated Ball Strike Challenge system that is obviously in its first year in Major League Baseball.
NCAA's used the SEC as a guinea pig many, many times for different rules or different.
Basically, you can always tell which rules are coming to college sports by looking and seeing what's going on in the sec, because the SEC has been very vocal about wanting to be kind of on the forefront of testing some of this stuff. Not just in baseball, in other sports too, but in baseball. It feels like it has been real frequent. And it seems like the SEC tournament is kind of where we see it happen the first time. Like you remember the double bag at first base. It was at the SEC tournament two years ago, I think, was the first time that we saw that the sec, they experimented with the pitch clock, they experimented with the earpiece that the catcher could wear.
There have been a lot of things that have been experimented with through the SEC and oftentimes at the SEC tournament. So ABS will be the latest one.
The way it's going to work. Teams are going to have three ABS challenges per game at the tournament. But any challenge that's successful, that's not going to count against those three. So it's kind of like football. You get a challenge. If you're successful, you retain that challenge. And it's going to be this way at the SEC tournament, too. If they go into extra innings, you. You will get one challenge per each extra inning. None of them are going to roll over, but you know, you'll have a challenge in the 10th, a challenge in the 11th, and so on. And only pitchers, catchers and hitters can request the reviews. And of course, you do that by tapping your hat or your helmet within moments. I mean, literally like a second of the pitch.
Otherwise it's going to be too late and they're going to move on to the next pits. Remember baseball America? They reported last I Think it was in September. We had Jacob Rudner on our show actually, to talk about it.
He had quoted some anonymous SEC officials who had said that they expect the SEC to have ABS challenges in the regular season real soon, maybe even by as early as 2027. There are some, you know, like, it takes a lot of wiring to be able to put this in place.
And there's a. I mean, there's. There's a cost side to this, too, that has to be taken into consideration.
But I think that this is going to be in the SEC regular season probably by next year, but certainly by 2028.
[00:18:57] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think that it's obviously a good thing to test out the tournament. I'll be interested to see if players, you know, with needing to tap pretty, like, immediately after.
They're not trained to do that right now because most of the time they don't get a call and you just see them like, throw that, especially on a strikeout, throw the head back or whatever. I'm like, I'm gonna be curious to see how many of them know to tap right away if you'll get any that maybe should have and they didn't, just because it's. It's not natural form. But I do like that this is something that you don't lose your challenges if you're successful. Because, I mean, if. If there's eight terrible calls in a game and you only got three to challenge and you waste them like it sometimes that. I don't know, it's just frustrating if you had an only a small assortment of challenges. But I do like that you keep it if you. If you're successful. Because I think a lot of times we see a lot more than three bad pitch calls in a game.
[00:19:50] Speaker A: You're going to figure out pretty quick who knows the strike zone. Yeah, you know, I mean, it's. And the strike zone. Also keep in mind the strike zone is going to vary by player. So they're going to measure these players when they get to Hoover and come up with a strike zone that is.
I don't think exclusive is the right word, but is that unique to that batter?
So it's. I'll be interested to see, like, how many teams are out of challenges by, say, like the third inning, you know what I mean? Because they're real gung ho and eager to, you know, to. To try to, you know, get one of these overturned.
That's one of the strategies I think coaches are going to have to talk to their players about before they get
[00:20:30] Speaker B: down to hoover and you wonder how many of them are going to call up their, you know, coaching friends there in the pros. Just like, do you all have any like, sort of ground rules for like, don't use a challenge in the second inning? Yeah, like, like just kind of the general things that the pros use for this. But I like it.
[00:20:45] Speaker A: I think don't use a challenge on
[00:20:46] Speaker B: a 10 pitch with two outs.
[00:20:49] Speaker A: Right?
[00:20:49] Speaker B: Yeah, it's like, what are you. I mean, just like everything else in college sports, coaches use analytics a lot. I'm sure there's a whole analytics guide with these challenges that the pros have come up with just because it's, it's not worth it sometimes, even if you would win it.
But since you maintain the challenge, I think it's, it's one of those things where if it's obvious, you just do it anyway. But if it's borderline, I wouldn't mess with it if it's something that could cost you one when the innings are a lot later. But I, I do think the SEC has been at the forefront of a lot of these things. I, I even like the, the going to the, the office on reviews. They were, I feel like the first ones on that where there's like the Central.
[00:21:29] Speaker A: You're right. That was at the SEC tournament, if I remember correctly, where they did that the first.
[00:21:32] Speaker B: It feels like SEC in baseball has been kind of like what the NIT has been in basketball where you just experiment stuff and a lot of times you see it stick. I remember which. It's weird that it worked. It stuck in it. You know, the women's game uses quarters. They, they did quarters in the NIT basketball one year and then didn't do it for the regular. They still haven't. I mean it still have. So it's just kind of confusing. But there's a lot of things that did start in the NIT. Like they moved back the three point line, 2019 NIT and then it was back for all of the regular season, everything the next year. So I like this though.
[00:22:08] Speaker A: I think the clock will change on the men's game at some point. It'll. It'll become.
[00:22:11] Speaker B: I like quarters and I, I would like to see the quarters implemented. I kind of hate advancing the ball. Which women's game. You can advance it with a timeout. NBA, obviously you can advance. I like basketball where you don't do that. But it does make for some exciting finishes. I think that whatever can help with TV and making more thrilling finishes and you'll get two extra buzzer beater chances every game when you add those quarters. Wouldn't shock me if men's basketball follows the same route.
[00:22:42] Speaker A: Arkansas baseball up to number 18 in the USA Today Baseball Coaches Poll. Ou comes in here this week. They'll be number 21. You fell to, I'm sorry, Ole Miss fell to number 23 after that series loss in Fayetteville. Basically Arkansas and Ole Miss, they kind of just flipped spots. Arkansas was number 22. Ole Miss was number 18. Now Arkansas is number 18. Ole Miss is number 23. One more baseball note. Cohillloy named SEC Player of the week yesterday. Of course, he's red hot for the Razorbacks. Tom Murphy wrote about him on our website. You can read that right
[email protected] do we know who Arkansas is playing in softball yet? I mean, as we, as we. I say, I'm used to saying as we record now that we're live, as we live record our show here.
Do we know who they're going to play yet or probably not going to know before this is over?
[00:23:31] Speaker B: No, I have it up on my screen while we're recording this.
[00:23:34] Speaker A: So the two teams that Arkansas could
[00:23:35] Speaker B: play are Mississippi State or Kentucky. Kentucky's the host of the tournament, so. But they're the lowest seeded team in the, I mean they won one game all regular season. So if they could beat Mississippi State, who's a fringe top 16 team, that would be great for Arkansas.
[00:23:49] Speaker A: A great series against Mississippi State earlier this year.
[00:23:51] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean it was, it was, it was a wacky series because they won it two to one and they, but they were shut out of a lot of innings and just poured it on real quick like they had a, an eight run fifth inning or something in game two that all of a sudden like in a matter of 5 abs or something just poured it on and ended in a run roll.
So. But Mississippi State can really pitch it. I think Kentucky would be a much more favorable first round matchup. But you know, at this point in the year, like you don't, I don't think they, like, you don't care if whoever you're playing is tough. Like you just expect that. I mean, you know, you got to bring your best stuff. But I think that if they were to face Kentucky, it would like a team that won one game all regular season.
It would be shocking if they won two in a row at the tournament. But hey, weird things happen in the postseason.
[00:24:33] Speaker A: So Kentucky's at home. They're playing for their lives.
There's yeah, you're right. Things can happen. You were in Austin last week. I thought that when Arkansas won that game over OU and when they were competitive in the other one, but especially by winning a game there, I thought that removed any doubt about if they were going to be a top eight national seed, which means that they get to host, you know, both rounds at Vogel park, assuming that they win the first, you know, the regional weekend, winning two out of three at Texas. I mean, you know, number five team in the country at the time, reigning national champion Texas is a great softball program. And so I think to go down there and win on their home field in the final, you know, the final series of the regular season, they moved to Arkansas to number one in the rpi, Am I right?
[00:25:21] Speaker B: Yeah, they had.
[00:25:22] Speaker A: I mean, there's no doubt they're going to be a national top eight.
[00:25:25] Speaker B: I kind of went into that series thinking they needed to win one to, like, feel I thought they could honestly maybe get swept and you still would get one. But I was like, if they win one, they're good. Winning two, I think, removes every bit of doubt. I mean, they're. They're number one in rpi. They're number one in strength of schedule. Like, how do you. There's no way that if they're not a top eight national seed. It would be a stunner. It would be.
I hate the word unprecedented. Ever since COVID It would be unprecedented, though, if the team with the number one strength of schedule and number one RPI was not a top eight seed. I think the better question is, will they be in the top four? Because now how the NCAA tournament works now, they just got rid of their kind of random 17 through 32.
Now you get buckets where, like, seeds one through four would be pitted against probably the closest geographical team. From seeds 29 through 32, they're gonna
[00:26:20] Speaker A: rank the number two seeds, and it's the first time they're doing that. And they're doing that in baseball this year, too. They haven't. They've never done that in either season.
[00:26:26] Speaker B: And what's really important about, I'd say, like, getting a top four is that, I mean, it still will be geographic, I think, for who you're pitted with against the strong twos. But since they're buckets 1 through 4, 29 through 32, say you. The strongest out of that lower bucket that's. Or the closest to you out of that lower bucket happens to be the 32, and Arkansas was the 4. Like, you're thrilled about that. But say you get, you're the five seed and you get that other bucket and all of a sudden your two seed is the 25. Yeah, like the best. The closest geographic. That's the strongest of that. I mean, still, you should, you're a higher seed. You should be able to handle business. But it does make some differences. I think that that's the, the only question now is can they be maybe top four seed, which I think they have a, you know, how they do. The SEC tournament could impact that, but they have a good shot. I think either way, I don't see their RPI dropping below 2, no matter what happens at this tournament, because they're only playing their, their path would only be playing really good teams. So their strength of schedule should remain number one.
[00:27:24] Speaker A: They got Dakota Kennedy back.
What do you think that means to him?
[00:27:28] Speaker B: Yeah, Courtney Dyfle said going into the series that we would probably see her in some capacity, which I think just kind of screamed either pinch hit or like be the designated hitter, designated player in softball, in the, in the lineup. And she was that every single game. She really struggled at the plate. And I think that a lot of that was probably more mental because you haven't been, you know, facing that sort of live pitching in a couple weeks. And obviously, I don't think we'll see her back in the field this year. I, I just, I think that we'll see her at the plate. You just see her run the bases right now, trying to, you know, even after like a ground out or something, and she's just, she's not at full speed at all. It's still a real hobble, and it makes you wonder, you know, like, what all she can do. I think that she's probably going to be in the lineup just hitting the rest of the way. It wouldn't shock me if they have to get creative with their defensive offensive substitutions in the outfield like they've kind of done the past few weeks, because I just don't know how in that short of amount of time that, you know, you can get back to running the way you need to to play left field. But yeah, it's good to have her back. I think that she'll probably maybe look a little bit more comfortable at the plate as. As she gets more reps back again, because she's like, for instance, in their last game against Texas, I think she struck out three times. That's just as uncharacteristic for her. She's been.
It just seems like it was probably a lot More mental. Getting, like, fine hitting, getting back on the box and hitting and trusting your. Your leg, you know, whenever you plant or whatever. Just to. I. She just doesn't look 100%, but she's a. I mean, nonetheless a real presence in the box. And I think that we'll see her still hit, but it'd be big for them if she can, you know, provide some pop there in the lineup as it goes on. She was arguably, you know, before she got hurt.
She's in the running for, like, I don't think she'd win SEC Player of the Year, but her stats were all so high up there that she would at least be like, in the candidate for that and especially newcomer of the year that they have in the sec because transferred from Arizona. I think she was strongly in the mix for that. So it stinks to not have her 100% when she was, you know, such an integral part of your team, but. But they have a lot of weapons, so it'll just be interesting to see how they navigate it.
[00:29:48] Speaker A: You were big on Love's Field over Norman. What were your thoughts on. On Texas softball stadium?
[00:29:54] Speaker B: It was. You know, it's funny because going to Loves Field in Oklahoma, that one's. I mean, I expected it to be super nice. It's the newest stadium in the sec.
[00:30:02] Speaker A: Well, and they spent so much money.
[00:30:03] Speaker B: Spent a lot of money on it. I mean, the scoreboard that's in the shape of Oklahoma in the outfield probably costs more than a lot of, you know, more important things at other people's stadiums. But Texas is so going to Loves Field made me like, Bogle is really nice. And I knew that everybody who goes to Bogle says it's one of the best in this. In the country. But, like, you put that up compared to OU's and you're like, oh, man, a long way away from. From matching this standard. But then you go to McComas Field at Texas and you're like, oh, yeah, Bogle's phenomenal. I mean, it just. It was a smaller stadium. It felt really outdated.
There was something about it being. Feeling outdated. Had a little charm to it, to be honest, but it just was not as nice as Bogles at all. It was smaller. It kind of surprised me. I thought, you know, with just Texas being one of the better programs in the nation the past half decade, that it would be a lot nicer. But, yeah, I. I don't know where even stacks in the whole SEC scheme, because I've not even. I've not seen all of Them. But everybody says Bogle is probably top four. I'd say SEC stadiums. It seats, I think, fifth most in the nation.
[00:31:11] Speaker A: So NCAA tournament selection show for softball is Sunday.
[00:31:16] Speaker B: It's Sunday. Yeah. So they'll find out who all will be coming to Fayette. I mean, there's. There's no doubt. I don't think there's any doubt about top eight, but they'll find out who's going to Fayetteville for regionals because they are a top 16 team for sure. But I'll be interested to see, you know, how this new seating pairing works, because they've been kind of hosed a little bit the past. You know, honestly, the whole time, Courtney Diefel has been here with who they get sent as a two seed because it's weird with geographical considerations how they have usually done it. Arkansas, a lot of times either got.
They. A lot of Times got a Pac 12 team, like, a really strong one. Because Arkansas, with the landscape of who I was hosting is like further west, which you don't think of Arkansas being west, but you looked at the map and it's like, okay, I guess it does make sense to send Oregon there, to send Arizona there.
And then this past year, Oklahoma State usually hosts a regional. They didn't last year. So it was like, oh, ship them to Arkansas. So. But, you know, they really could get anybody. It'll be interesting to see how that works. But they'll get a two seed. That. That's, that's why it's so important this year now to. To how high you finish in that top eight. Because they should get a two seed. That is not one of the stronger two seeds in the nation because they're one of the strongest one seeds.
[00:32:32] Speaker A: I think it was Haley McClaney on rallycap the other day on SEC Network who picked Arkansas to win the SEC tournament in softball.
[00:32:39] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, it's funny. She kind of.
She said wouldn't. She wouldn't be surprised. That was like the topic of Arkansas. And then she had to pick the winner, and she picked. Oh, you.
[00:32:48] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:32:48] Speaker B: But. But she said she wouldn't be surprised. It was Tori Vidalis, who's a former Texas A and M star. She. Last week they did a little thing of just like, who they think is the most poised to not only get to OKC, but make a run, and she picked Arkansas. I just think that's kind of. Everybody sees their schedule, and it's. It's one of the few teams in the SEC that I say one of the few. There's a lot of them that could win it. But one of the ones that you know for sure, just based on the schedule they've played like they're legit because they've played everybody. I mean, you look at the the poll this week, I think they've played out of the top 10.
Almost every SEC team that's in the top 10. They've played them in a series and that's just the draw that they got. But then a lot of them have been on the road. Like they went to number one, Oklahoma, two, number three Alabama, two number now six, Texas. And then they hosted number eight, I think Florida for a series. So it's like they've played elite teams all year and every single away series that they played in the SEC was against a team that is now ranked in the top like 17 or 18 or higher. So tough schedule. Really tough schedule. Honestly, you look at it and you compare it and you're like, how did this even happen? But maybe next year they'll get.
There's not no such thing as an easy schedule in the sec, but maybe an easier schedule.
[00:34:09] Speaker A: That's what I told everybody this year when they were talking about raceback baseball. Oh, well, you don't have to play Tennessee or Texas or A and M or LSU or Vanderbilt. And the funny part about that is I bet they wish they could play LSU or Vanderbilt this year because neither of those teams are playing real well.
But. But you know, what I would always say is the next easy SEC schedule will be the first easy SEC schedule.
[00:34:32] Speaker B: That's the thing. It's like there's easier SEC schedules, but none of even the easiest SEC schedule is still tough. But I do think it is revealing. I kind of did this breakdown on Sunday where I compared how many of the overall games that teams I use the latest top 25 poll, the top 16 teams, because those are, I guess, a good way to measure maybe who could host a regional and how many of your regular season or conference games were against those teams. Then I also did road games against those teams. Arkansas played 75% of its conference schedule against top 16 teams, and half of its conference schedule was on the road against top 16 teams. And you look at this like how many games these teams played. And it's almost like people I got asked instantly on Saturday after they lost and earned the seventh seed, like, how is this team a seven seed? Because they're ranked seventh nationally. How are they seventh for the conference training? Mike, it's just their schedule you look at. I listed those teams how Many they played against top 16 teams, what percentage that made up of their conference schedule. And it was almost like a death penalty at the top. Like for the teams that played the most, they were just at the bottom. Then you go to the bottom and it's. It's like all the teams that are above Arkansas. And the thing is, Arkansas wasn't far away from having a better record from a. Tennessee from an A and M.
So it just makes you wonder, had they had an easier schedule, if they could have. I think they could have made a push to win the conference. I really do. But instead they're 15 and 9. But I think that you'll take a 15 and 9 record knowing what you have and knowing what you've done, you'll take that any day of the week. That may be false security from a better record. That's not proven. I mean, this 15 and 9 was a tough 15 and 9 that they got.
[00:36:12] Speaker A: It's the type of record that can potentially get you to Oklahoma City.
[00:36:15] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:36:15] Speaker A: Because nothing's going. You're not going to see anything in a regional or a super regional in a weekend that you haven't seen already during the season.
[00:36:21] Speaker B: And I said this before the season, actually. I said, I think that you would rather. I looked at their schedule and you knew it was tough, but I said, I think you'd rather finish sixth or seventh in the conference and know what you have.
But I didn't think. Honestly, I thought sixth or seventh would be a worst record. Like, it was an anomaly also that Arkansas with a 15, nine, just the way things shook out was a seven seed. That's never happened before. 15, nine, the past, like five years would have earned you a top four seed. It just shook out weird this year.
But I thought even like a worse record in the, in the conference portion of their season and finished sixth and seventh, you'd feel better about that with that schedule than you would, you know, a higher finish with a. With a, you know, a pretty weak schedule. I say pretty weak. Like I said, none of us super. Like, you can't get too weak in the sec, but like, you look at Tennessee's schedule and I think they played three out of their 24 conference games on the road against top 16 teams. Like, I don't know how tested they are. So we'll see.
[00:37:16] Speaker A: You can read all of Ethan's softball coverage at our website, whole hogsports.com once we find out who Arkansas is playing, there will be plenty of coverage there. About that game, obviously, the game tomorrow when the Razorbacks play. It's going to be a one o' clock first pitch central time.
[00:37:30] Speaker B: It's going to be like 35 minutes after the first game is the technical. But they just, they say approximately 1pm so yeah, of course.
[00:37:37] Speaker A: Weather, game time or game length of the game, like there's all kinds of things.
[00:37:42] Speaker B: We're supposed to start later and there's, there's rain supposed to roll in tonight in Lexington. And so they bumped up the first game to 10am so that's ahead of schedule. Who knows? It feels like every single year, these conference tournaments, you cannot escape the weather. At some point last year they had to have co champions because the championship got rained out. So there have been in the past five years six different SEC champions. But it's kind of Arkansas's in that bunch because they won in 2022.
But yeah, I don't think that it would surprise me if this is the year or like maybe Alabama could do it. I don't think they've. I don't think they're in that group. But it would surprise me if there was a.
Not if this year didn't like a new trend. Yeah, this year I think will probably be a repeat.
[00:38:27] Speaker A: You can read all of Ethan's coverage at our website, whole hogsports.com we got baseball coverage there too. We're back with another show tomorrow. Hope to see you then. Have a great day, everybody.
