Late fall and here we are---the start of another college basketball season. As area eyes turn toward this year's Arkansas Razorback hoops team, the comparisons are easy to the current not-so-fun football season: a young team growing in front of our eyes as it gains experience, losing a lot more than you'd like them to. But the goal in Fayetteville these days---regardless of sport---is to build for legitimate national title runs in the near-future, and in John Pelphrey's second season as head coach of the Hogs, it's likely fans at Bud Walton Arena will find a club molded way more closely in his image than last year's rag-tag bunch of Stan Heath holdovers.
Gone are seven of the minute-heavy players from last year's rotation; in are a bunch of new faces. A scary but true fact is that there are no seniors on this year's Razorback roster. None. Kind of astonishing when you think about it. No familiar faces. No Sonny Weems or Charles Thomas. No Darian Townes or Steven Hill. Not even my boy P-Bev. (Have fun in the Ukraine, Patrick.)
Watching Arkansas narrowly escape last Friday's home opener against SE Louisiana with a 91-87 overtime win was a game of memorizing new faces and jersey numbers, and probably created more questions than it answered, but in the grand scheme of things, these games are judged by who wins and who loses, and not at all by how you look doing it. In the words of Coach Pelphrey following the season-opener, "a young bunch showed a tremendous amount of heart" in rallying from nine points down with under three minutes left to grab the win. And maybe gave itself a little bit of team definition in the process. Tonight against California-Davis, I got another chance to watch the new group at Bud Walton. A fast-paced first half favored a vastly quicker Arkansas team, but the tempo of the game slowed in the second and a few long ball trifectas from the Big West crew kept it close and forced the Hogs to gut out another relatively close one 68-59 for its second win of the season. Back-to-back road games at Missouri State and South Alabama will tell us a lot more about this team over the next ten days, but here are some of my initial early season thoughts. We'll break it down by position:
PG: The shiniest bright spot on this year's team is freshman Courtney Fortson. Alabama's high school "Mr. Basketball" last year, Fortson is a speedy dribble-driver who attacks the basket with reckless abandon. He has tremendous court vision for a young playmaker, and gets the ball to teammates in effective shooting positions. A significant all-around upgrade from last year's erratic point Gary Ervin, Fortson's energy is boundless and spreads infectiously to teammates. The backup is sophomore Marcus Britt. All hustle and defense last year, Britt's jumpshot looks improved after a summer of hard work. He should spell Fortson ably for brief stretches this year and may get extra minutes as a go-to defensive stopper again.
SG: This was supposed to be Patrick Beverley's breakthrough season. The one in which he finally put it all together and became the NBA caliber player we always thought he could be. Instead, he got kicked out of school for academic misconduct and left the position to another potentially great player in Rotnei Clarke. Clarke is the ice cold shooter to complement Courtney Fortson's fiery temperament. It's amazing to think about what the two of them could achieve together over a four year period at Arkansas, should the college basketball gods allow it to happen, of course. With Clarke, the Hogs have got a fighting chance to shoot themselves into a game with anyone.
The all-time leading scorer in his state's high school history, Rotnei told us last month during a live half-hour appearance on The Huddle at Media Day that he "always knew the University of Arkansas was a great place to play basketball, but I don't think I fully understood the scale of it till I came and visited a few times. I just feel like once you visit (Bud Walton), no other college compares. It's like a palace." Clearly respectful of the Woo Pig Sooie tradition, Clarke is every bit the lethal shooter he's cracked up to be. A lifelong gym rat, he has perfected a quick trigger release that enables him to get off clean shots against the many defenders bigger than his 5'11 frame. Junior swingman Stefan Welsh returns as much experience as anyone on the team. He'll get the bulk of starts early in the year in Pelphrey's three guard lineup as the head coach fleshes out his new-look rotation. Only 6'3, Welsh is too short to regularly defend opposing small forwards in the SEC, but his long range shooting touch should allow the Hogs to stretch opposing defenses away from the paint, clearing things up for big man Michael Washington down low.
SF: An extremely weak position for Arkansas this year. Last year's team leader Sonny Weems was the glue that kept it all together, so much so that he's on the Denver Nuggets now. He keyed the team's offense, defense and energy. That's a lot to lose. Prized Virginia high school recruit Marshawn Powell (6'7) will be given every opportunity to lock the swing spot down when he arrives on campus next season, but that's no help this year. For now it's up to the likes of Jason Henry and Montrell McDonald to chip in minutes at the '3.' Both players have the size and athleticism to help out defensively and on the glass, but neither has shown a lot of composure offensively yet. Henry is a 6'7 freshman originally from West Memphis who could be a solid contributor in time, while McDonald is a junior college transfer with only one year of eligibility left after this season. He can jump through the roof, but still plays a little out of control when forced to put the ball on the floor.
PF: Almost de facto, it's Michael Sanchez at this position with not a lot of help. The redshirt freshman from Springdale is a hometown kid with all the hustle and scrappiness you want from a power forward. He's a rugged rebounder who gets the garbage baskets down low (a la the departed Charles Thomas), but doesn't command the basketball in the flow of the offense. Every team needs a role player like that. The problem is, Sanchez is prone to foul trouble. If he can't learn quickly to keep those hacking tendencies in check, the Hogs are going to get exposed down low---badly. Freshmen big men Brandon Moore and Andre Clark don't seem ready to contribute key minutes yet.
C: Amazing how much difference a year makes at a given position. Nowhere is that any more apparent than at center for Arkansas. The last four years with Steven Hill and Darian Townes, the Hogs had two seven-footers and four players who could claim heights of 6'9 or more. This time around, Michael Washington is tallest on the team at 6'10, and the only real prized possession down low. The versatile third-year Razorback has clearly improved his game considerably over the past couple of years and his confidence level is now at an all-time high. 30 points and 14 rebounds against SE Louisiana was a great start to the year, but nobody's expecting anywhere near those numbers on an everyday basis over the course of a season. The truth is, Washington is a gifted offensive rebounder and low-post defender who likes shooting the outside jumper too much for his own good. Still, if he can stay in the 18 point and 7 rebound per game range, UA's offense will be a lot better than people think. The problem here is the same as that of the '4' position: Washington must stay on the floor and out of foul trouble essentially all the time for the Hogs to have even a fighting chance against their better competition. With him on the bench, Arkansas's thin frontcourt gets severely exposed.
Coaching: John Pelphrey did a more than respectable job in his first year at Arkansas. Inheriting a group of players from a plodding, half-court style system and trying to get them to buy into a totally different way of doing things is a near impossible task. Getting to the NCAA Tournament and beating Indiana (before a blowout second round loss to North Carolina) was a nice conclusion with that bunch in year one. But year two will force Coach 'P' to show his coaching mettle more with players that are mostly his recruits. And greatly limited returning experience. And a perilously thin frontcourt. His young guns at guard will be asked to produce big numbers right away.
Offensively, some pundits still question the focus of what Pelphrey wants to do. Defensively, he needs to get his team to show more of the tenacity that he always played with at Kentucky. But motivationally, there's no doubt the guy is exceptionally skilled for such a young coach (he just turned 40). Put plainly, year two is a transitional stage for Pelphrey as he sets his sights on bigger things to come in years three and four. The pressure hasn't nearly turned up on him to this point, and shouldn't any time soon.
Outlook: Strange to say for Arkansas, but John Pelphrey's second year as head coach will likely result in fewer wins than his first year---yet with greater enthusiasm and excitement from the fans. Nothing against Stan Heath's aforementioned group of holdovers (they did win a first round NCAA game for Arkansas for the first time in almost a decade), but the dominant feeling among Hog fans was that their style of play didn't suit the prototypical image of Razorback basketball: fullcourt pressing, up-and-down offense, non-stop hustle . . . This newest batch of Hoop Hogs is so young and inexperienced that road bumps and hiccups are sure to be numerous along the way, albeit expected. It's hard to count on a fourth straight trip to the NCAA Tournament for Arkansas when the players have yet to even sort out their roles on the team.
How will the coaching staff compensate for an incredible lack of depth up front? And what exactly is John Pelphrey's offensive philosophy? Who takes the big shots at the ends of games? Who's the emotional leader on and off the court? Do they have the energy or manpower to press for long stretches? Lots of questions. Not a lot of answers yet. John Pelphrey's clearly got his work cut out for him, but he also has the patience of Razorback nation on his side. As new football coach Bobby Petrino learned this year, University of Arkansas fans will wait patiently if you show them progress---at least for a season or two.
-JAB
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