Hardwood Hogs Ready for Conference Play

Razorback Basketball Notes and Nuggets

-Arkansas' 85-78 win against Baylor in Dallas on Saturday night was just what the doctor ordered. Given the Hogs only other legitimate non-conference win is over a fair-to-middling Missouri team, a loss against the Bears would have put Arkansas way behind the eight ball as far as a bid to the NCAA tournament is concerned. But now, at 11-3, Arkansas should be able to go 10-6 in SEC play, win a single conference tournament game, and qualify for the Dance with 22 wins.

-It was great to see Sonny Weems step up and make all the big shots in the second half against Baylor. In total, 18 of Weems' 21 points came after intermission: he made pretty much every shot he took. You couple that performance with Charles Thomas' 17 points and 10 rebounds, and all of a sudden Arkansas' front court is showing some signs of life. It also helps when your guards are making threes. Patrick Beverley and Stefan Welsh shook off season long slumps against Baylor in making six trifectas combined.

-Arkansas should dispose of Auburn on the road on Thursday night. Jeff Lebo's Tigers are a competitive team, for sure, but they've also been besieged by injuries. In yesterday's conference call, Lebo spoke of his plight: "We have only six scholarship players available right now, so clearly we've had to change our style of play and what we're trying to do." With leading scorer (and best player) Korvotney Barber sidelined until February with a broken hand, the Tigers have to hodge podge it all together right now. Look for Quantez Robertson and Rasheem Barrett---Auburn's two most athletic players---to try to slow things down a bit for the rest of their team. Without any depth, Auburn can't afford to play the frenetic place Arkansas will try to set.

-For all the talk that John Pelphrey is off to a slow start as Razorback coach, I'm not buying much of it. Surely the offense could use more shape and definition, but what we have here is a team loaded with upperclassmen learning an entirely new motion system. In fact, if you compare UA's mark of 11-3 thru 14 games to where it was a year ago at this time under Stan Heath, you'll find that the record is identical. Taking into account the vastly superior defense the Hogs have been playing this year, it's hard to say Pelphrey has been doing anything less than a good job. Of course, the jury will continue its deliberations on Coach P until he's got a couple of recruiting classes of his own players on the floor.

-The SEC just isn't as good as it usually is in men's basketball this year. Both Vanderbilt and Ole Miss are undefeated---extremely surprising---but Tennessee and Arkansas (and maybe Florida, though time will tell) are the only other SEC schools who have the ability to hang with the best that some other conferences will be able to offer. Why is the league so down? Well, one argument is that a numer of talented players have made the leap to the pros over the past two seasons. Another is that the talented freshmen who've taken the league mantle have yet to fully develop.

-And one Ladyback note: Arkansas's women are 15-0 and undefeated in non-conference play for the first time in program history. They're ranked in the polls now as well and face a huge test against LSU at home on Thursday night. Kudos to first-year coach Tom Collen for bringing some life and energy to a program that's been dormant of most of it for the past five years.

-JAB