With Arkansas Razorback football season finally and mercifully coming to a close (after yet another beatdown by the Mizzou Tigers and an awful 2-10 campaign), the time is now to put down the pigskin, pick up the roundball and turn our abounding-Arkansas-athletic attention to John Calipari and his squad fulla elite playas.
Unafraid to test his team’s mettle in November and December, Coach Cal lined up all eight programs on this season’s schedule that advanced beyond the Sweet Sixteen in last year’s March Madness, including SEC member and National Champion, Florida.
Having recently battled down to the wire before losing close games to powerhouses Michigan St. and Duke, Cal summed it up best when he, once again, told the pressroom after Saturdaze 24-point dub over Fresno St., “I like my team.” That was not the first time he’d uttered that, and I guarantee it won’t be the last.
Led by a ridiculously long and relentless defense that forced 17 turnovers and held the Bulldogs to a miserable 4-26 (15.4%) from the suburbs, Arkansas also limited the visitors’ leading scorer, Jake Heidbreder, to a measly eight points, and six of those came from the charity stripe. Even more telling was that he shot 1-10 from the floor and did not sink a single bucket until almost 31 minutes of game time had elapsed. Talk about lockdown defense – this team can play it, particularly out on the perimeter. Awfully active hands and feet make Arkansas’s opponents very weary in late-game situations, and that usually leads to poor decisions and highlight-reel alley oops/dunks for the Hogs.
Freshman Darius Acuff, Jr., led the Razorbacks, again with 18 points, dished out eight assists and, oh by the way, collected a nifty five rebounds to round out his fat stat line. DJ Wagner and Meleek Thomas finished with 12 points apiece and Karter Knox tallied 11. Nine players found the scorer’s sheet in a most-balanced victory, the team’s second since falling to Duke.
Saturday’s game is against #16 Texas Tech, and next Tuesday, Hogs host unranked Queens (NC) before tipping off against last-season’s NC2A runners up and longtime SWC foe, the University of Houston Cougars on Dec. 20.
This year’s squad is as complete a team as there’s been on the Hill in many, many moons. Thanks to the Portal and N.I.L., Coach Cal was able to go out and hand-select the final missing pieces necessary to compete for a Natty, and big fellas – Nick Pringle and Malique Ewin – fit that mold and his team’s needs to a tee. This is Pringle’s third SEC jersey to wear, after Alabama and S. Carolina; while Ewin suited up for the S. Florida Bulls, prior to transferring. Both have been surprisingly versatile and multi-skilled, especially Ewin, who can drop no-look dimes with the best of ‘em.
In what has been a tough 12 months for the Razorback sports beat, longtime journalist, Nate Allen died recently, almost one year to the day of veteran writer Bob Holt’s passing. Famous for his extra-arid sense of humor, Allen was also well known to hate all things computer and had been overheard many times telling his laptop, “If you could only feel pain.”
Years ago, I had the privilege of spending some weekly time at the poker table with those two, along with a handfulla other veteran Arkansas sports scribes, and those memories will always retain warm spots in my head and heart. We never played for much money, since we were all trying to survive on paltry journalism wages; besides, the wealth was shared through the stories they told and the laughter that ensued.
RIP Nate.
GoHogs!!