December Madness? According to Brandon Marcello of The Slophouse, John Pelphrey is trying to schedule an early-season invitational that would take place next season in Bud Walton. Sounds like a cool idea, although let’s hope it turns out better for the Hogs than did the last regular-season tournament held in Fayetteville: the John Thompson Foundation Challenge Classic, which took place in November 2000.

The Razorbacks, sporting the talents of one Joe Johnson and ranked 15th in the nation, lost to Southern Mississippi in the finals. Perhaps the guys were just distracted by the ongoing Florida recount.

Peering into the Future. In the June 2008 issue of Pravda Hawgs Illustrated, Harry King does his best Nostradamus impersonation and unfurls his game-by-game prediction of the 2008 Razorback football season. The bad news? A 5-7 record. The good news? No humilating bowl loss.

The wins: Western Illinois, Louisiana-Monroe, Kentucky, Ole Miss and Tulsa. The losses: Texas, Alabama, Florida, Auburn, South Carolina, Mississippi State and LSU.

Before you dismiss his prognostications, you should know that King correctly predicted last year’s regular season record (8-4), although, as he’s quick to point out, he erroneously predicted the Hogs to beat Kentucky and lose to LSU.

Do not doubt Harry King. Stronger people than you have - and been destroyed as a result.

One on One. Bobby Petrino recently sat down for a Q&A with ArkansasSports360’s Chris Bahn; to listen to the interview, click here.

The Pride of Little Rock. Please excuse the non-Razorback item, but here’s a nice article on Los Angeles Lakers guard and Little Rock native Derek Fisher. We here at RazorbackExpats can’t think of an athlete that we admire more than Fisher, and we have been known to gab about the following “What If?” scenario: What if he had been a member of those wonderful mid-1990s Razorback teams?

In some ways, it’s not a terribly gripping discussion: After all, the Hogs did win the 1994 title without him. But, we can’t help but wonder if his off-the-charts leadership qualities might have helped combat the sluggish and unfocused play that frequently plagued the 1995 Hogs. Regardless, we would have loved to have seen a backcourt of him and Corey Beck.

• Forward Michael Sanchez, who redshirted last season and will be a freshman this fall, is starting and playing pretty solid ball for a team of college players that is touring China. Who knows what the competition is really like - and it’s not like Sanchez is setting the world on fire - but it’s got to be good for him to get a chance to shake off the rust.

• Why does John McDonnell hate America?

• Check out ArkansasSports360.com for a funny take on the latest episode in the long-running “Razorbacks in Jail” saga. And once you get to that page, be sure and click on the Corey Beck link. If you do, you’ll notice that Corey is tipping the scales at nearly 270 pounds these days! We shudder to think what his good friend and Expat fav Dwight Stewart now weighs.

• Harry King examines what the Atlanta Falcons’ signing of draftee Matt Ryan means for Darren McFadden as well as the short life expectancy of NFL running backs.

• In honor of the NBA playoffs, we present this pop quiz: Name the four former Razorbacks who have won NBA championships. First one with the correct answer wins an all-expenses-paid trip to the beautiful Sandals Grande Antigua resort.*

(* - not true)