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.

Other than both being known for their smooth flow at the mic and silky three point shots, Snoop Dogg and John Pelphrey wouldn’t seem to have that much in common. But, in today’s Recruiting Guy column Richard Davenport describes potential Razorback bball recruit Ekpe Udoh as being impressed in Pelphrey’s taste in music, describing him as “bobbing his head” while he listens to Snoop and other hip hop favorites.

Whether it’s enough to lure Udoh to Fayetteville or not, who knows, but that mental image kind of made my day.

Perhaps Montrell McDonald has been listening to a lot of Mac Davis lately. Or maybe John Pelphrey is just one awfully persuasive fella.

Whatever the reason, the 6′6″ McDonald, who spent the past two seasons with Cowley County Community College in Kansas, signed a national letter of intent with the Razorbacks on Friday. He had previously made a verbal commitment to Texas Tech.

CBS College Sports national recruiting analyst Van Coleman told Richard Davenport of Wholehogsports.com the following about McDonald: “He’s an explosive offensive talent. He can really slash to the hoop. He’s got great bounce, and he has an excellent midrange game and has the pullup shot. We had him in the preseason top 15 nationally. He was a JC All-American. He’s got a great allaround game.”

We’ve been a little slack in discussing this, but, per Brandon Marcello of The Slophouse, Patrick Beverley will be returning to Fayetteville for his junior season. Marcello’s report, which is based on a TBO.com blog post, says Patrick wanted to transfer to the University of South Florida to reunite with ex-Hog coach Stan Heath, but Beverley’s mom talked him out of the move. (We could get snarky and say that perhaps Patrick missed being part of a team that routinely blew double-digit leads and that couldn’t get past the first round of the NCAA Tournament, but we’re much classier than that.)

We originally thought that the hard-charging Beverley would mesh well with the hard-ass Pelphrey, but there’s obviously been some difficulties in the relationship. Considering the lack of proven SEC-caliber talent that the Razorbacks currently have on their roster, though, we’re very happy that Beverley Beverley’s mom feels that Pelphrey and Fayetteville are worth another look.

* Bye-Bye Beverley? - That’s the jarring headline of Brandon Marcello’s latest Slophouse blog entry. According to the post, Patrick has been making some comments on his Facebook page that could lead some to believe that he won’t be with the Hogs next season, including “I’m leaving.” Apparently, though, the page doesn’t make it clear exactly what he will be leaving. But … Marcello says he ran into Patrick at this weekend’s Real Deal on the Hill AAU Tournament, and Beverley wouldn’t comment on the matter. That doesn’t sound good.

* More Hoops News: Pelphrey continues to add to his 2008 recruiting class by inking 6-7 forward John Henry, who played high school ball in West Memphis and spent last season at Cincinnati Harmony Prep School. And, scroll down about halfway through this story, and you’ll see that the Hogs could also add 6-5 shooting guard Nick Williams of Mobile, Ala., this week. He might come in extra handy if indeed Patrick decides to take his act elsewhere.

* Draft Talk: Next Saturday marks the arrival of what I find to be the sporting world’s most obnoxious event: the NFL Draft. I usually avoid this like the plague. This year, however, there are two obvious reasons to tune in: McFadden and Jones, and I’m sure that a hefty percentage of this week’s postings will deal with speculation concerning the two. Here’s some material that’s sure to be a conversation starter: Fox NFL Analyst Brian Baldinger is no fan of D-Mac:

“I think he’s the colossal bust in this draft. He doesn’t run with patience. He’s a very incomplete back who tries to run you over. If he gets a crease, he can take it to the house. But he doesn’t break tackles and he fumbles. I’m not impressed.”

And add this unnamed scout to the list of those not overly enamored with No. 5:

“I can’t believe how skinny his calves and his shins are. It’s almost scary. It’s like a skinny wide receiver. At the running back position, you want a guy who’s a little wider on his base. is built on top, but he’s got a very skinny base. I think that’s a little bit of a concern.”

* Practice Makes Perfect - To stay on top of the football team’s spring practice, be sure to check out the Razorbloggers’ top-notch and highly detailed daily reports.

* I’m in Charge Here - Houston Nutt is back to doing what many Razorback fans think he does worst: calling plays.

Somebody tell John Pelphrey that he can take a nice long vacation until, say, April 2009. ESPN’s all-knowing bracketologist Joe Lunardi has already peered into his crystal ball and determined the field of 64 for next year’s tournament.

Unfortunately, the freshman-filled Hogs didn’t make the cut. Better luck next year the year after next, guys.

Sorry about our slacker posting habits lately. Real life occasionally interferes with blogging, but we’ll get back on track soon. In the meantime, a quick rundown of some recent Hog links:

* The football Hogs have opened their first spring practices under Bobby Petrino, and there have already been some changes from the old regime. Nobody covers this sort of thing better than the RazorBloggers, so be sure to check out their most recent reports here and here.

* Nolan is heading to the Hall of Fame (but someone should make sure he’s not seated next to his old buddy Billy Packer at the induction dinner…that could get awkward).

* What do the Razorback Expats and Darren McFadden have in common? Aside from blazing speed and a nose for the end zone, we’re both Arkansas bloggers. The difference is, D-Mac has been posting a lot more than we have lately…here’s one where he breaks down his famous tattoos.

* Remember that guy who played QB before the Casey Dick era? Mitch somebody? If you do, Arkansas Sports 360 has clued us in to a radio interview he did in in New York or Seattle or wherever it is that we heard he’s playing now.

* Ever since Wally clued us in to the possibility that the Oklahoma State job opening could leave to John Pelphrey’s departure, we’ve been keeping tabs on that situation. Our Kentucky friends at A Sea of Blue have a good report on what’s what.

* News flash: Bobby Petrino is the 10th best coach in the SEC.

* We’ll take Whit E. Knight’s three part retrospective of the 1978 Final Four season over anyone else’s, but if you want more of Eddie & the Triplets, check out Bob Holt’s recent article in the Dem-Gaz.

Wally Watch: Where we read Wally Hall so you don’t have to.

April 3, 2008: Domino effect could see Pelphrey in Kentucky

Primary Theme: The forced resignation of Sean Sutton at Oklahoma State could set in motion chain of events that would result in John Pelphrey coaching at Kentucky next year. Nobody likes the sound of that.

We Do, However, Like the Sound of This: “A deadly domino”

Wally Hall Writing Tip #419: To add a little color and familiarity to your writing, refer to sports figures by punny versions of their real names. For example, the “Sean Sudden” reference in this column. (However, there’s at least a 10% chance that’s a typo.)

Wally Hall Writing Tip #627: To add a little color and familiarity to your writing, refer to sports figures by their first, middle and last names. For example, see the “Billy Clyde Gillispie” and “John Leslie Pelphrey” references in this column.

More Proof that You Never Really Outgrow Junior High: According to Wally, here’s how it breaks down: Boone doesn’t like Sean (or Eddie). Boone likes Bill, but Bill’s not interested. Boone might also like Billy, and if Billy likes Boone then John might leave us for his first love. Got all that?

Our Analysis: One of our biggest complaints about Wally is that his columns are usually about 98% fluff, so to be fair it’s nice to see him write about something more meaningful, even if it does come across as a bit rumor-ish.

On one hand, you’d think that the (theoretically) leading sportswriter in the state would have some inside information that makes this a legitimate story. On the other hand, it might just be that Wally hasn’t been to any good new Mexican restaurants lately and thus is desperate for something to write about.

In the end, this is definitely a story we’ll monitor, but we’re having a hard time imagining the Kentucky basketball coach voluntarily leaving after one year in favor of Oklahoma State, no matter how annoying the UK fans are. We’ll probably have to deal with these rumors every offseason until Pelphrey actually does leave for Kentucky, but the guess here is that for now he sticks around.

Special Non-Wally Addendum: Here are a couple of other links dealing with the Gillispie-to-OSU rumors:

* Could Gillispie be tempted away to Stillwater?

* Big Oil, Oklahoma State Targeting Gillispie

Head on over to the top-notch ArkansasSports360.com for a partial transcript of John Pelphrey’s Thursday afternoon post-mortem on the 2007-08 season. He makes some very interesting comments, both about the just-completed season and the incoming recruiting class.

Here are some quotes I was struck by:

* “We’re losing 70 percent of our scoring, 63 percent of our rebounding and 63 percent of our assists. That means we have 30 percent of our scoring, 37 percent of our rebounding and 37 percent of our assists back.”

* This remark about Patrick Beverley is kind of funny, mainly because it sounds like Pelphrey is doing a Donald Rumsfeld impersonation by asking himself questions and then answering them: “Can his scoring go up, it could. Can it go down, it could. He needs to have a great summer and continue to grow. He needs to become better at reading the pick and roll, jump shooting and off the bounce. He also needs to improve his leadership on and off the court.”

* Pelphrey doesn’t sound like the biggest Stefan Welsh fan: “He made progress at the end of the year. His attitude got better. If you look at the games we won, he had a hand in it. He played well for maybe the last month of the season.”

* Overall, you’d have to say that Wally’s column from today wasn’t too bad, particularly by his standards. Still, get a load of this groaner: “[Stan Heath’s] sideline de-meanor bothered a lot of the fans because he seemed docile. Pelphrey is quite different. The more mistakes the players make, mental or physical, demeanor he got.”

* John Brummett gets all huffy about Arkansans booing the Texas Longhorns in Alltel Arena this past weekend, and ArkansasSports360.com’s Jim Harris, who recently stopped by this site for a visit, says that Brummett could use some history lessons.

* For the “Sun Rises in the East” file: A Razorback football player has a brush with the law.

* For the “Good News” file: Marcus Monk appears to have improved his draft stock.

* Sweet (New) Home Chicago? Bears coach Lovie Smith recently lunched with former Hog running backs Darren McFadden and Felix Jones.

* Quick Programming Note: With the basketball season just completed and the new football season still a few months off, posting may be a bit slower than usual here at RazorbackExpats.com - at least for the next few weeks or so, as we take a little time to pause and catch our breath. But, we have an active spring and summer planned - with the unveiling of the RazorbackExpats Hall of Fame and more Q&A’s with various Hog heroes on the schedule - so check back often.