Hard to believe it was that long ago. Time flies.

Box score here. Wherever today may find you, Scotty, this Bud’s for you.

 Seriously, shouldn’t today be a state holiday?

Not surprisingly, the national sports media has failed to note the most obvious story angle arising out of this year’s Final Four: that all of the entries have played important roles in the Razorbacks’ NCAA Tournament history. To correct this egregious instance of journalistic malpractice (and because it’s a really slow time of the year for Hog news), we present this overview of the ways in which UCLA, Memphis, North Carolina and Kansas have either sent our spirits soaring or broken our hearts during March Madness.

UCLA. There’s some room to quibble with the following statement, but one could reasonably say the Bruins are the alpha and the omega of the Razorbacks’ glory years. In 1978, the Hogs arrived as players on the national scene when they knocked off UCLA, which was not far removed from winning an incredible 10 national championships in a 12-year period, in the semifinals of the West Regional. Seventeen years later, the O’Bannon brothers and the insufferable Jim Harrick ended the Razorbacks’ quest for their own back-to-back national championships and closed the door on the magnificient Williamson-Thurman-Beck(-and-Dwight!) era. It doesn’t take the most powerful observational skills to note that Hog basketball has never been the same since.

Memphis. Like UCLA, the Tigers are responsible for a glorious high and a shattering low. Let’s get the bad stuff out of the way first: In 1992, then-Memphis State, led by Anferenee Hardaway, sent the Hogs packing with a second-round, 82-80 win that was sealed with a near-last-second tip-in by Tiger forward David Vaughn.

I’ve tried my best to completely forget about this game, but due to my employer’s poor mental health benefits package, some memories still linger - for instance, the way in which Memphis native Todd Day, obviously seeking revenge for this game, looked like Michael Jordan for the first five minutes of the contest and then proceeded to score something like one point in the last 30 minutes, draw a technical for staring at the ref and foul out.

A truly weird moment took place when Isaiah Morris and Oliver Miller, both sprinting to the Arkansas basket with nary a defender in sight, couldn’t decide who should take the lay-up and passed the ball back and forth until most of the other players began catching up with them. As I recall, one of them finally converted the basket, but they made the play much more interesting than it should have been. We should have known then that the Hogs were in for a long afternoon.

(Read on …)

Well, that was ugly (but not at all unexpected). I was hoping for a build-on-it-for-next-year type of moral victory like the 1993 loss to the Tar Heels, but any hopes for that vanished about two minutes into the game. Sadly, today proves the point that this year’s team, especially when the Good Hogs version doesn’t show up, simply can’t hang with the big boys. In other words, the Bad Hogs might keep it close for a still pretty dismal loss against Alabama, but anything less than their A-game against an A-list team equals getting doubled up by halftime.

But, enough about the UNC game. With six seniors leaving, this is one of those true end of an era moments. I’m sure Stephen and I will have more to say about this over the coming days (we’ll certainly be in need of the material…sorry baseball fans, but for us today officially begins a Razorback sports Dead Zone of about four months), but for now, what do you guys think? How will this senior class be remembered? And what does the future hold?

As always, we look forward to what you have to say.

To generate some positive energy before tomorrow’s showdown with UNC, view this wonderful footage of Dwight Stewart’s beyond-half-court bomb that ended the first half of the Hogs-Heels match-up in the 1995 Final Four. The audio is a little choppy, but the video is pure Hog heaven. God bless you, Sy Dog.

Wow, it’s a lot more fun when you win these games! The Good Hogs certainly came to play tonight, firing on all cylinders in a most impressive 86-72 win over Indiana. It’s amazing how a big NCAA tournament win erases the bad memories of dismal midseason performances against, say, South Carolina.

Lots of thoughts are rattling around in my head right now, so rather than trying to write anything particularly coherent, here’s a rundown of a few of them:

Sonny, welcome to the club. With his 31 points on 12 for 14 shooting, Sonny Weems etched his name among the great Razorback postseason performances. Not too shabby.

I don’t know if I could pull off this quote, but I like the way it sounds. Patrick Beverley: “Sunny days when Sonny Weems plays the way he plays.”

This will probably eliminate any nostalgia for the Dana Altman era. Tonight John Pelphrey did something that Eddie Sutton and Nolan Richardson never did…won his first NCAA tournament game as Razorback coach.

He might not remember the name, but I’m sure he remembers the ball getting swatted back in his face. Afterwards, Indiana star Eric Gordon referred to Steven Hill as “that big 7-foot guy.”

Somebody give this man a raise. In our Q&A with Pat Bradley yesterday, the former Razorback said “it just seems like Indiana’s superstars — those two guys, Gordon and White — I think they’re looking at the NBA right now and couldn’t care less about the tournament.” After Gordon’s 3 for 15 shooting night, that analysis sounds pretty dead on.

Bring on the Heels! The Hogs have a good history playing North Carolina in the tournament, routing UNC in 1990, giving the eventual national champs a scare in 1993 and beating down their star-studded team in the 1995 Final Four.

With the Hogs playing for their first NCAA tournament win of the 21st century tonight (!), it’s time to bring in a true Razorback expert: Arkansas Sports 360 editor Jim Harris. If there’s an Arkansas sportswriter doing better work than Harris right now we certainly haven’t seen it, and unlike certain other prominent local sports editors we could name, his columns are always light on fluff and heavy on interesting insights, analysis and opinions. Thanks very much to Jim for taking the time out of his busy week to answer our questions…now, check out what he has to say about Indiana, this crazy 2008 season and great Hog teams of the past:

1. What do you think of the Hogs’ chances against Indiana on Friday? And, if they win that game, how do you think they would fare against North Carolina ?

The Hogs’ chances are excellent if they bring the same game they showed against Vanderbilt and Tennessee. If Kelvin Sampson were still coaching Indiana, the Hoosiers wouldn’t be an eighth seed. But he’s not, and for good reason, and they’re playing now about like a 12th seed under Dan Dakich as interim coach. Nothing is settled there, and the team is having to rely on its two talented stars, Eric Gordon and D.J. White to carry them. Arkansas needs to focus on not letting the mystery guys beat them while trying to stop Gordon and White. They’re going to get theirs.

Arkansas must not let Armon Bassett or Jemarcus Ellis get loose on them in the backcourt, or somebody like Lance Stemler sneak in there and get 12-14 points inside. Let the two guys get their 40-50 and stop the rest. And if Charles Thomas can maintain what we saw the past two weeks, Arkansas should have a good night scoring inside, setting up the guards to deliver the knockout.

Arkansas will unlikely be able to follow that up against North Carolina . The Tar Heels have too many weapons for the Hogs to defend. Their only chance is if North Carolina is flat, and there is no reason for that.

2. What’s your take on the Razorbacks’ season so far? Have they exceeded your expectations, meet your expectations or disappointed you?

In some ways they disappointed me, because I though that all the hard work this staff put them through in the off season would have truly brought them together as people and good teammates. Instead, with the exception of a couple of people, such as Darian Townes and Weems through the SEC, they seemed to play most of the season divided again, just like they looked under the previous staff. On the plus side, Darian Townes has had a terrific year in both his scoring and his attitude. He got better defensively but had so far to go; still does. His rebounding in the tournament last week was terrific. Every time Pelphrey challenged him, he answered the call. Total opposite of the past. Don’t know where Thomas was all season, but finally when it counts he’s begun to look like the Thomas we saw at times his first three seasons.

Sonny Weems had to carry so much load for so long, and maybe it wore him out late, but his conference season was terrific. He finally looked like the comparison some made with his talents and Ronnie Brewer’s was accurate. His ballhandling was suspect, but his passing skills was never better than in the tournament. Patrick Beverley may have played too much basketball in the summer and was fighting himself for much of the league season. Finally, he has come around.

Gary Ervin has improved down the stretch. I’m not sure what took Stefan Welsh so long to show what he can do, but when Arkansas moved him to a shooting guard for the tournament and allowed him to shoot on the run without worrying about it, he was terrific. His ballhandling is not what it needs to be, as we saw against Georgia . Steven Hill had his moments, none better than beating Tennessee , plus his defense late against Vanderbilt in the tournament. I think one more season – having redshirted earlier – and we might have seen his potential realized. Michael Washington was the biggest disappointment. He just never seemed to fulfill what I thought he could do after his freshman year. He was such a defensive liability to this staff, and that in turn affected his offensive output.

This group took to coaching in rebounding, the defense improved in its rotation, and the offense had to adjust from motion to a pick-and-roll style that bothered them early but eventually they showed some efficiency.

3. It’s hard to judge a coach after only one season, but that won’t stop us from asking you this: what is your impression of John Pelphrey, and do you think he is the right person for the job?

(Read on …)

This week Stephen and I have been so focused on publishing tournament analyses from our witty and wise contributors and doing Q&A’s with former basketball stars that we’ve barely had time to think about the fact that there’s an entire NCAA sub-regional taking place in (North) Little Rock this weekend. That’s pretty damn cool.

Of course, hosting such a big event tends to bring out the best in the local media. In his column today, Wally Hall unleashes an all-time gem that includes a variety of goofy tourist tips plus a lament that the games are going to be played on Good Friday and Easter. I was all set to do a Wally Watch on the subject when I noticed that Tre Baker over at Arkansas Sports 360 had already taken care of that for me (with savage effectiveness, I might add). It’s laugh-out-loud hilarious, so definitely check it out.

Tre also continues his hot streak for the day by providing his own alternate suggestions for things fans of each team can do while in town. His advice to Mississippi State fans is classic:

“Starkville fans, prepare to be amazed. Spread out across the metropolis are eating places called “McDonald’s”. You’ll be fascinated by the technology used to fulfill your gastrological indulgences: Watch as they make your hamburger from INSIDE the building. Listen as the French fry machine plays “Oye Como Va”. You won’t find sweet tea here, but you will be able to observe technology dispense your drink using an electronic pump device. Rest rooms are indoors as well, complete with running water.”

There’s plenty of other great stuff in the post, including some old-fashioned Texas bashing, although I have to raise a good-natured protest about his description of my adopted hometown, Oakland (it’s actually a nice place!). That minor grievance aside, both articles are highly recommended. Read and enjoy!

Razorback fans will of course remember Pat Bradley as one of the Hogs’ top all-time bombers. One of the best players of the late-period Nolan era, he was voted to the All-SEC team in 1998 and 1999, and until this season still held the SEC career record for most three-pointers made (he’s still in the all-time NCAA top ten). These days he co-hosts “The Zone” radio show on 103.7 The Buzz out of Little Rock, and we were fortunate enough to chat with him yesterday to get his expert take on this year’s Hog team, the best player he ever played with, and how he’d fare in a shootout against another Arkansas legend. Read on for all that and more…

Pat, it’s great to talk to you. In 1996, Stephen and I were living together in an apartment in Memphis and watched your team’s last minute run to the Sweet 16 pretty religiously.

This year with the Razorbacks kind of brought back memories to that year [1996], when we needed to win at least one game in the SEC Tournament. I think that year we played South Carolina in the first round, won that game and that kind of assured us that we would at least be in.

It’s funny because we were the 12th seed that year, and the Hogs have a 9th seed this year, but I would take that 12th seed over this 9th seed any time. When you play Indiana first round and then have North Carolina waiting in the second round, that’s about as bad as it gets.

On that note, what do you think is going to happen against Indiana?

Sonny Weems hurt his knee yesterday in practice. In my mind that’s key because Eric Gordon for Indiana is a lottery pick…probably a top 10 pick, 6’3”, a strong, strong point guard. To me, Sonny and Beverley were going to be the two guys that would probably switch off on him, ‘cause Ervin and Welsh aren’t strong enough. Now, maybe it will fall on Beverley…I don’t know what Pelphrey’s going to do. But Sonny, I thought, was somebody who could maybe bother him just because he’s so long. Sonny is so key to the team. Gordon leads them in free throws, free throws taken, free throws made. The kid really attacks the basket. That’s huge.

But if guys keep stepping up the way they have…you know, Charles Thomas and Townes playing so well. Welsh doesn’t have to bust it out, but if he can make at least maybe one or two three’s that he shoots, that will help.

I just think that Indiana is in such a tailspin mentally. I know they’ve got a kid who’s an All-American, D.J. White, who’s an absolute beast. But, I’d put Townes up against anybody offensively. We know what Steven Hill can do defensively.

I think the Hogs — of course, there’s a lot of homer in me obviously — but looking at it from the outside in, it just seems like Indiana’s superstars — those two guys, Gordon and White — I think they’re looking at the NBA right now and couldn’t care less about the tournament.

So, you’re going with the Hogs?

Hoggies all the way, baby! But, then we’d run into North Carolina, so, really, what’s the difference?

I’m guessing you’re not optimistic about how that game would go?

Not really. What can they do? I’ll tell you the only reason why I’m optimistic: going into the SEC Tournament, I wanted to see how they would play against top teams — Vanderbilt on Friday, Tennessee on Saturday — how they would play against those two teams on a neutral floor. And they showed that they could. Tennessee’s a, what, top five team, six, seven, eight team, whatever you want to say. The SEC tournament showed me that the Hogs can compete with the best teams in the country on a neutral floor.

Obviously, they’re terrible on the road, and you can probably go crazy trying to figure out why that is. Whatever the reason is, thank God we don’t have any more actual road games. They can compete with any team in the country, we know that. You’ve gotta give ‘em a puncher’s chance, at least, in that North Carolina second round game.

The Hogs have been really inconsistent all year. Why do you think that is?

I remember a quote that Bill Parcells said on NFL Crunch Course. He was talking about guys who hit in the NFL. Basically, he said that you have guys who come up through Pop Warner football, and they can hit. In high school, they can hit. In college, they can hit. They come up to the NFL, and they continue that. They just know how to hit you in the mouth.

To win on the road…there are certain types of teams that win on the road. Obviously, you’ve got to be able to rebound, and you’ve got to be able to hit shots and make big plays when you’re on the road, because the home team is always going to have momentum and excitement on their side. So, you’ve got to be able to hit key shots.

There’s a little something you need to win on the road. I don’t want to use the word “toughness,” because everyone throws that word around, and I don’t think anybody really knows exactly what it means or how to apply it. But, there’s just a certain thing that a team has — and a team is made up by a few of its strongest leaders — that allows them to win on the road. It’s just the confidence, the ability to play under pressure. You look at some of the best college teams that I can remember – I never really watched the Triplets and just a little bit of Todd and Oliver Miller and those guys — but talking about Scotty Thurman, Corey Beck and Corliss and those guys, they could perform under pressure as good as any team. They were strong, they could shoot. I think it’s just an attitude…you have it or you don’t have it.

That’s not to say anything about these Hogs, but there are certain ingredients that you need to win on the road, and if you have that, you’re gonna have that from your freshman year. It’s tough to develop that this late in your career, mentally, if you don’t already have it as a young kid.

I don’t know if that even answers the question!

What do you think John Pelphrey’s impact has been on the team this year?

(Read on …)

In honor of this week’s official start of the national holiday known as March Madness, we’ve asked some of our regular contributors to weigh in with their takes on the tournament. When we last heard from Grandma Susan, she was giving us an eyewitness account of the Hogs’ rout of Florida early last month (we hope she brings that same good mojo to the IU game). Today she starts with the Arkansas-Indiana matchup and then breaks down the entire tournament from there. Read on:

One of these days a #16 seed is going to beat a #1 seed. No, I’m not going out on that limb this year to predict it, but it will happen sometime. Just saying.

So although I don’t see the upset occurring in those games, the first round generally does hold an upset or two. The interesting games I see here are between the #8 and #9 seeds, which are the most evenly matched in terms of stats. Naturally, the most compelling is in the East, where Indiana meets Arkansas. I’m calling it for the Hogs, although we all know that is just out of loyalty. To be fair, the Indiana fans are calling it out of loyalty as well. These teams are very much alike in all respects, including their up and down season, shooting percentage, and record. Certainly, the Hoosiers were hard hit with Kelvin Sampson’s resignation, but they seem to be holding their own. And Arkansas, without Indiana’s excuse, has had about the same kind of season. Seems as though both of them have a tough time showing up for all their games. When they do turn up, both teams defend well and shoot pretty fair, not great. This one could be decided by free throws.

But then what game can’t? Makes me really surly when a fine team shoots itself in the foot rather than in the bucket. Too many of them are too eager to shoot three-pointers and neglect the freebies. They are just kids, after all, and want to go for the drama!

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In honor of this week’s official start of the national holiday known as March Madness, we’ve asked some of our regular contributors to weigh in with their takes on the tournament. Today’s post is written by frequent commenter J. Hawg 3, whose description of listening to the radio broadcast of the Tennessee game in the parking lot outside a wedding reception is still cracking us up a bit. So, sit back and enjoy J. Hawg’s breakdown of the various tourney scenarios:

I was already depressed Sunday afternoon, watching this group of Hogs choke away their last chance at a ring. But when the first set of seeds were announced during the selection show, my heart sank. The Hogs drew about as bad a seed as was possible for them.

In the first place, there’s Indiana. Two bona fide All-Big Ten selections in Eric Gordon and D. J. White, and a team that was ranked No. 7 in the country shortly before the Kelvin Sampson debacle. Yes, they have been inconsistent, even suicidally depressive since then under Dan Dakich. But, uh, so have the Hogs. I would submit Indiana, if they decide to play, is the toughest No. 8 seed in the tournament. I’d like our chances better with Mississippi State (we beat them once; should have beat them twice), even better with BYU or especially UNLV. Gordon will give our weak guards fits; White, when he’s on, is a monster inside. And we have problems with really mobile and aggressive post players, despite our size.

The Hogs can certainly win against the Hoosiers, but only if the “good” Hogs show up. You know, the ones that can actually make a jump shot, don’t fall asleep on in-bounds plays, pass the ball and rebound. Which is to say, the Hogs we saw Friday and Saturday and not the ones we saw Sunday. It would help immensely if the “bad” Hoosiers showed up as well. If the “good” Hoosiers and “good” Hogs both show up, it will be a whale of a ball game, too close to call. If the “bad” Hogs show up, they will lose, and lose badly if the “good” Hoosiers show. I just don’t know how likely the Hoosiers are to play well for Dakich (they sure look like they are laying down), but the chances of the good Hogs showing are only about 70 percent (and I’m being charitable given our recent NCAA performances).

Let’s have some fun and assume a win in the first round, which is a classic 8-9 toss up. The second round is, well, let’s be frank: the Hogs have about as much chance of beating North Carolina as will Coppin State or Mt. St. Mary’s. (An Indiana playing their best stands a lot better chance of beating North Carolina, by the way.) Again, almost any of the other No. 1 seeds would have been more favorable.

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