* As you’ve probably seen, the Hogs have been picked to finish last in the SEC West by just about every prognosticator out there. Now, the no respect train continues to roll as Sports Illustrated has ranked Arkansas 69th out of the 119 D-I teams. For those of you scoring at home, that’s immediately behind noted football powers like Bowling Green, Ball State and, um, Louisville.

* After slandering Dwight Stewart earlier in the week, those sky blue snobs over at Tar Heel Fan have taken aim at another Razorback icon. Reporting on their 1993 team, they write: “…the Heels faced Arkansas and the ever talkative Nolan Richardson. The Razorbacks’ coach took the opportunity to make all sorts of statements in the media which UNC kindly stuffed back in his face by beating Arkansas in the Sweet Sixteen.” If I may practice a bit of armchair psychology, I’d guess that they know deep down that the Hog teams of that era were better than their UNC counterparts, and are aghast at the thought of finishing behind those non-pedigreed ruffians.

* Remember the names Michael Dyers and Claude Johnson. This article says they’re players Petrino has to sign in 2010. Yes, 2010. And yes, he might be at his second post-Razorback job by that point.

* It’s nice to see the national media catching on to what we Arkies have known all along: D-Mac can play some football. And he’s not quite the thug he was made out to be, either.

* In addition to being a fairly decent football player, D-Mac isn’t too shabby as a pitchman, either. Check this out (link courtesy of Arkansas Sports 360):

Kind of a quiet milestone yesterday…after 23 years, Nolan Richardson’s business relationship with the University of Arkansas is over. His buyout period has ended and the university has stopped the alimony payments concluded its contractual obligations. Definitely not the way he should have gone out.

Nolan, whenever you’re ready to give a wide-ranging and insightful interview about your life as Razorback coach, just contact us at razorbackexpats at yahoo dot com. We’ll be waiting for your email.

Anyway, in honor of the occasion, here are a couple of other basketball-related tidbits:

* Yesterday was also Chancellor John White’s last day at the university, and in an interview with the AP he related that legendary Arkansas coach Dana Altman had “buyer’s remorse” from the get-go. Our thought: Altman never lost a game during his Razorback tenure…how could White let an undefeated coach slip away like that??

* Nolan’s name came up on the blog of former NBA coach Eric Musselman yesterday (btw, Musselman’s blog is quite interesting if you’re a bball fan…perhaps not as Pulitzer-worthy as this one, but still well worth reading): he cites Nolan’s time with the Panamanian and Mexican national teams as an example of a coach’s passion, and has a nice quote about Nolan’s underdog spirit.

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.

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 …)

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 …)

Jim Harris of ArkansasSports360.com says that, contrary to message-board rumor mongering, there will be no press conference this afternoon to announce that Nolan Richardson is the new head coach at Arkansas State. According to Harris, ASU probably won’t make a hire until early next week.

Another interesting tidbit from Harris’ dispatch: the very tan Mike Newell, the former head coach of UALR and current coach of UA-Monticello, also is in the running for the ASU gig.

Back in the 1980s, it was not uncommon knowledge that Nolan was no big fan of Newell (it’s also not uncommon knowledge that Nolan was far from the only member of that club). Nolan’s first year in Fayetteville was 1985-86, the same season that Newell took UALR to the NCAA Tournament for the first time.

To mark the occasion, the Trojan athletic department printed up bumper stickers that said something like, “UALR Trojans - Arkansas’ NCAA team,” a not terribly subtle dig at the Hogs, who missed the postseason with a 12-16 record. That, and Newell’s repeated pronouncements that his teams could beat Arkansas, no doubt rankled Nolan, who was then slowly but surely getting the Razorback program back on its feet and taking plenty of crap from Hog fans while doing so.

All these years later, it’s strange to see them in the running for the same job - at another Arkansas school, of all places.

Links to enjoy while you’re pondering the NCAA Selection Committee tea leaves:

* Careful readers of this blog will know that I’m mildly obsessed with the 1994 basketball team. So, I greatly enjoyed this Morning News article about the detente between the team (i.e., Nolan) and the school. (Thanks to commenter First Floor New Dorm for the tip on this.)

* Continuing the theme, I also enjoyed this article in Little Rock Family about Corliss’ post-NBA home life. I now await the restraining order from Corliss’ attorney.

* While writing about the heart-stopping ending to last weekend’s Vandy game, Jim Harris laments that nobody remembers Lawrence Moten’s erroneous timeout at the end of the 1995 Arkansas-Syracuse game. Don’t worry Jim - if you ever want to talk old-school bball moments I still recall that one like it was yesterday, and I’m quite sure that my fellow expat Stephen does too.

* Remember the name of new basketball recruit Aaron Ross…you’ll certainly need a good memory, because the 6′7″ guard/forward won’t be suiting up for the Hogs until 2011. That’s right, he’s only 15 years old. I hear his game his good, but he needs to work on his driving.

* Perhaps Nolan Richardson reads RazorbackExpats.com…it seems that he’s actually talking to A-State about their open coaching position.

I think we can all agree that it’s time for a break from the current unpleasantness of Razorback basketball, so with that in mind let’s discuss a more appealing subject: which ex-Hogs should have their numbers retired and jerseys hung from the rafters at Bud Walton? (This topic comes directly from Arkansas Sports 360, which has a good article asking why Arkansas doesn’t retire basketball numbers, so definitely check that out for your background research.)

As a starting point, here’s a very hastily put-together and poorly researched list of possible candidates…feel free to pick it apart and/or suggest your own version in the comments section.

In rough chronological order:

Sidney Moncrief
Ron Brewer
Marvin Delph
Darrell Walker
Alvin Robertson
Joe Kleine
Eddie Sutton
Todd Day
Lee Mayberry
Corliss Williamson
Scotty Thurman
Corey Beck
Nolan Richardson

This doesn’t include the larger-than-lifesize statue of Dwight Stewart that we’re recommending be placed outside the entrance of Bud Walton. That one is such a no-brainer it’s almost not worth mentioning here.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts…

This isn’t Razorback news, but should still be of interest to Hog fans. Houston Nutt’s brother, the unfortunately named Dickey, has resigned after nearly 13 seasons as coach of the Arkansas State Indians. He compiled a record of 189-187 at the school and took the Indians to the NCAA Tournament in 1999.

I highly doubt know this would never happen, for various reasons, but wouldn’t it be kind of cool to see this man wind up with the gig? Talk about a way to rejuvenate interest in the Indian program.