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 …)
