It’s time for another edition of the game that is quickly becoming a national obsession. “Name That Obscure Hog” is a straightforward game: We post a photo of a Razorback that most fans have surely long forgotten about and ask our readers to name him. The first person to do so will receive nothing in return other than our undying respect … as well as our concern that he or she - like us - may need to get out more.

A few clues about today’s obscure Hog. Once again, he was a basketball player. He was highly touted, having been named a McDonald’s All-American as a high-school senior. He didn’t quite live up to the expectations, though.

In his senior year, he hit a last-second jumper to beat Texas A&M in the SWC Tournament. Our favorite memory of him, though, took place earlier in his career, when he secured a nationally televised road win against Wake Forest by nailing five of six free throws in the game’s final minutes.

Here’s the photo of today’s mystery player:

Here at Razorback Expats, we are spirited defenders of The Natural State (although we have mellowed out from our college years, when we were just flat-out defensive). As any Arkansan knows, that can be a tough job. Nevertheless, we bravely soldier on.

This bit of news, however, gives us more than a little pause: Wally Hall was named “Best Newspaper Writer” in the Arkansas Times’ annual Best of Arkansas awards. (The awardees are determined by the votes of the paper’s readers.)

Even we don’t know how to spin that.

• Maybe He and Sonny Can Share a Place. Peyton Hillis has signed a contract with the Denver Broncos, although terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

 • The Bad News Hogs. Jeff Alexander of Point-Spreads.com has peered into his crystal ball, and you won’t like what he sees for Bobby Petrino’s first Razorback team: a dead-last finish in the SEC West. Says Alexander: “Two years ago the Razorbacks were among the best teams in the nation. Last year, they were still explosive offensively and very competitive. This year, the rebuilding project begins under a new head man. With players asked to learn such a different offensive system and with so many new players being asked to step into expanded rolls, growing pains are inevitable.” Question: Is any player capable of being our Kelly Leak and saving us from such a horrible fate?

• We’re Number 26!! Some high-falutin’ number crunchers at SI.com have determined that Arkansas and Western Kentucky tied for the 26th best athletic program during the 2007-’08 school year.

• Rebel Fans Ready to Get Their Nutt On. The Clarion-Ledger newspaper has an article on the lovefest currently underway between Houston Nutt and Ole Miss fans. We can already hardly wait for the Ole Miss-Arkansas match-up in Fayetteville this fall. Think that will get much coverage in the Arkansas media?

• Sweating the Big Stuff. Jim Harris of ArkansasSports360.com has an interesting piece on the issues that have college basketball coaches tossing and turning all through the night.

• Go Hog Go. Former Razorback and Benton native Cliff Lee will have the eyes of the baseball world upon him this evening, when he will be the starting pitcher for the American League in one of the sporting world’s most boring events: the Major League All-Star Game. The Cleveland Indian southpaw sports an impressive 12-2 record (which is even more impressive when you consider his team has a decidedly unimpressive 41-53 record) and a nifty 2.31 ERA. If history holds, Lee won’t pitch more than two innings, meaning he will likely already be on a plane home by the time the game hits the late innings (we hear All-Stars aren’t big on sticking around once they’ve been removed from the game). Here’s wishing Cliff the best of luck.

• Baby Needs a New Pair of Shoes. Courtesy of the inimitable Deadspin, we came across this Vegas Insider.com listing of teams’ odds of winning the 2009 BCS National Championship Game. The team with the best chance? Southern California, with odds of 3 to 1. Florida has the next-best chance, the site says, with odds of 5 to 1. And how ’bout the Hogs … well, how ’bout odds of 100 to 1? Perhaps it’s best to hold off on buying those plane tickets to Miami for now.

• Speaking of Vegas … The Razorbloggers have a nice piece on Sonny Weems’ impressive NBA Summer League debut in the desert.

• Prediction Time. The staff at ArkansasSports360.com has released a batch of predictions for the upcoming SEC football season. One of the highlights: “Ole Miss and Houston Nutt set the world afire for two months, then fold up like a cheap pup tent in November and end season with a one-point loss to Mississippi State.”

• “To An Athlete Dying Old.” That’s the title of a touching tribute to former Razorback footballer Wayne Jackson penned by the Arkansas Times’ Derek Jenkins and published on his “A Boy Named Sooie” blog. Jackson died earlier this month. To read the tribute, just click here.

Welcome to the inaugural edition of what will be a periodic feature here at Razorback Expats. “Name That Obscure Hog” is a straightforward game: We post a photo of a Razorback that most fans have surely long forgotten about and ask our readers to name him. The first person to do so will receive nothing in return other than our undying respect … as well as our concern that he or she - like us - may need to get out more.

We will say only the following things about today’s Obscure Hog: 1) he was a basketball player and 2) his media-guide entry contains one of the funniest lines we’ve come across in such a publication: “Endurance and being prone to illness are his greatest drawbacks.” Poor guy.

Here’s the photo. Let the guessing begin:

We’re guessing Matt Jones never saw “Desperate Lives,” a made-for-TV, anti-drug movie starring a young Helen Hunt that was designed to scare the ever-living-sh*t out of kids. Or if he did, the movie certainly didn’t have the desired effect. Take a look at the clip below. Who in their right mind would ever think of touching any narcotic after such powerful scenes? How Ms. Hunt didn’t win an Emmy, we’ll never know.

For an obvious reason, nose candy appears to be first and foremost on Hog fans’ minds today, but here at Razorback Expats, we thought it might be a nice change of pace to talk about something more pleasant. Little Rock’s KATV Channel 7 has come up with a great way to pass the hot, lazy and hazy days of summer: by counting down the 16 most memorable Hog football moments since the program joined the SEC.

To help compile the list, Steve Sullivan, the station’s sports director, canvassed the state’s sports journalistic/broadcasting icons (we were outraged that we didn’t get a call), and several of those guys have since published their thoughts on the matter.

ArkansasSports360’s Jim Harris says the 20-19 win over Alabama in 1995, which featured Barry Lunney’s last-second and slightly controversial touchdown pass to J.J. Meadors, tops his list. Says Harris: “Though the Hogs made noise around the league when they upset then No. 4 Tennessee 25-24 in Knoxville in their first season in the SEC, and even led athletic director Frank Broyles to holler ‘The Razorbacks are BACK!’ in the press box and outside the dressing room that day, it was the dramatic win at Tuscaloosa, when Alabama was still a national power under Gene Stallings, that said, ‘Arkansas has arrived in the SEC.’”

Meanwhile, Razorback broadcaster Rick Schaeffer says last Thanksgiving weekend’s triple-overtime upset of No. 1 LSU is the most memorable moment for him, and Harry King of Stephens Media engineers a huge buzzkill by pinpointing Clint Stoerner’s 1998 late-game fumble against Tennessee. Says King: “Nothing says the most memorable moments must be positive ones.” Fair enough.

Finally, Wally Hall says his most memorable moment of the past 16 years was eating Mexican food with Charles Baker at a P.A.R.K. fundraiser.

The minute I ever declare a particular Razorback game my favorite, I almost immediately change my mind for one reason or another (at some point, I’ve labeled approximately 5,000 games as “the best” or “my favorite” or something similar). But, for the purposes of this post, I name Barry Lunney and crew’s 1992 upset over Tennessee as the most memorable football moment of the last 16 years. I do this for two reasons: 1) it’s hard to overstate how much of an upset this was (for some perspective: we had lost to The Citadel in that year’s season-opener) and 2) I was there — and the memory of hearing roughly 100,000 people go suddenly silent is an unforgettable one indeed.

Arkansas Sports 360 is reporting that Matt Jones was arrested for cocaine possession in Fayetteville last night. Apparently he was sitting in a car behind Ryleigh’s Sports & More with a couple of buddies (including former Hog tight end Jared Hicks) when the cops rolled up.

The Razorbloggers are also following this story and have a few links from the Jacksonville perspective. Whatever happens next, it’s not going to be good for Mr. Jones.

This is only tangentially related to sports, but is too hilarious to let pass without comment: it seems that Sacha Baron Cohen (of “Borat” fame) has struck again, and this time his victims are the good people of Texarkana and Fort Smith.

It all started with an event titled “Blue Collar Brawlin’” that promised “hot chicks, cold beer, hardcore fights”. Sounds like wholesome fun for the whole family, right? Well, not exactly…here’s how the AP described the scene:

“Lured by $1 beer and the prospect of “hot chicks” and “hardcore fights,” thousands of Arkansans were duped last month into appearing as extras in comedian Sacha Baron Cohen’s latest staged mayhem. Cohen and his confederates organized cage fighting programs on consecutive days in Texarkana and Fort Smith. Both cards ended with two male grapplers (one was identified as “Straight Dave” and wore camouflage) tearing each other’s clothes off and, while in underwear, kissing down their opponent’s chest.”

Oops.

After that, madness predictably ensued, including many beers thrown with malicious intent and the performers being hustled out of the arena through a special exit. And, of course, the story is now all over the Internet with plenty of predictable jokes about the Natural State to accompany it.

The moral of this story? Some things are just too good to be true, and like Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and affordable national health care, an event featuring cage fighting, sexy women and $1 beer definitely falls into that category.

Links to get your week started right:

* A Kentucky fan rates the home court advantage afforded by the various SEC basketball arenas. The best quote: “Arkansas fans rule”. Aw shucks, now we’re blushing. Anyway, if you’re curious as to where he ranks Bud Walton, I’ll keep you in suspense a little longer…your answer is right here.

* A few weeks ago I noted the running joke on the Chicago Bears’ message board about Marcus Monk being an all-powerful super being. Well, the fun continues as Bears fans speculate on how Monk would fare in the high-stakes world of competitive eating.

* “The Return of Hope in 2008″ - the new Barack Obama campaign slogan? A marketing campaign for the Watermelon City? Nope, it’s the title of a Bleacher Report blog post by an Ole Miss fan. In case you’re wondering what exactly that cause for hope is, here’s a sample quote:

“Win or lose, they will leave it all on the field. They will play intelligently and soundly. They will execute. They will understand the fundamental elements of the game. And their leader’s decision making will serve as a strength, rather than a handicap.”

* This is officially ancient history (2007), but I just stumbled across a link that’s too hilarious not to share. Apparently, back during his freewheeling cell phone days, Nutt accidentally dialed the wrong number of some lady in North Carolina a couple of times. Then, when the number was published as part of that FOIA mess, some psycho Hog fans began calling her at all hours of the day (and night). I can only imagine how confusing all that must have been for her.

* The Sporting News college football preview is out and, for what it’s worth, they rank the Nutt the 4th best new hire and Bobby Petrino the 5th best. A more interesting list would have been if they’d shown us where all the other potential Arkansas hires would have ranked…what about Jim Grobe? Tommy Tuberville? Tommy Bowden??

Hmm…lots of Houston Nutt content in this hodge podge. I didn’t plan it that way, but something tells me that he’ll be the source of much blog fodder for many months to come.