Interesting excuse by one of our assistants

[checkraiser88]

Melvin Watkins "I think we used all of our energy trying to get back into the game in the first half"....Ya know, if we wouldn't have started piss poor like we have done several times this year then that wouldn't have been necessary!! I'm just pissed! Screw this!

[Oliver]

Funny that Butler didn't get tired for the rest of the game after their 21-2 run to start the game

[pigroots]

Somebody please tell him our philosophy is wearing the OTHER team down.

[alohawg]

Good grief, fire the whole staff.

[hobhog]

Predicable

[BoarnSupremacy]

Melvin Watkins "I think we used all of our energy trying to get back into the game in the first half"....Ya know, if we wouldn't have started piss poor like we have done several times this year then that wouldn't have been necessary!! I'm just pissed! Screw this!

What about the second half where they shot 60% with so many easy shots?  Watkins attached himself to Mike for easy lazy paycheck.  He had lost everywhere he has been.  I laughed when I heard that.

[The_Iceman]

They acted entitled to start the game. Thought this was going to be a breeze to the 2nd Round. Didn't want to work for it.

[oldbooniehog]

So....

Is "We used up all our energy in the first half" pretty much the other side of the coin to "we wanted to have fresh legs in the second half?"

Just curious....

[Dr. Starcs]

They acted entitled to start the game. Thought this was going to be a breeze to the 2nd Round. Didn't want to work for it.

Spot on Iceman

[Biggus Piggus]

Skill beats "energy" - and that's how we're screwed.

[Tejano Jawg]

By the time I got home and tuned in, we were down 12-2. The first 5 seconds I saw—and that was all it took—we looked so out of sorts and unorganized, we deserved to get down by 19. It was some terrible basketball (if you can call it that).

Why did we come out so flat?

[hawgtime]

Good grief, fire the whole staff.

I am all for THAT!  we need to use our resources BETTER.  This was the year to do it!!!

and we didn't.

no excuses.

[MountieDawg]

Melvin Watkins "I think we used all of our energy trying to get back into the game in the first half"....Ya know, if we wouldn't have started piss poor like we have done several times this year then that wouldn't have been necessary!! I'm just pissed! Screw this!

No way this team was out of gas! Mike Anderson teams are ready for this time of year because we play so many players and we're always fresher than the other team.

[hoglady]

I didn't take that as an excuse for the poor play.
Just what he thought. Getting yourself behind and then having to catch up does in fact use a lot of energy.
That's why when you get yourself that far behind few teams ever come back to actually win the game even if they come back to make it close.

[nwahogfan1]

Melvin Watkins "I think we used all of our energy trying to get back into the game in the first half"....Ya know, if we wouldn't have started piss poor like we have done several times this year then that wouldn't have been necessary!! I'm just pissed! Screw this!

Then why don't you teach how to play defense?  Or why not sign better players?  LOL

[Jim Harris]

Funny that Butler didn't get tired for the rest of the game after their 21-2 run to start the game

Butler required much less energy to take a 21-2 lead while Arkansas did absolutely nothing, than Arkansas used in its 27-6 run over a 7-minute span to take its only lead. Butler played at the same level of energy for 40 minutes. Butler's shooting waned during that Arkansas run. Arkansas's high energy and good play was mostly supplied in that 27-6 run by Cook and Hall. Those guys had their best stretch of the game in that point. They were far from that level or had maxed out in the second half. Hall in particular played well on the defensive end at times only to play just as poorly with the ball on the offensive end.

based on what Manny says, Arkansas would have been better served to slowly chip back into the game with "mini runs" of 8-4 here and there to make up  19 points, rather than an intense 27-6 spurt. Arkansas had a lot of open looks at 3 during that run as well, which they didn't always seem to get for the rest of the game.

I've seen this energy thing play out many times over the course of covering and/or watching college hoops for 40 something years. One great example that went Arkansas's way was the 1978 West Regional semifinal vs. UCLA. Arkansas had a 48-29 lead at one point, and UCLA made a comeback to enormous proportions, pressing like crazy, to briefly take the lead something like 67-64. Remember, too, there was no 3-point shot. Also, UCLA was No. 2 in the country, fwiw. Also, Arkansas had always had difficulty in that great era with full-court pressure. Anyway, UCLA finally hit the wall, as both sides would later say, and Arkansas ran away with the final 5 minutes to win 78-74. It was having to make up that huge deficit in a short amount of time that wore UCLA out, at least in the eyes of coaches and players on both teams, not to mention Rick Schaeffer.

[Nickle-Pig]

1,238 smites can't be wrong oh wait 1,239

[HoopS]

I didn't take that as an excuse for the poor play.
Just what he thought. Getting yourself behind and then having to catch up does in fact use a lot of energy.
That's why when you get yourself that far behind few teams ever come back to actually win the game even if they come back to make it close.

correct. It amazes me some don't understand the statement or how getting behind and having to claw back takes more energy than playing with a lead. I can only imagine many have never been in games like that to understand.

I knew when we got down like that winning would be difficult even if we got back into it, as we did.

Too many times this season we started off terribly. Other times we came out too jacked up and faded just as quickly - Kentucky.

Just seemed odd. Too emotional or not emotional enough. Neither is desired.

Hoping the next group finds a better balance.

[Danny J]

Melvin Watkins "I think we used all of our energy trying to get back into the game in the first half"....Ya know, if we wouldn't have started piss poor like we have done several times this year then that wouldn't have been necessary!! I'm just pissed! Screw this!

I've said it for years...switching man D is 90% of the reason we get down early by double digits before Mike changes D. If we only switched during special circumstances we would be a better team.

[rude1]

I've said it for years...switching man D is 90% of the reason we get down early by double digits before Mike changes D. If we only switched during special circumstances we would be a better team.

Nothing says "we got them where we want them" better than watching Trey Thompson 25' from the basket guarding a ball handler, while Beard takes on their big in the paint, you just know that defensive trip will end well for us......................

[bigred223]

Nothing says "we got them where we want them" better than watching Trey Thompson 25' from the basket guarding a ball handler, while Beard takes on their big in the paint, you just know that defensive trip will end well for us......................

Happens multiple times a game and always fails

[WBOBO]

Skill beats "energy" - and that's how we're screwed.

So does preparation in the film room.

[azhog10]

They acted entitled to start the game. Thought this was going to be a breeze to the 2nd Round. Didn't want to work for it.

I will agree with that. I felt the same way watching them play. It was like they were pissed Butler was coming out and going so hard.

[Boardon Hamsay]

Perhaps my perception is wrong but has MA developed much of a coaching tree? Has he had many assistants take other jobs? Just curious as my perception is our assistants are mainly former players that really needed jobs. I'm aware of zero former/current MA assistants that are exceptional at anything coaching related.

[Sharky]

Funny that Butler didn't get tired for the rest of the game after their 21-2 run to start the game

They were shooting like 70% from 2 and 80% from 3 at that point.

[PonderinHog]

Perhaps my perception is wrong but has MA developed much of a coaching tree? Has he had many assistants take other jobs? Just curious as my perception is our assistants are mainly former players that really needed jobs. I'm aware of zero former/current MA assistants that are exceptional at anything coaching related.

Charlie likes it...

[aloha_kid]

Somebody please tell him our philosophy is wearing the OTHER team down.

Only works if you actually make some shots

[cityhog]

They acted entitled to start the game. Thought this was going to be a breeze to the 2nd Round. Didn't want to work for it.

Well when Gafford is quoted as saying he thought the game would be 'easy', that tells you all you need to know.

[HF#1]

Lay down and have a good bleed.

[urkillnmesmalls]

When your entire strategy is seemingly to "get into the opponents' legs," then what do people expect?  ALL SEASON long I watched the same thing over and over.  We didn't move our feet on defense on the perimeter, PERIOD.  When the games were close and the outcome was in question, we played at defense at a different level...go back and watch the games. 

Had we smothered opponents and played them close enough so they couldn't launch threes, AND been able to stay in front of them so they didn't drive around us like we were traffic cones...we would have had much better results. 

Now...I understand that's probably simplified, but it was the glaring weakness, and even the "experts" pointed that we don't guard the perimeter well. 

My hope is that we had a case of the "NBA itis" and we'll see guys putting out 110% effort next season that will actually WARRANT being subbed and going 10 deep.  The way we played this season, didn't require that at all.  I can't name a single game where we had a team completely exhausted, which led to a win. 

It's simple...you play DEFENSE at a high intensity, FORCE them to work really hard, and THAT is what tires them out.  CONSTANT movement on offense making them work hard...tires them out.  Dribbling the ball on offense until the shot clock hits 5 doesn't do that.  Everyone else standing around just lets them rest.

Maybe we'll see a team that plays as a team with max effort next year with no one threatening the NBA.   

[DeltaBoy]

I think regardless of what Mike told them they thought they would cake walk Butler.