What is the definition of "Hawgball?"

[passinghog]

Hawgball: Imposing our will and intimidating your opponent with EFFORT and ACTIVITY on defense. At it's core and foundation, it must always be with defense. In waves, throughout the game....With rotation after rotation and hand activity.

UNC was one of the tallest teams we've played in the last 20 years, but make no mistake, we intimidated them with our effort and hand activity on defense. It'd been seemingly at least 15 years since we saw a Razorback team display the effort and activity level you expect with hawgball we saw on Sunday. How many charges did we take? Effort! How many deflections did we end up with? Activity!  Our roster is just about to the point where we can impose our will on defense more often than not, beginning with next season. I'm not the biggest zone fan, but our zone defense at the end of the season was fantastic and gave us more opportunities for hand activity and to jump passing lanes; I expect it to be another effective curveball next season.

If it comes down to adding another long wing or a big bruiser, I say go with Zhaire Smith and we'll just outguard people next season. Mike has shown he can develop offensive skills in players that have a canvas to work with. Smith has a good canvas to work with. If an opponent wants to try and play bully ball, we'll have 10 guys next year that have the length to guard and just outeffort and out-active our opponent on defense.

Are we losing key scorers? Yes, but as stated earlier, MA has shown he can improve so-called weaknesses in player's games and mold them into positives. Ky Madden was a consistent shooter by the time he left; Qualls came here with no J and left with a consistent inside-out game; Watkins couldn't shoot a lick and last year his jumper was somewhat wet; Moses from freshman to SR season (say no more) Durham last year. So I fully expect Barford to come back and be a 35% 3 point shooter next season. Watch Jones be a double figures guy next season and over 35% 3pt (you heard it first). The scoring will be there.

Excited about the future and happy to see where we could be headed. There IS a blueprint for how hawgball can exist in the 21st century...

[Hollywood_HOGan45]

It's not just 94 feet of pressure, it's all out heart and effort for 40 minutes until the other team gives in.

[passinghog]

It's not just 94 feet of pressure, it's all out heart and effort for 40 minutes until the other team gives in.

Exactly. I don't really expect us to be able to do 94 feet; it certainly wasn't on Sunday, but our defensive activity level was the difference. We're going to have a roster that we can throw out 10 guys to defend at the level we need to play our style of ball with no drop off. 

[hogsanity]

To those who remember the late 80's through 1996 "hawgbawl" is having players capable of pressing, getting in passing lanes, going on quick spurts of 10-0 in a minute. It was all built on having physical guards AND having those guards use the lack of calls on handchecking back then to guide the ballhandler into the sidelines/corners, where they could be trapped by our long armed guards/wings. That version of hawgbawl ain't comin back.

Today most people slap " hawgbawl is back" on here after just about any game or half where the pace is pretty fast, hogs get some steals, make a dunk or two, and cause general chaos with an opponent. We saw it after the 2nd half spurt against Bama, we saw it after they ran old misses out of the gym, and again after GA. They want it so badly to be like it was they take anything that they think resembled it and throw that label on it.

[PORKULATOR]

Fast, fun, and effective.

[PonderinHog]

Fast, fun, and effective.

Attitude!

[DiamondHogFan]

We saw mental toughness from our guys on Sunday.  Down 30-13 and being abused on the offensive glass, I didn't think we would keep it competitive.  They proved me wrong, thankfully.  To turn a 17 pt deficit to a 5 pt deficit in the matter of about 5 mins is what sparked us.  We went from being intimidated and over matched to being right in the mix with a top 5 team in a matter of minutes.  We looked like the better team for 16+ minutes in the 2nd half, but ran out of steam the last 3+ (with some unfortunate missed/bad calls).  Our guys played their guts out and came up short against a very good basketball team.

I don't really know what "hawgball" means anymore, but I want to see more of what our guys showed on Sunday.  We will win a whole lot of games next year if we have that kind of tenacity and focus.

[Dwillhog66]

IMO, hawgball is any style of razorback basketball that wins!

[JayBell]

I really, really, really want Anderson to roll with Hall and Bailey at the 3 next season.  I think with their athleticism and length, Arkansas could crank up the pressure on defense, get more rebounds, go faster on offense, and really grind teams down better than they have up to now under Anderson.

You can put a third guard out there when you need to, but use Hall and Bailey out there most of the time.  It doesn't have to be a full court press, but pressure defense certainly gets better with someone like Hall or Bailey harassing the inbounder or denying the ball instead of a Dusty Hannahs or Manny Watkins.

[Richard_white]

My first home game I saw the Razorbacks play was in 1988 or 89 when they played US International.  We won like 160-100 or close to it.  That was hawgball then.  Game has changed since then. But the principal is still the same.  Pressure...Pressure defense.  And having depth to rotate players in and out and wear them down.

[The_Iceman]

Basketball played by the University of Arkansas men's basketball team. Preferably, winning basketball.

[NWAHog479]

Manny Watkins, Kikko, Blake Eddins, Pat Bradley, Kareem Reid, Alonzo Lane, Darian Townes, Derek Hood, Bobby Portis, Moses Kingsley, Dusty Hannahs, Coty Clarke, Jabril Durham, Rashad "Ky" Madden, Teddy G, TJ Cleveland, Joe Dean Davenport, Steven Hill, Joe Johnson, Corliss, Corey Beck, Clint McDaniel, BIG O, Oliver Miller, Joe Kleine, Eugene Nash...