Do you approve of the job John Pelphrey is doing

[mathhog]

interesting to see.  obviously 1-7 is 'bad', but i still say he's doing a good job as coach. 

mike anderson couldnt recruit worth a dime

stan heath couldnt coach worth a dime

everyone else turned us down

and pel has brought a beatdown of oklahoma and texas

i say yes.

[upperdeck_hawg]

this year is in essence his first year. nolan was under .500 his first year if i remember correctly. the one area i'm a little worried on is his recruiting. We obviously need some bigs and we've signed a 6'6 power forward and a project 6'9 guy so far.  If Mike Wash doesnt return, we're in the same boat next year.

[Franchise_Hog]

Well, I disapprove but DO NOT want him fired.....he'll right the ship.

I am concerned about what's coming in though. I expect him to bring them in like Petrino.  I personally believe it's easier to bring in basketball talent over football talent here.

[Brand X Hog Fan]

I worked last night, woke up with ten minutes left in the game and we were up by 5 points, then 2 points. I said to myself, "Self, we lose by 10," and went back to sleep.

I still don't know the final but by looking at the posts, I assume we lost by 10-15. It is what it is. Pel gets no complaints from me. He is a disciple of Billy the Kid, Slick Rick and Eddie. With these mentors' help he will get it done. If by this time next year we are not in the hunt for an SEC west title I will be issuing pitchforks and torches to anyone who wants to storm PEl's office.

[regi]

Freshmen can't defend, we give up three's for a reason. They need another gaurd for 09-10, can't stay pat with with a 5-10 point gaurd and a 6-0 2-gaurd.

[HawgAdvocate]

I wish he'd bail on the 2-3 zone when we're facing teams that don't have dominant interior scorers, or at least mix in different defenses to make the offense read, recognize, and work.

I'd also love to see Moore and Clark more often. It's time to prepare for next season. We need size that can defend and rebound.

Other than that, I approve.

[donewithdale]

Well, I disapprove but DO NOT want him fired.....he'll right the ship.

I am concerned about what's coming in though. I expect him to bring them in like Petrino.  I personally believe it's easier to bring in basketball talent over football talent here.

Why is it easier to bring basketball talent to Fayetteville?

To get where our fans want our basketball program to be which is among the top 15-20 teams most every season and competing for Sweet 16s to Final 4s every few seasons, we have to recruit to the level that LSU, USC, Texas, Florida, ...etc are doing in football.  Petrino is not quite to that point.  So even if Pel does recruit to the equivalent of Petrino, that gets us about what we had last season.  A team good enough to win a game in the NCAAT.  That isn't good enough for our fan base. 

And I'm wondering why people thinks its easier to recruit basketball players to Fayetteville when our program isn't among the elite.  Our state doesn't put out top 50 recruits but 1 every 4-5 years.  Memphis is as corrupt as it gets and isn't a 'friendly' place for our program.  Why would recruits from the eastern cities leave numerous Big East programs plus A10 programs that have solid tradition for Arkansas?  Why would kids in the southeast leave the Carolinas, Virginia, Georgia, etc for Arkansas and not the ACC or Kentucky or Florida? 

[hawgsav1]

1.  I would take Mike Anderson over John Pelphrey.  I always wanted Anderson to get the job when he had a chance.  I thought he got screwed.  I see what kind of a job he's done at UAB and Mizzou, and I stand by my opinion.

2.  That being said, I really do like John Pelphrey and I voted yes in the poll.  I think he's done a fantastic job as coach.  My reasons are as follows:
a.  He knows what Razorback fans are passionate about and what we want.
b.  He's intense
c.  He truly loves his job
d.  He tries very hard
e.  He makes the team work on what they need to work on

I was impressed what he did with the team last year.  He took a team that was not used to playing in an up-tempo game and made them perform.  They were a pretty talented bunch, but Pelphrey took them to a level that I'm not sure Stan could have done.  Sure they were inconsistent, but that was to be expected.  We made the second round of the tourney, something that we had not done for almost a decade. 

I think what has worked against Pelphrey is his timing.  He came on the tail-end of Stan's class, so he was able to benefit somewhat from what Stan left.  However, Stan's class was severely imbalanced.  We lost Weems, Townes, Thomas, Hill, and others, and then we were hit very hard by losing Beverley, and then Monk.  We have almost no depth.  Our second team is ok defensively, but they cannot score a point. 

No one really had any huge expectations for this season, but once we destroyed OU and beat Texas, the expectations went shooting into the stratosphere.  Of course, once SEC play started, we came back down to reality, and it was crushing.  Fans can handle losing.  It's the inconsistency that gets them, because they don't know what to expect.  It's hard to prepare for something when you don't know it's coming, and it's very frustrating.  Since we as fans cannot do anything, we just foam at the mouth and try to rationalize and find excuses to why the team is not performing at the level that we expect.  Because of the high expectations Pelphrey established at the beginning of his tenure, we were expecting at least a tournament bid or something. 

Of course, with this young but talented team, we get inconsistency, which drives us bonkers.  Washington has been the only real constant this season with his double doubles, but even his play is inconsistent at times.  Fortson has been wildly inconsistent in both his passing and his shooting.  Welsh has also been inconsistent.  Some days Welsh will go for 25 and shut down the enemy team's best player and other days he'll go 1-7 for 3 points.  Clarke is still developing confidence.  Britt is a good defender but lacks offense.  Henry is showing improvement.  Sanchez has a lot of improving to do, and both Moore and Clark are wildly inconsistent.  Our success as a team depends on at least 3-4 guys clicking every single game, and at this point, you can only really count on Michael Washington to bring his A game every single game. 

I have a few criticisms of Pelphrey, but they are minor.  One of Pelphrey's strengths is that he works on the team's weaknesses.  I see a marked difference in Fortson from the first week of SEC play to now.  Fortson doesn't jack up 3's and now tries to take it to the hoop.  Clarke seems to coming along, if not slowly.  The 3 point defense is still atrocious, but it's improving.  However, the one thing that I've seen from Pelphrey over his 1.5 years here is that when he improves one thing, another weakness tends to crop up, often times something that wasn't there before.  Nevertheless, Pelphrey is a young coach and will make young mistakes.  We can give him 3 more years and then see where the program is at.  I'm sure he'll grow just as the team will.

[thirtythree]

I approve of the job he is doing with one exception. He has got to get "all" of his players up to playing in a game. It is not good for some players to play this game and not the next. It ruins chemistry and cohesiveness. I like the fact that Sanchez is trying. Sometimes that is not enough. BM and AC need the majority of his play time so they can develop faster.

[31to6]

The product on the court is his responsibility. Currently the product stinks.

So, I disapprove.

That does not mean I am ready to pull the plug or give up hope. But I bet if you asked Pelphrey if he was happy with the job he was doing, he'd say no too.

We seem to have adversity at every turn (Beverly imploding, recruit bailing, Monk getting adebayo'd) and some of that is just rotten luck, but ultimately it lands on him.

Probably he deserves at least one more full recruiting class before we can hold him to account, but right now the team and program are regressing, not improving.

[Lanny]

The recruiting for next year is bad.  Recruiting is how you build a program and until I see improvement from Pelphrey with recruiting don't expect to have a good basketball team.

[12247]

Except the fact he doesn't play his entire squad, I like this Guy.  I do not know of another coach that would take the job that I would want.  We are short, no depth and in-experienced.  Part of that is on Pel.  He handed out the scholarships.  I do think he got what would come to Arkansas.  The idea that BB is easier to recruit than football is false.  You cannot hide a weak link in BB as you can in FB.  Every players weakness shows up on the court.  I do disagree on who is getting the minutes in games, otherwise, we have a good coach.  Lets get off his rear and let him have time to do his thing. 

[WilsonHog]

I also like his passion, his intensity, and his pedigree.

However, all of the passion, intensity, and pedigree in the world won't matter a bit unless he can put together a complete team of talent.

[Albert Einswine]

I disapprove of the product and results I've seen so far in conference play.  I'm still not calling for his head.  He deserves a reasonable amount of time to turn it around.

[HawgWild]

Too soon to pull the trigger on Pelphrey. Ask me again next year. I can see that we're no better a basketball team than we were when Nolan went < .500. That's a long time ago (2001 - 02). You'd have to go back 35 years to find a Razorback basketball team with a worse conference record at this point in the season.

Pelphrey has the passion. I like that. He's just not shown that he can get it done.........  yet.

[jonesark™]

approve...just impatient

[hawgsav1]

good points, but mike anderson couldnt recruit here with nolan 4 to 5 years after winning a title

how well can mike actually recruit??? 

Maybe you're right.  Maybe Mike can't recruit.  However, I would trade places with UAB's program when Mike was there. 

There is a very high correlation between recruiting and winning.  However, just b/c you recruit well doesn't necessarily mean you will win, and vice versa.  Mike Anderson's classes at UAB weren't anything to write home about.  He got mostly 3 stars and an occasional 4*.  The same goes for his classes at Mizzou.  No studs, but no one will argue with his product on the court.  Mizzou and UAB are probably the same or slightly harder to recruit to than Arkansas.  There's no reason he can't do what he's done there at Arkansas.

[BigoBoys]

He has certainly brought the crowd back to BWA.  I say he's got two years to get to the tourney. 

[NEAHawgfan]

Oklahoma COMPLETELY forgot they were playing that night and still almost woke up in time to beat us. Texas continues to prove how overrated they are. We are 1-7 in a bad SEC. We lost at home to Auburn by....whatever. We were outscored by like 30 points in the second half yesterday.......and we knew it was coming. Lets' see...what else? Lost to Missouri State. Should have lost to one of the Sun Belt's worst teams. We gave up approx. 20 3s yesterday because we refuse to guard anybody shooting them....apparantly the staff doesn't see the need. We went to the NCAAs last year, BUT we lost an SEC Title game to a team with a losing record, then after winning one game were embarrassed by UNC. AND that was done with somebody elses class. So now we get HIS recruits in here and this is what we got.......

Oh yeah, approve...you bet.
Come on people, how can you possibly approve of this debacle?

[rzrbackrob]

Took a heartless Heath team and beat a first round NCAA tourney win out of them 

recruited an entire team with only a year to build relationships 

Gave the #2 team in the nation their only loss with 3 freshmen, 2 seldom used Jrs, a football player, and no depth off the bench 

Is currently 1-7 in a weak SEC conference 

Recruiting in the near future looks suspect 

NIT this year and a good side of the bubble team next year seemed to be a reasonable expectation for this team at the beginning of the season. We still look good for NIT and the team looks to have some potential. The glass is half empty or half full, I still see it as half full at this point. It is in everyone's best interest to give any coach five years to get all his players in and install his system. :razorback:

[dotnet]

The recruiting for next year is bad.  Recruiting is how you build a program and until I see improvement from Pelphrey with recruiting don't expect to have a good basketball team.

According to who?  ESPN ranks every player coming in next year higher than anyone we got last year except Clarke.  I believe the talent level is only improving. 

[BigoBoys]

Oklahoma COMPLETELY forgot they were playing that night and still almost woke up in time to beat us. Texas continues to prove how overrated they are. We are 1-7 in a bad SEC. We lost at home to Auburn by....whatever. We were outscored by like 30 points in the second half yesterday.......and we knew it was coming. Lets' see...what else? Lost to Missouri State. Should have lost to one of the Sun Belt's worst teams. We gave up approx. 20 3s yesterday because we refuse to guard anybody shooting them....apparantly the staff doesn't see the need. We went to the NCAAs last year, BUT we lost an SEC Title game to a team with a losing record, then after winning one game were embarrassed by UNC. AND that was done with somebody elses class. So now we get HIS recruits in here and this is what we got.......

Oh yeah, approve...you bet.
Come on people, how can you possibly approve of this debacle?

Man, being a Cowboys fan has lead you to the Negative Nancy land. 

[forrest city joe]

The recruiting for next year is bad.  Recruiting is how you build a program and until I see improvement from Pelphrey with recruiting don't expect to have a good basketball team.

Lanny i could not have said it better myself.BINGO!

[HawgAdvocate]

Lanny i could not have said it better myself.BINGO!

Considering you know nothing about Farmer or Powell....except they're highly rated. And we've still got another scholarship to go. But since we didn't pull a miracle and get Derrick Favors, it's a total failure in your eyes.

And I guess Henry, Fortson, and Clarke aren't good recruits?

There's little validity to some of these opinions.

[Hogbody]

cant believe we already have darksiders for Pel....ridiculous

[Bad_Intentions]

I approve of the job Pel has done thus far. But I must admit, I'm a little bit leary after our 1-7 start in the SEC. I think a lot of things have contributed to this, the least of which is coaching IMO. As far as coaching is concerned, I'd like to see Andre Clark and Moore play a little bit more (especially Clark) and Sanchez a little less, but that's about it. We're getting killed from 3, IMO, b/c we don't have tall perimeter players. It's easy to get a fairly clean look over our defense even when somebody is guarding them. Just the way it is.

Something that has just destroyed this group is the loss of potentially key players. We had the JUCO kid that didn't qualify that would've really, really helped. McDonald, he would've helped too. And losing Monk has really, really hurt b/c it's forced us to play the other bigs - aka Sanchez - more, and that's bad. You can chalk this up to bad luck (which I do) or you can blame Pelphrey for bringing the JUCO player and McDonald in. Clearly the JUCO (was it Payne?) was questionable academically and McDonald apparently had strong character flaws. But IMO, you can say that about a lot of kids - and I mean a lot - that are currently playing D-I basketball for BCS conference teams. Sometimes you roll the dice. You win some, you lose some. On these two kids, Pel lost.

I still really like the class he brought in last year though. I think Fortson is fantastic! I really mean that. He's great. Clarke is not the player I thought he'd be. But that's OK. I see Clarke as a very, very good role player a la Lee Humphrey from Florida's back-to-back title teams. I'm straight with him. Jason Henry looks like he's going to be really good. And like I said, I like Andre Clark too. I think he's got more potential than any other freshman big man. Moore is OK. I think that's how he'll be at the UA. Just OK. And Sanchez, believe or not, isn't that bad. He simply has no business starting in this league ... EVER!!!! But I think as the 3rd or 4th post player on the team he'd be OK in that role. I think Pel is playing him more b/c he's more fundamentally sound than Clark or Moore is right now. At this point, though, I think you go w/ potential, and the potential is obviously Andre Clark.

The one knock that I have against Pel, or the thing that makes me very nervous, is his incoming class. Powell is just what we need - a top 100 power forward. But I've heard there might be some academic issues with him. The other two kids are projects. I don't feel like they're necessarily going to come in and be able to contribute major minutes next year, and that's not good b/c of our lack of depth. We need contributors now ... not two or three years down the road. We'll see, but I'm not the least bit impressed with the incoming class.

I'm so, so, so sick of losing in basketball. I watched the Hogs with my own eyes live and in person win the title in Charlotte. I was there in Seattle the next year, too. I want that back so bad. So the 1-7 SEC record absolutely disgusts me. It's revolting. That said, I'm all for giving Pelphrey a chance to succeed here. I still like him and feel like he'll do a good job here. It's just been an ultra-frustrating SEC season for us.

Bottom line - Pel has got to recruit better. That's the one thing that makes me apprehensive about him.

[Hogbody]

Farmer can contribute

[Bad_Intentions]

Farmer can contribute

Right, I don't know much about him I must admit. At the guard spots, we just need contributors, not necessarily impact players. But Powell needs to come in ready to rock and make an impact, b/c our 4 spot is absolutely pathetic with Sanchez. It's better w/ Henry, and that's sad b/c he's a 2 or 3.

[HotlantaHog]

I am happy with Pel so far. He was put in a very difficult situation and deserves some time to get things turned around.

He had a Top 15 class last year. The recruiting is still a work in progress.

[Smokehouse]

Approve. If we don't lose Beverly at the beginning of the season, Montrell doesn't have issues and Monk doesn't get axed we're looking at a much different outcome to this point of the season. We've shown we can play well for stretches but without a decent bench our only producers are worn out by the end of the game.

[jonesark™]

cant believe we already have darksiders for Pel....ridiculous

oh how the tide turns.....go back like 6 or 7 pages on Jump Ball and we were asking for pel a raise!!

[hogmary]

We lost to MSU because our legs were dead...only 9 players played (really, only 7 because 2 played so little in the first half only).  When they are running, they play much better.  With only 7 reliable players, you cannot do that the entire game.  My only problem with this team is Rotnei Clarke...quit standing in the corner and start moving!  Wear the guy who is guarding you out.  You need to move and get fouled to go to the free throw line.  When Sanchez is not so concerned about fouling, he plays well, like against Bama.  He needs to work on handling the ball and dunking it when he is near the basket instead of rolling the ball off his fingertips.  Overall, with the losses from last year's team and the inexperience on this one, I am pleased with the progress.  We are short players, for various reasons, and the players we have have little or no experience prior to this season.  Washington and Welsh didn't play much at all their freshmen years and Washington didn't play a lot last year.  Monk gave us maturity, if nothing else.  If Heath hadn't ditched Nolan's entire recruiting class (not all at once, but over a couple of years), everyone wouldn't have finished their eligibility all at once.

[Franchise_Hog]

Why is it easier to bring basketball talent to Fayetteville?

To get where our fans want our basketball program to be which is among the top 15-20 teams most every season and competing for Sweet 16s to Final 4s every few seasons, we have to recruit to the level that LSU, USC, Texas, Florida, ...etc are doing in football.  Petrino is not quite to that point.  So even if Pel does recruit to the equivalent of Petrino, that gets us about what we had last season.  A team good enough to win a game in the NCAAT.  That isn't good enough for our fan base. 

And I'm wondering why people thinks its easier to recruit basketball players to Fayetteville when our program isn't among the elite.  Our state doesn't put out top 50 recruits but 1 every 4-5 years.  Memphis is as corrupt as it gets and isn't a 'friendly' place for our program.  Why would recruits from the eastern cities leave numerous Big East programs plus A10 programs that have solid tradition for Arkansas?  Why would kids in the southeast leave the Carolinas, Virginia, Georgia, etc for Arkansas and not the ACC or Kentucky or Florida? 

I think it's easier because we've been there before with basketball.  Not saying we haven't in football, but we established ourselves as a premiere basketball school in the 90's...especially early 90's.  Kids know it can happen here.

Also, look around the country when it comes to football stadiums.  They all have big jumbo television sets now and so many are much bigger than DWRRS.  LSU, Tenn., Georgia, Alabama, Florida, South Carolina all have more fans on a Saturday night, that's just in the SEC....maybe not nicer, but bigger.

But with basketball, there are only a handful of Bud Walton Arenas in the entire country.  In Arkansas, the Hogs are the only show in town.  We should be able to sell exposure to the extreme.  Plus in basketball, you only need 1 or 2 blue chippers. In football, 1 or 2 players doesn't have the same impact.