A note to the fans.

[wbauldw]

Well, I have to let it all loose on here now lol. Being at the game Wednesday night was quite an experience from the battle in our beloved hogs to Mindy in our band who was surprised and accepted a proposal in front of 12,000 plus fans and the band...needless to say, she and her boyfriend are now engaged.

Anyhow, as I told many fans a month ago through a post, the times are getting low with our hogs. This is not a result of bad coaching or far superior teams in the SEC; in fact, this is a result of our team being young and unbalanced. As coach Pelphrey himself stated, in order for this team to win, they have to OVERACHIEVE!!!

Lets take a drive into the past shall we? Take a look at the Oklahoma game. What stands out in that game to you? For me, it is tough basketball to the end, a will to win, an unbelievable 3-point percentage, and a powerful presence inside the paint. For the Texas game, it was another display of a powerful inside presence and two very stingy defenses until late when we pulled ahead.

The point im making is that this team Overachieved to win the two so-called Big-Games...and yes they were big at that time. Right now, our team is not overachieving...nor are they underachieving...this team is playing about the way that they should be playing considering that some of our key scorers are freshman.

So let me be honest for a second. If you did not expect the hogs to be 1-6 or 1-7 (whatever it is currently)...then you are oblivious to the youth of this team. I implore all fans to chill out, take a deep breath, and relax. Pelphrey is doing a tremendous job here at the University of Arkansas and the team is growing. For those calling for Pelphreys job...im glad that you do not run our athletic dept. because it that were the case, then we would be going through coaches every other day. Again, just relax and tough it out...because things will get better as this team grows up and as our overall team size grows over the next two years.

Finally, keep coming to the games and rock out with US "Hogwild Band". We'd love to have you'll and we don't change how we do things just because the team isn't doing as well as we might have hoped. So I invite you'll to come rock the Bud when we take on UK.

Many blessings to all.

[cdclark09]

The worst thing that ever happened to the fan base was winning against Texas and Oklahoma. 

[hoppytoad]

"Things are never as good as they seem, nor as bad as they seem." Lou Holtz
With no bench and only four players able to man up for SEC competition we need to just relax and enjoy this team. I love watching Fortson, "the quarterbackin' man." We haven't had one in soooooo long, and this team is fun to watch when they are in sync.
There are some tired legs out there, which I think explains some missed free throws. They are using the free throw line to rest. That should be corrected at a (tired) practice.
Monk is a difference maker because of his grown man maturity. What/whomever screwed this up really hurt this young team. GO HOGS! WPS

[rude1]

Spoken like someone who has resigned himself to mediocrity. I am now starting to be more concerned about a seemingly growing section of our fan base who passively dismiss losing as though it's to be expected and accepted. Youth explains struggling on the road, but doesn't explain being equally inept at home and throwing up  a record loss to the likes of Auburn. Sorry I am not buying the chill out and take losing like a man idea.

[rzrbackrob]

As long as the Hogs compete like they did against Tennessee, I can live with the inevitable loses that young teams suffer. The Mis take, Old P*ss, and especially the Aub games were unacceptable because they gave up in those games. People who drive many miles and spend lots of money to see their beloved hogs have a right to be upset. The LSU game was acceptable because they did not give up. Pel is the right coach at the right time. He is not the best coach in the world yet, but he has passion, has embraced the Hogs traditions, and has healed old wounds (Eddie and Nolan). I am very encouraged by the direction the hogs are headed, I just wish like everyone else we were there already.

[hoppytoad]

Spoken like someone who has resigned himself to mediocrity. I am now starting to be more concerned about a seemingly growing section of our fan base who passively dismiss losing as though it's to be expected and accepted. Youth explains struggling on the road, but doesn't explain being equally inept at home and throwing up  a record loss to the likes of Auburn. Sorry I am not buying the chill out and take losing like a man idea.

Mediocrity will never be accepted when it comes to the hogs. Winners win and losers lose, and I certainly expect Pel to bring 5 to the floor that will win. Can't win without a point. I have been waiting on Fortson a long time.

[wbauldw]

To answer the person whom believes I have resigned myself to mediocrity:

To make a long story short....no lol. Our team is what it is...young, immature, and still learning. I also agree with another poster that the absence of Monk has taken its toll on this team. We wern't very deep with Monk to begin with and because the team got used to him playing, it seems that Monk being gone could play a very small percentage in why the hogs are struggling; however, I still believe it is the youth.

Like some people already realize, basketball...like other sports...is only a game. You win some, you lose some, but in the end, its just a game and everyone goes on living their lives. Do I lend myself to mediocrity? No. I am in fact a realist and to say that this team is going to win the rest of the games on the schedule would be outlandish...however, it is possible...in fact anything is possible with this squad...it all boils down to what attributes show up when...ie good defense, high 3 percentage, the inside game, and excellent ball rotation. For the last few games we have lost, we have only gotten one maybe two of these attributes in a prominent fashion...thus about like what you would expect with an average run of the mill collegiate basketball team.

Like the football team this year, our basketball team is rebuilding...and like what I believe will happen with our football team this upcoming season...I believe our basketball program will follow suit. To say that Arkansas is mediocre is quite wrong, we are currently average in my opinion (basketball) with some diamonds in the rough...and things will get better as experience lends itself to this group of hogs.

Finally, congratulations to Bobby Petrino on an outstanding recruiting season. Our most humblest regards from the Hogwild Band to you. Im not one to make many predictions publicly; however, I have a really good feeling that our football team may well manage a 10-2 season with the possibility to do what Alabama did this past season in some form ie being a suprise team. I do adamently believe that BCS contention realistically is one more recruiting class away however. Bowl bound definately...possibly the cotton bowl

With warmest regards;

[beebefootballfan]

Rude 1 i am so sick of you saying everybody has accepted mediocrity. Obviously you don't understand the word mediocrity so let me give you a lesson on it. 

Mediocrity would require multiple seasons of failure (See Houston Nutt on this one) Last time i checked Pel has only been the coach here for 2 seasons. Last year we made it to the NCAA tournament and won a game. Which was something we hadn't done in atleast 6 years. During the course of the offseason we lost almost all of our scoring offense. Thus requiring us to rebuild a team from the ground up. Now to an untrained sportsfan like yourself you think we should do the same or better that we did last year, but to an experienced sportsfan like myself i know that when you have to rebuild it takes a year or so (see BP and the Hogs in 2008) So please understand that mediocrity would require us to have this type of season for atleast 2 years or more and the fans like myself to be ok with it. Now i don't mean this as a slap in the face to you or to down grade you i only wanted to educate you in the meaning of mediocrity.

Class dismissed.

[linze82]

i don't understand how you can go from beating 2 top 10 teams to 1-8(after today) in a terrible league. i know these guys are young, but we are not gonna win 4 games in conference this year. think about that, the worst stan heath teams won 4 in conference. i'm sorry but i can't take being young as an excuse to be where we are now. maybe at auburn, alabama, georgia, that is ok. we are supposed to be a better program than that.

[thirtythree]

i don't understand how you can go from beating 2 top 10 teams to 1-8(after today) in a terrible league. i know these guys are young, but we are not gonna win 4 games in conference this year. think about that, the worst stan heath teams won 4 in conference. i'm sorry but i can't take being young as an excuse to be where we are now. maybe at auburn, alabama, georgia, that is ok. we are supposed to be a better program than that.

Bcause by the time you get to conference play there is a lot more game film on you. The teams are more familiar with you than the other ones. that's just a couple.

This team is young. They will have bumps in the road. As much as ya'll want them to undefeated every year it just isn't going to happen. They are going to lose games they shouldn't and get blown out by teams they should beat. Look at Duke the other night. Do you think they expected that? It happens. It's college basketball. It is growing pains, PLAIN AND SIMPLE!!!

[Razorod]

Bcause by the time you get to conference play there is a lot more game film on you. The teams are more familiar with you than the other ones. that's just a couple.

This team is young. They will have bumps in the road. As much as ya'll want them to undefeated every year it just isn't going to happen. They are going to lose games they shouldn't and get blown out by teams they should beat. Look at Duke the other night. Do you think they expected that? It happens. It's college basketball. It is growing pains, PLAIN AND SIMPLE!!!

i honestly hope you are correct. i honestly suspect that it is more than that.