And so it begins......

[lefty08]

New season begins tonight, and I'm excited for what this team can be. Always excited to watch the newcomers, and this year is no different

[Razorod]

I am very curious as to what this season holds as well. Also, hope today is a good day on the signing front for the 2016 class.

[Hawg Red]

Ready to see this much-speculated about group take the court.

[Biggus Piggus]

The Southern Jaguars of Baton Rouge were 18-17 last season, 13-5 in the SWAC (third). Southern lost in the finals of the SWAC post-season tournament to Texas Southern and did not go to the NCAAT. Head coach is Roman Banks; he coached the Jags to winning records in the past four seasons including a 56-16 record in conference play.

Southern is going to shoot a ton of threes and play frenetic defense in a three-guard lineup. Top returning players:

G Adrian Rodgers (13 ppg, 54 threes) - 6-4 senior
G Trelun Banks (10 ppg, 34 threes) - 6-1 junior
G Christopher Hyder (137 assists, 45 steals) - 5-11 senior
F Jarred Sam (top rebounder, 55% inside shooting) - 6-9, 210 sophomore

Southern brought in many new players who are expected to be in the rotation:

G Brendon Ganaway - 5-10 freshman from Missouri City, Texas, Bush HS
G De'Rias Johnson - 6-4 freshman from Dallas Kimball
F Londell King - 6-7, 185 freshman from Tallahassee
F D'Adrian Allen - 6-8, 225 junior from Toronto and North Idaho College/Palm Beach State CC
F Tony Nunn - 6-9, 220 junior from Odessa College

Southern has many other players on its roster, and their coach has expressed a willingness to use a lot of the bench.

Last season, Southern played a lot of high-major opponents and improved a lot from November (69-38 loss to Ole Miss) to December (4-point loss at 22nd ranked Baylor).

The big question for Arkansas is inside, whether the Razorbacks can find anybody to provide an efficient low post offensive game to complement all the guards. Southern should give the Hogs' bigs a chance to gain confidence.

[The_Iceman]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3-aAx4SOn0

[hogsanity]

I was just talking to an old friend about how big the opening game of basketball used to be. Front page of the paper, live reports from Barnhill or BWA, and the lead on the sports segment of the 10pm news. Now it gets a 2 paragraph mention in the middle of page 2, and with high school playoffs, it may not even get mentioned on the 10pm news.

Hogs should pick this one up by 20+ , but it may be lower, depends on how much tinkering MA does with lineups tonight. Really want to see how Whitt plays in his 1st game that actually goes in the w/l record.

[Hawg Red]

Yes, Nolan used to feed the monster. Now the monster is on life support. Looks like we are trying to rebuild the excitement in stages. Scoreboard and sound upgrades plus building up the team with recruits capable of bringing some exciting guard play. New facilities. Things are quietly coming together.

Yeah, it's building up. Hopefully everyone that had been away that came back for all the excitement last year is willing to stick out this year. One thing about the style Anderson pushes is that it's exciting no matter if the team is good or bad. Fans love action.

I think one thing that is kind of stunting the excitement in the state is that we haven't been able to seal the deal with some of the elite in-state talents. Hopefully we can get Monk and then we'll have Gafford coming in (and hopefully Garland). Then hopefully we'll get Vanover and Ethan Henderson and keep the train rolling.

[TomBigBeeHog]

I think one thing that is kind of stunting the excitement in the state is that we haven't been able to seal the deal with some of the elite in-state talents. Hopefully we can get Monk and then we'll have Gafford coming in (and hopefully Garland). Then hopefully we'll get Vanover and Ethan Henderso and keep the train rolling.

If all of this happens, we are back big time. No doubt.

[Danny J]

The one thing I have noticed in the press conferences thus far is Whitt's willingness to take over. He will be the leader of this team by the end of the season. He fits what we want to do perfectly. There is literally no other player that we could have recruited that fits this system any better than Whitt does. So his willingness to take charge and also lead by example on the court is IMO a really big deal going forward(next year and beyond)

[Biggus Piggus]

I was just talking to an old friend about how big the opening game of basketball used to be. Front page of the paper, live reports from Barnhill or BWA, and the lead on the sports segment of the 10pm news. Now it gets a 2 paragraph mention in the middle of page 2, and with high school playoffs, it may not even get mentioned on the 10pm news.

Hogs should pick this one up by 20+ , but it may be lower, depends on how much tinkering MA does with lineups tonight. Really want to see how Whitt plays in his 1st game that actually goes in the w/l record.

Yes, and always a sellout regardless of the opponent. One thing that helped was the calendar, though. I just looked up one opener I remembered -- Texas-San Antonio, on Wednesday, Dec. 1, 1982. It was a midweek game, but it also was on the first day in December. Arkansas's last regular-season football game was the next Saturday, but it was a road game at Austin.

The regular season started on Sunday, Nov. 27 in 1988. That was Nolan's first game with Todd Day, Lee Mayberry and Oliver Miller, against Rider. The place was stuffed to the rafters and raucous.

Back then, Arkansas had a great program, but a huge part of that greatness was the fan enthusiasm built on the nine consecutive 20+ win seasons and NCAAT appearances that Eddie Sutton produced. After rebuilding, Nolan Richardson took it to another level. Took a long decline to erase most of that progress. Required an administration that settled for Stan Heath and John Pelphrey.

It is disappointing that, while Nolan was able to bring the program completely back by his fourth season -- just like Mike Anderson did -- year five looks like a transition year. Nolan might have had a similar hiccup, had players in 1990 or '91 been as ready to jump to the pros as they do now. With Portis and Qualls, the Razorbacks would be preparing for a great season.

As under-drafted as Portis was (and undrafted, Qualls), it's a shame they left early.