Do you know what kind of basketball Stan Heath wants his team to play?

[pignatious]

What is the identity of Stan Heath Razorback basketball?  Can you tell?

In adversity, what core ideals does this team fall back on?  Do you know?  Do the players know?

That is the problem.  Heath does not have any core ideals about basketball.  Every season he starts the season with one idea, changes direction in midseason, and finishes somewhere else.  His players do not know what is going on, and recruits surely cannot tell.  Maybe a few years ago Heath had a story to sell about his plan.  Now what is the plan?

We were supposed to go back to sound rebounding fundamentals after Nolan's unorthodoxy.  Kentucky outrebounded us playing much of the game with a small lineup.  Kentucky, a middle-of-the-road rebounding team, beat us on the boards at our place, including 11 offensive rebounds.

We were supposed to play better inside defense.  Kentucky, a less than ordinary offensive team, shot 20-38 (53%) from 2-pt range against the Hogs at Bud Walton Arena.  They got 22 free throw attempts, 2x what the home team managed.

We were supposed to be able to run a good halfcourt offense.  After the Hogs put up a 14-point lead, they lost nine turnovers in the final three-eighths of the basketball game. 

We were supposed to play "smart" defense.  During their comeback the Cats scored 10 points after offensive boards, 18 points in transition, 7-10 3-pt shooting.  Seventy fricking percent 3-point shooting!  Kentucky even today stands ninth in the SEC in 3-pt shooting percentage.

Down the stretch of a contested game, a team falls back on the core tenets of its system of playing basketball.  The only decently successful basketball team Stan Heath has coached at Arkansas fell back on Ronnie Brewer to win games in crunch time.  Brewer was a pretty good answer.  Without Brewer, Heath is back to having installed nothing at the core of his basketball team.

It is surprising to find the Razorbacks, here in February, 2-5 over their past seven games.  The remaining eight SEC games include four road trips the Hogs are not used to winning (LSU, Mississippi State, Auburn, Vanderbilt).  It is likely Arkansas finishes below .500 in the SEC.  In that case, the Razorbacks would need a strong run in the SECT to make it to March Madness.

But hey, who are we fooling.  Arkansas isn't about to play for anything significant in March, even if they make the tournament.  This team is a malformed thing put together by a young coach who, when hired, was one year separated from rank amateur.  Heath entered an extremely difficult rebuilding job and brought in a coaching staff equally unfamiliar with the conference and the recruiting territory.  Heath seemed lost in the recruiting maze never to re-emerge.  He never seemed to recruit players whose skills would match the ideals Heath had proclaimed when he took the job.  Heath kept winding up with a roster overloaded with swing players, underpopulated with true guards, tough defenders and talented rebounders.  And he required annual staff changes in a never-ending attempt to address his own shortcomings.

Heath, the man who was supposed to lead Razorback basketball back toward traditional fundamentals, failed to recruit players who knew them.  Arkansas loses basketball games now because its athletes do not develop well-rounded skills AND the coach doesn't compensate by playing a system that exploits what they can do well.  Nolan could have taken a roster like this one and at least made them play mad defense.  Heath is not capable of beating his players into submission.  He sits there and watches, helplessly, as his team folds over and over to whatever team is capable of disrupting his fragile plan.

Heath watched his team give up an 8-0 run without getting off a shot, then called a 30-second timeout to sub Steven Hill for Darian Townes.  He subbed Townes and Gary Ervin for Patrick Beverley and Vincent Hunter, and soon after put Beverley back in for Stefan Welsh.  Meanwhile, Tubby went small while the Hogs had Townes and Hill in together.  Kentucky outscored the Hogs 13-5 with the shorter lineup AND dominated the boards at the same time.  Heath called another 30-second timeout and subbed Hunter for Townes.  Master plan.

The real shame down the stretch is that Heath could not find a way to stop the Cats, or to run the offense.  Kentucky got some rebounds, a couple of steals, some fastbreak baskets and a couple of open outside shots.  Then the lead was big enough to allow UK to sit back and wait to be fouled.  They made 12 straight free throws to close out the game.

Stan Heath really had it made at Arkansas and he blew it.  Really doesn't matter whether he gets the axe, he is toast.  The roster includes seven juniors and an open scholarship.  That's eight players to replace between now and next spring, and most of the work better be done by November.  Heath will be a fifth-year coach who just went to the NIT.  His program will have all the momentum of Alaskan molasses.  If he is allowed to recruit that class, Razorback basketball will be doomed to oblivion.

We are already doomed to oblivion with our current lying, out-of-touch, loser Athletic Director.

[akp4105]

We were simply outcoached in the latter half of the second half. Tubby took out the big man and played a small line up..hill couldnt run with them and heath stayed with hill because he's been playing so well..WE GOT OUTCOACHED

What would you have suggested?  Our lack of quality depth at the 1,2 and 3 doesn't make us very versatile.  The best we could have done to match them would have been Welsh, Bev, Ervin, Weems and Townes and that would have left us with a size/strength disadvantage. 

Tubby had no choice but to change.  It turned out great for him. 

My suggestion against the Kentucky line up that Tubby played...Gary Ervin, Patrick Beverley, Stefan Welsh, Sonny Weems, and Vincent Hunter

They would've matched up the best with the line up Tubby had in the game. Instead we let a 14 pt lead get away, and we lost at home to a Kentucky team that is very beatable.

[gduchar]

I don't know about that lineup. We really needed some rebounding and I would hate to put the onus on VH to dominate that aspect of the game.

[311Hog]

I dunno i think some of you misunderstand me and miss the point.  Hog basketball before Stan was hired couldnt have been worse and was bad for awhile, im not arguing that Stan is the answer or anything of that nature, but to lay all the blame and ignore ALL THE OTHER THINGS is just plain wrong.  To act as if the Nolan firing wasnt racially charged is stupid and you are in denial, to act as if there isnt a racial cloud over the entire NW area is stupid and you are in denial. Yes we use to be great key word is USE TO, in todays college landscape it isnt all that easy to rebuild from the depths we have sank to, in fact i would say its damn near impossible.

[Rev. Hog]

Well stated Biggus!  I totally agree and when you are able to watch a game live, you can really see it.  It is like, "OK, let's try this for a while."  There is no consistency, and there is no identity.  You have to believe in what you are doing and in who you are.

As far as Nolan goes, he was more than a recruiter.  He was a great Coach.  I would love to see what what he or Mike Anderson would do with this team.  Because they are passionate about the identity of a team.  There was no confusion about what they were going to do.

[311Hog]

board hicup

[311Hog]

nt

[311Hog]

nt

[Hawgustus Maximus]

What is the identity of Stan Heath Razorback basketball?  Can you tell?
Just shut the hell up and pay for your tickets you fan scum

In adversity, what core ideals does this team fall back on?  Do you know?  Do the players know?

That is the problem.  Heath does not have any core ideals about basketball.  Every season he starts the season with one idea, changes direction in midseason, and finishes somewhere else.  His players do not know what is going on, and recruits surely cannot tell.  Maybe a few years ago Heath had a story to sell about his plan.  Now what is the plan?

We were supposed to go back to sound rebounding fundamentals after Nolan's unorthodoxy.  Kentucky outrebounded us playing much of the game with a small lineup.  Kentucky, a middle-of-the-road rebounding team, beat us on the boards at our place, including 11 offensive rebounds.

We were supposed to play better inside defense.  Kentucky, a less than ordinary offensive team, shot 20-38 (53%) from 2-pt range against the Hogs at Bud Walton Arena.  They got 22 free throw attempts, 2x what the home team managed.

We were supposed to be able to run a good halfcourt offense.  After the Hogs put up a 14-point lead, they lost nine turnovers in the final three-eighths of the basketball game. 

We were supposed to play "smart" defense.  During their comeback the Cats scored 10 points after offensive boards, 18 points in transition, 7-10 3-pt shooting.  Seventy fricking percent 3-point shooting!  Kentucky even today stands ninth in the SEC in 3-pt shooting percentage.

Down the stretch of a contested game, a team falls back on the core tenets of its system of playing basketball.  The only decently successful basketball team Stan Heath has coached at Arkansas fell back on Ronnie Brewer to win games in crunch time.  Brewer was a pretty good answer.  Without Brewer, Heath is back to having installed nothing at the core of his basketball team.

It is surprising to find the Razorbacks, here in February, 2-5 over their past seven games.  The remaining eight SEC games include four road trips the Hogs are not used to winning (LSU, Mississippi State, Auburn, Vanderbilt).  It is likely Arkansas finishes below .500 in the SEC.  In that case, the Razorbacks would need a strong run in the SECT to make it to March Madness.

But hey, who are we fooling.  Arkansas isn't about to play for anything significant in March, even if they make the tournament.  This team is a malformed thing put together by a young coach who, when hired, was one year separated from rank amateur.  Heath entered an extremely difficult rebuilding job and brought in a coaching staff equally unfamiliar with the conference and the recruiting territory.  Heath seemed lost in the recruiting maze never to re-emerge.  He never seemed to recruit players whose skills would match the ideals Heath had proclaimed when he took the job.  Heath kept winding up with a roster overloaded with swing players, underpopulated with true guards, tough defenders and talented rebounders.  And he required annual staff changes in a never-ending attempt to address his own shortcomings.

Heath, the man who was supposed to lead Razorback basketball back toward traditional fundamentals, failed to recruit players who knew them.  Arkansas loses basketball games now because its athletes do not develop well-rounded skills AND the coach doesn't compensate by playing a system that exploits what they can do well.  Nolan could have taken a roster like this one and at least made them play mad defense.  Heath is not capable of beating his players into submission.  He sits there and watches, helplessly, as his team folds over and over to whatever team is capable of disrupting his fragile plan.

Heath watched his team give up an 8-0 run without getting off a shot, then called a 30-second timeout to sub Steven Hill for Darian Townes.  He subbed Townes and Gary Ervin for Patrick Beverley and Vincent Hunter, and soon after put Beverley back in for Stefan Welsh.  Meanwhile, Tubby went small while the Hogs had Townes and Hill in together.  Kentucky outscored the Hogs 13-5 with the shorter lineup AND dominated the boards at the same time.  Heath called another 30-second timeout and subbed Hunter for Townes.  Master plan.

The real shame down the stretch is that Heath could not find a way to stop the Cats, or to run the offense.  Kentucky got some rebounds, a couple of steals, some fastbreak baskets and a couple of open outside shots.  Then the lead was big enough to allow UK to sit back and wait to be fouled.  They made 12 straight free throws to close out the game.

Stan Heath really had it made at Arkansas and he blew it.  Really doesn't matter whether he gets the axe, he is toast.  The roster includes seven juniors and an open scholarship.  That's eight players to replace between now and next spring, and most of the work better be done by November.  Heath will be a fifth-year coach who just went to the NIT.  His program will have all the momentum of Alaskan molasses.  If he is allowed to recruit that class, Razorback basketball will be doomed to oblivion.

Just shut the hell up and pay for your tickets you fan scum and dont stop sending those donations either damn your sorry arse

[akp4105]

I'll tell ya what..you dont lose on the road like that in the SEC all the time, 5 years straight..and then call your team immature...they are filled with jr's who have experience..and we have a couple freshman that play well...Heath needs to own up and take credit for the losses, and be humble when we win..