It'll be Interesting to Watch

[The_Iceman]

This was me.  I thought we would be par for the course of looking like crap on the road but blasting teams at home. We were supposed to run this Auburn team out of town and they made 15 threes on us.  I could have accepted a 17-14 16-15 type year this year because his roster is awful (partly his fault). But this game was a real eye-opener for me.

I love Mike. I love his style of play but we are making some high school type of mistakes. One thing that irks me is FINISHING FAST BREAKS!!!! We have no feel for what to do in certain situations like a 3 on 1. So many times the past three games we couldnt finish a 3-1 fast break.

When I see other teams/ programs that don't have that issue, I start to believe that this is a huge problem that may not get fixed under this regime.

Mike is trying to run a wide open, fast break, pressure defense scheme with a roster incapable of doing so. Name the last time someone outside of Kingsley, Thompson, or Kouassi dunked the ball.

We don't have athletes. We have two guys that can shoot when they can get open. And Moses Kingsley, who has no PF to take the pressure off of him inside.

[Hollywood_HOGan45]

His trend so far

Peak with previous coach's players in year 2-3, and then decline before going to a better job.  Lets hope he finds another better job, because we have never seen MA succeed with a team full of his recruits...ever...at any school.  Look at the recruiting mess he left Mizzou in.  I really hoped it would be different here but the recruiting failures and excuses in year 5 are difficult for me to get past.

I'm just flabbergasted at how he succeeded at UAB and Mizzou and now seeing his failures here at Arkansas.
Years 4 and 5 at MO werent as great as year 3 but right now i would kill to be back in the round of 32 or even 64.

There's no way he gets canned this year but i really hope if we see more of the same next year that we go in a different direction with someone who can put this program back in the mix every year like we were under Eddie and Nolan.

[Hollywood_HOGan45]

Mike is trying to run a wide open, fast break, pressure defense scheme with a roster incapable of doing so. Name the last time someone outside of Kingsley, Thompson, or Kouassi dunked the ball.

We don't have athletes. We have two guys that can shoot when they can get open. And Moses Kingsley, who has no PF to take the pressure off of him inside.

I am also annoyed with our guard play. As much as I love Bell and Dusty, they just aren't the men that we need to start drilling teams again.
These little bitty s***s we have for guards just will not cut it in this system.

[razorpimp]

All of the complaints about lack of fundamentals is due to the fact he recruits athletes and not basketball players...

[The_Iceman]

All of the complaints about lack of fundamentals is due to the fact he recruits athletes and not basketball players...

...and I don't see many athletes out there.

[ricepig]

Mike is trying to run a wide open, fast break, pressure defense scheme with a roster incapable of doing so. Name the last time someone outside of Kingsley, Thompson, or Kouassi dunked the ball.

We don't have athletes. We have two guys that can shoot when they can get open. And Moses Kingsley, who has no PF to take the pressure off of him inside.

Bell dunked one last night.

[SemperHawg]

One decent season at Mizzou does not a coach make.  Everything anyone needed to know about what to expect under MA was available in his track record before Long hired him.  However, fans are not paid big bucks to be the expert.  The buck stops with Jeff Long.

The fact still remains that his results with his previous two stops were over all better than the results here in the same time frame.  What is so different about Arkansas that we can make the tournament 3 out of 5 years like he did a Mizzou?

Full disclosure I feel at the absolute least he has to be pushed in to over hauling his staff, especially from a recruiting standpoint.  I am just looking at his previous numbers and his numbers here and it is a valid question if we are willing to be honest with ourselves.

[Boardon Hamsay]

Insider Hogville Joke you obviously did not get. My post was not directed towards you at all.

I smelled what you were stepping in.

[hogsanity]

All of the complaints about lack of fundamentals is due to the fact he recruits athletes and not basketball players...

Said that when people were clamoring for him, he recruits athletes and hopes they can play ball. Others recruit ball players that are also athletic. IT is why we have seen the rise of the mid major. The ones that succeed almost always have 2 or 3 guards, that while not the best athletes, they take care of the ball, can get it where it needs to be, can stick the three, and play solid defense, nothing flashy, just solid.

[Boardon Hamsay]

It never entered my mind that we would lose tonight. Never considered it as a possibility.

It's one thing to play teams close but lose on neutral courts or on the road. Quite another to get blown out twice on the road and then lose at home to an Auburn team we were favored to beat by 16.

Someone walks by you and farts, you pay it little mind. A minor annoyance. But if they walk up and drop a turd on your shoes, now they have your full attention.

It'll be interesting to sit back and see how many Razorback fans who were on the fence about Mike before tonight are now thinking, "Wait...what the hell?"

Good post. For me, no loss really comes as a shock and no loss really gets me down. It just is what it is. Its like I'm at a fan "win loss intersection" for lack of better words and my reaction towards a win or a loss is not really noticeably different.

[EastexHawg]

Are you freaking kidding me?  We have had a hectic last couple of days, including going out of town last night after work to visit my wife's 89 year old WWII vet uncle in ICU.  I frankly forgot to check on the game until just now. 

Even given how down I have been on Anderson's ability to bring a big winner back to Arkansas, I am shocked almost beyond words that he and his team lost to Auburn at home last night.  Auburn?  AUBURN?  They're terrible, as in losers of seven straight games terrible.

The Auburn and Missouri games were supposed to be gimmes.  I think we had all penciled them in as wins.  I still think they'll pound Missouri, but at this point anything that happens will be closing the barn door after the cow is gone at best.

[rude1]

We were beat tonight AT HOME by a team that has all kinds of turmoil behind the scenes and injuries that has not scored a single point more than 68 over the last seven games. They scored 90 on a team that was promised by a guy making over $2m per year that his teams would guard the other teams once they got off the bus. That same team before tonight had lost 7 in a row.

I don't care to hear the excuses any longer about how our staff was blindsided by the departures of Qualls, Portis and Babb. I don't care to hear any more about Williams and Beards off the court counterfeiting and fighting at bars. Tonights loss to a team with all the aforementioned problems coming into tonights game is inexcusable.

MY GOD MAN!!! We couldn't keep a 6'7" 250lb PG in front of us!!! Our staff was simply out-coached by a better staff. Pearl at Tenn likes to play uptempo. He likes to make it almost impossible to inbounds the ball against his defense. He knows he doesn't have the players to do this so what does he do? He adjusts!!!! Hello!!!!

Hard to defend that coaching performance we saw tonight. I heard Bo talking all week about how this team has apparently hit a wall. So what is the solution? You guessed it!!! Trap and trap some more!!! Trap in the front court. Trap in the back court. Go for steals on every single possession.

Rant over....

I feel your pain. Watching slow footed guards attempting to tag offensive players 35' from the basket, then watching the quicker bigger guards inevitably go around them to the basket, or break down the defense and hit a wide open 3 point shooter. Or the complete lack of understanding that X player is killing us from behind the arc, I can NOT leave him to go double a guy who is not even a good shooter.

[EastexHawg]

However, fans are not paid big bucks to be the expert.  The buck stops with Jeff Long.

No, it doesn't.  It should, but it doesn't.  Bring up on the field results during his time and you'll get a quick, "Yeah, smarty pants, but he IS on the committee.  Are you?  Didn't think so" or "look how much money we're bringing in!"

[ATU HOG]

No, it doesn't.  It should, but it doesn't.  Bring up on the field results during his time and you'll get a quick, "Yeah, smarty pants, but he IS on the committee.  Are you?  Didn't think so" or "look how much money we're bringing in!"

Can't forget the classic "We're doing it the right way!!"

[MikePiazza]

Obviously Long isn't going to do anything until after the season is over, but here are my thoughts on what should take place versus what probably will take place:

What should take place

Long and CMA have a meeting following the team's exit from the SEC Tournament (or NIT, depending on how they finish). Long goes through the five seasons Mike has completed and goes over what he liked and what he didn't like. Long tells him that the major issue he is concerned with is in-state recruiting. Other than Bobby Portis and Anton Beard, most in-state players that are good enough to play at this level are going elsewhere. Long tells him that this can no longer happen and demands that he hire a top-flight recruiter, whether that means he has to fire one of his assistants or just hires someone to complement them.

Following that conversation, Long lays out his expectations for year six. With the class that CMA is bringing in, the NCAA Tournament should be the bare minimum. I think Long should require that he be safely in before the SECT, and make the second weekend. At least one tourney win has to be had. Anything less than that, leads to termination of contract.

What will take place

Long sits down with CMA following the completion of the season. He tells him that he understands CMA had a rough offseason and did the best he could considering the circumstances. He tells him that he needs to make some form of postseason in 2016-17, preferably the NCAAT, but the NIT will suffice, to keep his job, and continue to try and have success on the recruiting trail.

Nothing really changes other than that.

[Sivad]

If Anderson is forced to make a change in his staff - Nolan will scream bloody murder that that is the reason his Mike failed at Arkansas - "meddling" with his brilliant coaching system.

[hogsanity]

Obviously Long isn't going to do anything until after the season is over, but here are my thoughts on what should take place versus what probably will take place:

What should take place

Long and CMA have a meeting following the team's exit from the SEC Tournament (or NIT, depending on how they finish). Long goes through the five seasons Mike has completed and goes over what he liked and what he didn't like. Long tells him that the major issue he is concerned with is in-state recruiting. Other than Bobby Portis and Anton Beard, most in-state players that are good enough to play at this level are going elsewhere. Long tells him that this can no longer happen and demands that he hire a top-flight recruiter, whether that means he has to fire one of his assistants or just hires someone to complement them.

Following that conversation, Long lays out his expectations for year six. With the class that CMA is bringing in, the NCAA Tournament should be the bare minimum. I think Long should require that he be safely in before the SECT, and make the second weekend. At least one tourney win has to be had. Anything less than that, leads to termination of contract.

What will take place

Long sits down with CMA following the completion of the season. He tells him that he understands CMA had a rough offseason and did the best he could considering the circumstances. He tells him that he needs to make some form of postseason in 2016-17, preferably the NCAAT, but the NIT will suffice, to keep his job, and continue to try and have success on the recruiting trail.

Nothing really changes other than that.

sweet 16 next year or he is fired. What will happen is he will slip in as a 6-10 seed, maybe beta a Wofford again, then lose on the weekend and get another 5 years here.

[lutherheggs]

sweet 16 next year or he is fired. What will happen is he will slip in as a 6-10 seed, maybe beta a Wofford again, then lose on the weekend and get another 5 years here.

This seems logical but another thought process starts in my mind that Long will be admitting he made a bad hire and that will be tough for him to swallow. Thus, he will be reluctant to fire him even if next year's results are nothing special. As long as he has a winning record next year in the SEC, I bet Anderson gets at least 2 more seasons.

[TNhawgfan]

I am also annoyed with our guard play. As much as I love Bell and Dusty, they just aren't the men that we need to start drilling teams again.
These little bitty s***s we have for guards just will not cut it in this system.

And as much as they score on offense, they're giving up that much if not more with their lack of defense. The only player we can depend on to score and play some D Is Moses

[jkstock04]

Can't forget the classic "We're doing it the right way!!"

One of my personal Hogville favorites.

[root_hawg]

who is this hot shot recruiter that you want him to hire?

[OperationRestoreHawgBall]

Absurdity.
Most coaches would love getting at least 4-5 years of making millions each year. We have given each of our coaches plenty of time to establish themselves. Look at the overall tenure average, and I bet u we are no different than most programs.

Most good coaches would be hesitant consider a program that routinely fires coaches who've recently notched NCAAT appearances, IMO.  Mike is 1 year removed. Heath had come off consecutive trips when he was excused.  Pelphrey was a Ken-tuck saboteur whose name shall never again be uttered by your faithful scribe.  Throw in the Altman boomerang and it looks shaky.

That said, this night wounds time.

[OperationRestoreHawgBall]

And Billy's niece Delilah.

And Arlyn's nephew Laurence.