Does anyone even care anymore?

[ArkansasI]

Does anyone in the country get excited about basketball anymore?  Who do kids want to play for these days?  Geez, I watch the Hogs and its like nobody understands how to play the game anymore.

We play a two man offense between Washington and Fortson.  If Fortson's out of control shot doesn't fall, we pray that Washington will put the ball back in or that Fortson is somehow able to draw contact.  Yet, he can't shoot a freethrow to keep us in the game.  There are flaws in the program.

Every trip down the floor feels do or die and we have a caffeine junky operating the offense.  It can be a lot of fun, but often isn't.  What is crazy is that we were able to beat OU and Texas with this nonsense.

Outside the two man game, there is no movement on offense - or at least the remaining players don't have the skills necessary to set adequate screens or athleticism necessary to get themselves open.  We are boring as Hell in the halfcourt and our defense is short and slow.  That aint good.

If it weren't for Welsh getting aggressive periodically, we could just about mail in every game.  It is really getting hard to watch.

I am glad that all the talk about Kentucky grabbing Pel has ended... that's good.  As much as I enjoy his demeanor on the sideline and his buy-in to the program (to be expected, really), the man has got to recruit better.   We need two or three more players that we can depend upon or this team is going to continue to lose - unless we play OU or Texas I guess.

Oh how the Hog Nation longs for a contender...

[BallHog1]

I still care and love every minute of it.

[Kris P. Bacon]

I still care and love every minute of it.

^^^^^^^

[hawgsav1]

I may not love every minute of it, but I still care about the Hogs and I always will.  Any dumbass who says they don't care and calls themselves a Hog fan is nothing but a fairweather fan. 

[rude1]

Sadly the team has gotten apathy to set in on me. I completely forgot they even played tonight. From all accounts from reading the posts, I can replay most any of the recent games of my choosing and see what happened tonight. The excuse making needs to stop and the producing needs to start. How long does one get to use that "Youth Excuse"? Shouldn't a young team be the one that is starting to show the most improvement as the season wears on? This program is no where close to being even a top 30 program, with the current talent level on hand.

[ArkansasI]

I may not love every minute of it, but I still care about the Hogs and I always will.  Any dumbass who says they don't care and calls themselves a Hog fan is nothing but a fairweather fan. 

I hope that I am not the dumbass...  I wouldn't be on this board if I didn't care about the Hogs.  Too often we get into this stupid diatribe about who is the better fan.

I have followed the Hogs my entire life.  However, we are going on year 13 without anything to get excited about.  Let that soak in a bit.

It was clear from the OU and Texas games that Razorback fans are still a healthy breed, but don't be such a boob to claim that people are fairweathered because they find it difficult to watch a team that they love and support play bad basketball.

Like it or not, we are a bad basketball team.  It is easy to lose interest in watching a friend get beat up... especially when you have no ability to step in and help.

Can we vent together without resorting to name calling?

[NuttinItUp]

I care.

[hawgsav1]

I hope that I am not the dumbass...  I wouldn't be on this board if I didn't care about the Hogs.  Too often we get into this stupid diatribe about who is the better fan.

I have followed the Hogs my entire life.  However, we are going on year 13 without anything to get excited about.  Let that soak in a bit.

It was clear from the OU and Texas games that Razorback fans are still a healthy bread, but don't be such a boob to claim that people are fairweathered because they find it difficult to watch a team that they love and support play bad basketball.

Like it or not, we are a bad basketball team.  It is easy to lose interest in watching a friend get beat up... especially when you have no ability to step in and help.

Can we vent together without resorting to name calling?

There's a large difference between not caring and not getting as upset over a loss.  By definition, if you care about a team, you are a fan.  If you don't care about a team, you're not a fan.  I don't care about New Jersey Institute of Technology, so I cannot claim myself to be a fan of NJIT.  If I don't care about Razorback basketball, then I'm not a Razorback basketball fan.  This is not a question of who is a better fan, it's the simple definition and truth.

I understand how bleak it has been for almost a decade, yet I never stopped 'caring'.  I am upset about this loss and I also realize that there is a large amount of improvement needed before we are competitive again, but I still care.  I also understand that some posters need to vent and say things, but saying you don't care is tantamount to saying you are not a fan of Razorback basketball. 

There are a large number of posters on the board calling for Pelphrey's head or saying they don't care.  It's fine for people to want to vent, but keep the vents sane.  This is completely unreasonable.  Despite the regression from the OU and Texas games, there has been improvement from the start of SEC play.  We went from getting blown out at home against MSU and Auburn to playing LSU close on the road, beating Alabama, and playing Tennessee very close.  Do we have things we need to improve on?  Hell yes.  We need to improve our defense, especially on the perimeter, and we need to improve our movement on offense and our ability to get it inside.  However, we've started hustling again and Fortson has improved his play to a significant degree.  Does Pelphrey need to learn a few things?  Of course.  His teams have a tendency to improve one thing, but regress in another.  We need to learn to do all of those things well.  We lost a large percentage of our scoring from last year, and we still have a long way to go.  Give Pelphrey some time.

Nolan went 18-14 his second year and finally made the tournament his third.  It's idiotic to start venting and expecting everything to be in its rightful place less than 1.5 years into Pelphrey's tenure. 

[IronHog]

Does anyone in the country get excited about basketball anymore? 

I grew up a HUGE hog basketball/NCAA basketball fan.


They could turn BWA into the weight room for football and I'd be in full support.  Basketball in general is in a state of decline.

[WilsonHog]

I understand why fans get frustrated. It's painful because what we are seeing really isn't an aberration. This season isn't an outlier, in statistical terms. We haven't been relevant nationally in college basketball for awhile now, and for those of us who were in the arenas during most of the Nolan Richardson era that is a tough pill o swallow.

That being said...of course I care. The Razorbacks are my team; those are my guys, in good times and bad. I'll still watch every game I can and closely follow those I cannot. 

[ArkansasI]

There's a large difference between not caring and not getting as upset over a loss.  By definition, if you care about a team, you are a fan.  If you don't care about a team, you're not a fan.  I don't care about New Jersey Institute of Technology, so I cannot claim myself to be a fan of NJIT.  If I don't care about Razorback basketball, then I'm not a Razorback basketball fan.  This is not a question of who is a better fan, it's the simple definition and truth.

I understand how bleak it has been for almost a decade, yet I never stopped 'caring'.  I am upset about this loss and I also realize that there is a large amount of improvement needed before we are competitive again, but I still care.  I also understand that some posters need to vent and say things, but saying you don't care is tantamount to saying you are not a fan of Razorback basketball. 

There are a large number of posters on the board calling for Pelphrey's head or saying they don't care.  It's fine for people to want to vent, but keep the vents sane.  This is completely unreasonable.  Despite the regression from the OU and Texas games, there has been improvement from the start of SEC play.  We went from getting blown out at home against MSU and Auburn to playing LSU close on the road, beating Alabama, and playing Tennessee very close.  Do we have things we need to improve on?  Hell yes.  We need to improve our defense, especially on the perimeter, and we need to improve our movement on offense and our ability to get it inside.  However, we've started hustling again and Fortson has improved his play to a significant degree.  Does Pelphrey need to learn a few things?  Of course.  His teams have a tendency to improve one thing, but regress in another.  We need to learn to do all of those things well.  We lost a large percentage of our scoring from last year, and we still have a long way to go.  Give Pelphrey some time.

Nolan went 18-14 his second year and finally made the tournament his third.  It's idiotic to start venting and expecting everything to be in its rightful place less than 1.5 years into Pelphrey's tenure. 

I agree.  Poor choice of words for me.

[Karma]

I care and tonight killed me. I don't understand our offense though.

[hawgsav1]

I agree.  Poor choice of words for me.

It's all good.  I go overboard sometimes as well.  It just gets frustrating with some of the post-game vents being completely over the top at times.  I mean if you're that mad, I'm sure there are plenty of nice walls around to punch holes in.   (it works for me, though it's a bit expensive)