Do we make the BIG dance this year?

[99toLife]

I think this year you will see the beginning of a CMA team. You can over analyze all you want, but I see a few things in place that is critical to the way CMA coaches.  I see NCAAt.  May be a tight get in but this team will be MIKE.

[PonderinHog]

My thoughts exactly. Upwards is upwards.

Y'all are right, but I'm still pissed about the NIT snub last season.  Screw the NIT - at least until March.

[-Blu]

IMHO we are not going to make the dance. We have no guards that create for the post and we have no post players that are dominant in any way.

I agree with you on our guards can't create for the post.  TBH our best distributor is Dee Wagner, but Wagner just isn't ready.  We haven't really seen Madden's improvement yet this season outside the red/white game, so hopefully he can fulfill this role.  With that said, I'm surprised that you're not impressed with our big men.  Harris, Clarke, and Portis to me can all score in the post.  Portis and Harris actually have really good post moves, I would say both of them are better in the post than Powell was.  I think your going to be pleasantly surprised at how good our front line is.

[nextlevel]

Stop there. Save your breath for the next coach Guv adopts wholeheartedly. It's yet to be seen if he'll stick with Frank as long as Billie Gillespie.

Give Frank Martin 4 years and he will have Carolina dominating the SEC and Calipari quitting coaching, rabble rabble rabble and other such nonsense.

[1highhog]

He's being sarcastic. Couldn't tell if you recognized it. Smithian is now an NCAAT or bust guy.

Define "warm." If you mean by a certain percentage of the fanbase, then it will certainly be warm. For administration purposes, NIT+ keeps his seat nice and cold.

It's year 3, for God's sakes. This kind of short-sided impatience has killed our program over the past decade and plagued coaches trying to rebuild our program. It astounds me how many people ignore track record. Once Mike got each of his previous two teams on track, they didn't miss the NCAAT again.

He's dragging us back from the pits of NCAA basketball Hell. Some assembly required.

I'll gladly define warm for you Breems.  This is not College Football, it's College Basketball.  Head over to MMQB and you have at least a 3rd of Hogville posters already ready to give Coach Bielema the old heave ho and he hasn't made it past season 1.  Yes, we both know that this comes from stupid unreasonable fans, but in Football, a Coach requires more time IMO to put together a successful program than does a Basketball a Coach.  He has to recruit far more players that have to be difference makers.  In Basketball, oftentimes, a Coach can recruit one player that can be a difference maker, two, and he can build a Championship caliber team.  So yes, this is year 3 for MA, he needs to make a Tourney this season, barely missing the NCAA and winning a game in the NIT or something would keep things on an uphill climb and his seat cool for now.  Next year though, it's NCAA or bust for Mike.

[Smithian]

It winds up being a pointless debate on either side. It's not a universal measurement. Joe will be sad, Jim will be happy.

You would have laughed in my face if I told you in 2011 "You'll be happy with an NIT appearance by year 3"

I think the Hogs will make tournament comfortably this season, but I thought the same thing last offseason. Hoping for best.

[Brass Knob]

The Hogs will have to win 22 games to get in or upset several teams this year. I just do not see the Hogs dancing this year. Scoring will be a struggle for Arkansas and with the new rules in place it will drastically effect how this team plays defense.

[-Blu]

but in Football, a Coach requires more time IMO to put together a successful program than does a Basketball a Coach.  He has to recruit far more players that have to be difference makers.  In Basketball, oftentimes, a Coach can recruit one player that can be a difference maker, two, and he can build a Championship caliber team.  So yes, this is year 3 for MA, he needs to make a Tourney this season, barely missing the NCAA and winning a game in the NIT or something would keep things on an uphill climb and his seat cool for now.  Next year though, it's NCAA or bust for Mike.

It's about the same just different sport.  The same way a good recruiting class in basketball can change your program around, is the same way it can in football.  Just more people, but it equals out, because there are more football recruits than basketball recruits.  And as far as one or 2 big recruits making a difference you can say the same thing in football at the key positions.  You could put Johnny Manziel on any team in America and they would be significantly better.

[1highhog]

The Hogs will have to win 22 games to get in or upset several teams this year. I just do not see the Hogs dancing this year. Scoring will be a struggle for Arkansas and with the new rules in place it will drastically effect how this team plays defense.

I myself think this will be a tough year to get in the dance for the Hogs, hope they prove me terribly wrong.  But this is year 3 for Coach Anderson, and even though I like him and always have being part of our wonderful history, year 3 needs to be consistent improvement, and this team needs to go at least to the NIT and win at least a game or MA will be getting warm.

[nextlevel]

It's about the same just different sport.  The same way a good recruiting class in basketball can change your program around, is the same way it can in football.  Just more people, but it equals out, because there are more football recruits than basketball recruits.  And as far as one or 2 big recruits making a difference you can say the same thing in football at the key positions.  You could put Johnny Manziel on any team in America and they would be significantly better.

True.

The APR situation Mike inherited prevented him from turning the roster over as needed quickly.

In football there is a necessary acceptable level of attrition, in basketball attrition can be trickier.

[Breems]

True.

The APR situation Mike inherited prevented him from turning the roster over as needed quickly.

In football there is a necessary acceptable level of attrition, in basketball attrition can be trickier.

It won't feel like basketball season until you and HA debate APR.

[-Blu]

True.

The APR situation Mike inherited prevented him from turning the roster over as needed quickly.

In football there is a necessary acceptable level of attrition, in basketball attrition can be trickier.

Yea that's a good point as well.  And everybody thinks if you just get 1 really good player in basketball you can have a really good team, that's not true at all.  Georgia is a good example, they had the #8 pick in the draft (Kentavious Caldwell-Pope) and they were still a really bad team, because they had no pieces around him.  Just like in football, you have to have the pieces to support your stars.

[HawgAdvocate]

It won't feel like basketball season until you and HA debate APR.

It's not even a debate.

It's wishful, 'hindsight is 20/20' thinking by some. Consider that we haven't been able to fill out 13 scholarships each year as it is. Peterson, Clarke, Abron, Bryant, Nobles, and Mickelson all had no issues departing early and not harming our annual APR numbers as they remain strong as they did in Pel's final seasons.

It's always been about getting that one year score of 755 off our record. That's the same number that Altman saw coming and ran away as fast as he could.

[1highhog]

It's about the same just different sport.  The same way a good recruiting class in basketball can change your program around, is the same way it can in football.  Just more people, but it equals out, because there are more football recruits than basketball recruits.  And as far as one or 2 big recruits making a difference you can say the same thing in football at the key positions.  You could put Johnny Manziel on any team in America and they would be significantly better.

Johnny don't play Defense, A/M had a good enough defense last year to have a special season along with JM at QB and good receivers.  They are not the same team this year though.  It's not the same, DMac did not play defense for us, but he was a special player for us on Offense, same with Matt Jones.  But with both, we never had the great Defense to make a complete full team, you have to have a few special players on both sides of the ball.

On a basketball team, you get a Corliss, a Thurman, you have to special players that can win you a Championship.  All you need is a capable point guard to get them the ball, and a good defensive stopper, someone you can usually put on the other teams best guy, you got a team.  I think this team that MA has assembled has the makings of a good squad, but I'm not sure about our guard play yet, Portis, in time, will be one hell of a presence inside/out to around 12 feet, uses the glass some which I love to see(a lost art I believe).  I just haven't seen enough and won't until SEC play to know for sure about our point guard and shooting guard, I'd love to see a Cory Beck style of point guard or Lee Mayberry, dang I miss them.  Also someone that scares the opponents every time they near the 3/line, I want our guys able to put fear in our opponents by making some shots from outside.

Do I see that this year, I hope so, but I think next year is more likely.

[AugustaHog]

The thing is, even if we have a great season (total wins wise) our RPI is likely to stink.  We won't get much help from our conference foes and there is very little to get excited about in the OOC schedule.  We need our opponents to have a really good early season and we just about have to run the table in the OOC.  There is very little margin for error because the schedule is so weak.  Oh and road wins would be nice this year!

[TexomaRazorback]

Gonna be close

[Blue35]

Yes

[Biggus Piggus]

Yes.

[Peter Porker]

I think we do make the tournament this year.  Seen a lot of things from the past few weeks from the team that was really encouraging.  Our big men all seem to be as advertised. Portis is actually better than what I thought he would be coming in.  Harris looks really good, Coty Clarke is much improved, and Qualls and Williams are also better players as well.  On top of that Bell has just wowed me with his improvement, he had arguably the best off-season on the team, and I think him with consistent minutes is really going to help us in the back court.

I originally predicted our record as 22-9 (12-1 OOC, 10-8 Conf).  But, after seeing our teams pre-season games/practices, and seeing Mizzou and Bama in action, I think we'll find one more conference win, so I have us as 23-8 now in regular season with an 11-7 in conference record.  And I think we get 2 wins in the SEC tourney as well, giving us a 25-9 record going into selection Sunday.

Almost spot on at first.