Calling the Hogs

The ninth-ranked Arkansas gymnasitcs team, which finished sixth in SEC Championships over the weekend, will compete in the West Regional of the NCAA Tournament at Los Angeles on April 10.

The Gym’backs will be competing against No. 3 UCLa, No. 17 Iowa State, No. 21 Arizona, No. 26 Brigham Young and No. 32 Arizona State.

This is the seventh Regional appearance by the Gym’Backs in just the eighth season of the program.

“We are extremely excited to be going to Los Angeles,” co-head coach René Cook says. “We competed there two years ago and it was a successful trip. Half of our team is from the West Coast. We’re excited about competing and trying to qualify for the NCAA Championship.”

“We’re very excited about the seeding,” Mark Cook says. “We know the university and the area, and we were there a couple years ago. It’s my home state, so I’m happy to be going there.”

While the trip is a long one, several of the Gym’Backs competed at UCLA when the squad took a road trip there in 2008.

“We’ve seen UCLA several times in the regular and post-season,” René Cook says. “These are strong teams, as you would expect. Our goal is to be in the top two to make it to the national championship.”

Friday night it was third baseball Zack Cox and Saturday it was pinch hitter Tom Hauskey. Who will be the hero at the plate for the Razorbacks Sunday in their final contest in a three-game series with Alabama at 1 p.m. Sunday?

I wouldn’t hazard a guess, but this weekend it seems each and every Hog is ready to seize the moment against the Crimson Tide, after letting so many of them slip away last weekend at LSU.

A week ago the Razorbacks had ample opportunities to take a second game in their series with the defending national champion Tigers, but could not get the right hit at the right time.

Alabama only wishes they were as fortunate as the Tigers. Dave Van Horn’s Razorbacks overcame a 5-0 deficit Friday and a 3-0 deficit Saturday to stake respective 9-8 and 4-3 victories.

The Hogs’ two victories this weekend have been dynamic. Cox had a 6-RBI night on Friday with a three-run homer in the fifth and base-clearing double in the ninth to key the win. Cox is an All-SEC candidate, who is riding a 22-game winning streak. Cox is one of several Hogs whom everyone expects to step up in crucial situations.

But, Saturday’s hero Hauskey is another story.

A walk-on, former bullpen catcher, Hauskey was one of the unlikliest candidates to be the hero in the Razorbacks’ dugout. But when Brett Eibner — another play-making Hog — couldn’t bat after being beaned in the head earlier in the game, Van Horn called Hauskey’s number and the senior from Springdale delivered with the game-winning hit that scored Collin Kuhn and gave the Razorbacks their fourth-consecutive one-run victory.

Earlier in the week, Van Horn challenged his squad to make plays and said he would players who help them win will get the call.

No doubt Cox and Hauskey got the message and this weekend, they answered the call.

It’s too early in the SEC season to draw any kind of conclusions from this weekend’s games. Just because the Hogs rose to the occassion this weekend doesn’t mean they will in the future. At least the Razorbacks can take confidence in knowing that they can come through in the clutch.

But while having to come from behind from 5-0 and 3-0 deficits game-in and game-out may be exciting, it’s not the most direct course to ongoing success.

Arkansas head coach Bobby Petrino gave the media a little insight on why off-season workouts are as important mentally as they are physically for athletes and used Anthony Leon as an example.

Leon (6-4, 227) is a physical specimen, but at junior college did not have the opportunity to hit the weights like the athletes do at Arkansas. Petrino said Leon success in the weight room is not only making him stronger and more durable but also more confidence.

“His confidence level is at an all-time high from what he has done in the weight room,” Petrino said of Leon. “He’s never pushed weight around like he is now.

“That’s a huge part of the weight room. It doesn’t only help you become a better player because you are stronger and faster, it doesn’t only help you to stay healthy because you are stronger and more flexible, but it also builds your confidence and your self esteem, and I think we have seen that with Anthony.”

The best coaches — and managers in general — always have a little psychology working on the side.

FAYETTEVILLE —Dave Van Horn’s Arkansas Razorbacks baseball team is spending its spring break on the road. Instead of returning home after their weekend series at LSU, the Hogs rode a bus to Lake Charles, La., where they face McNeese State in a two-game series. Both Tuesday and Wednesday’s games begin at 6:30 p.m. and will be carried on the Arkansas Baseball Radio Network.

The Hogs (15-5, 1-2 SEC) return to SEC play Friday when they host Alabama for a three-game series. Friday’s game is set for 6:35 p.m., Saturday’s is at 2:05 p.m. and Sunday’s at 1:05 p.m. Cox ports will televise Friday and Sunday’s games. The Crimson Tide (16-2, 2-1 SEC) swept the Razorbacks 3-0 last year and lead the all-time series 38-21.

Brett Eibner is off to a strong start for the Razorback on the mound and at the plate.The 6-4 junior from Houston. Eibner his three of his five home runs against LSU. He is second on the team in home runs, and he has the Hogs’ second-best ERA at 2.18, despit absorbing the loss Sunday at LSU.

Mike Bolsinger pitched seven innings last Friday against LSU and picked up the victory in his longest SEC performance. Bolsinger is now 3-0 on the season and has retired 15 of the last 18 hitters to whom he pitched.

Zack Cox will also look to extend his 18-game hitting streak against the Cowboys.

Gymnastics may be Arkansas’ newest sport, but it’s arguably the school’s most successful.

Mark and Renee Cook’s Razorbacks have been ranked in the Top 10 all season and go into this weekend’s SEC Championships at Gainsville, Fla. ranked 8th in the nation.

Senior All-American Casey Jo Magee is tied for first in the nation on the balance beam, but in a head to head competition with Oklahoma’s Hollie Vise, who she is tied with, Magee topped her with a 9.95 on the beam to Vise’ 9.875.

Magee is ranked second in the Central Region in the All-around and her teammate Jaime Pisani is third and Sarah Nagashima is 10th.

The Gym’Backs will be in the hunt for the SEC title, but like most other sports, the SEC is dominant in the sport.

Alabama is ranked No. 1, Forida is fourth, Georgia is fifth, LSU is 10th, Auburn is 15th and Kentucky is 18th.

If someone would have asked me if I would take the Razorbacks winning one of three games in their baseball series at LSU before this weekend, I likely would have said, sure. The Tigers are the defending national champions and are ranked third in the nation.

But after watching the series, I don’t think anyone with ties to the Razorbacks will be happy with the Hogs’ performance at Baton Rouge, La.

The Razorbacks lost, 5-1, Sunday, playing poorly in the field. The defense really let down pitcher Brett Eibner. He pitched well enough to get the victory.

On Saturday, the Hogs’ bullpen was the culprit Saturday in an 8-7 loss to the Tigers. With Drew Smyly on the mound, Arkansas built a 5-1 lead through the sixth inning before he gave up the ball. But Arkansas’ relievers had a melt down in the seventh, basically handing the game over to the Tigers.

Of course, the weekend wasn’t a total loss. The Hogs did whip the Tigers, 6-3, on Friday, and really that is what makes the Razorbacks place this weekend so disappointing. Arkansas really let a couple of solid opportunities slip by them, and if the Razorbacks lose the West by a couple of games, this weekend will be a nagging reminder of what could have been.

This is a talented Razorbacks baseball team, but it appears maintaining focus and establishing consistency is an issue for the Hogs at this point of the season. Two of the Hogs’ three nonconference losses were also games in which the Razorbacks gave less than their best effort.

That’s a bad habit for a team to have, and it’s one that’s often hard to break.

In the preseason, this was a team that talked about returning to Omaha, Neb. for the College World Series and not just competing for a national title but winning it.

If the Razorbacks are serious about those goals, it’s time for the Hogs to begin capitalizing on opportunities, instead of missing them.

When a collegiate head coach makes staff changes because he believes it is the right thing to do, it’s usually ends up being a good thing for his program. However, when athletics directors mandate staff changes to make a show for the fan base, it usually blows up in everyone’s faces.

By the way John Pelphrey praised Isaac Brown in his press conference Friday and the fact Brown is moving to an administrative role within Arkansas’ basketball program says volumes about his re-assignment, to me.

If Pelphrey thinks so highly of Brown and the job he has done, why move him out of a coaching position?

Is Brown that good at pushing papers?

It seems, Pelphrey was coerced or forced into making some kind of sacrifice on the alter of failure to assure Razorbacks fans that something is being done about the back-to-back losing seasons the program has suffered.

The situation is not unique to Arkansas, and it has gone on for years in collegiate coaching circles.

When a head coach is fired, go back and check and see if he didn’t fire some assistants or make some staff changes the previous year. The method seems to be taught in Athletics Management 101, but it’s a page that should be torn out of the book.

Again if a head coach decides he needs to make staff changes, I’m fine with that. A head coach has to trust his staff. But to fire or re-assign a good employee for public relations purposes is a callous move to the coaching profession and a condescending one to the fan base.

Personally, I hope Brown finds himself an even better coaching job elsewhere, and the praise that Pelphrey gave him during a press conference Friday was probably aimed at helping Brown do just that. One thing that will work in Brown’s favor is that the coaches he will likely interview with understand the game and know his re-assignment was a political move.

Now, that Pelphrey needs to hire an assistant, it would behoove Arkansas athletics director Jeff Long to let him do it without further meddling. Certainly, if Long has suggestions or contacts, he should offer them to his head basketball coach, but he should not force a coach down Pelphrey’s throat.

Arkansas’ previous athletics director Frank Broyles was bad about doing that with his football coaches, who found themselves on the ropes. Now, in my estimation, Broyles was a fantastic athletics director and what he built at the UA with the resources he had on hand is incredible. It’s very likely nobody could have done as much.

But when Broyles began to micromanage his head football coaches’ staffs, bad things happened. Broyles and his former player Ken Hatfield were at odds over staff changes Hatfield would not make in the late 1980s. The feud led to Hatfield bolting to Clemson after winning back-to-back Southwest Conference titles in 1988 and 1989. Arkansas’ football program did not recover for nearly a decade.

Broyles forced Danny Ford to hire former Buffalo Bills head coach Kay Stephenson as his offensive coordinator for the 1997 season. Ford liked running the football and Stephenson excelled at the passing game. The two philosophies clashed and both were unemployed by the end of November.

And of course there was the whole Nutt-Malzahn affair. While Gus Malzahn has proven he was up to the task of being a collegiate offensive coordinator and then some by his success at Arkansas, Tulsa and now Auburn, Houston Nutt did not want him to fill that position on his staff. Unfortunately, we all remember how that worked out. The pettiness and strife involved in that fiasco might have cost Arkansas two SEC titles.

It’s my opinion, a head coach should have the right to hire the staff he wants within the means of the athletic department’s budget. The head coach needs to have the power to run his program as he sees fit. When he’s not afforded that ability, things just don’t seem to work out.

If an athletics program is in such a bad situation that the A.D. needs to begin making moves, then it’s probably time to clean house.

Obviously, Long does not believe that’s the case with Pelphrey, and I believe he’s right. Given the set of circumstances with which Pelphrey has had to work — admittedly some of his own creation — I don’t believe Pelphrey has had enough time to restore Arkansas’ basketball program to consistent success.

But if Long is going to stand by Pelphrey, he needs to allow Pelphrey manage his own program and let him swim or sink based on his own decisions. And as for the cosmetic changes, leave that up to Max Factor and Revlon.

FAYETTEVILLE — While Arkansas head coach John Pelphrey said he does not anticipate any movement on his current basketball roster, he did say sophomore point guard Courtney Fortson was considering his options about playing professional basketball next season, most likely overseas.

“Well I don’t think anything is definite,” Pelphrey said. “I think Courtney and I have had discussions about how important it is to take care of the business at hand which is school. And he’s doing that. We will have to wait and see what happens in terms of him looking at opportunities to play professional basketball. Certainly that’s every young man’s right.”

If Fortson does turn pro, it’s important for Arkansas’ program that he complete his second-semester courses with passing grades for Arkansas’ Academic Progress Rating. If he leaves the program in good academic standing, Arkansas will only be penalized a point; however, if he leaves and is academically ineligible, the program would be docked two points.

If Fortson does return to the team, Pelphrey said reducing turnovers would be the key area that the young man would need to work on improving, but he also praised the young man’s passing ability.

“Taking care of the basketball. But I think that he has had more assists than anybody in the SEC the last two years,” Pelphrey said. Obviously this year he is a heavily decorated player in terms of the number of awards he got. He was a big part of us having some success competing for the West. And he did all that as a sophomore. But yeah, I would say those turnover things and continuing to do point guard type stuff and lead, almost like will, make, force your team to win.”

Arkansas basketball coach John Pelphrey held a season-ending press conference Tuesday, and while he certainly wasn’t please with the outcome of the Hogs’ 14-18 season, he is optimistic about the future of the program.

When he was asked how close the program was to returning to a level of national prominence — returning to the NCAA Tournament, being ranked in the Top 25.

“I think we are really close to that,” Pelphrey said. “Obviously, you are talking about a body of work over the season and then you are talking about a body of work for a number of years in a row. The thing that has hurt here of late is losing so much personnel. With the six seniors [that left after his first season], and then Pat [Beverley] and what not. That’s all been documented. A lot of personnel turnover at times, it can lead to inconsistency. I think that’s probably been the toughest part about this. We had a three year run of three NCAA tournaments with Coach Heath having two and my first year here. I don’t know if Arkansas was ranked in the top 20 at any point in that time, either. There is certainly a chance of being a part of postseason and not being ranked. Usually one comes with the other.”

Pelphrey demoted assistant Isaac Brown to an as yet-to-be determined administrative post, but it was pretty clear that it was a move forced on him by the UA administration as a signal to fans that changes are being made. Pelphrey spoke highly of Brown, and he did not issue a time table on hiring an assistant. Likely, he will attend the National Basketball Coaches Association meetings which a held at the Final Four and interview candidates there.

He said he did not have a certain demographic targeted for the position.

“I think there is a broad-based spectrum that I am looking at,” Pelphrey said. “I haven’t narrowed it down or limited it to any one thing.”

A question about whether Arkansas’ Academic Progress Rating would force the program to lose a scholarship for the 2010-2011 season was cleared up. If Arkansas’ should lose a scholarship, the program could take the penalty in 2010-2011 or 2011-2012 season. With next year being a make-or-break year for Pelphrey, it seems the program will take the hit in 2011-2012, if Arkansas does lose a scholarship.

When asked what areas he wanted to see improved in the program, Pelphrey pointed to a number of areas.

“I think we need to improve our leadership and develop our front-court depth and hopefully do a good job of recruiting at that spot,” Pelphrey said.

The Razorbacks are hoping to sign 6-9 JUCO recruit Recardo Ratliffe, who is considered one of the best JUCO players in the nation.

But Pelphrey said the players already on the team need to continue to improve as well

“All the obvious things, we would like to be better at: Fundamentals, being consistent defensively, being consistent rebounding and taking care of that basketball,” Pelphrey said. “Being able to improve and I think we will be better at shooting the ball. It won’t be like if Rotnei [Clarke] doesn’t make a 3-point shot no one else will. That’s something that’s going to better.

“I think a lot of the things that were perceived that we didn’t do well at times or as a weakness, hopefully we will have a chance to address some of those through recruiting.

“I think our guard depth is going to be tremendous. I think Marvell is going to help us at the power forward spot. He’s kind of a pick and pop guy, who can shoot with range. I really think some of the guys in our program that have had some success in our program will have a chance to grow and get better.”

When asked about his meeting with his individual meeting with Clarke, Pelphrey said he had stayed in contact with the sophomore on a number of occasions since the end of the season.

“I have met with Rotnei on a couple of occasions and we’ve spoke on the phone a couple of times.” Pelphrey said. “I think that we’ve talked a lot about ways for him to get better, ways for our team to get better. We’ve talked about how much he likes being a Razorback and how much I like being a Razorback, and we talked about the things he did very well like hit 100 threes in a season. That’s pretty good.

“Rot understands averaging threes make a game is not too bad. He did that a lot with a depleted roster. I think Rotnei had a very good year. Now he’ll tell you he wished he had hit more shots down the stretch, and I’ll tell you that every single time he’s open I want him to have the basketball. Those are things we can work on and those are things that we will get better at.”

FAYETTEVILLE — All year long we heard how bad the SEC was in basketball. The league only got four bids to the NCAA Tournament and every team from the Western Division was ignored, including Mississippi State, who made it to the SEC Championship Game and lost to Kentucky by a point.

Well, based on the league’s performance in the Big Dance so far, the pundits were right. Heck, as poorly thought of as the league was, it might have been over-rated.

Billy Donovan’s Florida Gators came up on the short end of a double-overtime thriller with BYU, 99-92, earlier today, and less than an hour ago, Vanderbilt came out flat against Murray State and the Racers hit a buzzer beater to send the Commodores home early for spring break.

Tonight, East No. 1 seed Kentucky certainly will advance past East Tennessee State at 6;15 p.m. Tennessee faces San Diego State at 8:45 p.m., in a contest several analysts have labeled as an upset special.

It’s also become a popular thesis among the so-called basketball intelligentsia that Kentucky will bow out of the tournament earlier than expected because of their reliance on so many freshmen.

I’ve never been one to believe Arkansas fans should blindly support teams from the SEC just because the Razorbacks are a member of the SEC. There no doubt is some truth in the old saying that a rising tide lifts all boats, but sometimes a rising tide can tip a boat over, too.

That’s one of the problems with Arkansas’ basketball program and it has been an issue for about a decade. When the Razorbacks bolted in the SEC and not only stood toe to toe with Kentucky but also pushed the Wildcats off the podium for four seasons, it awoke the rest of the SEC.

The other schools realized that if Arkansas could be relevant on the national basketball scene and more importantly make some money to help football tote the note, they could as well.

Arkansas’ success in the early to mid 1990s made the SEC a more competitive league for about a dozen years and it’s not totally coincidental that the Razorbacks’ basketball program has been in decline since.

From 1977-1999, Arkansas was a basketball power. Since then Hogs haven’t been much more than an also-ran.

With the SEC struggling, it’s time for the Razorbacks to take advantage and pull themselves back to basketball relevance. The program has been down far too long.

Is John Pelphrey the coach to do it? We will see, but Arkansas needs to make the most of the league’s relative weakness.