Razorbacks football/basketball ascendant
Things are looking really good for the future of the University of Arkansas football and men’s basketball teams.
The football Hogs ended a long losing streak to Louisiana State University with a 16-13 overtime victory in Baton Rouge, boosting their record to 7-3 with games left against Alabama and Missouri.
The Hogs started hot, winning their first four games, two against highlyranked teams, to jump into the No. 8 national ranking. Then they were blown out by No. 1 Georgia, then lost by a single point, 52-51 to Mississippi. The next week, they played uninspired in a 38-23 loss to Auburn. Since that time, they have won their last three including the LSU game.
They will be playing in Tuscaloosa, Ala., this week against No. 3 Alabama. The Hogs are decided underdogs but if the ’Backs can get their September mojo back, who knows?
The coach they have in Sam Pittman has one quality that led Georgia to pay him $900,000 a year to coach linemen. They paid him mostly because he was a fantastic recruiter and knows talent when he sees it. The players he has brought to Fayetteville have been stellar, and the ones being courted currently will move the program upwards.
Over to Bud Walton and the men’s basketball program. Eric Musselman shares Pittman’s gift of knowing who he wants as recruits and successfully getting them to commit. Already in 2021, Musselman has signed three highly sought after players early in 6’5” Chance Moore from Georgia, 6’7” Kamani Johnson from Little Rock, 6’10” Akol Mawein from Sudan/ Australia/Navarro Junior College. This past week, 6’6” high school senior Barry Dunning (Alabama player of the year his junior season) committed to Arkansas.
Arkansas won their initial two games, besting Mercer 74-61 then dispatching Gardner-Webb 86-69. The Mercer game started poorly, as they trailed the mid-major program 36-28 at the half. They came out on fire in the second half, blowing past their guests 46-25 to win by double digits. They got up on Gardner-Webb early on and coasted, with 11 Razorbacks getting into the scoring column.
Both Musselman and Pittman are talented coaches, and are genial, nice folks as well. The next few years may well be exciting times for Razorback fans. Bowl games and NCAA tournament berths may become a regular thing — like it used to be.
The nature of cross country
Team sports such as football, basketball, volleyball, baseball and softball compete on a “one on one” basis.
They play one team at a time, and the role of defense is just as important as the role of offense in a team’s ultimate success. This is not the case with cross country and track and field competitions.
Recently, Harrison High School girls cross country team came in a rather distant third place in the 4A-1 District Championships. A week later, those same Goblin girls claimed a second place trophy at the state championships. How did that happen?
In a smaller field of runners, teams can make up for having one or two runners among their top five that don’t place especially high by having one to three stars who do great. However, in a large field of several hundred runners, any team with a group of five good runners will have the advantage over teams with more disparate talents.
When I competed in cross country for Harding University, our coach (national Hall of Fame coach Ted Lloyd) constantly stressed the need for us to tighten it up, meaning trying to get all our scorers across the finish line within 60 seconds of each other. He didn’t mean for our leaders to slow down, but for lower ranked runners to pick it up. We won a lot of championships during my years there and there were times when our competitors put two or three of theirs ahead of our No. 1 runner, but we usually won because our No. 5 wasn’t far behind our No. 1.
Harrison had but one girl in the top 15, but their 5th runner was 36th which was far better than any other team in 4A except for the champion Valley View team.
Basketball tips it off
The Blackhawks got their 2021-2022 season underway this week with the boys on the road at Subiaco.
The boys and girls will both be home Friday hosting Eureka Springs with the home stand to continue the following Tuesday with Cedarville coming to town.
Basketball is easily the busiest sport in town with competition going on with six elementary teams, seventh-grade teams, junior high teams, junior varsity teams and varsity teams. It’s a rare date on the calendar when someone isn’t playing somewhere.
Final 4a Volleyball state rankings
Top 25
1. Valley View 34-3
2. Shiloh 20-4
3. Brookland 25-11
4. Mena 29-3
5. Harrison 19-8
6. Batesville Southside 24-5
7. Wynne 16-14
8. Westside 15-13
9. Pulaski 16-11
10. Fountain Lake 16-9
11. Morrilton 19-6
12. Pea Ridge 16-8
13. Bauxite 14-8
14. Pottsville 16-8
15. Highland 11-12
16. Gravette 9-10
17. Huntsville 4-9
18. Farmington 14-11
19. Blytheville 7-15
20. Trumann 9-12
21. Pocahontas 5-13
22. Magnolia 9-11
23. Lonoke 10-17
24. Forrest City 7-13
25. Berryville 4-13
5A Football State rankings
Top 25
1. Pulaski 10-1
2. Greenbrier 11-0
3. White Hall 9-2
4. Little Rock Christian 9-2
5. Vilonia 9-2
6. Nettleton 11-0
7. Camden 10-1
8. Harrison 7-4
9. Wynne 10-1
10. Magnolia 6-5
11. Farmington 8-3
12. Maumelle 4-7
13. Valley View 7-4
14. Lakeside 5-5
15. Hot Springs 5-6
16. Beebe 3-7
17. Morrilton 3-7
18. Green County 5-6
19. Alma 3-7
20. Batesville 3-7
21. Brookland 5-5
22. Hope 2-8
23. Clarksville 2-8
24. Texarkana 2-7
25. Pea Ridge 1-9