Arkansas offers fans no post-football solace

There is no doubt some fans of the Arkansas Razorbacks are either apathetic or are strongly considering it to ease the frustration of a 4-8 football season and a 11-11 men’s basketball team that is so unpredictable it might run the table or just win two of their last nine regular season games.

The last four times the Razorbacks had losing basketball seasons the football teams were going 9-5, 9-4, 8-5 and 10-3.

Houston Nutt coached the first two when Stan Heath was the basketball coach and Bobby Petrino the last two when John Pelphrey was head of basketball.

Football brought a little excitement and hope with the hiring of Petrino as offensive coordinator.

Basketball just seems to have too many questions and not enough answers.

One obvious answer to the struggles is the Razorbacks lost four players to the NBA from last year’s team and there was speculation all season as who would go first in the draft, Anthony Black or Nick Smith. There are no discussions being heard about anyone on this current team being drafted.

Black, Smith and Jordan Walsh were freshmen and Ricky Council IV was a transfer. All are on NBA rosters and logging playing time.

They accounted for roughly 60% of the scoring with a combined 1,479 points, and Smith missed 19 games.

Black, Smith and Walsh signed multi-million dollar contracts and Council worked his way up to the Philadelphia roster after spending time in the G League.

Last year’s team averaged 74.1 points per game and allowed 67.9.

Last season the Razorbacks struggled a little in SEC play, finishing 8-10 and in 10th place, but made the Sweet 16 after knocking off No. 1 seed Kansas. They finished 22-14 overall.

Eric Musselman has never had a losing season as a head college basketball coach. He’s 10-5 in NCAA Tournament games.

This year’s Arkansas team is 2-7 in SEC play and of its final nine opponents all but two — Missouri and Vanderbilt — are ranked higher in the NCAA NET rankings.

Maybe this week’s open date couldn’t have come at a better time, although this team has mostly seemed to not have chemistry and will not play defense the way Musselman expects and it needs to.

The Hogs also refuse lay off the three-point shot, which they don’t seem to understand is not their strength.

In SEC play they are shooting 27% from threepoint range and the team leaders by percentage are Keyon Menifield and Joseph Pinion at 36%. Menifield is 8-22 and Pinion 4-11.

Arkansas’ leading scorer, Houston transfer Tramon Mark, has shot 22 and made 6 for 27%.

Against SEC teams the Hogs have 104 turnovers and 56 of those were steals.

In these nine games they are averaging 66.7 points and allowing 80.2 per game.

Maybe this team is personally divided or just don’t fit together like a team is supposed to, but that’s speculation as everything is inhouse, as it should be.

If this team somehow starts listening and sharing and defending and puts together a late run it will be Musselman’s best job of coaching, but if the team is personally divided not even Mr. March can fix all the issues.

All of that to say a great crowd is expected for this Saturday’s game against Georgia at 5 p.m at Walton Arena, where they are 1-3 in SEC games. Of the final nine games, five are at home, and even though they haven’t defended their home court well so far, the crowd always does.

This season may be staring in the eyes of apathy, but nine game are a lot of basketball.

Now, at this point in the season yours truly is taking the rest of the week off but hope to see you here Sunday.