Basketball conference play looms ahead
The Hawks will play their first conference game Friday, visiting Huntsville’s Eagles. They will have three non-conference games during the holidays, going to Elkins on Dec. 20, playing at home against Providence on Dec. 21, then traveling to Hackett on Dec. 28.
Conference play will then resume on Jan. 4 with Gravette coming to town, with the rest of the schedule populated by conference games until the end of the regular season.
Pea Ridge is a member of the 4A-1, a nine-team conference which has opted for divisional play. The Hawks play in the Western Division along with Gravette, Gentry, Prairie Grove and Farmington. The East is composed of Shiloh, Harrison, Berryville and Huntsville.
Currently, Farmington is rocking along with a 9-0 record and will be a threat to take conference honors this year. Huntsville is looking good at 5-2 with Berryville having a good start with a 6-3 mark. Complete current conference marks for the girls and boys are:
Robinson wins 4A crown before joining 5A
Joe T. Robinson of west Little Rock won their final 4A contest, a 42-14 smackdown of Shiloh who are also expected to make the jump in 2022.
Robinson is the beneficiary of the new Arkansas rule that allows students to transfer to any school they wish with the only downside being having to play JV ball for the first year. The school has grown quite large with students transferring out of the urban schools to get into the almost rural Robinson High.
Shiloh’s fate in moving up into the 4A is because of its heavily successful football program. New AAA policies require teams that win too much over a period of time to be moved up to a higher classification. The AAA often has rules and regulations unique to Arkansas.
Harding Academy walloped Prescott 47-25 for the 3A crown, a move that eventually will have the Wildcats from Searcy be forced into 4A. Pulaski crushed White Hall 51-19 for the 5A crown, with El Dorado taking the 6A title by a 27-17 count over powerhouse Greenwood. Bryant captured the 7A championship with a 42-38 conquest of Fayetteville.
Razorbacks suffer setbacks last week
The football team was hit with bad news first, concerning the All-American and the team’s likely best player in receiver Treylon Burks. The Warren native decided to quit the football season early and skip the Outback Bowl coming up on Jan. 1.
As best as I can tell, Burks needed to quit playing football so he can work on — playing football. It has become a popular thing for star athletes who are going to turn pro for the 2022 season to skip their team’s payoff bowl at the end of the season.
Some of their defenders feel it is wise to avoid the risk of playing in a game where you can, you know, get tackled, knocked down, etc. Such risk could hurt them in the tryouts this spring. OOOOhhhkkaaaay. Then why did he play in the Missouri game recently, or the LSU game before that? His ranking as a player was already high enough to insure his being a high draft choice.
Will he avoid traveling in cars for the next few months as there is a risk of injury in the event of a wreck? Will be stay inside for the next few months to avoid contracting a virus which could negatively affect his draft status?
What is the real reason for these athletes turning their backs on the teams that helped them get to where they are? I think it all boils down to one word — agents.
Athletes cannot sign with a sports agent until they have stopped playing for their respective teams. Until a player signs, he can be signed by anyone — any agent who can persuade him.
If you are an agent, and you have a good chance to sign someone who will make you a lot of money in fees and the like, you need to sign him as soon as possible, before someone else gets to him. You need to convince football stars that playing in a bowl game could ruin his future, that it would be a dangerous thing to do, so sign early.
Therefore, athletes opting out of bowl games are generally doing so because of fear. I have long believed decisions made out of fear are usually bad decisions.
Even though the Razorbacks are ranked and Penn State isn’t (their foe in the Outback Bowl), the Nittany Lions are favored to win. Losing a team’s best weapon will do that to your odds. The Hogs can still win but the road will be tougher without Burks.
Does he have the right to what he is doing? Of course, completely. It is a free country and he can do whatever he wants. However, just because you can do
something, doesn’t mean you should.
Now over to the men’s basketball team. They were rocking along and playing pretty good until they played UCA and UALittle Rock. They lacked focus, I believe, and they let teams with far less talent hang with them. I thought that would come back and bite them when they played a better team that you can’t come back on if you get in a hole. That game was last week, when they were favored to beat Oklahoma but were crushed by 20 points, 8666.
In sports, the best team does not always win. It is the best prepared, focused and ready team at that time, especially in basketball. I think the Hogs have a chance to do great things this season, but they can’t take anything for granted.
It is just like life.
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Editor’s note: John McGee, an award-winning columnist, sports writer and art teacher at Pea Ridge elementary schools, writes a regular sports column for The Times. The opinions expressed are those of the writer. He can be contacted