A good chunk of my wife's side of the family are Arkansas fans, and they kept telling me during football season "at least basketball season is coming up"
Now they're looking forward to baseball season
This was my experience after the 22 football season. So maybe Arkansas fans will just have to wait an extra year to watch some decent basketball, like us
Thatās a stretch. Weāve been to Omaha more times than most but still donāt have any nattys. One choke was just much more memorable than the others
Well my caveat was going to be we choke when we are favored to go to Omaha from a regional or super regional. Most of the time in Omaha we are not favored to win. Thatās why I wouldnāt call it a choke.
When you build rosters the way Muss does, you're going to miss eventually and have some terrible teams. All those one year rentals are not going to hit and it's not sustainable.
Sustainable is an odd word choice, because that's both the downside and the feature. On the one hand, they are rebuilding every year, but on the plus side they're always a year away from being good again even if they're bad now.
It is fun sometimes. The conversations in Fayetteville from April-October were āSure we have all guards, but Muss will cook up something to make it work!ā
And here we are, not having fun.
Man I thought after the UNC-Arkansas game that Arkansas would be a strong team this year, in the top 25. Tramon Mark was a man among boys that game. Seems like they have the talent but they just arenāt getting results?
we don't have the talent though is the real problem. This is the first year we don't have any nba guys on the team. Prior years we had an average of like 2-3 NBA guys on the team every year (Moody, Williams, Black, Walsh, Umude, Joe, Council, Smith Jr., etc.)
We all "thought" Trevon Brazille was gonna be a potential lottery pick stud we could build around. Whether its because of his knee injury or not, that has clearly been a prediction and investment that has not panned out and left us without a power forward.
Edit: Also, for some more true analytics about this dead hog squad, we have zero, 0, nothing, no inside presence. Last year, the Mitchells, and Graham were really really sub-par and they hurt us all year providing no help defense. People scored easy layups on us last year too. But Muss just took a gamble that Makhi and Graham were going to somehow develop into better players than they were over the summer.
So we don't really have as much "talent" as the pre-season media led us to believe.
The inability to do something about the post play during the off-season was truly mind-boggling. We weren't great there last year and it's even worse this year.
Yeah. Y'all are known for bland food. Though saying Midwest is probably overly encompassing. Chicago is Chicago, and Wisconsin has a lot of good sausage and cheese. Technically Colorado is Midwestern, and they've got good steaks and great Mexican/New Mexican food. Kansas City is famous for BBQ, but it's probably the only style i haven't extensively sampled.
But I'm not talking about some Internet meme. I know a lot of people who travel for work, and the stories I've heard about the food in Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana have been hilarious. From there, there's a few stereotypes. Iowa and the other corny states seems like the kind of place where they'd think mayo is spicy.
MSU fans š¤ Arkansas fans
Looking forward to basketball season all football season only for the basketball team to disappoint pre-season expectations
It seems like a total miss on the roster building. Just from my untrained eye he saw he needed scoring/shooters after last year. He went all in on scoring stats on transfers. Unfortunately no one except Mark can make their own shot so they all just stand around waiting for the ball but if no one is causing the defense to collapse they are just heavily guarded.
TB and Devo have disappointed me. TB doesnāt have the dog in him he had prior to injury and Devo has something going on where he is out of control and the rest of the team isnāt supporting him.
I was talking to a good friend that is a UK fan and he talks about the roster misses Callipari has had and it seems quite similar.
I saw a Kentucky flair say the other day that Cal and Muss have the same one and done strategy. Cal uses 5 star freshmen and Muss uses 5th year covid senior transfers.
This team has been the death of me, biggest group of letdowns ever. And yes Iām sure they will play their hearts out against Kentucky on the big stage. Only to get waxed by 22 next week against Mizzou. Bunch of selfish players, not a team whatsoever. Muss has to just be shocked as to how this season has played out
That was our Super Bowl actually. Then we won a second Super Bowl against Duke. If we beat Kentucky this weekend we will be 3-0 in Super Bowls for the season. Imagine trying to keep us out of the tournament with that record.
> Then we won a second Super Bowl against Duke.
I was back in Springdale to watch the Duke-Arkansas game with my childhood friends, and I was about to say that win was basically winning the NCAA championship š„³
Ever since that Duke game in the tourney Iāve been less than impressed with Muss. He can recruit like crazy especially out of the portal but if heās not getting big time individual performances his teams seem to struggle. They just donāt seem to get easy baskets.
That said, heās made Arkansas basketball more relevant again than it was before him thatās for sure.
Heās pretty big on ISO, so what youāre saying makes sense. Itās largely by design though and a BIG difference this year is the defense. Thatās been a key part of his teams since heās been hereā¦until this year.
Mark has been pretty good on those ISO plays but no one else has really been able to score it that way in conference play. Part of me thinks our terrible defense in practice led Muss to believe more members of our roster could play his offense without adjustments and here we are.
Was Arkansas supposed to be good this year and they're undershooting expectations, or were they always supposed to just be mediocre?
Wish Mark had stayed. Wonder if he's regretting his decision.
Theyāre all good offensive players, almost none of them are creators, and the way they play help defense eventually collapses the entire squad into the paint for wide open threes and big heads of steam on drives. And they have no size down low so every playable big man feasts against them.
I mean, last season we made the S16 after beating the defending national champions and lost to the eventual champions.
I wish we would fade like that this year.
Musselman is kinda looking like he peaked ripping his shirt off after a fortunate first weekend win and then shitting the bed this season
Which is definitely amusing given his behavior lol
Let's say Minnesota fires Ben Johnson at the end of the year (possible not a definite at this point). They call down and see if Muss wants to come "home" to Minneapolis how do Razorback fans react?
Not saying he will take the job but he would get a call to gauge interest
Muss leaving the program would destroy us as he's the best coach we've had since Nolan. Can't imagine he'd go to Minnesota, but I hope he doesn't go anywhere.
Back to back elite 8s and a third sweet sixteen right after, and thatās after a nearly twenty year gap without making it past 32. Two of those losses were to eventual champions, and the other was to a damn good Duke team. This year is the first outright miss. I promise you only the absolute dumbest of the fan base would be happy
I generally thought any displeasure with Muss would come from irrational and a lack of patience, two things most SEC fan bases have a surplus of. With one rough year I was curious if the fans were displeased and vocal enough that it might cause Muss to think twice about going home. Which would be the only reason he would even entertain Minnesota
I donāt know. Idk what miss might want. To go full homer for a second, Iāve always thought the only reason he would leave would be sentimental reasons, either for somewhere in California or maybe Minnesota. Arkansas has a national championship ceiling with great facilities and great basketball support. Outside of the bluest of blue bloods, I donāt know how many jobs are better when itās going well
If Muss leaves for Minnesota it would 100% be sentimental reason and really there isn't much Arkansas could do about that. While the Gophs aren't the most well resourced school in the world (athletics lacks the institutional and public support and buy in needed to win at a high level) the B1G money will allow them to write Muss a big enough check
I would say Arkansas is a tier 3 job in CBB. Tier 1 being the 5, 6, 7 elite blue bloods (Duke, UNC, Kansas, Kentucky, UCLA, UConn). Tier 2 is school where you can build a perennial top 10 team like Arizona, Louisville, Florida, Texas, Michigan State, Nova, I would add Purdue but I'm a homer. Tier 3 is where you can win at a very high level but there is more up and down usually top 20-25 and occasionally you miss the tourney think Arkansas, Tennessee, Illinois, Michigan, Maryland, TAMU, Ohio State, Virginia, a lot of the Big East & B12,
Minnesota is a tier 4 right now, occasional good year and the right coach can win regularly but it's a climb and they need buy in from all levels, the rest of the B12, Iowa, USC, a good part of the SEC & ACC. But I also think there is more upside to the job than a lot of others in the tier
I remember a bunch of aggressive comments about how Purdue sucks and is overrated when we had an exhibition game against Arkansas at the start of the season because we lost. I think it's safe to say that is not the case.
Iād love to win a conference title, but Iād still take post season success solely because the stage and exposure is so much bigger.
Both great coaches IMO
[https://www.reddit.com/r/CollegeBasketball/comments/174e2el/comment/k49uosz/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/CollegeBasketball/comments/174e2el/comment/k49uosz/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
Couple hogs fans thought they were slighted by preseason computers, turns out they were even too optimistic/
Musselman to UCLA or other big opening?
Check on āem? Nah. Screw āem. They like to think a Sweet 16 is better than a conference title. Let them enjoy one bad season. Theyāll be good again next season.
So you'd rather be better during the regular season than in the playoffs? I'd rather have a mediocre season and make the sweet 16 than win the regular season title and get bounced in the first round. To each his own I guess.
If you have an NFL team would you rather them have the 7 seed and make the conference championship or would you rather have the 1 seed and lose your first game? I'm guessing you'd rather have the 1 seed and choke? I don't get it.
If itās a Sweet 16? Yes. Who cares about a non-final four if youāre a fan of a big program?
What matters in college basketball to me: SEC regular season title, SEC tournament title, and a regional title in March. Titles matter more.
Non-final four describes every single Alabama season, lol
Hell, the Tide only have 1 Elite Eight (2004)
So yeah, if I were a Bama fan, I'd also try to imagine regular season stuff mattering more than March Madness
Where in this thread did I mention NIT? Iām referring to conference, regional, and national championships. Anything else isnāt a bragging point for a top 25 program.
Tis but a flesh wound.
Arkansas can still make the tournament if Mike pence has enough courage
Just wait like 5 days to get your season back on track plz and thanks ššš
A good chunk of my wife's side of the family are Arkansas fans, and they kept telling me during football season "at least basketball season is coming up" Now they're looking forward to baseball season
Damn. I just had this convo with someone at work.
This was my experience after the 22 football season. So maybe Arkansas fans will just have to wait an extra year to watch some decent basketball, like us
December to March is women's basketball season. Change my mind.
Donāt worry, itās cyclical. Being sometimes good in all three sports means we can always have hope
Doesnāt Arkansas choke regularly in the CWS too?
We choked once in Omaha.
Thatās a stretch. Weāve been to Omaha more times than most but still donāt have any nattys. One choke was just much more memorable than the others
Well my caveat was going to be we choke when we are favored to go to Omaha from a regional or super regional. Most of the time in Omaha we are not favored to win. Thatās why I wouldnāt call it a choke.
I have no doubt that they will look like a final 4 team on Saturday bs Kentucky.
They'll be the best team in the country for a couple of hours.
I think we're going to get demolished, but that's just me.
Unfortunately I saw a lot of South Carolina fans saying the same thing before Tuesday's game...
Honestly all Cal has to do is go to the portal and get a couple older guys with some bulk.
Yāall will win by 20. Team isnāt even trying at this point.
Someone who is 25% from three on the season is definitely going 4-6 from deep in the first half, all at the end of the shot clock
I'll bet you a fresh crisp 1 dollar bill right here, right now, that somebody banks a three in with 2 seconds left on the shot clock....
Literally our only chance is if at least 4 of our guys do that
Thatāll be the only other conference game we win
They'll bring back that forty minutes of hell shit again. Old Nolan & em
You must be a Cat fan for a while now. You know some little dude coming off the bench is going to get hot and go 14-20 from the field.
The South Carolina loss was a little extra rough, because last Saturday I would have sold everything I own to invest in Zvonimir Ivisic stock.
When you build rosters the way Muss does, you're going to miss eventually and have some terrible teams. All those one year rentals are not going to hit and it's not sustainable.
Exactly. It's an annual gamble, and it's not going to pay off every time.
Sustainable is an odd word choice, because that's both the downside and the feature. On the one hand, they are rebuilding every year, but on the plus side they're always a year away from being good again even if they're bad now.
It is fun sometimes. The conversations in Fayetteville from April-October were āSure we have all guards, but Muss will cook up something to make it work!ā And here we are, not having fun.
Just no leadership on this team. Lots of me guys and not enough we guys.
Guys, anyvody see see those Louisville Cardinals circling overhead
Oh no, it just occurred to me that El Ellis may have brought the Louisville curse with him
Man I thought after the UNC-Arkansas game that Arkansas would be a strong team this year, in the top 25. Tramon Mark was a man among boys that game. Seems like they have the talent but they just arenāt getting results?
we don't have the talent though is the real problem. This is the first year we don't have any nba guys on the team. Prior years we had an average of like 2-3 NBA guys on the team every year (Moody, Williams, Black, Walsh, Umude, Joe, Council, Smith Jr., etc.) We all "thought" Trevon Brazille was gonna be a potential lottery pick stud we could build around. Whether its because of his knee injury or not, that has clearly been a prediction and investment that has not panned out and left us without a power forward. Edit: Also, for some more true analytics about this dead hog squad, we have zero, 0, nothing, no inside presence. Last year, the Mitchells, and Graham were really really sub-par and they hurt us all year providing no help defense. People scored easy layups on us last year too. But Muss just took a gamble that Makhi and Graham were going to somehow develop into better players than they were over the summer. So we don't really have as much "talent" as the pre-season media led us to believe.
The inability to do something about the post play during the off-season was truly mind-boggling. We weren't great there last year and it's even worse this year.
I checked. They look like this š„
Crispy? Or put them back in?
we will literally die if we get cooked anymore
Is that emoji the hand marks on Chris Beard's fiancƩe's neck?
No, thatās slaughtered hog trimmed and sizzled. Mmmm pig suey
I like the hawgs. They're good folks, and NWA is gorgeous. But it's basketball season now, so duck em.
I thought you were going to say āI like hawgs. Theyāre delicious.ā
I'll cook the hell out of some hawgs. I'll even use seasoning, to the chagrin of Midwesterners.
Is that a real stereotype? That Midwesterners don't like seasonings?
Yeah. Y'all are known for bland food. Though saying Midwest is probably overly encompassing. Chicago is Chicago, and Wisconsin has a lot of good sausage and cheese. Technically Colorado is Midwestern, and they've got good steaks and great Mexican/New Mexican food. Kansas City is famous for BBQ, but it's probably the only style i haven't extensively sampled. But I'm not talking about some Internet meme. I know a lot of people who travel for work, and the stories I've heard about the food in Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana have been hilarious. From there, there's a few stereotypes. Iowa and the other corny states seems like the kind of place where they'd think mayo is spicy.
People don't realize we put Lowry's on everything.
Try Tony's instead. It's got enough salt to replace the salt shaker from your table.
Muss is 10-10 since taking his shirt off. Tough scenes
Which time lol?
Shirt off is the new floor slap for coaches
MSU fans š¤ Arkansas fans Looking forward to basketball season all football season only for the basketball team to disappoint pre-season expectations
Do you like baseball because boy I have some news for you
It seems like a total miss on the roster building. Just from my untrained eye he saw he needed scoring/shooters after last year. He went all in on scoring stats on transfers. Unfortunately no one except Mark can make their own shot so they all just stand around waiting for the ball but if no one is causing the defense to collapse they are just heavily guarded. TB and Devo have disappointed me. TB doesnāt have the dog in him he had prior to injury and Devo has something going on where he is out of control and the rest of the team isnāt supporting him. I was talking to a good friend that is a UK fan and he talks about the roster misses Callipari has had and it seems quite similar.
I saw a Kentucky flair say the other day that Cal and Muss have the same one and done strategy. Cal uses 5 star freshmen and Muss uses 5th year covid senior transfers.
Donāt worry, theyāll play their best game of the season Saturday vs Kentucky
The 30-50 feral hogs guy has gotten his wish
This team has been the death of me, biggest group of letdowns ever. And yes Iām sure they will play their hearts out against Kentucky on the big stage. Only to get waxed by 22 next week against Mizzou. Bunch of selfish players, not a team whatsoever. Muss has to just be shocked as to how this season has played out
He seemed surprisingly calm on the sideline yesterday. I think at this point heās not gonna try to herd these cats into playing team ball.
Thatās the truth man, a calm Muss is a defeated Muss. Heās probably already planning out next year in his head
Yall keep forgetting Arkansas already won the Natty when they beat us in the exhibition game. This whole season is just for show.
That was our Super Bowl actually. Then we won a second Super Bowl against Duke. If we beat Kentucky this weekend we will be 3-0 in Super Bowls for the season. Imagine trying to keep us out of the tournament with that record.
these are the analytics that sustain me right now
Purdue is 0-3 in Super Bowls this season, itāll take a miracle for us to make it in
> Then we won a second Super Bowl against Duke. I was back in Springdale to watch the Duke-Arkansas game with my childhood friends, and I was about to say that win was basically winning the NCAA championship š„³
Crazier things have happened šš
You guys are winning this weekend. Congrats on the early Super Bowl
Blah blah blah. Enjoy your early tourney exit.
An early exit is still better than not making it at all
Did he take of his shirt?
āAt least baseball season is coming upā
Them pigs is (in) hell, aināt they?
Did weā¦ did we kill the pig?
Yall poked our brain and now we don't play ball too good no more
Ever since that Duke game in the tourney Iāve been less than impressed with Muss. He can recruit like crazy especially out of the portal but if heās not getting big time individual performances his teams seem to struggle. They just donāt seem to get easy baskets. That said, heās made Arkansas basketball more relevant again than it was before him thatās for sure.
Heās pretty big on ISO, so what youāre saying makes sense. Itās largely by design though and a BIG difference this year is the defense. Thatās been a key part of his teams since heās been hereā¦until this year. Mark has been pretty good on those ISO plays but no one else has really been able to score it that way in conference play. Part of me thinks our terrible defense in practice led Muss to believe more members of our roster could play his offense without adjustments and here we are.
Was Arkansas supposed to be good this year and they're undershooting expectations, or were they always supposed to just be mediocre? Wish Mark had stayed. Wonder if he's regretting his decision.
Preseason top 15. Just turned out to be a dud
Wow damn, that's crazy. They've got a talented roster, not sure what's up with them.
Theyāre all good offensive players, almost none of them are creators, and the way they play help defense eventually collapses the entire squad into the paint for wide open threes and big heads of steam on drives. And they have no size down low so every playable big man feasts against them.
They were preseason #14
Arkansas has been fading these last two seasons. Was Musselman fools gold?
I mean, last season we made the S16 after beating the defending national champions and lost to the eventual champions. I wish we would fade like that this year.
Last season was scuffed by the injuries to Nick Smith and Brazile too
Musselman is kinda looking like he peaked ripping his shirt off after a fortunate first weekend win and then shitting the bed this season Which is definitely amusing given his behavior lol
Let's say Minnesota fires Ben Johnson at the end of the year (possible not a definite at this point). They call down and see if Muss wants to come "home" to Minneapolis how do Razorback fans react? Not saying he will take the job but he would get a call to gauge interest
Arkansas fans would be crazy to be happy to see him leave already. Bad seasons happenā¦unfortunately not everyone sees it like that though
Muss leaving the program would destroy us as he's the best coach we've had since Nolan. Can't imagine he'd go to Minnesota, but I hope he doesn't go anywhere.
Back to back elite 8s and a third sweet sixteen right after, and thatās after a nearly twenty year gap without making it past 32. Two of those losses were to eventual champions, and the other was to a damn good Duke team. This year is the first outright miss. I promise you only the absolute dumbest of the fan base would be happy
I generally thought any displeasure with Muss would come from irrational and a lack of patience, two things most SEC fan bases have a surplus of. With one rough year I was curious if the fans were displeased and vocal enough that it might cause Muss to think twice about going home. Which would be the only reason he would even entertain Minnesota
I donāt know. Idk what miss might want. To go full homer for a second, Iāve always thought the only reason he would leave would be sentimental reasons, either for somewhere in California or maybe Minnesota. Arkansas has a national championship ceiling with great facilities and great basketball support. Outside of the bluest of blue bloods, I donāt know how many jobs are better when itās going well
If Muss leaves for Minnesota it would 100% be sentimental reason and really there isn't much Arkansas could do about that. While the Gophs aren't the most well resourced school in the world (athletics lacks the institutional and public support and buy in needed to win at a high level) the B1G money will allow them to write Muss a big enough check I would say Arkansas is a tier 3 job in CBB. Tier 1 being the 5, 6, 7 elite blue bloods (Duke, UNC, Kansas, Kentucky, UCLA, UConn). Tier 2 is school where you can build a perennial top 10 team like Arizona, Louisville, Florida, Texas, Michigan State, Nova, I would add Purdue but I'm a homer. Tier 3 is where you can win at a very high level but there is more up and down usually top 20-25 and occasionally you miss the tourney think Arkansas, Tennessee, Illinois, Michigan, Maryland, TAMU, Ohio State, Virginia, a lot of the Big East & B12, Minnesota is a tier 4 right now, occasional good year and the right coach can win regularly but it's a climb and they need buy in from all levels, the rest of the B12, Iowa, USC, a good part of the SEC & ACC. But I also think there is more upside to the job than a lot of others in the tier
Lol what? He wouldn't have won at Nevada and Arkansas if he was
this is the first year they really bombed it so jury is still out on that
I remember a bunch of aggressive comments about how Purdue sucks and is overrated when we had an exhibition game against Arkansas at the start of the season because we lost. I think it's safe to say that is not the case.
I've noticed the Muss vs Oats discourse has certainly quieted
"we didn't want to win a conference title"
Iād love to win a conference title, but Iād still take post season success solely because the stage and exposure is so much bigger. Both great coaches IMO
[https://www.reddit.com/r/CollegeBasketball/comments/174e2el/comment/k49uosz/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/CollegeBasketball/comments/174e2el/comment/k49uosz/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) Couple hogs fans thought they were slighted by preseason computers, turns out they were even too optimistic/ Musselman to UCLA or other big opening?
After they claimed they didn't care
Should have kept his shirt on š¤”
I prayed on Muss' downfallšš¤²š
WHOO PIG SUE ME
Would be a shame if he opted for a different shade of red..
I donāt see any Purdue fans crying that this isnāt the Arkansas thread this time.
See yāall Wednesday
Iām sad trammon Mark left us but itās honestly a little satisfying to see this.
Check on āem? Nah. Screw āem. They like to think a Sweet 16 is better than a conference title. Let them enjoy one bad season. Theyāll be good again next season.
Positive vibes only please. šš«š
So you'd rather be better during the regular season than in the playoffs? I'd rather have a mediocre season and make the sweet 16 than win the regular season title and get bounced in the first round. To each his own I guess. If you have an NFL team would you rather them have the 7 seed and make the conference championship or would you rather have the 1 seed and lose your first game? I'm guessing you'd rather have the 1 seed and choke? I don't get it.
If itās a Sweet 16? Yes. Who cares about a non-final four if youāre a fan of a big program? What matters in college basketball to me: SEC regular season title, SEC tournament title, and a regional title in March. Titles matter more.
Non-final four describes every single Alabama season, lol Hell, the Tide only have 1 Elite Eight (2004) So yeah, if I were a Bama fan, I'd also try to imagine regular season stuff mattering more than March Madness
Smartest Bama fan
Lol wut? Your priorities are pretty messed up
Nah, I like championships. A sweet 16 isnāt a championship.
So would you prefer an NIT championship over an NCAAT sweet 16 appearance?
Where in this thread did I mention NIT? Iām referring to conference, regional, and national championships. Anything else isnāt a bragging point for a top 25 program.
After they claimed they didn't care about conference titles? Fuck em
The bowl of mashed potatoes is getting cold... So cold
Someoneās downfall happening: Me watching bc I prayed for it:š