Ask Mike: Sweet Sixteen, Boogie Boogies and Hog Bats Explode

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) – Our first question is from Mousetown who asks: Were the refs trying to give that game to St. John’s? I know they had the crowd behind them but come on, it’s the NCAA’s. But like my coaches always said, you can’t change bad calls. You have to overcome it. The Hogs did.

A. The number of calls were actually fairly balanced. St John’s shot 31 free throws, Arkansas put up 27. The problem was the way the refs disrupted two good teams with an avalanche of ticky-tacky fouls. It seemed like every time Arkansas opened a lead up here came the fouls. It’s interesting because at halftime CBS analyst Charles Barkley complimented the refs for letting the two teams play. But that changed in the second half. The free throws were 13-13 in the first half but 14 compared to 18 for St John’s in the second half. That’s 32 free throws in the 2nd half to just 26 in the first half. Not a huge difference but more important than the number of fouls was who was targeted. Arkansas three bigs were whistled for 12 fouls. Jonas Aidoo started off strong in the opening minutes but he was quickly on the bench with two fouls. He got two more in the second half. After playing almost 39 minutes and scoring 22 points against Kansas his playing time dropped to 22 minutes and he scored just 7 against St. Johns. I thought his foul problems were going to cost Arkansas the game but he played good defense when he was in and rebounded really well. Plus Billy Richmond came off the bench and became Arkansas leading scorer with 16 point. So as you said, Arkansas simply overcame those foul issues.

Q. Hawgredeck says: The CBS studio crew is doing a ho hum job of analyzing these games. After the win over St. John’s they quoted a few good stats from the Red Storm and scratched their collective heads over how Arkansas managed to win. The answer is there is you look.

A. They mostly referred to the 28 offensive rebound St. Johns had but what did they do with those rebounds? They shot 28% for the game. That’ll get you beat. They outscored Arkansas 18-13 on points of turnovers but Arkansas outscored St. John’s 11-5 in fast break points. That was big in this game and in spite of giving up all those rebounds around the basket Arkansas outscored the Red Storm 46-38 in the paint. Finally, the Hogs doubled St. John in assists 10-5.
All of that is why Arkansas lead for 34 and a half minutes of a 40 minute game.

Q. Jimmyhogball says: What a couple of games! These hogs are for real. I don’t look at a lot of message boards so maybe you can tell me if the Kentucky haters have finally quit talking trash about Coach Cal?

A. You’ve got the right idea. Don’t read message boards. No Kentucky fans have not stopped with the Cal bashing. Arkansas could win a national championship and some of them would still go after him. Others will be quiet for now but as soon as Arkansas loses they’ll start back up.

Q. KyHog says: Kentucky fans are still crazy jealous of Cal & Arkansas. Around here they’re coming up with all kinds of nutty reasons to put us down. They’re the worst.

A. There’s actually a pretty good balance between the Kentucky Cal haters and those who are giving him props and believe it or not there are some Arkansas fans who are throwing shade in his direction. The Internet is a strange place. Here’s a sample of what I found:

Money can get players but can’t buy brains for a coach that’s let the game pass him by.

I love Cal. I did not want him to leave UK. He was a class act when they basically asked him to leave. He left what money he had on his contract and said, keep it.

He has been a money grabber since he left Memphis on probation. Took all his recruits too. I’m a Hogs fan absolutely but in the end if you lie down with dogs you will end up with fleas.

Look all of us say crazy things from time to time. I do. But I do it at home not on the Internet. I can’t remember home many times when I was growing up I heard somebody’s mom, including my own, say when you get out into public act like you had some raising. A lot of people post on the Internet like it’s not public. Well it’s public but but you don’t come face to face with the people you’re taking shots at.

I keep saying this, if it bothers you ignore it.

Q. TL Slaten wants to know: Did John Calipari suddenly turn into a better coach? No question he was having trouble his last few years at Kentucky especially in the NCAA Tournament. Now it’s like he’s the Calipari before Kentucky fans turned on him.

A. To me it’s pretty simple. He got out of a toxic environment. Big Blue Nation is unforgiving. If their team isn’t in the Final Four they want answers. For Cal it was like dragging a boat anchor around every where he went. Now the anchor has been removed. He’s relaxed. He’s having fun with his players. Look how his wife started crying on Saturday as the game ended. You could see the emotion that went into this comeback from a coach who lost to Oakland in the first round to a coach who is headed to the Sweet Sixteen after puling off two upsets one of what maybe be the biggest upset so far.

Q. Eddylynn wants to know: What happened to all those who said Boogie Fland would disrupt Arkansas team chemistry? Like Lunardi who said Arkansas would be one and done because of Cal’s decision to play Fland?

A. I thought Fland would have a tough time being effective with all the time he had missed. But give Cal and Fland credit. They crafted a role for him where he didn’t try to take over but played within himself. You can see his confidence growing. I haven’t seen a reaction by Lunardi but he needs to eat crow. Yes, Fland has surprised most fans but I don’t think many of them were dumb enough to think that Cal was going to stick Fand in the game and play him even if he was hurting the team.

Q. RazorAlex88 says: Down goes Kansaw! (Oh yes, I went there). Ooooh! It’s so hard to be humble! Especially when you have KU’s number! I would say Coach Cal was extra motivated to shake off the gorilla off his back after first round exits in the past.

A. That whole Ark-Kansas thing started with Wichita St baseball fans many years ago. Hog fans would go up here for non conference tournament games and their fans would constantly refer to Arkansas has Ar-Kansas. One night during an NCAA regional tournament I was back in my hotel room watching the local news to check on the weather for the next day when Arkansas played. The TV weatherman referred to the Arkansas River as the Ark-Kansas River several times.
I never have thought to ask people from Kansas that I run into if they actually refer to Arkansas as Ark-Kansas and the Arkansas River as the Ark-Kansas River. If they do are they really that uneducated or are they doing it to insult people from Arkansas.

Anyway, yes it’s always good to beat one of the most historic programs in college basketball. Lately Arkansas has owned Kansas.

Also some Hogs fans may not know this but Bill Self was almost hired at Arkansas after John White foolishly fired Nolan. Self was at Illinois and and would have taken the job but White lowballed the money offer because he was afraid Nolan would sue Arkansas if the school played Self more than Nolan. He ended up staying at Illinois with a new contract before head to Kansas after that.

Q. WVHogfan asks: What do you have to say to the haters that were ready to give up on this team and the coaches in January? How many programs can say they have gone to 4 sweet 16’s the last 5 years. Woo Pig!

A. To me that’s where Arkansas fans need to give Eric Musselman credit. He brought back the kind of NCAA Tournament success that Hogs fans had thrived on during the Sutton-Richardson years which covered a period of 25 years. Cal has continued that in his first year on the job.

Obviously Kentucky fans have been bashing Cal since he got here on X & Facebook. But not so long ago a lot of Razorback fans joined in.

The only thing I would like to see is some apologies from those people. Admit you overreacted. That’s one of he big issues with social media. There aren’t enough people willing to admit when they are wrong. Some do but not many.

Q.The_Bionic_Pig asks: Do you feel we get Adou Thiero back next season baring he puts up 30+ in the sweet 16? He has completely dropped out of most mock drafts due to his absence.

A. To me a bigger question right now is, will he play against Texas Tech? Cal addressed the issue of retaining some of the guys off this team for next season. This is a close knit bunch because of the way things have played out and Arkansas basketball has a really good NIL pool. But Cal already has three high school players coming in next season and will try to add one more that we know of. Aidoo and Davis are the only two that are out of eligibility. Fland is probably NBA so that’s three. One or even two on the current roster could end up getting more money of they left. Who would that be?

Q. Marty Byrde’s proxy says: Old school/old man question. What has happened to the travel call all across basketball?

A. Some say the speed of the players makes it harder for refs to see traveling. That sounds iffy to me. I se a lot of travelling called in the lane or under the basket when players are doing a lot of pivoting to try to get off an open shot. Also with transition three pointers we sometimes see traveling that’s not called and also on fast break dunks. This needs to be cleaned up and that starts with the various conferences.

Q. Pigsfeat wants to know: What are your first impressions of Arkansas’s new women’s basketball coach?

A. There’s a lot of talk that Hunter Yurachek thought had Grand Canyon Molly Miller wrapped up but she supposedly got more money to take the Arizona State job and balked at the lack of money going into the program. I have no seen a dollar figure associated with that hire. Kelsi Musick was hired at Arkansas from ORU for $600,000 a year. Mike Neighbors salary this past season at Arkansas was 700,000.

Musick went 24-7 this season at ORU. She made a name for herself at the D2 level when the make the tournament 6 straight times and furnished as the national runner up in 2019.

I am told that she is an extremely strong recruiter. Spends a lot of time watching players searching for those may have been overlooked by strong Power Four programs. If so that is exactly what Arkansas needs right now. Supposedly she will have some revenue sharing money added to her program for the coming season. If so that would help with recruiting.

Q. sglies says: With the excitement over making the Sweet 16 don’t forget about baseball. Look for them to move up to # 2 in the nation after sweeping South Carolina.

A. Arkansas is #2 and has moved into a first place tie in the SEC over the weekend with Tennessee, Georgia and Texas. The surprise was Texas taking two of three from LSU. The Tigers were ranked 2nd in most polls. Arkansas and Georgia won all three games in week two of SEC play. Tennessee went 2-1.

The big news is Arkansas’ team batting average. From a low of .269 a few weeks ago it’s up to .332. Arkansas is 3rd nationally in home runs with 56. There is some concern with the pitching. On the surface a team ERA of 3.43 doesn’t seem bad when you’re averaging right at 10 runs a game. But we could see some shuffling with the starting lineup.

Gabe Gaeckle’s ERA is 6.57. Not what you want in a starting pitching. He’s 1-0 so no damage has nee done so far but that’s only because the bullpen and Arkansas hitting has bailed him out.

Then there is Landon Beidelschides who has given up six home runs in six games. He’s 3-0. His ERA under 4 and Arkansas bullpen and hitting have helped him.

Finally Zack Root. He’s 3-1 with a 4.02 ERA, the only starter charged with a loss.

I think Root stays in place mainly because of his 46 strikeouts to just 9 walks. Gaeckle has 27 strikeouts to 15 walks. I would not be surprised to see him moved back to the bullpen where he was incredibly effective last season.

Aiden Jimeniz could move into the weekend rotation. He’s 2-0 with a 1.35 ERA with 17 K’s and just 2 walks. Also Gage Wood might move back into a starting role when he comes back off injury. He had 13 strikeouts to just one walk before he left the rotation after just two starts.

Q. Okie Farmboy says: Whenever Arkansas struggles in football or basketball my dad always blames it on the curse of Nolan. You say the curse of John White. Which is it and what is that all about?

A. The curse of Nolan started out on Hogville after Nolan was fired and the basketball program went bad. It spread to other sports like football and women’s basketball. The idea was the U of A was getting paid back for the way Nolan was treated. I don’t believe in curses but to me the proper name for this should be the curse of John White because he’s the one who fired Nolan.

If there’s a curse it’s gone into hiding. Men’s basketball has become one of the biggest stories in the NCAA Tournament. The baseball team is off to a great start and the football team is coming of a bowl win and has its best portal class ever. Right now it’s a good time to be a Razorback.