Ask Mike: TeSlaa Tears Up The Combine, Coil’s Immaculate Inning & What Happened In Columbia?

Q. Our first question is from mousetown who asks: Have you ever seen a team blow their entire season in one game? Kentucky fans say they have. Cal did it last year against Oakland. It just happened earlier this season.

A. Kentucky fans say a lot of things. Arkansas is not done yet. The South Carolina loss is not good but there are still two games to play. Texas was competing with Arkansas for one of the last SEC spots in the NCAA Tournament field. Texas lost big at home to Georgia. Arkansas lost on the road to a South Carolina team that is much better than its record. As I said last week, until selection Sunday it’s all speculation.

Q. Marty Byrde’s proxy with a similar question: South Carolina played some really good teams close at their place but no one expected such a rancid performance. How bad does this hurt the postseason chances? Does it negate what separation we had with the Longhorns?

A. In spite of beating them twice Arkansas didn’t have separation from the Longhorns if you believe all these metrics. However, Texas lost again on Saturday so Arkansas still has one more SEC win than Texas.

Our own Kevin McPherson who really follows this stuff made the point on our Pig Trail Show yesterday that if Georgia wins out it will help Arkansas but if Georgia losses out it will also help Arkansas. That’s how convoluted all these metrics are. I think without Adou Thiero it’s going to be tough for Arkansas to beat either Vandy or Mississippi State. If they lose both of those games they’re probably out, but again, I won’t believe anything until I watch Selection Sunday.

Q. Hawgredneck wants to know: Do you accept Calipari’s explanation that the players finally cracked under the pressure they’re been under for the last month? Sounds reasonable to me.

A. I don’t think he suggested that they cracked. He said that after playing really well for all eight games in February they were due for a bad game. They had worked to get better under tremendous pressure for the last 9 games. They went from 0-5 in SEC play to 6-9. So they were 5-4 in that stretch. But the biggest thing to me was the loss of Adou Thiero. They somehow beat Texas with just seven players and without out their leading scorer but it caught up to them against South Carolina. They needed a spark from somebody. Nobody stepped up. They looked unfocused. Like when you stay up all night studying for final exams and your brain fogs up.

Q. KyHog asks: What do you think about coach Calipari’s strategy of taking the game film of the South Carolina game and burning it. Throw it into the trash.

A. Most of the time when a team plays poorly a coach uses video from that game as a teaching tool but at this point Cal says his players know what they need to do and what they didn’t do against the Gamecocks. He’s also saying that’s not us. So forget that game and concentrate on Vanderbilt. I don’t know it it’s the right thing to do but it’s not an uncommon approach if a coach thinks his team playing that awful was a one time thing.

Q.T. L. Slaten want to know: Is there any chance of getting getting Thiero back for Vanderbilt? I don’t think we have a chance without him.

A. There’s been no official word on that. At least one fan posted on the internet that Thiero is done for the season with a meniscus tear. There are different severities of that injury. Sometimes you can come back an play with rest. Sometimes you need surgery. What we’re hearing is that Arkansas waiting to see if his knee gets better without surgery.

Q. Kenny Crockett says: Just like South Carolina, we’re catching Vandy at the wrong time. Did you see how they beat Missouri? Talk about refuse to lose.

A. I did see it. Missouri had Vanderbilt beat several times but the ‘Dores just kept coming back including with a desperation three-pointer at the buzzer that put the game into OT.
I guess that’s the only good thing that came out of that game for the Hogs. Maybe Vandy’s players will be drained with the short turnaround between Saturday and Tuesday.

Q. Doug2133 says: I thought Aidoo was going to give to the Hogs what Mark Mitchell does for Miz. Was I wrong to think that was possible?

A. If you want to play what if’s, what if Aidoo had not been injured? What if he did not need surgery on the off season? I don’t think you were wrong for thinking that Aidoo was going to have a huge season. It was based on what he did last year with Tennessee.

I still haven’t given up on him. He’s been slowly getting better for the last month. Like the whole team, he went backwards in this game. Let’s hope he bounces back against Vanderbilt. If those guys can score at the rim on Missouri over and over, you have to know it’s going to take much better defense down low for Arkansas to keep from getting shredded inside by Vandy.

Q. whippersnapper chimes in with a good question: Coach Cal mentioned retiring some jersey numbers after the Missouri game, but how do we get a statue of Nolan built first? Is there anything as a fan base we could do to help get that started?

A. A mass email campaign to the athletic department or call their number. Spread it around to other fans that you know plus we’ll keep mentioning it here. It needs to happen and we also need twin statues of Norm DeBriyn and Dave Van Horn in front of Baum Stadium. Let’s make it happen.

Q. WVHogfan says: I noticed that Coach Neighbors did not huddle with the team during timeouts toward the end of the Missouri game. Is this normal for him or has he given up on this team?

A. It’s very common with him. He often lets associate head coach Todd Schafer talk with the team during time outs. Neighbors stands behind him and observes. But he also will step in and add something too and at times talks to the team with Schafer watching.

I have heard that Neighbors will be retained mainly because Hunter Yurachek knows that he lost several of his best players to other teams because almost no NIL money was available for women’s basketball. I have also been told that with revenue sharing adding some 25 million dollars to the athletic department’s costs for 2025-26, Yurachek is not inclined to spend any money buying out coaches right now. That may not end up being correct but that’s what I’ve been told.

Finally, by beating Missouri on the road in the final regular season game Arkansas will not end up at the bottom of the SEC. In fact the Arkansas women will go to the SEC Tournament as the 13th seed.

Q. On to baseball where EddyLynn says: Game three against Charlotte was like the Twilight Zone. Beidelschies and Coil limited them to one run in 8 innings but was 3-1 because Arkansas could not hit a guy with a 7 plus ERA. Then Foutch with a zero ERA loads the bases in the 9th and McEntire, who’s given up three home runs in four innings of work, gets Arkansas out of a jam and Souza who hasn’t hit for beans gets a key hit and the Hogs win. That’s nuts.

A. You know what that is? That’s baseball. If I had to pick any sport that I would not want to coach it would be baseball. Think about it. The head coach stands in the dugout and makes crucial decisions every inning. Decisions that could decide the game.
He makes those decisions not on numbers but instinct. Sometimes they get it right. Sometimes they don’t.

Q. Razorcal asks: How many immaculate innings have you witnessed, or even heard about, in your time? And, how about Parker Coil’s immaculate inning on Sunday?

A. I may have seen it but I don’t remember if I did and it would be hard to forget something like that. Nine pitches. Nine strikes. Three outs. Inning over. Amazing. Coil is another Razorback who has made an amazing transformation. Last season in 18 and 2/3 of an inning of relief Coil had an ERA of 7.23. So far in 8 innings this season his ERA is ZERO. Wow!

Q. Axle asks: For the SEC+ games in Fayetteville, who hires the announcers and cameramen for games? Does any SEC schools stream its own games ?

A. The games are streamed by ESPN and occasionally other streaming services like Flo Sports if the game is not played in an SEC stadium. The various SEC schools are not allowed to do their own streaming. Each schools is responsible for providing its own equipment and broadcast crew. They also employ the game announcers. The SEC does offer a stipend to partially cover those costs.

Q. To football where RoyHobbs92 reacts to Isaac TeSlaa’s performance at the NFL Combine: Biggest miss last year was force feeding Broden and not using TeSlaa. He has great hands as well. Both he and Armstrong can play slot at the next level.

A. I remember when Arkansas picked him out of the portal from a D-2 school and the reaction was, is this how they’re going to get better? The word was, TeSlaa had mediocre speed but with great hands and he was a precise route runner. Well, he just ran a 4.4 40 at the combine so clearly he’s been working overtime to get faster. I agree. I do think he was under used at Arkansas. They would not have won the Liberty Bowl without him.

Q. The first ever meeting between Arkansas and Arkansas State could generate a sellout at War Memorial Stadium. We have a couple of comments on that.

HognitiveDissonance says: Not going out of protest over this hyped monstrosity of a game. And I haven’t missed a LR game in forever. I am pro-Arkansas not necessarily anti-ASU. I just hate contrived, forced, hyped, ridiculous matchups like this.

A. There was a time when I would have agreed with that comment but times have changed. If Arkansas is going to continue to play one game a year in Little Rock this is the only one that’s going to generate a sellout and sellouts are good. However if they played this game in Fayetteville 20,000 additional tickets would be sold and Arkansas would get the concessions money. So economically it doesn’t make sense to play it in Little Rock.

It’s going to be interesting to see what the future of games at WMS will be after this coming season.

Q. Pete says: I love the way some of you guys act like you are not interested in this game. You know y’all are just upset it is finally happening and you can’t be arrogant and act like you are too good for ASU anymore.

A. I don’t think it’s an act. I think a lot of Razorback fans have no interest in seeing a rivalry develop between Arkansas and Arkansas State. It would be different if Arkansas State were in a power four conference or in the SEC. Obviously Alabama-Auburn and Ole Miss and Mississippi State are huge rivalry games for that reason. That’s not going to happen with Arkansas State. If the SEC and Big 10 go through with this horrible idea of creating a college football super conference the Arkansas-Arkansas State game will be gone in a flash anyway because the super conference is a plan to greatly increase TV money and the TV people don’t want mid-major teams involved.

I hope the super conference idea goes away.