re: Pioneers Arkansas Basketball Thread

Joe

You were right. Arkansas is gonna boat race them. They can't hang.

Arkansas's defensive stats are going sky high.

This Hogs team is impressive.

9 for Joe

Broke 120

That was some fun HawgBall tonight with an opp that wasn’t afraid to run and gun with us. Joe was on fire from three!

I hope we continue to hire coaches from the Nolan tree for forever. I hope Scotty Thurman ends up coaching here too. I'll support Mike until he falls off his game. But he ain't close to there yet.

He didn't force a single shot. Every one of those 10 tres came within the flow of the offense.

Unbelievable. He shot 10-13! Wow

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don't mind the style but it can be very frustrating to watch when it isn't being run correctly with the wrong players.

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This is the problem. I have been around mike, had dinner with the man. Wont find many folks who I enjoyed being around more. But... He often pushes a square peg, in a round hole and it is infuriating!

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If you disagree feel free to say so ,but I like Mike.

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I've always liked Mike. I wanted him to succeed as much as the next person. I wanted us to win with Hawg Ball again like when I was a kid. But for nearly a decade he showed that there was a cap on what he would be able to accomplish in today's game. While I'll always be grateful to Mike for getting our program out of a very bad place, there have been multiple seasons where I felt like we had the talent for better finishes than we got, especially lately.

Until very recently there wasn't a whole lot to grasp onto for hope that we would ever be truly elite under Mike. We've consistently lost top recruits in our own state and haven't replaced them with highly touted recruits from elsewhere. Largely depending on JUCO transfers for the bulk of the active talent on the roster at any given time.

However, I will be the first to give credit where credit is due. I would rather have no one else but Mike Anderson coaching this group of players this year and for the next few years to come. For the first time since Mike was hired there are consistent signs of a team that is fully capable of executing the identity that this entire playstyle was based on. Dominating inside presence, athleticism all over the floor, and relentless, smothering, SMART defense. This ignites the offense in a way that covers for the fact that we may not have that dynamic ball handler that can score at will, though Gafford has shown flashes of completely taking over.

That said, the main difference in this team is when the defense isn't having success forcing turnovers or the game is being slowed down by some other factor. The team overall is much more active in the motion offense than teams in the past. There's much less standing around and much more motion going on on every possession. Partnered with that is the fact that this team is undoubtedly the smartest team Mike has ever had. The overall basketball IQ on the court at any given time is extremely high and there are noticeable impacts on both offense and defense.

I think this team has the potential to be absolutely terrifying in January.



TL;DR: Always liked Mike but he was taking too long. Thought some teams under-performed. Like what he's doing now and want him to coach this group. Team looks good.