John Pelphrey evaluated the Razorbacks’ season, the program and where he goes from here entering the most pivotal offseason of his coaching career on Friday. We know all about the troubles this basketball program has had this season. Five players started the season on suspension for various reasons, player discipline was a problem and the team wore down physically as the season progressed.
It hasn’t been pretty on the Hill, and after a second consecutive losing season (14-18) the fans’ frustrations were voiced and the level of disdain started to rise. They’re angry and they’re not accepting what’s happening at the University of Arkansas, a program that won a national championship 16 years ago.
So what’s happened to this basketball program, which once was considered a top 10 school — perhaps top 5 — in the entire country?
We’ll start off with that, as I pull some quotables from Pelphrey’s press conference. The coach was direct at times and, well, mostly vague during the press conference.
You can judge for yourself below.
— A question involving the Razorbacks’ struggle in the last decade was one of the most prominent ones of the day. It hasn’t just been this season the Razorbacks have struggled. After all, Arkansas has won just one NCAA Tournament game since 1999.
The theme continued throughout the 40-minute press conference. Can Arkansas get back to a competitive level?
Well, what level exactly?
“Winning a national championship?” Pelphrey asked a questioner.
The questioner reacted, by further saying a level fans consider prominence.
“What is that?” Pelphrey inquired.
“I’m asking you,” the questioner replied.
“It sounds like you’ve got a pulse for what fans think prominence is,” Pelphrey responded.
Arkansas Coach John Pelphrey answered questions for 40 minutes Friday, evaluating a topsy-turvy season that ended with plenty of questions surrounding the coach and the program. (Photo by Brandon Marcello)
Another reporter chimed in with, “let’s say a top 20 team,” one that goes the NCAA Tournament, has a shot at the Sweet 16.
“I think we’re really close to that,” Pelphrey said. “Obviously you’re talking about a body of work over the course of a season. You’re talking about a body of work for a number of years in a row. The thing that’s hurt here of late is losing so much personnel, with the six seniors and losing [Patrick Beverley] and what not. That’s all been documented.”
That turnover occurred after the 2008 season, when Arkansas beat Indiana in the NCAA Tournament in Pelphrey’s first season as the Razorbacks’ coach.
“Any time you have so much turnover in personnel, it can lead to some inconsistency,” Pelphrey said. “I think that’s probably been the toughest part about this.
“We had a three-year run of three straight NCAA Tournaments, the last two years of Coach [Stan] Heath and our first year here. I’m not sure if at any point in time we were ranked in the top 20.
“… There’s still a possibility of being a part of those kinds of seasons and not being ranked … so usually one comes with the other.”
— Pelphrey was also asked to evaluate his journey as a head coach.
“I think there’s probably a lot of public opinion out there,” Pelphrey said. “… I love where I work. I think that I have an understanding of what goes on in terms of winning and playing and being a part of a championship team and a championship program. I think I have an understanding of my background as well, the importance of going to school, what that can do for a young man. Both of my parents were school teachers, and I understand the impact they have on my life, daily.
“Then I have a tremendous respect for where I love and the people that love this school. Hopefully I’m growing and getting better as a coach every single day. Hopefully I’m growing and getting better in terms of communicating with young people to step up in leadership roles and take advantage of the opportunities they have right now because they’re not always going to be there. Especially at this age and at this school.”
— Arkansas assistant coach Isaac Brown was re-assigned within the program, and has taken on an administrative role. What is that role? Well, we didn’t get much of an explanation.
“Well like I said, we’re always looking to evaluate everything and like I said, we make changes, I don’t want to say all the time, but certainly at the end of the year and you look and evaluate,” Pelphrey said. “And obviously throughout the course of the season you may make changes and stuff with other things that may not be so visible that you’d notice.
“I think for me, obviously, looking at our staff, I think we have a chance to operate better. That’s what I aspire to help us do, to become better.
“What will his (Brown’s) new role be? Outside of mentoring players and helping those guys develop away from the court, there will be a lot of administrative things that take place and we’ll have a chance to define that more as we go along.”
VIDEO: Pelphrey reviews season, program
Arkansas Coach John Pelphrey spoke with the media Friday, answering questions and addressing the Razorbacks’ second consecutive losing season during a 40-minute question-and-answer session. This is the first 35 minutes of the press conference.
— As for who will replace Brown on the staff?
“Co I have names in mind? Certainly I do,” Pelphrey said. “Have I talked to anybody at this point in time? If I have, it’s been very preliminary. I haven’t met
with anybody.
“But I aspire to do that and get the right guy. We’ll see where that ends up.”
— The possibility is out there for Courtney Fortson to leave and go pro, perhaps overseas.
“I don’t think anything’s definite,” Pelphrey said. “Courtney and I have had discussions about how important it is to right now take care of the business at hand, which is school, and he’s doing that.”
Other than that, Pelphrey doesn’t expect any players to leave or transfer.
— Rotnei Clarke was a huge topic last weekend and early this week. A television report cited anonymous sources saying Clarke was considering a transfer. Clarke released a statement refuting the report earlier this week.
Fans, and even TV commentators, have expressed concern about setting screens and getting Clarke open on the court. Was that a problem this season?
“I believe that when you make 100 threes in a season, that’s not easy to do, especially when there’s a depleted roster,” Pelphrey responded. “You have to remember, the first 15 games, he was the guy they were trying to stop and he was still doing those things. Hitting 10 threes in a game, scoring 51 points. Averaging some unbelievable number.
“Is there room for improvement? Without question. I think that young man improved a lot from one year to the next. I fully anticipate him doing that again next season. And I think that our team will continue to grow and get better and perform at a higher level. That’s what I believe.”
— Pelphrey met with players individually recently to discuss the past and the future at Arkansas. What was the common theme and what stuck out to coach during those discussions?
“I think the thing that stands out to me right now about our basketball team is the character, the willingness to be coached, the desire to get better,” Pelphrey said. “I think those are the things that stick out to me,. and the willingness to hear what’s being said in terms of the improvement we want to make as a coaching staff and the areas we need to do that in right now.”
— And, to sum up the season, which had plenty of ups and downs, Pelphrey had this to say to the fans:
“Certainly, we didn’t win as many games down the stretch as we wanted to win and nobody cares about that more than the head coach, the coaching staff and the players. Certainly we know our players fans are right there next and they want to win. The thing I would say is, keep loving the Razorbacks. We do. And we’re getting better, we’re working hard at it. We’re excited about where we have a chance to go. I don’t know if anybody gave us a chance to compete for the (SEC) West this year. That’s just kind of looking at what was written on paper before the season started. And we did. That’s reality. Going into the last two weeks of the season, we were right there to compete for that. So that is improvement. Hopefully we’ll be able to continue to grow that and do that year-in and year-out and start winning.”
Pelphrey says the Hogs need to add a “piece to our puzzle” in the frontcourt. Guard depth will not be an issue, as Iowa transfer Jeff Peterson will be eligible next season. Developing the frontcourt around Marshawn Powell will be the focus.
“If those things take place, yeah I think we’re right there to be able to, hopefully, be able to put together a good run non-conference and our SEC play, which will hopefully put us in a situation to be a part of postseason,” Pelphrey said.
Make sure to check out WholeHogSports.com and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for more coverage. You can also follow us on Twitter for breaking news updates with @bmarcello and @wholehogsports.
The last two years have been hard, and very unusual, given the various problems that have been well documented.
I still believe PEL will get it done. I am on board for one more year and think this team, with some newly found [quality] depth starting next season, wins a minimum of 20 games and makes a run in March of ‘11.
With or without a depleted bench, there’s tons of room for improvement in getting shooters open; there’s many times when our PG drives the lane attempting to go over or under a much taller player when driving and kicking back out would have been a much better option; especially when your best shooter has close to the same three point percentage as your other shooter’s FG percentage. If given wide open looks, that percentage usually will go up several points. Just sayin’.
I’ve enjoyed Razorback basketball for years. Sorry, but the past two seasons, especially 2009-2010, they were about as close to unwatchable as any team I have ever seen. They play like unsupervised thugs. Bad decision after bad decision is the norm now. Again, sorry, but the Heath experiment and Pel hire should have never happened. Anderson should have been asked to right the ship when Nolan when wacko. Waiting another season with this group of players is just putting off reality. GO HOGS! Sooner than later I wish.
First of all, I still believe in Coach Pelphrey. Also, I am looking forward to the new commits & the “strongly considering” group of 2011 super athletes that are favoring the Hogs right now becoming part of the Razorback family.
Secondly, more than anything, I believe the majority of the frustration coming from the Razorback Nation is the fact that we see other teams LOADED with Freshmen & Sophomores like us, but they are winning at a high level (See Kentucky) and we are not. These people tend to believe we should be winning in the same capacity citing that this is a coaching issue, not a player issue. To some degree, I can agree with that. The Coach must be held responsible at a high level because ultimately he is the one who recruited the guys, he’s the one coaching them, and he’s the one who has to ensure the players are attempting to execute his game plan. However, backtracking, if you take away just Kentucky–a team within our conference–you’ll be hard pressed to find teams with winning percentages THAT much better than we did. If you took that into consideration, you may be less likely to be calling for the coaches head because we do see continued progress in Wins & we do see continued progress in player development. I will concede we MUST get more big men underneath the basket to compete to win–these 6′7, 6′8, 210 pounder range athletes just are big enough to compete over the long haul in this league. We need to heavily go after the 6′9 230 and up range players–and they are out there, other schools are finding them and signing them and we should be doing the same. Wow this was long–anyway, good luck next season, GO HOGS!
Previous post corrections:
“…if you take away just Kentucky (as a winning team with so many freshmen & sophomores) you’ll be hard pressed….”
and
“…athletes just AREN’T big enough….”
J P’s eternal rambling in his evaluation of the season was simply HOG WASH. He was so fast to take credit for being in contention in the west for a few weeks, but never once took any responsibility for the comedy of errors that the last two years have been. He was asked about Clarke never getting a screen, when he has been played man to man all year and simply on his own to get an open shot. He danced around this question by complimenting Clarke on how well he was able to make shots, never saying that he should have had more screens and help to get clear shots. His team was simply playing street ball, out of control most of the time and totally inefective as a unit. Get us a new coach and get rid of this apprentice.
Get us a real coach
Apparently Hog Basketball is being ran by a group of wackos that really believe we fans delight in paying our money to witness their brand of character building! They don’t seem to be able to find and recruit character but surely are confident that once on campus they can make us so proud of the character building that wins will mean nothing! I think we need to rebuild from the ground floor, fire the idiot that hired the idiot that hired the coach! Hire a real coach, let him recruit some top 20 talent, win some close games with his coaching, and then we will get our moneys worth! This is so stupid, an SEC school with all the prestiege, money, and national attention managing it’s basketball program like a prep church league!
Blah! Blah! Blah! How about walking the walk instead of talking the talk!!!!!!!!The Hogs are in need of some serious overhauling. It is so obvious that there are several factors that have to be corrected here in order for the Hogs to be a contender instead of a pretender….. Get some recruits, start coaching like you mean it and get the fans to support a program heading in the right direction. I give them two maybe three years before anything really good happens. They need to develop the TEAM concept again like the players of the ‘94 season had. Get everyone involved and see if that doesn’t spark some positive results.
This is HOGGWILD out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I still feel giving Pel another season was a given. From injuries and discipline issues spelled a mine field of a season. There were good moments followed by asthmatic fits. Pel must step up adapt more quickly in game situations. I believe more staff shake up should’ve been made. Given no further high levels of discipline problems, Pel should field a more stable team. Pls note I didn’t say a much better team. From the interview, Pel had a strong defensive tone. He believes in his ability yet I didn’t sense a deep down conviction of accomplishing the end objectives. If Pel applies the same strategy next season, it won’t be pretty. It will signal he didn’t learn. He’s can still be the game changer for this program. Becoming the SEC West contender is a sure sign of improvement. No concern for Top 20 national standing. That comes later. Hogs winning consistently in SEC will right the ship. Better recruiting and rankings. PEL has my support for next season but nothing beyond that. Let the season be the dictating factor. If he can sign 2-3 of the leading state prospects, that will improve his longevity as HOGS coach. Pel must take control of Fortson if Hogs are to get more wins under their belt. He’s an exciting point guard however how well has he played “smart”. Sticking to PEL’s game plan versus improvising wildly on his instincts raises a big question mark. I rather place Clark at PG and Nobles at SG than have everything depending on Fortson. There are four other players on the court than him. Playing disciplined and having floor leadership will have the HOGS rolling.
I fail to see the desperation that is needed to be a great team in the league. Saying we aren’t that far away when we can’t get an NIT birth is embarassing. We are so far away from being an elite team…which should be the goal that it is not even imaginable. Pel needs to tighten everything up. Needs an image consultant. This may seem trivial but you do dress for sucess and so many times he looks unraveled and unkempt on the sideline.. Kids now like the coach that look good. He makes enough to get some nice suits and a haircut for goodness sakes. If he doesn’t recruit the stud Arkansas kids this year, he’s done. If he doesn’t take us to a NCAA he’s done. We took a big step back after Heath. May have gotten what we deserve there. Heath almost took a USF team to the NCAA’s this year and I dare say, that program is in better shape than ours. Their facilities are awful. Hate to say it but I just typed myself into believing Pel ain’t the answer.
“I think the thing that stands out to me right now about our basketball team is the character, the willingness to be coached, the desire to get better,” Pelphrey said. “I think those are the things that stick out to me,. and the willingness to hear what’s being said in terms of the improvement we want to make as a coaching staff and the areas we need to do that in right now.”
When your players don’t want to listen to you, or won’t listen to you, YOU’VE LOST YOUR TEAM….He has to go, and I hate that because I like him. But he’s not the coach for us. Just a fact. We will have to see the same crap next year, barring a miracle.
It’s embarassing…
I have said all along that the player turnover after the 2008 and 2009 seasons led to inconsistency. I am afraid of how many players may leave this offseason, which could lead to another inconsistent year. I also believe that player turnover cannot be used as an excuse next year. If it happens, the coach and the team will simply have to overcome it and still win 20+ games. (When teams play at least 30 games a season now, the 20-win benchmark should be raised to at least 22 wins, I think.) We must get a solid center with some size to compliment Clarke’s outside shooting. Quality basketball is still played inside-out, so a center is a must. We knew we’d have one more year to evaluate this staff, and I think the AD will have to let Pelphrey go if next year isn’t significantly better than this year.
We should think about hiring Northern Illinois’ coach. Their team defense is amazing.
Coach is a good guy, I have my doubts of him being able to coach at this level. I started this past season off on his side. I give him a second chance to see what he can do one more year, not that i would like a more experienced coach. sure i would. And to have Anderson as our coach/ who knows. trained by Nolan. could be good/ one more year/ he goes