Like It Is

Hogs' woes start with poor shooting, defense

Arkansas guard Anton Beard (31) attempts a shot past the defense of Mississippi State forward Gavin Ware (20) in the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in Starkville, Miss., Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016. Mississippi State won 78-46. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

Nolan Richardson has a lot of old sayings, most from his grandmother, but he had one called the five P's, which loosely translated meant bad practices equal bad performance.

That isn't to say the Arkansas Razorbacks didn't practice well between their easy victory over Tennessee and their ugly loss at Mississippi State, but the performance was far from satisfactory in Starkville.

Any team that shoots 22 percent -- 17 percent by the starters -- from the floor can expect to lose.

If the Razorbacks had been anywhere close to what they were when the teams met earlier in Walton Arena, it would have been another easy victory.

On Jan. 9, the Hogs hit 50 percent of their shots, which included 67 percent of their three-pointers where they scored 48 of their points.

Tuesday night they made 10 percent of their threes; they were one of 10.

In the first meeting Jabril Durham had 12 of the team's 23 assists. Tuesday the Razorbacks had three assists and none by the point guards.

Yes, you have to have made baskets to get an assist, but other than Dusty Hannahs and Anthlon Bell, no one should be taking more shots than Moses Kingsley, and three others had more shots than the Hogs' center in the loss.

What happened though was the Razorbacks allowed the dull offensive part of the game to affect their defense.

Granted, this is not a trap-until-they-smother team, but the Bulldogs should never score 78 on them.

This team is not good enough to not play good defense.

With seven games remaining, any hopes they have of playing in the postseason, outside of the SEC Tournament, depends as much on how they play defense as how they shoot it.

Surely they can't shoot it as poorly again as they did Tuesday when the Hogs' RPI (RIP?) jumped from 91-105.

The only way they make the NCAA Tournament is run through the SEC Tournament undefeated, but the NIT is still a possibility.

...

The UConn women's team has won 60 consecutive games dating back to last year. Its longest win streak was 90 games.

Most people are aware of those facts, but what most don't know is a couple of weeks ago it offered a basketball scholarship to Christyn Williams, a sophomore at Central Arkansas Christian.

As one coach put it, "Christyn could start for most boys teams in the state."

...

After the Denver Broncos upset the Carolina Panthers in last Sunday's Super Bowl, Peyton Manning mentioned several times he intended to drink a lot of Budweiser.

Everyone assumed he was paid to say that instead of he was going to Disney World.

Nope, Manning has a lot of endorsements but Budweiser is not one of them.

Manning, who made $15 million from the Broncos (although it has been said he would get a $5 million bonus for winning the Super Bowl), picked up another $12 million in endorsements last year.

In a perfect world the Broncos would release him before next football season, the Indianapolis Colts would sign him for one day, and he would retire as a Colt and then go to work in the front office.

However, he might want to stay in Denver. That's where he has 12 Papa John's franchises as part of his endorsement deal with the pizza chain.

Oh, and on national television Peyton explained that his brother was not unhappy -- which is what it looked like when the camera showed the entire family but Eli celebrating after the Broncos final touchdown -- but that he was doing the math to decide if Denver should go for two.

And Peyton said his brother makes that same face a lot.

Sports on 02/12/2016