Hog Calls

Practice facility solves little for Hogs

Dusty Hannahs (3) leads Arkansas players in a workout during practice Monday, Oct. 5, 2015, at the Razorbacks' practice facility in Fayetteville.

FAYETTEVILLE -- According to their predecessors and themselves, it sometimes seemed a practice facility might be a bigger boon to Arkansas men's and women's basketball than if clones of Razorbacks legends Sidney Moncrief and Corliss Williamson or Lady Razorbacks legends Bettye Fiscus and Christy Smith somehow could star for Arkansas again.

Hyperbole, of course. But sometimes it seems not so completely far-fetched, considering the panacea the coaches conjured.

Former men's coach John Pelphrey, former women's coach Tom Collen, current men's coach Mike Anderson and current women's coach Jimmy Dykes repeatedly cited that everyone else in the SEC had a basketball practice facility and that Arkansas did not, and all the what-ifs should Arkansas have one and the joy exuded upon revelation Arkansas would get one.

Well, Anderson and Dykes have had one since last autumn, state of the art with separate gyms and offices for the men and women and more bells and whistles than a fleet of new Cadillacs.

So that means this offseason -- which starts prematurely for both programs since, at 16-16 for the men and 12-18 for the women, neither reached the NCAA Tournament that both attained in 2014-2015 -- the Razorbacks for the first time will have year-round practice facilities available despite any conventions, graduations and concerts at Walton Arena, where the real games are played.

Therefore Razorbacks fans, particularly those donating sums to help make yet another arms race quest an Arkansas reality, will feel entitled seeing their investments pay off.

They aren't alone. Even the coaches, knowing better than any the extenuating circumstances preventing Anderson's 16-16 men in 2015-2016 from approaching their 27-9 of 2014-2015 or of Dykes in his second year dipping from 18-14 to 12-18 though actually improving from 6-10 to 7-9 in the SEC, get impatient.

After one loss, Dykes grumbled that perhaps his players should more often use the always available practice facility.

That came from understandable frustration. It wasn't squandering practice opportunities but losing in his second year the inherited anchors of a senior point guard (Calli Berna) and senior post (Jhasmin Bowen), handicapping his team in 2015-2016.

"Your success starts with your point guard and post play," Dykes said in his season post-mortem. "We lost two four-year seniors, and it's very difficult to replace those two positions. It took us awhile to get up to speed."

Anderson no doubt felt similar frustrations at every loss but above all said in his season wrapup: "I thought even this year [with belated practice facility availability] it paid off. This was one of our better shooting teams."

Offense was projected to be a woe for the 2015-2016 Hogs, minus 56.1 departed averaged points from the 2014-2015 team that averaged 77.4 points. Yet this 2015-2016 team outscored that team, averaging 78.2.

Now with a full spring, summer and autumn, the onus is on both teams to prove that practice makes perfect with their perfect places for practice.

Sports on 03/23/2016