Whether it’s at a singles bar, the dinner table or the football field, there is nothing like a good pass.

But to me the place where passing stands out the most is the basketball court.

Most of the time, the team that passes the ball the best is going to win on the hardwood. It’s as simple as that.

Just ask James Worthy, Kevin McHale or Karl Malone what a good pass is worth.

If they were honest, the would say everything. Those three NBA stars might well have earned celestial notoriety even if they had not been blessed to play for the Los Angeles Lakers, Boston Celtics and the Utah Jazz.

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But boy did the passing of Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and John Stockton help the aforementioned trio reach some incredible heights.

While there have been many things to be disappointed about Razorbacks basketball during the past half-decade or so, passing and ball movement have been the most disturbing to me.

Stan Heath didn’t coach a good passing team at Arkansas, and though most of the players attempted to be unselfish last season, the Razorbacks as a whole were average passers at best.

Good passing is a skill that can be taught, but it’s too late to do it on the college level. There’s not enough time in practice to create good passers from scratch or make a selfish player unselfish.

Players get too set in their ways to change old habits, and generally the best passers are the players who just understand the game better than others.

So like shooting, rebounding, dribbling and any other fundamental, it must be recruited.

Give John Pelphrey and his staff credit because it looks like he went out and found him some players with a passing mentality.

Now, it’s hard to truly judge so early in the season. It is just November.

And certainly the Hogs’ exhibition opponents weren’t talented enough to give even Pelphrey’s uber-young and inexperienced squad a true test, but the 2008-09 Hogs appear to be a team that likes to find the open man and give him a shot.

That’s a welcome sight, and it will serve the Hogs well not only this season but in the future.

The standout number on the Hogs’ halftime stat sheet was the nine assists Courtney Fortson passed out in 16 minutes of playing time against one turnover. He finished the game with 10.

Seven Hogs had at least one assist and six had at least two.

But the solid passing didn’t just rest with the freshman from Montgomery, Ala. All the Hogs got into the passing mode.

Sharp-shooter Rotnei Clarke impressed me with about 7 minutes left in the contest and the Hogs winning by a bundle. In transition, he pulled up at the 3-point line. I was sure he was going to release what is already a trademark trey.

But no, his little hesitation head fake drew a defender off Michael Washington and Clarke fed the 6-9 big man the ball.

The game was already out of hand. Clarke could have just used the opportunity to pad his stat line. But his basketball instincts kicked in and he made the right and unselfish play.

That as well as more than a dozen other instances in the game when various Razorbacks opted to serve their teammates instead of themselves bodes well for this team.

Terry J. Wood is the sports editor of the Northwest Arkansas Times.