LITTLE ROCK — Like most topics on a personal to-do list, postseason basketball is a virus victim and, as a result, the updated inventory of ideas for a weekly column is dominated by material that had been earmarked for next month at the earliest.
For now, there are no results to review and no contests to preview.
Major conference tournaments lasted all of one round before the NCAA put the kibosh on all 3-point shooters and buzzer beaters, depriving Arkansas’ men of an opportunity to earn a trip to New York for the NIT Final Four and the women a chance to participate in the NCAA Tournament for the first time under third-year coach Mike Neighbors.
There is no 68-team bracket ripe for guessing, no opportunity to pooh-pooh the “momentum” of conference tournament champions, and the fact that the eight teams that were No. 1 in The AP poll during the season lost 37 games is merely a footnote.
The NCAA’s widespread cancellations also deprive Arkansas’ women’s track team of a chance to repeat as national champion in June.
Meanwhile, other major college sports are on hold.
Like millions of last-minute taxpayers, April 15 is the day of reckoning for baseball and football.
For now, the Razorbacks’ pursuit of a third consecutive appearance in Omaha for the College World Series is in limbo. Ranked preseason No. 5, Arkansas was to begin its 30-game SEC schedule last weekend in Starkville, Miss.
Even if baseball resumes, six weeks of conference competition might be the max, although it would likely be much less in order for pitchers to get their arms in shape again.
In that overly-optimistic case, the SEC postseason tournament May 19-24 in Hoover, Ala., could be more than the usual opportunity for the league’s best to stay sharp, get the pitching rotation in order and prepare for the NCAA regionals.
Musselman, Neighbors, Lance Harter and Dave Van Horn understand the cancellations are for the greater good, but they must be frustrated knowing what might have been. In fact, Neighbors promised his team’s accomplishments, including a Top 25 ranking in the final AP poll and 10 Ws in the SEC, would not be forgotten.
Unlike Sam Pittman, at least those four coaches can look ahead knowing what their athletes can and cannot do in 2020 whether competition resumes this spring or next year.
On the job barely three months, Pittman, his new staff and their players are months away from fall practice and in the dark about what to expect from each other when they are on the field.
Originally, the get-acquainted sessions that shape the depth chart were to begin Monday and end with the Red-White game on April 25 in Fayetteville, with a week off for Spring Break.
Even if football is given the go-ahead, adjustments will be necessary.
For example, extending practice into May guarantees an overlap with spring semester finals — remember, athletes are also students — and at Arkansas the week-long tests begin May 4. Getting in all 15 practices might require sessions after classes are over and reducing the number of practices could be a possibility.
Continuing with football and using some imagination, there is a way to connect new UA defensive line coach Derrick LeBlanc and former defensive tackle McTelvin Agim to a few words about the first of two $1 million races for Kentucky Derby hopefuls at Oaklawn Park.
Such imagination is necessary to meet the criteria for this website full of Razorback news.
Anyway, one of the eight 3-year-olds in the Rebel last Saturday was Three Technique. The name could be dismissed as a non-football reference except the colt’s owner is former NFL coach Bill Parcells and the term is an alignment employed by defensive linemen.
As for the UA connection, LeBlanc is in charge of finding replacements for Agim and T.J. Smith. Other than those two seniors, redshirt freshman Isaiah Nichols and junior Jonathan Marshall were the only defensive tackles that participated in the season-ending 24-14 loss to Missouri.
Agim never quite lived up to his hype, but should be picked in the middle of the NFL draft, while Smith played four years and was a captain in all 12 games last season.
For the record, no spectators were on track when Three Technique finished almost eight lengths behind unbeaten Nadal, one of the favorites in the Kentucky Derby even before the victory at Oaklawn.
By the time the Derby is scheduled to be run on May 2, maybe there will be breaking news from a football scrimmage in Fayetteville.