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HawgBeat – Battle, Mark, players-only meeting lead Arkansas to wild win over Vandy

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HawgBeat  –  Battle, Mark, players-only meeting lead Arkansas to wild win over Vandy


The Arkansas Razorbacks (16-16, 6-12 SEC) came out on top in the first round of the SEC Tournament, winning a wild overtime game over the Vanderbilt Commodores (9-23, 4-14 SEC) by a score of 90-85.

In a wild turn of events, Arkansas overcame a 15-point second-half deficit to take the lead before a string of late-game turnovers allowed Vanderbilt to tie the game back up and send it to overtime. From there, the Hogs battled it out to survive and advance.

Arkansas’ comeback was fueled by the scoring efforts of backcourt duo Tramon Mark and Khalif Battle. After going scoreless in the first half, Mark went on a tear to finish with 18 points on 50% shooting. It was the Houston transfer’s huge four-point play that gave Arkansas the lead back with less than eight minutes to play.

“I just didn’t wanna lose,” Mark said. “That factored into my mindset…I just went out there and got it, and we were able to get the win.”

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Battle led the team in scoring with 24 points and was able to attack the basket and draw fouls. He shot a remarkable 13-14 from the charity stripe, the most made free throws by a Razorback in an SEC Tournament game. Battle cited the team’s resilience after sleepwalking into a 41-27 halftime deficit.

“[Coach Musselman] told us we were playing soft, and we took it personal from there,” Battle said in his postgame interview. “He challenged a lot of the guys…It’s still March and anything can happen…my confidence never wavers…I’m a hooper and that’s what I do.

With the Razorbacks on the brink of having their season ended in an ugly fashion, Mark said that the team called an emergency players-only meeting at halftime to rally the troops, and that helped inspire the Hogs to a second-half comeback.

“It was definitely a fired-up locker room, especially after the coaches left,” Mark said on SEC Network after the game. “We had a players-only meeting and we just called each other out. Everybody had something to say and it was good, because we came out there in the second half with a chip on our shoulder.”

As for Battle, this marks his sixth straight game with at least 20 points. He also six rebounds, three assists and two steals in the game, plus seven of his points came in overtime.

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“He was phenomenal,” Musselman said. “We wanted to go to him. We’ve gone to him the last couple of weeks when we need a basket. We put the ball in T-Mark’s hands too in certain stretches.”

Up next, Arkansas will face the 5-seed South Carolina Gamecocks (25-6, 13-5) in the second round of the SEC Tournament. Tipoff at Bridgestone Arena will be 25 minutes after the conclusion of Mississippi State vs. LSU, which starts at noon CT.



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Arkansas

Hoop Hogs analytics update – 11/26

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Hoop Hogs analytics update – 11/26


The No. 19 Arkansas Razorbacks are currently 5-1 on the young season after a 109-35 win over Marland-Eastern Shore on Monday night.

According to KenPom, Arkansas jumped from 40th to 38th following the victory over the Hawks. The Razorbacks efficient defensive night pushed them to sixth in defensive efficiency, up four spots from 10th.

“Defensively, we’re one of the best teams in the country and we want to continue to hand our hats on how we are defensively,” Arkansas associate head coach Chin Coleman said postgame. “And a lot of stuff that we do defensively, it doesn’t matter who we play, because it’s our scheme. It’s our schematics and it works. As long as we’re in the right spots and we’re doing what we teach, it’ll work against anyone.”

The Razorbacks eclipsed the 100-point mark, shot 55.6% from the field and hit three-pointers at a 44.1% clip. As a result, Arkansas’ offensive metrics received a major boost.

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Freshman guard Boogie Fland was awarded team MVP from KenPom after the game. He had an offensive rating of 194.0 and scored 16 points on 3-of-5 shooting which included two makes from deep.



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Johnell Davis, Karter Knox find their grooves in Arkansas basketball’s rout over UMES

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Johnell Davis, Karter Knox find their grooves in Arkansas basketball’s rout over UMES


FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas basketball has been waiting throughout the first few weeks of the regular season for breakout performances from Johnell Davis and Karter Knox

Both players came to life for the Razorbacks (5-1) on Monday night, unleashing an offensive onslaught in a 109-35 romp over Maryland Eastern Shore. The 74-point win tied for the third-largest margin of victory in school history.

The usual suspects — Boogie Fland, Adou Thiero and Zvonimir Ivišić — all shined, but it was the emergence of Davis and Knox that powered the best offensive performance of the season. Knox led all scorers with a career-high 21 points, while Davis chipped in 16 to post his highest scoring output since joining the Hogs this offseason.

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“If everybody is good, no one has to be great,” Arkansas assistant coach Chin Coleman said after the win.

“So we have a team that we feel like if everybody is good, we don’t have to have someone go in the phone booth, put on the cape and be Superman. We’ve got a good collective of guys that if everybody is good, no one player has to be great, so we need (Davis and Knox) to be good.”

Knox was a five-star recruit in the 2024 class, viewed as an elite scorer who could get to the basket in a variety of ways. Unfortunately, his jumper has been cold to start his collegiate career, and he entered Monday night 1 of 15 on 3-pointers.

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But against UMES, Knox went 3 of 8 from long range. He made a pair of corner 3s and found time to paint the basket for easy points. After one 3-pointer, he exchanged words with the Arkansas bench, a sign of relief after failing to score more than six points through the first five games.

“It felt good to get going. I’ve been putting the work in the gym,” Knox said. “Teammates kept believing in me. They knew it was going to fall, tonight was the night.”

Davis’ early-season struggles have been puzzling. He averaged 18.2 points on 48% shooting last year at Florida Atlantic, but he hadn’t scored more than eight points since the Hogs’ season-opener. Coleman admitted during a recent press conference that Davis is adjusting to being surrounded by other top options, instead of being a clear-cut leader of the offense.

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With Arkansas, Davis has been more of a stretch-the-floor shooter through the first three weeks. It makes sense, given that Davis shot 41.4% from 3 last season with the Owls, and he finally got hot Monday night by going 4 of 7 against the Hawks.

“We saw him the other day make 40 in-a-row. It was just a matter of time,” Coleman said. “The only thing in between him and making shots is air and opportunity. So he had an opportunity tonight, and he made them.”

The next question is how repeatable were these performances. Maryland Eastern Shore represents arguably the worst opponent on Arkansas’ schedule. Things are about to get much tougher, beginning with a Thanksgiving showdown against Illinois.

In their last matchup against a Power Four school, Davis and Knox combined for eight points on 2 of 12 shooting against Baylor. They could hold the keys to a first signature victory in the John Calipari era this Thursday.



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New statewide group promotes, aids prescribed burns | Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

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New statewide group promotes, aids prescribed burns | Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette


The newly formed Arkansas Prescribed Burn Association held its first meeting in mid-October.

The association works as an umbrella organization, recruiting and maintaining new groups of landowners to conduct prescribed burns throughout the state.

“Properly planned prescribed burns reduce the fuel load, which can lessen or even eliminate wildfires,” said Thomas Baldridge, one of the association’s three directors. “But that’s only part of the benefit of prescribed fire. It’s the best tool available to land managers to increase wildlife habitat for turkeys, quail, deer and all sorts of other species.”

North American bird populations have declined by more than 2.9 billion birds in the last 50 years and the loss of grassland habitat is one of the largest contributors to that loss, according to a recent study conducted by Kenneth Rosenberg and highlighted by the National Audubon Society. Fire helps open up dense underbrush to promote seed-producing grasses and plants that are beneficial to grassland species on a year-round basis.

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Instead of manipulating land through dirt work or planting food plots, many landowners can turn the tide on the loss of wildlife habitat with the proper use of prescribed fire.

Baldridge said the formation of the prescribed burn association was a natural evolution to what the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and other partnering organizations had been studying the last few years.

“Game and Fish started building prescribed burn associations a few years ago. Most of our members have been fortunate to have worked with many of the staff from Game and Fish, Quail Forever and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on burns and other private land habitat projects. The prescribed burn association just sort of seemed to be a missing piece to the puzzle that was already being put together,” Baldridge said.

Hunter Johnson of Des Arc and Catrina Mendoza of Searcy share director duties with Baldridge, who also lives in Searcy.

Baldridge said the association used states like Oklahoma and Florida as templates to follow in their formation.

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“Oklahoma really sets the standard for a statewide prescribed burn association. They’ve grown to a massive organization with a budget over $1 million and eight full-time staff members to support all of their chapters.”

Game and Fish, Arkansas Game and Fish Foundation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife and Quail Forever all pitched in financially to help the new association build a firm foundation. Game and Fish granted the organization $25,000. Fish and Wildlife gave it $50,000 and Quail Forever provided $17,000 derived from its specialty license plate sales.

Baldridge says trailers, safety gear and other prescribed burn necessities also were donated to the association, increasing its startup assistance to more than $200,000 in funding and equipment. Since the organization is entirely volunteer-based, all of this funding is put directly into putting prescribed fire on the landscape.

Visit www.arfire.org for more information and to learn how to set up a new prescribed burn association in any area of Arkansas.



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