Dallas, TX

Facing the heat in Dallas | Arkansas Democrat Gazette

Published

1 year ago

July 19, 2024

Facing the heat in Dallas | Arkansas Democrat Gazette

Fourth in a series previewing SEC football teams

DALLAS — University of Arkansas Coach Sam Pittman understands another 4-8 record won’t cut it in 2024, and he’s not shy talking about his status entering the season.

“I’m popular now, the wrong way,” Pittman said in the electronic media room on Thursday at SEC media days. “I’d say I’m hot. I’m at the top of those [hot seat] lists. … What’s fair is fair.”

This comes after Pittman led the Razorbacks from a 3-7 mark in 2020 at the tail end of a 20-game SEC losing streak to a 9-4 finish and four trophy game wins in 2021.

“If you’re going to get patted on the back, you’re going to get punched in the gut,” Pittman added.

Arkansas receiver Andrew Armstrong said players don’t pay attention to “hot seat” lists, but a tidy solution exists for the Hogs to turn down the heat on their head coach.

“At the end of the day, this is Arkansas football, and we’re trying to go win not only for ourselves, but for our fans, the state,” Armstrong said. “I know they’re waiting for a great season. So we’re not too much focused on the ‘hot seat’ thing. If the team is focused on winning, there is no hot seat for him. We go out there and win, those talks won’t happen.”

The Razorbacks are not likely to be chosen among the contenders in the SEC when the media’s projected order of finish is released on Friday. In fact, Arkansas will probably rank in the lowest tier of teams along with Vanderbilt, Mississippi State and South Carolina.

Pittman sounded fired up about wanting to discard the remnants of the 4-8 season.

“If we can take 4-20 to 9-4, we can deal with 4-8 too, and that’s what we’re going to do,” Pittman said, referencing the Razorbacks’ record in 2018-19 immediately before he was hired. “I’m very excited about the Arkansas Razorbacks.”

End Landon Jackson, a returning defensive captain, said the players won’t worry about media expectations.

“Whatever the media thinks about our team doesn’t really matter because we’re a whole new team,” Jackson said. “College football is a different game now.”

Quarterback Taylen Green, who Pittman said was “hand picked” by offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino, compared his recruitment to where the media might pick the Razorbacks.

“We’ll just use it as motivation,” Green said. “You know growing up and being recruited, I wasn’t really highly recruited. So just proving the doubters wrong and proving ourselves right is something that we like. We like being the underdog and just proving ourselves.

Jackson pointed out how the NCAA transfer portal can change the identity of a team quickly, and he thinks that could apply to the 2024 Razorbacks.

“Taylen, for example, wasn’t here last year,” Jackson said. “Nobody knows for sure how he’s going to be for our team, but I think he’ll be phenomenal. Another guy, JJ [JaQuinden Jackson] at running back, I feel like he’ll be great for our team. We’ve got so many transfers in that we’re not the same team. Not even the same coaching staff.”

It will be incumbent on the Razorbacks to have a better record in one-score games, where they went 1-5 last season and 3-3 the year before.

“Those games can change a season all the way around,” Armstrong said. “We lost a lot of close games, and if I’m not mistaken Missouri went 5-0 [actually 4-0] in close games last year.

“You can see how they went the distance in their season. So I feel like those close games really are a major focal point in having a winning season or a losing season.”

Pittman said closing out tight games has been a point of emphasis in the team’s preparations all offseason.

“We have to figure out how to finish, win the close games,” he said. “We have got figure that out. We feel like we’re well on our way to getting that accomplished.

“I think a lot of that has to do with how we approach play calling, how aggressive we are on defense. … Whether you can run the football or not.

“Last year, we didn’t do a whole lot well on offense. It was a little bit more of a grab bag. What are we doing well right this moment instead of staying with it or what we thought the game plan would be because it wasn’t working. I think a lot of it had to do with the offensive line and the running backs, which I think we’ve shored up those two spots.”

Jackson said contributing on a successful team is a key reason why he returned for his senior year.

“My first year at LSU, we had a mediocre record,” he said. “Then, first year at Arkansas we were 6-6 before going to the Liberty Bowl. Then last year was a bad season.

“I really want to finish my college career with a bang. … Since I was a kid, my main goal was to play in the SEC and not just play in it, but dominate the SEC.

“That was my goal as a kid before any thoughts of the NFL. Now my goal obviously is to go to the NFL, but I’ve got to complete my initial goal. I really wanted to come back and have a dominating season as a team, not just as an individual player, and really get those wins.”

The Razorbacks will not play perennial power Alabama, which has won 17 consecutive games in the series, but they have added new SEC member Texas.

Arkansas will not wear the mantle of having the toughest schedule in the nation as it has claimed many times in the last couple of decades, but it’s still a rugged slate.

“We have seven top 25 teams on the schedule, so it’s probably a lot better year than it’s normally been,” Pittman said. “Nah, you know Andrew [Armstrong] said it on the plane on the way over, he said, ‘Hell, coach, they’ve got to play us too.’

“So we do have a good schedule. It gives us more opportunities, and it gives us more opportunities to make a splash. And any time you play top 25 team and you win, it’s a splash and it’s a hit and so it gives us a lot of opportunities and that’s how we’re looking at it.”

Returning defensive captain Landon Jackson said the Arkansas players aren’t worried about the media’s expectations from the 2024 Razorbacks. “Whatever the media thinks about our team doesn’t really matter because we’re a whole new team,” Jackson said. (AP/LM Otero)

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Dallas, TX

Dallas Stars blow out Anaheim Ducks as offense explodes for third straight win

Published

10 hours ago

December 20, 2025

Press Room

Dallas Stars blow out Anaheim Ducks as offense explodes for third straight win

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Jason Robertson had two goals and an assist, and the Dallas Stars beat the Anaheim Ducks 8-3 on Friday night for their third straight win.

Roope Hintz and Thomas Harley each had a goal and an assist, and Oskar Bäck, Sam Steel, Ilya Lybushkin and Adam Erne also scored for the Stars. who are an NHL-best 13-2-4 on the road. Mikko Rantanen and Miro Heiskanen each had two assists, and Casey DeSmith had 23 saves.

Ryan Poehling, Beckett Sennecke and Mikael Granlund scored for the Ducks, who have lost four of five. Lukas Dostal gave up four goals on seven shots before he was pulled with 5:41 left in the first period. Petr Mrazek came on and stopped 14 of the 18 shots he faced the rest of the way.

The Stars’ eight-goal output tied a season high, matching their 8-3 win at Edmonton on Nov. 25, and was the most the Ducks have given up.

Bäck gave the Stars a 1-0 lead with a short-handed goal 2:37 into the game after the Ducks turned the puck over behind their net.

Poehling tied it 55 seconds later, scoring in close on the rebound of a point shot by Radko Gudas.

Hintz put Dallas back ahead at 4:42, getting a pass from Robertson in the slot, sliding backwards and firing a shot past Dostal for his 11th.

Steel pushed the Stars’ lead to 3-1 with 7:19 left in the first, scoring past Dostal while crashing into the net and dislodging it. The goal was confirmed after a review.

Harley made it a three-goal lead 1:38 later as he got a pass from Rantanen and scored from the right circle.

Robertson scored in front on a power play with 8:50 remaining in the second, and then put a backhander past Mrazek from the right circle 4 minutes later to make it 6-1. It gave Robertson a team-leading 22 goals.

Erne made it a six-goal lead with 1:30 left in the middle period.

After Sennecke pulled the Ducks back within five 1:01 into the third, Lybushkin got his first of the season 41 seconds later to extend the Stars’ lead to 8-2. Granlund capped the scoring with 5:38 remaining.

Up next

Stars: Host Toronto on Sunday.

Ducks: Host Columbus on Saturday.

Find more Stars coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.

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Dallas, TX

Don Stone, Dallas philanthropist and arts advocate, dies

Published

22 hours ago

December 19, 2025

Press Room

Don Stone, Dallas philanthropist and arts advocate, dies

Don Stone, a Dallas civic leader and strong supporter of the arts, died on Sunday. He was 96.

Angela Stone, Don’s youngest child, said her father was one of a kind, a rare mix of sweet and tough.

“He was just the most wonderful man I ever knew, just generous to a fault, smart, charming. He influenced so many people,” she said.

Stone gave widely across North Texas, including $500,000 to endow college scholarships for musically gifted Dallas ISD students. Stone also held leadership positions at several North Texas arts organizations, including the Dallas Public Library, Voices of Change, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Fine Arts Chamber Players, Orchestra of New Spain, the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra, Shakespeare Dallas and Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts.

“He just believed that all of our lives would be so much poorer without music, art and theater. He said in our country we have the freedom to support whatever we want and that we needed to support the arts so that they would continue to exist,” Stone said.

Stone, a businessman who lived in Turtle Creek, worked for Sanger Harris, which later became Macy’s. He was a 2018 TACA Silver Cup Award honoree for his arts and culture advocacy in North Texas.

Maura Sheffler, president and executive director of The Arts Community Alliance (TACA), said in a statement that Stone’s legacy will continue to inspire the local arts community.

“We are deeply saddened by the passing of Don Stone, a devoted champion of the arts whose leadership and generosity,” she wrote.

Stone’s wife of over 72 years, Norma, died in June. She was the one who first got her husband involved in the arts, according to their daughter Angela.

Michelle Miller Burns, the DSO’s president and CEO, said the Stones had a profound impact on the DSO.

“It is with such a heavy heart that I received news of Don Stone’s passing earlier this week. Don was a devoted patron, a donor and a board member of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and his leadership and generosity really have helped shape the Dallas symphony across five decades,” she said.

In 1980, Stone served as DSO’s chairman of the Board of Governors and helped launch efforts to raise $80 million for Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center and secure architect I.M. Pei.

In 1997, the Stones launched the Norma and Don Stone New Music Fund and committed $1 million to continuously support new works. Some of the works supported through the fund include this year’s world premiere of Angélica Negrón’s requiem For Everything You Keep Losing. The fund also supported a Grammy award-winning violin concerto by Aaron Jay Kernis co-commissioned with the Seattle Symphony, Toronto Symphony and Melbourne Symphony.

“I think it is rare for a couple who so firmly believes in the future of classical music and creating opportunities for new musical voices to be heard to really put support behind that in a meaningful way to fuel that process, to ensure that it can come to fruition,” Burns said.

She said the DSO will continue the Stones’ legacy by commissioning new works through the Norma and Don Stone New Music Fund.

Stone is survived by his children Michael, Lisa and Angela, six grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. The family will have a private funeral.

Arts Access is an arts journalism collaboration powered by The Dallas Morning News and KERA.

This community-funded journalism initiative is funded by the Better Together Fund, Carol & Don Glendenning, City of Dallas OAC, Communities Foundation of Texas, The University of Texas at Dallas, The Dallas Foundation, Eugene McDermott Foundation, James & Gayle Halperin Foundation, Jennifer & Peter Altabef and The Meadows Foundation. The News and KERA retain full editorial control of Arts Access’ journalism.

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Dallas, TX

Daniss Jenkins sparks rally but Detroit Pistons fall in OT to Dallas

Published

1 day ago

December 19, 2025

Press Room

Daniss Jenkins sparks rally but Detroit Pistons fall in OT to Dallas

DALLAS — A late comeback attempt fell short for the Detroit Pistons.

They fell to the Dallas Mavericks in overtime, 116-114, after recovering from a third-period 18-point deficit. A dunk by Anthony Davis gave the Mavericks the lead for good with 1:32 to play in overtime.

Cade Cunningham (29 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists) missed a short jumper with 7 seconds left that would’ve tied the game at 116, and Jalen Duren (17 points, 13 rebounds) couldn’t convert two offensive rebounds into a tip-in basket. Davis corralled the rebound with 0.9 seconds left, and the Mavericks called timeout.

The Pistons fouled Davis after the inbounds pass with a foul to give. Daniss Jenkins, who scored 11 points after halftime, stole the second inbounds pass with 0.6 seconds left but didn’t have enough time to get a shot off.

The Pistons trailed by 18 points with five minutes to play in the third quarter. Their bench unit was instrumental during a 31-11 run that gave the Pistons the lead again, 99-97, midway through the fourth quarter. They held Dallas to 38.5% shooting and forced nine turnovers in the second half.

No. 1 overall pick Cooper Flagg gave his Mavericks the lead, 110-109, with under 20 seconds to play with a midrange jumper. Isaiah Stewart was fouled by Davis on the other end with 3.4 seconds left, and he split the trip to the line to tie the game at 110. Klay Thompson missed a floater at the buzzer, sending the game into overtime.

‘Dallas’ unit leads Detroit back from big deficit

Down 86-68 with 4:57 to play in the third quarter, coach J.B. Bickerstaff looked to the end of his bench for a spark. Jenkins, Marcus Sasser and Paul Reed checked into the game for the first time in consecutive order, joining Ron Holland and Javonte Green. The Pistons have a Dallas-centric roster — Holland, Sasser and Jenkins are all from the city, and Cunningham is from nearby Arlington.

They led an 11-3 run to cut the deficit to 10, tallying four steals during the stretch — two for Green and one each for Jenkins and Reed. Cunningham checked in for Green to open the fourth quarter, and the run continued. A 3-pointer from Jenkins, coast-to-coast layup by Holland and midrange jumper from Jenkins extended the run to 21-7, cutting the deficit to 93-89 with under 10 minutes to play.

As he has done several times this season, Jenkins rose to the moment in the final period. An entry pass from Jenkins to Holland created an open layup to slash Dallas’ lead to two, and Jenkins made a layup over three Mavericks defenders to tie the game at 95 with 7:46 remaining and push the Pistons’ run to 27-9.

With 59 seconds left in the fourth, a pair of free throws from Jenkins extended the Pistons’ lead to 3, 109-106. He played 11 minutes and 32 seconds in the final period, second only to Cunningham, and overtime.

Ausar Thompson ejected in second quarter

The Pistons lost Thompson — their primary defender on Flagg — midway through the second period after an exchange with an official.

With 5:09 remaining before halftime, Thompson tied up Mavericks guard Ryan Nembhard under the rim and was whistled for a foul. Thompson didn’t like the call and got in the ref’s face, and was instantly ejected. NBA rules make it an auto-ejection when a player makes physical contact with an official.

It was a strong start for Thompson prior to the ejection, as he had eight points, two assists, two rebounds and a steal in nine minutes of play. Stewart entered for him in the second quarter.

In all, it was a rough night for the Pistons regarding the officials. Cunningham was whistled for a tech late in the second quarter after disagreeing with a call, and Bickerstaff was whistled for a tech during halftime after arguing with an official.

Duncan Robinson exits with left knee injury

With 11:08 to play in the third quarter, Robinson suffered a knee-to-knee collision with Mavericks wing Naji Marshall. Robinson limped off of the floor and was initially ruled “questionable” to return until he was downgraded to “out” in the final period.

Robinson finished with two points and two rebounds, shooting 1-for-7 overall and 0-for-5 from 3. He missed two games in early December with a right ankle sprain.

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