Hawgball - Bringing Back Forty Minutes of Hell

[MJ4H]

This dynasty is done using Total College Basketball. I am taking over the Arkansas Razorbacks with the goal of returning to an up-tempo, pressing style of basketball with an expectation of deep NCAA tournament runs on a yearly basis.

My first task as the new head coach of the Razorbacks is to purchase a scouting report. My network of scouts is going to be very important. It is essential to find players that will work well in my up-tempo, pressing system. I won't be able to win recruiting wars against the big boys just yet, so I will need to locate players with great ability that can work in this system.

My plan is to build a team with great guards, quick hands, and lots of endurance. Hopefully, I can also look for things like a big man to help out in half-court sets and to play goalie at the back of our press and a couple of sharp-shooters. Primarily though, I'm looking for defense, ball-handling, quickness, and endurance. Forty minutes of hell is coming back.

My recruiting budget is $107,100. I purchase the Gold star Southeast scouting report, as well as the Basic edition of the National scouting report. This costs me $40,000.

Next I have to decide which summer tournaments I will attend. My usual plan is to hit the Mempis Hoop Summit. I could hit one of the big national camps, too, but I'm going to save a few bucks this season. I don't think I will be after too many nationally elite players this season, so I will just hit up Memphis. This costs $3,700.

Our starting lineup looks like this:
PG-Rico McCasland (3.5/4 stars) - Rico is our primary deep threat. He is also an excellent passer, but still needs to work on his ball handling in order to get where we will need him. He is just a sophomore, so we have time with him. Rico is 6'5"" and is a surprisingly good shot blocker and rebounder for a point guard. We will be counting on him to find the open man and hit the big treys, though.

SG-Rowan Bland (3.5/4 stars) - Rowan is very similar to Rico. A fine long range shooter, decent passer, quite tall and ready to block shots and rebound, but still needs to work on handling the ball. Our guards will need to be better than this at ball handling for my system in the future, so we are going to look for guys that can help with this right away. Rico and Rowan are serviceable and young, but they will never be able to handle the system I want to put in.


SF-Jamie Hassell (3/3 stars) - Jamie is very athletic and one of our better defenders. He is an average scorer all-around. He won't knock your socks off offensively, but he can get the baskets when he has to. Jamie should provide some senior leadership for us.

PF-Ian McFadgon (5/5 stars) - Ian is a 6'9" beast. Our offense will rely heavily on him this season. He will put in a ton of points down low, grab most of the rebounds, and will even find the open man pretty well on occassion. As Ian goes, this team will go. Too bad we only have Ian for one season. I could build a team around this guy and Wil Fisher.

C-Wil Fisher (2.5/5 stars) - Wil was obviously recruited to take over the inside game when Ian moves on. He isnt there yet, but Wil should be every bit as good as Ian, if not better, before e graduates. Wil is just a sophmore, and, at 6'11", will give us a tremendous inside presence when playing together with Ian.

My initial impression of our roster is that it is surprisingly good. Not the type of players I want eventually, but these guys will win some games this year. I'm going to temper the style I want to play quite a bit this season and maybe next season. We will slow down quite a bit, run a half-court press, and try to run the offense through the two big guys. I don't think we have the guards to run the full court forty minutes of hell style I want to run, yet. The type of talent we have dictates that we need to slow things down.

[MJ4H]

My plans for building for the future are going to be to complement Wil Fisher, who should be a huge talent for us next season. If I can land one monster ball-handler/defender/passer point guard, we should be in good shape. From there I can start to build some depth at that position and add some athletic forwards that can dribble and play defense.


My initial sweep in recruiting picks up 7 point guard prospects, one of which is from Arkansas. I also pick up 2 shooting guards, both from in-state. I look at 7 forwards, 2 of which are in-state. I add all these to my watch/call list and pick out 10 to watch tape on. Finally, I pick three to invite to campus for a visit. They are:

Quinn Perdue, SF, Carriere, MS. Quinn is the #97 overall prospect in the country.

Gregory Harris, PF, El Dorado, AR. Greg is the #147 overall prospect in the country. He already has Arkansas listed as his favorite, so we will probably lead with him for our forward prospect, depending on what we find when we get a closer look at him.

Delvin Sanders, SF, Marvell, AR. #152 prosect. Again, he is very interested in us right out of the gate, so we will give him a long look.

Recruiting, Week of July 4, 2005:
We got some information back about some of our targets. Quinn Perdue seems to be pretty solid, but I was very disappointed in the scout's assessment of his ball handling. I will probably get pushing a little for him, but he will not be a high priority. We only have 2 scholarships this year, but I can find room on the roster for an overall talent like him, even if his ball handling isn't where I'd like it for our system.

Gregory Harris and Delvin Sanders are both total mismatches for my system and I will not be pursuing them further.

I have 10 film sessions for my scouts this week so we need to carefully sort through the other players on my watch list for players that match what I want. I will talk about players as I spot them.

I decided to send a scout to watch games for Quinn Perdue, Barry Palmer (PG, Bluffton, SC), and Jamal Jenkins (SG, Cuyahoga Falls, OH). The latter are two guys that have shown some interest in Arkansas but are not as local as the others. The latter two also received invitations to visit our campus along with Cory Clancy, a SG from Leitchfield, KY.

Recruiting, Week of July 16, 2005

More info on Barry Palmer (PG from South Carolina) shows that he would be a pretty good fit for my system. His defense is weaker than I'd like but he is very strong in scoring, passing, ball handling and athleticism. I decide to go ahead and offer him a scholarship. Since I've eliminated a couple of prospects, I decide to go ahead and widen my net a little bit and add some more. I will only detail recruiting actions when there is some progress, normally, though.

[MJ4H]

Memphis Hoops Summit

A lot of our recruits attended the Memphis Hoops Summit. Unfortunately, our two top prospects right now, SF Quinn Perdue and PG Barry Palmer failed to stand out. One of our other targets, Cory Clancy from KY did stand out. Unfortunately, he is barely even looking at us. We will still throw some attention his way. You never know. PF Coupe Cue from Georgia had a decent showing and already has a little interest in us, so I will be throwing some back at him as well.

SG Donte Johnson from Hope, AR had a decent showing also. I had taken him off of my watch list because he doesn't really match my style, but it is probably a good idea to keep him around since he still has us listed as his favorite.

[Izulde]

Damn it. I was planning on starting a Hogs hoops dynasty with either FBCB or DDS:CB and you beat me to it. :D

[MJ4H]

PLEASE do it. I don't ever follow through on these things :)

Also, use DDSCB.

[MJ4H]

A little good news from Barry Palmer. His parents like our school and would love to see him play for us. Hopefully that influences him some, because he still has us as his #5. At least we are on his radar. I wish he looked better at Memphis, because he really does fit our system. We are going to stay with him for now.


Recruiting, week of August 14, 2005
Quinn Perdue is plummeting in the national rankings and his strenghts don't really line up with what we are looking for, so we are dropping him, along with a couple of others. We are going to turn up the heat on some guys that are starting to show some interest in us and who have the abilities we want. Guys like:

SF James Perry (KY)
PG Jerrod Mueller (SC)
PF Nate McIntyre (SC)
PF Coupe Cue (GA)
PG Trent Barber (MS)
SG Donte Johnson (AR)
PG Luke Wyatt (MS)
PG Damian Holems (MS)

These will likely be the ones we go after hard, now, along with Barry Palmer. If I can get Palmer and one from that list, I'll be happy. Probably my most wanted at this pont is Coupe Cue.

[MJ4H]

Recruiting, week of September 18, 2005

Big news this week. Our first verbal committment of my coaching career! PG Barry Palmer commits!

"Coach - I just wanted to let you know that I've made my decision and I've chosen your school. I look forward to playing for you in the near future."

I'm in such a good mood after my first big committment that I fire out my other scholarship offer to Coupe Cue. He is still looking at us, but not highly. Yet! Maybe I can get him to take a harder look.

During this period, I'm also packing up and heading out to see the recruits on my list above. I'll eventually see them all, but I try to hit the ones I want most first (Cue, Johnson, Perry).

Recruiting, week of October 2, 2005

Coupe Cue commits to us. We basically get my top 2 targets. We only have 2 scholarships to fill, so I'm pretty much done. Recruiting is out of the way and practice is starting up. Before long it will be time to take the court in the Preseason NIT! Our first game is against NC State.

[MJ4H]

Michigan State comes into the 2005 season as the #1 ranked team in the country. Sophomore SG Marlon Alexander is the man to watch and the hopes of a National Championship ride squarely on his shoulders. Will Michigan State be able to handle the pressure of being #1?

But the Spartans certainly are not the only contenders for cutting down the nets next April. Kentucky, Duke, Connecticut and UCLA are all legitimate threats to win it all.

As always, the season kicks off with two preseason tournaments: the Coaches Classic and the Preseason AIT Tournament. In the Coaches Classic, Duke is the top seed and faces a first round matchup against Villanova. Kansas is the favorite in the Preseason AIT Tournament but they will first have to get by California.

As for the SEC, Arkansas is picked 3rd in the West, and 5th overall in the SEC. A decent level of respect, but we hope to overacheive.

[MJ4H]

Game 1: vs NC State, Preseason NIT

Arkansas exploded out of the gate and led by as many as 11 in the first half behind senior PF Ian McFadgon's 24 first half points, but NC State clawed their way back into the game and went into the locker room tied at 41. The second half was tight until NC State pushed out to an 11 point lead of their own with 10 minutes to play. It was the Razorbacks' turn to claw their way back into it behind a nice effort from Wil Fisher, and the two teams were separated by just one point with ninety seconds to play. The Wolfpack were deadly with timely threes all night, and player of the game Matt Wise provided the shot to the heart, putting NC State up 7 points with just 35 seconds to go, and the Razorbacks couldn't come back. Final score, NC State 89, Arkansas 82.

The story of the night for Arkansas was that Ian McFadgon is, in fact, the real deal, but if he is contained, both Fisher and the twin shooters Bland and McCasland need to get going quickly or there is nothing left for the Hogs. McFadgon score 18 of Arkansas's first 21 points, but 11 first half turnovers kept NC State in the game, and the +7 turnover margin eventually doomed the Hogs.

[MJ4H]

Wake Forest wins the Preseason NIT by downing Stanford in the final, 66-40. At least NC State, the team that edged us out, made the semis.

http://pwatts14.googlepages.com/2005-NIT.jpg

[MJ4H]

After being eliminated in the first round of the NIT, we get a few days off to prepare for our first regular season opponent, Delaware. We have to travel to face the Blue Hens, so it may not be a simple task.

Game 2: at Delaware

In fact, the game opens with Delaware taking an eary 4 point lead. Arkansas hangs around within 4 points or so, until midway through the first half. Sparked by Mr. McFadgon yet again, the Razorbacks hit the Blue Hens with an 18-2 run to take a 35-22 lead with 6 minutes to play in the first half. Delaware answers by closing the half with a 15-6 run of their own, and at the break, Arkansas leads 41-37. Ian McFadgon leads the scoring with 16 points on 7 of 7 shooting.

In the second half, Arkansas pushed the lead back out to 11 before the Mud Hens crawled back into it, coming with 69-65. However, 3 straight 3-pointers pushed the lead back out to its largest, 78-65. The final score wound up 82-71 for the Razorbacks' first victory of the season. The Hogs were outrebounded 34-31, and lost the turnover battle again, 19-17.

[MJ4H]

Game 3: vs. #14 Arizona

Ian McFadgon explodes for 39 points and 8 rebounds as the Hogs upset Arizona. Final score 76-73.

Game 4: at Cal State Fullerton

The Razorbacks fail to follow-up on their big upset and fall on the road. Poor shooting doomed the Hogs as only 2 of 15 3 pointers found their way into the basket. Final score, 70-66.

Game 5: vs. Tennessee-Martin

Led by McFadgon's 22 and 12, the Razorbacks put Tennessee-Martin away in the first half and largely coasted through the second half to go a game over .500 on the season at 3-2. Final score, 84-65.

[MJ4H]

The month of December, 2005

We start the month off with a 3-2 record and a road trip to Austin Peay. Unfortunately, we drop this game. A bit of a trap game, I guess. 71-63 is the final, and we are back to .500

We then roll of four straight wins. Home wins against Long Island, Cal, and Sacramento State surround a decent road win at Marquette. Two road games close the month, at Temple and at #25 Alabama to open the SEC schedule.

Unfortunately, we drop both games, 85-72 and 84-60. We head into January and the meat of the conference schedule with a 7-5 record.

[MJ4H]

The month of January, 2006

Wil Fisher and Ian McFadgon combined for 30 points and 18 rebounds as Arkansas held serve at home against the 8-5 Auburn Tigers, 69-58. Once again, turnovers haunted the Hogs as they turned it over twice as often as the Tigers (16-8), but the twin powerhouses down low made up for it by dominating the boards (40-29).

A trip to Baton Rouge didn't turn out as well for the Hogs as the LSU Tigers beat up the Razorbacks 77-61. McFadgon's 27 points weren't enough as the Hogs struggled to hit the basket from all over the court.

The Razorbacks rebounded in Oxford, edging out the Ole Miss Rebels 67-64 behind 22 points from McFadgon. The Hogs even their conference record at 2-2 and move to 9-6 overall.