What is Going on with the Basketball Team?
A few days ago, it was announced that Jason Henry would not be returning to the Hogs for the upcoming basketball season. This wasn’t a surprise to most as it didn’t seem that Henry was fitting in well with the program as evidenced by his non-attendance at last March’s SEC tournament. As an isolated incident, Henry’s departure would be nothing to worry about, but since Henry now marks the 4th player John Pelphrey signed that has since left the program, concerns about what is causing recruits to leave is beginning to build.
One of the departed Pelphrey recruits, Brandon Moore, spoke to KNWA’s Pat Downey concerning the issue and said, “It’s really a mental thing, you just have to be ready. I guess it wasn’t what a lot of people thought it would be. The coaches, it’s their job, it’s what they have to do. Everybody is trying to keep their job”.
From his statement, it seems that Moore believes our players are leaving because they weren’t fully prepared for what they got when they came to Arkansas. Personally, I find this hard to believe. All I know of Pelphrey’s demeaner and personality is what I have seen in the public sphere, and that has always been a guy that was straightforward and honest. Granted, I know nothing about how he acts in private, but from an outsider’s perspective, it seems unlikely that he would mislead or misrepresent the Arkansas basketball program in any way. As a result, it seems that incoming players would have been given an idea of what their lives were going to be like as a Razorback basketball player, leaving the responsibility of mental preparation to the players.
At the same time, maybe Pelphrey and his staff as a whole did a poor job in communicating to recruits what was going to be expected of them. It could be that there were mixed messages resulting from the staff not all being on the same page. I can’t say for sure.
Based only on speculation it’s hard to really take a side (or assess blame) when it comes to these departures. Maybe the recruits left because they didn’t like Fayetteville, or because they missed their families, or because of academic reasons (to me this seems to have something to do with Henry’s case), or maybe they just got tired of basketball. I honestly have no idea.
What I do know, however, is that if players are not a good fit, or they don’t want to play for the Razorbacks then they don’t need to be here. I can live with that. I am just concerned with what these departures could be communicating to future recruits. The last thing we need is to come off as a program that is either not completely forthcoming about what the expectations are as a Razorback, or as a program that doesn’t know how to properly handle its student athletes, or any number of other things these vague dismissals could lead people to believe.
Honestly, I am not sure what is going on with the team, or who is to blame (if anyone is to blame). So, for anyone out there with more insight to what is going on, don’t hesitate to chime in.
I just hope we have seen the last of these dismissals, and that the Hogs will be better off because of them.
Photo by supercooper via Flickr and Creative Commons 2.0
Trip Jones is a guest contributor for the Fayetteville Flyer. He is a graduate student in the Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas. For more of Trip’s contributions, visit his author page.
Comments
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Dustin
July 8, 2009
Good question. What the heck is going on up there? I’m a Pelphrey fan too, but I’m beginning to get a little worried.
sg
July 9, 2009
This doesn’t worry me one bit. The crux of that initial recruiting class was Clarke and Fortson. Henry was a nice addition, but he was a work in progress — tons of talent, but obviously had to work hard in the classroom just to get on the floor.
I think what happened is that we lost 6 seniors and Pelphrey needed players. He locked in two stars and supplemented the rest with serviceable role-players. Unfortunately, one quit the team in December, one started and ended the season suspended and the other two couldn’t carry their weight when Washington got in foul trouble (which, btw, he HAS to work on for this season).
I chalk up at least two of the departures to character issues. McDonald and Henry weren’t ready to play in Pelphrey’s system. I think the other two were let go because Pel needs some bigger bodies to come in.
That was Pel’s first real recruiting class. I think there was probably a little bit of miscommunication on both ends there. But still, this is Pel’s third year. His starting 5 are still here and we’ve shown glimpses of awesomeness. If this kind of recruiting stuff happens after this season, then you can start to really wonder. Otherwise, I attribute it to finding his way, which we owe it to him to do.
Jones
July 9, 2009
@sg, “The crux of that initial recruiting class was Clarke and Fortson”, don’t forget about Sanchez.
sg
July 9, 2009
@Jones, He was a redshirt last year. So, technically, he wasn’t in that class of recruits. And, he’s kinda easily forgotten about when he averages 8 minutes and 5 fouls a game (sarcasm rules).
George
July 9, 2009
It’s troubling. I’m a big Pel fan too, but things aren’t looking too good. A big part of recruiting is evaluating character and finding guys that are a good fit to the program. That’s especially true when your program is a Big O vertical away from losing scholarships for poor academic performance (which we are). If we just needed bodies I think we would have been better off getting a few character guys who could bring up the team GPA, or just find a couple of decent walk-ons to practice against in the short term.
I’m afraid the same thing might happen to the incoming class. If 3 or 4 of them don’t pan out, it’ll be bad news.
Michael
July 9, 2009
Pelphry was expected to win big day 1, expectations like that make you take risks on guys who may or may not end up being discipline/academic problems.