Let’s get ready to rumble.

Believe it or not, the North Texas game wasn’t televised in California. So, I asked my dad - Little Rock resident, Razorback fan and former freshman sensation on the Vanderbilt University basketball team - to share his observations from having attended the tussle at Alltel. Here’s his report:

In their first game since the season-changing victory over 4th-ranked Oklahoma, the Hogs took on North Texas at Alltel Arena in Little Rock. This site has not seen stellar play by the Hogs of late, as they lost at Alltel last year to Appalachian State and to Bobby Knight’s Texas Tech Red Raiders the year before.

Fans outside were holding up fingers looking for tickets as we entered, and the inside of the arena was packed to the hilt. The Hogs seemed cocky as the game got underway and they jumped out to an early 9-3 lead, but North Texas was calm and ran their patterns with patience. They always seemed to get open looks for their shots, most of which they hit. They were small, but athletic and disciplined.

Meanwhile, the Razorbacks looked sloppy and were forcing shots on offense, missing most of them. After playing all-world in the Oklahoma game, Courtney Fortson turned the ball over several times and missed all but one of his patented spinning off-balance shots in the paint in the first half. North Texas scored 15 unanswered points during this stretch to take a 35-27 lead, much to the dismay of the fans.

Coach Pelphrey and crew then turned up the defensive intensity a full notch with half-court traps and full-court pressing and, by halftime, the Hogs were only down 42-40. THE MAN for the Hogs in this half was Michael Washington, who had 20 points, many boards and was hitting his charity stripe shots.

In the second half, things remained tight for awhile as the game progressed to 53-53 but then the Hogs caught on fire and the place became bedlam as the Razorbacks went on a run to take a 16 point lead. Again, Washington was the finisher and had scored 30 points just eight minutes into the second half. Fortson settled down and his assists were flowing along with several incredible double-pumping drives for scores.

The play of the game: Courtney drove into the paint and spun 90 degrees in the air to his right. While looking at two Razorbacks on the right whom everyone thought one would receive the pass, he blindly flipped the ball backward over his shoulder to Washington on the left who delivered a thunderous jam. The house came down and the decibel level was as wild as during the Hogs’ heyday.

We coasted from there to the victory. Courtney missed a lot of free throws in this game….we’ll need those in games down the line when the competition gets bigger and tougher, especially since he’s the man who’ll be handling the ball. Stefan Welsh continued his accurate marksmanship from 3-point land and from the free throw line as well. Rotnei Clarke hit some nice treys and played hardnosed hustling ball. Marcus Monk’s output wasn’t as amazing today as in the Oklahoma game but he was solid and continues to hit his free throws. Michael Sanchez had a quiet game, getting outrebounded by the smaller but quicker opposition.

All in all, the Hogs are improving and doing way better than most of us thought they would at this stage. They’re playing hard, tough and scrappy (though not always smart). Hog hoops is on the rise again!

The clip below is not particularly topical, and if you visit other sports blogs, there’s a good chance you may have already seen it. Nevertheless, I think it’s worth sharing. A good friend told me about it yesterday, and I’ve watched it about a dozen times since then.

A bit of background: In the immediate aftermath of Tommy Bowden being ousted as the head football coach at Clemson, a South Carolina TV station was taking calls from viewers to gauge their reaction to the move. And for poor Dave from Mount Pleasant, the news was heartbreaking indeed. Who knew that the bland, vanilla Bowden could evoke such emotion? Here’s hoping the new year finds Dave in a happier state of mind.   

Since the Hogs aren’t playing in today’s Cotton Bowl (or any other bowl game this year), we thought it would be helpful to provide some instructions on how to authentically simulate the experience of watching the Razorbacks go bowling. This way you’ll be able to experience the joy and pageantry of an Arkansas bowl game without having to, you know, watch one.

It’s really quite easy:

1. Turn on TV, sit on couch.

2. Make yourself comfortable with the food and beverage of your choice.

3. Hit yourself in the forehead with a hammer 2-3 times.

Repeat if necessary.

(Note: if the Petrino era goes the way we think it will, we won’t be able to make these *hilarious* jokes about Arkansas losing bowl games for too much longer, so let’s all savor them while we can.)

Courtesy of YouTube uploader arkansasdominance.

Allow me to begin with a disclaimer.

First, I am a heterosexual male.

Second, I’m very loose with superlatives.

That said, I would court, marry, and bear the children of Courtney Fortson if he would allow it.

However, at the risk of raining on everyone’s parade, I couldn’t help but dwell on two unfortunate truths in the surreal hours that followed the Hogs’ biggest win since Nolan’s departure. (Read on …)

The game did not air live here in Atlanta (I’m about to watch a tape-delay broadcast in a few minutes), so I don’t have much to say right now. We’ll pipe in with our two cents later. We mainly want to hear your comments and observations.

Before we go, however, a hearty congrats to John Pelphrey and crew on an attention-getting victory. This season is shaping up to be one interesting ride. Go Hogs!!

Yesterday my esteemed Razorback Expats colleague J. Hawg 3 wrote an impassioned post about why this year’s Arkansas basketball team simply isn’t that good. They haven’t done anything yet, he argued, so don’t get excited.

It’s quite possible that he’s right, but I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t feel the same way. In fact, although I agree they haven’t done much yet I feel like there are plenty of reasons to be excited about the state of the hoops team. So, in the spirit of a lively and vigorous debate, here are my observations from the game against Northwestern State:

* First, the obvious: Courtney Fortson is the real deal. More than that, actually. As John Pelphrey himself said, he’s special. He’s on a path to be one of the Razorback all-timers, and I don’t think I’m premature in saying that. Savor every game, because you’ll miss him when he’s gone.

* Another note about Fortson: the kid is a born leader. He has presence. You can tell from the way he commands both the action and his teammates on the court. He probably popped out of his mom’s womb and started barking out plays to the hospital staff. We haven’t had a floor general like this on the team since Corey Beck (sorry Kareem).

* Even though Rotnei Clarke’s shot was off against Northwestern State, I liked his style. To be honest, I was sort of expecting a generically stiff white guy 3-point ace, but he has some flair to his game….he had a nice Iversonesque pass off the high dribble in the first half, and his (thwarted) alley-oop to Forston was impressively audacious.

* J. Hawg accused Stefan Welsh of being a ball hog, but the guy (Stefan, not J. Hawg) hit 6 of 8 threes. He was obviously feeling it, so I don’t see much room for complaint there. (And yes, I realize that 75% 3-point shooting probably won’t be the norm for Welsh, but let’s at least savor the moment.)

* I actually kind of agree with J. Hawg about Michael Washington…it was embarrassing how many times he got his shot blocked in the first half. But, he’s had plenty of big games already this season so I’ll be charitable and chalk it up to holiday rust. Still, he’ll need to get meaner for the Hogs to succeed in SEC play.

* More than any one player or single play, though, I was impressed with the Razorbacks’ energy. Yeah, they were playing a crappy team but that doesn’t matter…they brought it. They brought it from opening tip through the end of a blowout and that’s not something to take lightly. How many times did a player from the previous era say something like “I guess they just wanted it more than we did” after yet another frustrating conference loss? Even when this team loses I doubt you’ll be hearing that quote again. (Give credit to Pelphrey and, perhaps even more so, Fortson for that.)

* Bottom line for me is that this team is fun. They’re scrappy and spunky. They’re too young to know they’re not actually that great. They’re not going to win every game, and they may even lose a lot of games, but they’ll always play hard and they’ll always try for the ballsy alley-oops. No matter what their final record is (and I suspect it will be better than the preseason prognostications), this is a team I’ll enjoy rooting for.

Somewhere during the Hogs’ blowout of Northwestern State on Saturday, my mom, Mrs. McHawg, called me. I didn’t get the call because I was attending a Razorback Expats staff meeting at the Oyster Bar. The message she left was “If you don’t like the Hogs in this game you aren’t ever gonna like them.”

I know it’s not polite to disagree with one’s momma, but I didn’t much like the way the Hogs looked. And Stephen and KevinHog, over fried catfish and fried oysters and fried okra and fried onion rings and fried fries, were trying to be upbeat. Stephen thinks these Hogs will be “exciting.” KevinHog, who did not appear to be smoking crack, opined that he thought the Hogs would split the Big 12 mini-tour of Oklahoma and Texas.

Harrumph. Me and Whit E. Knight spent the game grumbling. About what, you say? We beat them by forty! Our press had them handing us the ball! Courtney Fortson passes behind his back! Stephan Welsh scored 27!!

A little perspective, folks. So far, these Hogs have proven that they are contenders . . . in the Southland Conference. And here’s what I saw Saturday:

(Read on …)

Wally Watch: Where we read Wally Hall so you don’t have to.

Dec. 28, 2008: Bowl experiences have been ride to remember.

Primary Theme: Wally feels a little out of sorts with no Razorback bowl game to cover and thus reflects on his past bowl-game travels.

Are You Sure You’ve Been Covering Razorback Bowl Games?: “I’ve seen great games, heart-breaking losses and players mostly having a great experience.”

We Think We Know What He Means, But Still: “… so we took off to see the oldest continuous city in the United States, St. Augustine … .” Continuous city?

Please God, Make This Happen: “Yet, if I were to write my memoirs, … .” We here at Razorback Expats are now commencing nightly prayer sessions in an attempt to make a Wally Hall autobiography a reality. That book would just be too much fun. We might even sacrifice a chicken or two to further curry favor with the publishing gods.

It’s Moments Like This That Make You Wonder If It’s All Worthwhile: We don’t know if we’ve ever felt more compassion for a human being than we do for the limo driver that Wally says drove him and his buddies around town a few days before the 1981 Gator Bowl.

Picture this man’s plight: He’s driving what we have to assume is an intoxicated Wally and his friends, who are pelting his eardrums with performance after performance of “I Hear Little Rock Calling.” That’s bad enough, but it gets worse. Wally and crew treat the poor fella as if he’s a fraternity pledge, repeatedly telling him that they are staying at a certain hotel, only to inform him that they are staying at a different hotel when he delivers them to the requested spot.

Such a hellacious evening - we still can’t get over how truly horrifying that sounds - must have made the driver wonder if life was indeed worth living. We would certainly understand if his answer at that point was “no.”

Analysis: A classic Wally travelogue piece. The only thing missing is a description of any and all visits to local Mexican restaurants.