Wanted: Role Players in the Body of Christ

Joe Kleine was one of the best basketball players in Arkansas Razorback history. An All-Conference Selection in 1984 and 1985, and Kleine also played on the 1984 Gold Medal U.S. Olympic team. In a game against the 2nd-ranked Houston Cougars in 1984, Kleine led the Razorbacks to victory, snapping Houston’s 31-game conference winning streak and outscoring future Hall of Famer Hakeem Olajawon 22-10. During his career at Arkansas, Kleine averaged 18 points per game—more than Michael Jordan averaged during his career at the University of North Carolina. 

But, after completing his collegiate career and joining the NBA in 1985, Kleine went from being a stand out all-star to an average, back-up, role player. In the late 80s and early 90s, Kleine played for the Boston Celtics. While he was there, he was overshadowed by a number of very famous and very good players—Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Reggie Lewis, and Robert Parrish. Parrish in particular overshadowed Kleine, because Parrish played the exact position that Kleine did—center. Robert Parrish is considered by basketball experts to be one of the greatest centers who has ever played the game, so Joe Kleine got to be Parrish’s backup. 

It's not easy being a backup, a second teamer. Backups are called things like “substitutes” and “bench-warmers” and “role players”. Backups don’t get to play on the Dream Team; they don’t get to play in All-Star games. Their basketball cards aren’t worth very much, and they don’t get to make many commercials. It would seem that being a backup isn’t a very important job.

Nothing could be further from the truth, however. Consider the following description of Joe Kleine from an article by a Celtic sportswriter a few years back: 

“He is what he is. And he knows exactly what that is—the backup center on an NBA team. Every NBA team would love to have Kleine be what he is, which, in addition to being a competent NBA center, includes being a first-rate person.” 

The article goes on to quote one of Kleine’s former coaches: 

“When we had him here, Joe was our lug. Now, he’s your lug. But you know what? He’s a good lug, I wish we still had him.”

Why is Joe Kleine, a second-string backup center, the kind of player that every coach wants on his team? Why is he the kind of player that coaches don’t want to give up? Because he is willing to accept the role he is given, and give his best performing that role, even if it is not exciting or glamorous. 

Paul talked about role players in 1 Corinthians 12.14-18: 

“Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason cease to be a part of the body. And if the ear should say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason cease to be a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact, God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as He wanted them to be.” 

We don’t each fill the same role, but Paul goes on to tell us that we each have a role to fill. Moreover, he tells us that God bestows an extra measure of honor upon those who fill roles that seem unglamorous: 

“The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don't need you!’ And the head cannot say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you!’ On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think of as less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.”

Just as role players are an integral part of any NBA team, they are also indispensable within the church. Unfortunately, this is often a difficult lesson for Christians to learn. Even some of Jesus’ apostles struggled with this concept—in Mark 10, James and John asked to sit at the right and left hand of Jesus so that they could receive special recognition. This request was made because they did not understand the role that God had given them. In Mark 10.43-45, Jesus explained to them that “whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”

Are you willing to be a role player in the Body of Christ? Because that’s the kind of player that God is looking for on His team.

Reflections on Graduation, Youth Ministry, and Hoop Dreams

Hoop Dreams is a documentary film from the 1990s that tells the story of two kids from the projects in Chicago who play basketball and hope to use their talents to make it to the NBA and ultimately, change their lives. It is a brilliant and poignant film, and touches on a lot of heavy issues like race, poverty, and drugs, but it also has a bearing on this particular idea.

Near the end of the film, William Gates, one of the two main characters of the film, goes in to talk to his high school basketball coach, Gene Pingatore, at the end of his senior year. Pingatore coached for St. Joseph’s, a private Catholic high school with an expensive tuition, but because William was a basketball phenom as a freshman, he was able to receive a scholarship. William had a good career, but a devastating knee injury prevented him from being the player that everyone expected him to be.

The particular clip I’m talking about starts at the 30.51 mark in the video below, and runs until about 33.05:

As Gates walks out of the coach’s life, Pingatore chuckles and remarks, “Well, another one walks out the door and another one comes in the door. That’s what it’s all about.”

It comes across rather callously: it’s as if the last four years meant nothing to the coach; Gates was just a player on a team, a piece he manipulated for a few years, and now it’s time to use the next piece.*

•   •   •

Last night I went to Farmington High School Graduation to watch five seniors from our church walk across the stage to receive their diplomas.

As a youth minister, I’ve now been with the church here long enough that I have worked with some of our teens for several years—all the way from sixth grade through their senior years. All that time invested into students can stir up a lot of bittersweet feelings—I am proud to see how they have developed and matured and what they have accomplished, and am excited for what they will go on to do. At the same time, I am concerned about the trials and temptations they will face, the decisions they will make, and ultimately, whether or not they will remain faithful. I can’t help but wonder about things that I could have done differently that perhaps would have impacted their spiritual growth in a better way, and I wonder if I could have taught or exemplified a particular point of Christian discipleship more effectively.

Graduation is also a bittersweet time because I know that my relationships with my students (in a sense, I guess they’re not mine anymore) always change when they go off to college. Sometimes we get closer (which is a joy), a lot of times we drift apart somewhat as we don’t spend as much time together, but always there is a change, and I’m not a big fan of change.

To sympathize a bit with Coach Pingatore from the clip above, there are the realities of youth ministry (and coaching)—as kids graduate and move on, other kids do come into the group, and you have to devote efforts and attention to them as well. If spend all of your time focusing on the students who have already left, then you neglect the ones who are still around. But at the same time, I can’t just chuckle about it and laugh it off the way he does. New students come in, but they don’t replace the ones who have left as if they are interchangeable pieces.

As the summer ends and my graduating teens ultimately move on, I watch them from a distance, cheering on their accomplishments and praying for God’s guidance in their lives. But to me, they’re still my kids: I’ve poured too much of myself into them for them to be anything else.

•   •   •

*For the record, Pingatore did not like the way he was portrayed in the film and ended up suing the directors. He might actually be a great guy who invests a ton in his players; it didn’t come across that way in the film.

Chuck Klosterman on Kentucky Basketball

Chuck Klosterman has written an intriguing article on Grantland.com about John Calipari’s Kentucky Wildcat basketball team, and what it will (or at least could) mean to NCAA basketball if UK wins the National Championship on Monday.

It’s a compelling article and touches on a lot of issues facing college basketball today—overall decline in the quality of play, recruiting, and the NCAA’s stupid One and Done rule. I agree with a lot of what Klosterman has to say, but I think he’s too easy on John Calipari. Coach Cal might genuinely be a nice guy, but his past teams have been too marred by scandal (and their accomplishments vacated) for me to believe that he is clean. 

He’s right about one thing though—Kentucky should absolutely win the title this year. They are scary good.

MJ v. LBJ

Scottie Pippen gave fresh legs to the Michael Jordan vs. LeBron James debate when he suggested that James may be the “greatest player ever.”

LeBron is an incredible player, and is perhaps the most versatile player of all time. Most impressive of all has been the defensive improvement he has made this season, to the point where he can now shut down players like Derrick Rose and then turn around and guard power forwards.

Having said that, it’s hard to believe that anyone who’s actually watched Jordan play could think that James is the better player (which raises questions about Pippen’s motivations). A couple of random observations:

(1) For much of the time, it’s not even clear that LeBron is the best player on his team, let alone the greatest player in history. Frequently (maybe even most of the time), Dwyane Wade, not Lebron, seems to be the leader of the Heat. On the other hand, there was never any doubt that Jordan was the unquestioned leader of his team.

(2) Can you imagine Jordan letting his team collapse in the 4th quarter of an NBA finals game like the Heat did last night, and responding only by futilely firing up contested 3-pointers as the shot clock ran down?

(3) Finally, and this has been said a lot, but Jordan stayed in Chicago, let pieces accumulate around him, and built a dynasty. James couldn’t do that. Instead, he had to go out and team up with two other superstars because—it would seem—he didn’t think he was good enough to build a team around himself and win a championship that way.

I’m really not trying to take anything away from LeBron—I think he’s a special player, and already one of the best in history. But to paraphrase the words of Magic Johnson, there’s MJ, and then there’s everybody else.

A Defense Of Rotnei Clarke

I used to write more often about Razorback sports; I’m not entirely sure why I quit doing that, maybe because I thought most of my half dozen readers didn’t care. Nevertheless, ultimately I write about things that interest me, regardless of whether or not others care. Anyway, I wrote this the other day on a message board, so I thought I might as well re-post it.

I can't believe this is even necessary, but after reading some recent posts on a message board, I think it is. Certain Arkansas Razorback fans never cease to amaze me (and not in a good way).

Despite the fact that Rotnei Clarke has been the best and most consistent player on the Razorback basketball team this year, some people seem intent on criticizing him. Let’s tackle some of the ridiculous things people say about Rot one by one, shall we?

(1) Rotnei Clarke is not an SEC caliber player.

Admittedly, this is not the criticism that you see most often, but people have said it more than once. But let's be clear, it’s absolutely ridiculous.

I guarantee that there are 11 head coaches in the SEC besides John Pelphrey who think that Rotnei is good enough for this league and would love to have him on their team. That doesn’t mean that he would be their go-to guy or necessarily even start, but any team in the league would love to have him and would give him lots of minutes.

You can hear the ways that guys like Jimmy Dykes and Mark Gottfried (guys who know SEC talent when they see it) talk about him when they cover games. He’s not the greatest player in the world and he has limitations, but he absolutely is good enough to play in the SEC.

(2) Rotnei Clarke is overrated.

You hear this a lot more often, although it’s related to the first. But here’s the basic flaw: in order to be overrated, you pretty much either have to be rated very highly, or you have to be terrible. The problem is, Rotnei is neither of these things. He’s certainly not terrible, but at the same time, even if you look at people who support Clarke, no one is claiming that he’s a remarkable player!

I haven’t seen anyone make the claim that Rotnei is a sure lottery pick or that he’s an All-American. I really haven’t seen anyone say that he’s the type of player you build your team around. What people tend to say is that Clarke is a player of limited athletic ability who is a good shooter and who isn’t utilized very well by our current coach.

But none of that makes him overrated, because no one is claiming that he’s the next Michael Jordan (or even J.J. Redick!).

(3) Rotnei Clarke is one-dimensional.

The knock here is that, supposedly, all Rotnei can do is shoot, and even that he can’t do if you stick and even decent defender on him.

The thing is, if you’ve really watched Rot play, you know that, while not exactly LeBron James, he actually possesses a solid all-around skill set. Not only is he the best shooter on the team, he’s also the best passer, and unfortunately, he’s one of our better rebounders despite being 6’0” (if that).

Also, we tend to forget this, but coming out of high school, Rotnei was not primarily touted as a shooter; he was hailed as a great scorer. And you can see that when he’s on his game—Clarke is capable of putting the ball on the floor and scoring in a variety of ways. The problem is that Pelphrey’s offense the past 3 seasons has relegated him into being a guy than runs literally miles each game trying to get open for 3s. Rotnei is a great three point shooter, one of the best in Arkansas history, but he’s at his most effective when he’s not just a three point shooter.

Sometimes, posters on here will compare Rotnei to Pat Bradley or Lee Humphrey in an effort to describe his skill set (and usually do so to pay Clarke a compliment). No offense to Bradley or Humphrey, who were very good players, but if you’ve actually watched all three play, you know that Clarke is a significantly better all-around player. You think for a second that if Rot got to play four years next to Kareem Reid, the UA’s all-time leader in assists, or had Humphrey’s luxury of being the fifth option on his team that he wouldn’t get more quality looks or shoot for a higher percentage?

Instead, consider Rotnei’s circumstances. Last year, once Courtney Fortson returned from suspsension, Clarke was surrounded by 3 fairly legitimate scoring threats: Fortson, Marshawn Powell and Mike Washington (in that order). Now Fortson and Washington are gone and Powell 2.0 has, for whatever reason, been a pale imitation of his former self. You don’t think Rotnei’s job is harder this year?

Despite that, Rotnei is our leading scorer and is shooting a career best 44% from behind the arc.

(4) Rotnei Clarke is a terrible defensive player.

This is may be the most popular criticism, but it still isn’t quite valid.

Let’s be clear: Rotnei is small and not particularly quick, and he is never going to be a great defender. But if you actually watch him closely, you see that he is a fundamentally sound defender. If he gets the task of guarding a bigger or quicker player he’s going to struggle, but if you give him someone of even remotely comparable athleticism, Clarke does a fine job because he has quick hands, plays hard, and blocks out.

Summary

The knocks that you constantly hear about Rotnei are all pretty much bogus and I, for one, am tired of reading the same tired nonsense over and over.

Furthermore, before knocking Rotnei, stop to think about this: in what is arguably the lowest and worst three year period in Hogs Hoops history, Rotnei has been a consistent bright spot. Despite the fact that his talents seem to be largely mismanaged by the coaching staff, he still puts up numbers and is the one player that opposing teams consistently have to game plan for.

What about his attitude? Marshawn Powell, who everyone loved last year, has caught a lot of flack this year for seeming to play with a lack of fire at times. Most don’t think that Powell is a bad guy, but that problems with Pelphrey have worn down his attitude.

What about Rotnei? Amidst constant season-ending rumors that he’s considering a transfer and a questionable suspension at the beginning of this season, it seems safe to say that Rotnei hasn’t always been incredibly happy here. Has any of that ever affected his attitude in any visible way? Have you ever seen Rotnei not give his best on the court?

If you’re fair at all, you really have to look hard at Rotnei Clarke to find something to complain about. Sure he messes up and deserves some blame sometimes (like at the end of the Alabama game when he forced some shots), but on the whole, it’s stupid to point fingers at him.

Over the last three years, there's been an awful lot that was wrong with our basketball team/program; Rotnei Clarke has been the one consistent thing that has been right.
I posted this on Tuesday; somewhat satisfyingly, Rotnei scored 26 points Wednesday night to lead the Razorbacks to victory against Kentucky for the first time in 10 seasons.

Scattered Thoughts on the Winter Olympics

I am pretty much an Olympics junkie. I definitely prefer the Summer Olympics to the Winter Games, but I have still tried to watch as much as possible over the last several days despite being pretty busy with other things.

A few scattered observations:

While there are some sports that I don’t care much about, and others that I don’t even think are remotely sport-like (I’m looking at you Ice Dancing), there are a few Winter Olympic events that I really enjoy:

• Curling is an easy sport to make fun of (“Ooh, the way he swept that ice was so impressive”), and if you randomly decided to take up a sport so that you could go to the Olympics, I think it might be your best bet, but I really like watching it. I think there is a good deal of strategy involved, and I’m probably somewhat impressed with it because it combines elements of three other sports/games that I like but am not good at: pool, horseshoes, and shuffleboard.

• I think short track speed skating is maybe the most intense event to watch because at any time any of the competitors can fall without even making a mistake (if someone else collides with them). I certainly don’t understand all of the rules (I still don’t know why J.R. Celski was disqualified the other night instead of the Canadian guy who was trying to spoon him), but I think it’s a lot of fun to watch and the drama of Apolo Ohno vs. the South Koreans just adds to the excitement.

• I really enjoy all of the snowboarding events as well. I’ve never been snowboarding before, but I know it’s not easy, and the way the athletes are able to maneuver around turns and over jumps or, alternatively, perform tricks in the halfpipe blows me away.

• • •

Speaking of snowboarding, Shaun White seems to dominate his sport about as much as Usain Bolt dominates his—basically, if either of these guys perform anywhere near their best, no one else seems to have much of a chance.

White already had the gold medal locked up in the halfpipe by a wide margin when he decided to try out a new trick—a “Double McTwist 1260”—in his final run. He landed it successfully (the first time it had ever been done in competition), scored a 48.4 (out of 50), and took home his second consecutive gold medal in the event.

In addition to his innovative tricks, the thing that sets White apart is how high he gets on his jumps. At one point NBC overlapped footage of White with another top rider to show how much higher Shaun gets and it wasn’t even close.

• • •

I know that the only ice involved in basketball is what comes in the cups at the concession stands, but it is technically a winter sport (at least in the U.S., but we invented it so we should know), and I think it would be a great addition for the Winter Games.

In the Summer Olympics, despite showcasing some of the greatest and most famous athletes in the world, basketball is pretty much an afterthought and takes a backseat to the other events like Track and Field and Swimming. If you moved it to the Winter Olympics, though, it would be huge, and would immediately become one of the premiere events.

I realize doing this would interrupt the NBA schedule, but it works with the NHL, so it seems like it could work with basketball too. Besides, who cares about the NBA until after March Madness is over anyway?

• • •

Was anyone else really happy when the U.S. beat Canada in hockey?

Canadians care about hockey more than any other sport, and within the context of hockey, care more about beating the United States than any other team. Americans, on the other hand, rarely think about hockey, and most of us didn’t even realize that the entire 2004-2005 NHL season was canceled because of labor disputes (no really, it was).

And still, we won.

I know I probably shouldn’t have experienced so much smugness from the victory, but I really couldn’t help myself.

Hansbrough Goes Out In Fitting Fashion

Last night’s NCAA National Championship game was somewhat of a disappointment, but in the end I was glad to see Tyler Hansbrough wrap up his college career with a national title.

Don’t get me wrong. With as much national media coverage as “Psycho T” has gotten over the last four years, it seems like he’s been at North Carolina since the late 90s, and I’m as ready for him to move on as everyone else.

However, it has lately become the trendy thing to do to talk about how overrated Hansbrough is as a player, and I think that’s largely unfair.

Certainly, he’s not the ideal NBA prospect. He’s not big enough to really play the 4 or 5 position in the NBA, and he doesn’t have the outside game or athleticism to play the 3. In fact, many NBA scouts have suggested that if it wasn’t for the fact that Hansbrough always plays harder than anyone else on the court, he wouldn’t really be an NBA prospect at all.

But none of that has anything to do with his abilities as a college player, and as a college player, he is absolutely in no way overrated. In fact, he’s probably one of the top 5-10 college players of all time, and belongs in the same category as guys like Oscar Robertson, Lew Alcindor, Bill Walton and Christian Laettner.

It was annoying to always see him on SportsCenter and to hear Dick Vitale talking about him all the time. It was annoying to see him try to take 12 charges every game, and to watch him shoot the most awkward shots imaginable and have them go in time and time again. But, as a 4-time All-American and the ACC’s all-time scoring leader, he deserved all the attention he got.

Hansbrough may never find success in the NBA, and he’ll almost certainly not find anywhere near the level of success he found in college, but when considering him as a North Carolina Tarheel, it really doesn’t matter.

He was one of the all-time college greats, and going out with a National Championship was the appropriate ending for him.

Odds And Ends

A few bits and pieces I wanted to mention without dedicating a post to each of them:

• Although ESPN isn’t announcing it yet, it looks like Memphis head basketball coach John Calipari will be heading to Kentucky. I don’t like Calipari at all, but he’s an incredible recruiter, and depending on how many of his Memphis recruits followed him to Kentucky, the Wildcats could become an overnight National Championship contender. After a down year, this is a step in the right direction for the SEC.
• I was glad to see that Chipper Jones signed a contract extension with the Braves that will last through 2012, which basically means that he’ll spend his entire career as a Brave. Injury problems are always an issue with Chipper, but as he showed last year, he’s still one of the best hitters in the game when healthy.
• We finished our taxes last night, and let’s just say that it didn’t go as well as last year. That “…Render unto Caesar…” verse isn’t looking too appealing at the moment.
  

The Presidential Bracket

ESPN has been buzzing the last couple of days about President Obama filling out an NCAA Tournament bracket, and have been showing his picks on a segment of Sportscenter.

Leader of the Free World or not, I don’t think President Obama’s bracket is a very good one (after all, his Final 4 is identical to mine!). Nevertheless, I think it’s neat that the same March Madness that appeals to so many people apparently interests our Commander-in-Chief as well, and I think it was a good PR move for him to release his bracket publicly.

Some people are complaining about Obama taking time out from dealing with the serious issues facing our country to do something as unimportant as fill out a basketball bracket, but I think that’s a little ridiculous, considering that it probably only took him about 10 minutes.

Of course, if President Obama spends as much time watching this year’s tournament as I am planning to, then we might have something to talk about.

You can see all of his picks here.

NCAA Basketball Ranting

I haven’t spent much time talking about college basketball this year, mainly because the Arkansas Razorbacks have been doing a lot of campaigning for the title of Worst Team Ever.

Nevertheless, it is time for March Madness, which, as a sports fan, is my favorite time of the year.

But I was irked yesterday when the NCAA tournament field was revealed with only three SEC teams, and none of them seeded higher than 8th.

The SEC has had a down year, and it has no truly elite teams, but three teams, all seeded between 8 and 13? That’s ridiculous.

Kobe: Just How Good Is He?

People have been comparing Kobe Bryant to Michael Jordan ever since he first appeared in the NBA, but it’s only been fairly recently that I’ve started to hear people actually suggest that Bryant is the better player.

This is shocking to me. I know that Kobe is great, and one of a handful of players all time who can legitimately be compared to MJ, but really, I don’t think it’s even very close. Then I saw a statistical comparison of the two players, and as it turns out, Kobe is better—at least, at free throw shooting.

Jordan dominates pretty much every other category.

Don’t get me wrong, Kobe Bryant is a stud. He’s one of the best players of all time and unless and until LeBron James learns how to play defense, he’ll be the best player in the league.

But until he wins several championships without having a Hall of Fame center to shoulder the load, let’s give this debate a rest, okay?

Bits And Pieces: 5.1.08

A few things on my mind on this windy Thursday morning:

• I don’t like complaining about gas prices, but I noticed on the way to work this morning that it’s now $3.55 for a gallon of regular unleaded. If this continues, I might have to take drastic measures—like learning how to drive my wife’s manually-transmissioned, more fuel-efficient car.
• So the Shaq experiment didn’t seem to work out so well with the Suns losing in the first round of the NBA Playoffs to the very team they hoped to beat with Shaq’s help, and reports suggest that Phoenix Head Coach Mike D’Antoni is on his way out. I don’t know how much I like D’Antoni, but it doesn’t seem fair for him to have to take responsibility for a busted trade that the GM and owner also signed off on.
  
• After losing 3-2 to the Nationals last night in the 12th inning, the Braves are now 0-9 in 1-run games. I’m not trying to be an alarmist or anything, but that doesn’t really seem to bode well for the team. If John Smoltz actually returns to the bullpen though, maybe that will change…
  

A Formidable Final Four

With Kansas squeaking by Davidson 59-57 Sunday afternoon, all four top seeds are in the Final Four for the first time in NCAA history.

It’s a fitting year for this historic development though, because these four teams—Kansas, Memphis, North Carolina and UCLA—have dominated college basketball all season long.

So far, they have combined for a record of 143-9, and have owned the polls as much as they have owned their opponents.

In my admittedly woeful bracket, I have Kansas and UCLA meeting in the National Championship game with the Jayhawks coming out on top, but right now, that doesn’t look too promising.

As good as Kansas and UCLA are, neither seem to be playing their best right now, with Kansas struggling against a 10-seed and UCLA having several close calls dating back to the close of the regular season. On the other hand, North Carolina and Memphis have been demolishing good teams.

I still think Kansas has the best starting five in the country, and that if they can pull it together they can beat UNC or anyone else, but one thing’s for sure: it should be a fun Final Four.

Saying So Long To Six Seniors

Due to some technical problems with my blog and a general level of busy-ness on my part, it has been a while since I’ve posted anything. I will try to make up for that this week.

On Sunday, while I was riding a bus on the way home from Nashville, the North Carolina Tar Heels were mercilessly ending the season of my beloved Arkansas Razorbacks.

It didn’t really come as a surprise that Arkansas lost to the overall number one seed of the NCAA Tournament, but at the same time, I wasn’t expecting a 31-point blowout either.

In addition to ending the Hogs’ season, the second-round loss also signified the end of the collegiate careers for six Arkansas players—Gary Ervin, Steven Hill, Vincent Hunter, Charles Thomas, Darian Townes and Sonny Weems.

On the whole, this group of seniors was rarely embraced by the Razorback faithful and were more often written off as overrated, inconsistent and soft. In reality, the 2008 Senior Class was a group of individually talented but flawed players who from time to time combined to create a formidable whole.

Vincent Hunter, a fifth-year senior, arrived on campus in 2003 built like a toothpick. His physique never changed, which likely contributed to his injury-plagued career, and as he found himself surrounded by more talented big men, his minutes declined each year. Nevertheless, the elder statesman of the 2008 senior class did come in to spell the other big men this season, and could occasionally be counted on the block a shot, hit a three, or knock down a couple of free throws (which is saying a lot when your team is ranked 200 and something nationally in free throw percentage).

Hill, Thomas and Townes all came in together as freshmen in the 2004-2005 season, and if you could combine them into one player, you’d probably wind up with the best center in the country.

Darian Townes was, at times, an offensive machine inside. He only possessed about two offensive moves, but on a good day, that was enough to make him unstoppable from about six feet in and put constant pressure on the other team’s interior defense. Unfortunately, Townes was generally a defensive liability and sometimes seemed to play without effort. After a promising freshman season, Townes spent his sophomore and junior seasons losing playing time and gradually turning the Arkansas fans against him before he turned things around his senior season and possibly played his way into an NBA career.

On the other side of the coin from Townes was Steven Hill. At 7’1”, Hill was one of the best shot blockers in SEC history, and the only Arkansas player I can ever remember who could single-handedly change the entire complexion of a game with his defense. On offense, Hill would occasionally find himself on the receiving end of a spectacular alley-oop and usually shot the ball with nice touch, but for the most part, was pretty clueless and helpless. In his senior season, Hill was frequently substituted for Townes on an Offense-for-Defense basis, to great effect.

Charles Thomas was the aggressive, rebounding, charge-taking player of the three. Thomas seemed to possess no consistent offensive moves, but managed to get a lot of garbage baskets through his hustle and also converted at a high percentage from the line. After a very solid junior season, Thomas seemed poised for an All-SEC type senior campaign, but he came out of the gates slowly in 2007 and following a one-game suspension for violating team rules at the end of January, was basically a no-show for the next nine games, a stretch in which the Hogs went 4-5. Fortunately, Thomas pulled it together when it counted, and had the best game of his career, a 24-point, 10-rebound double-double, in Arkansas’ SEC Tournament upset of fourth-ranked Tennessee.

Gary Ervin and Sonny Weems started their Razorback careers late. Ervin played two seasons at Mississippi State before transferring to Arkansas after the 2004-2005 season, and Weems joined the team the same year as a JUCO transfer.

Ervin was one of the most maligned players in Arkansas history. As an overall slightly above average player, Ervin was vilified for his limitations rather than being praised for being an overall upgrade from Arkansas’ last point guard, Eric Ferguson. Ervin dribbled too high, over-penetrated, and from time to time made incredibly careless mistakes, but he also threw amazing alley-oop passes, tore apart lackadaisical transition defense, and knocked down big shots. If the Hogs found themselves still in the game with the clock winding down, they always had a chance to win with the ball in Ervin’s hands.

Sonny Weems always had the skills—a smooth jumper with an unusually high release, long arms which disrupted passing lanes and led to steals, and the athleticism to jump out of the gym, but in his first season in the SEC, had trouble putting it all together. He would have big games and then disappear for long stretches. He would knock down big shots, and then make careless turnovers in crucial moments. But then, about eight games into his senior season, something clicked. Weems scored in double figures in the next 19 games, vaulting himself to the All-SEC First Team and helping the Razorbacks into a solid position at the end of the regular season. After struggling through the SEC Tournament, Weems showed up big in the NCAA Tournament, scoring a career high 31 against Indiana to help Arkansas secure its first tournament victory since 1999.

A lot was expected of these players, and maybe that was reasonable. Three of the six—Hill, Townes and Weems—will likely have a shot at the NBA, and Weems has the skill set to be a legitimate NBA player.

Judging by the Arkansas Razorback standards of the early to mid 1990s, when they advanced to three Final Fours and six Sweet Sixteens in seven years, the three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances and one total NCAA Tournament win of the 2008 class hardly seems noteworthy, but the truth is that the Razorback Basketball program hasn’t lived up to those standards for a long time.

If success is determined by leaving a program better than you found it, then these six seniors found it during their years in Fayetteville.

I’ll miss not seeing them suit up next season.

Bursted Bubbles

Consider the performances of the following bubble teams yesterday in their conference tournaments:

Oregon—lost
UMass—lost
Arizona St.—lost
Florida—lost
New Mexico—lost
Dayton—lost
Villanova—lost
Maryland—lost
Arizona—lost
Ole Miss—lost
Syracuse—lost (actually on Wednesday)

So many bubble teams are dropping that I’m sure some of them will still make the tournament by default, but seriously, does anyone even want to make the tournament this year? Because it sure doesn’t seem like it.

Phoenix To Run On Diesel Fuel?

So apparently, my favorite NBA team has traded for my least favorite NBA player.

This doesn’t make a lot of sense to me—the Suns are a fast-paced, athletic, run and gun team while Shaq is slow, plodding and injury-prone.

That being said, the Suns’ major weakness has always been interior defense, and if Shaq can dedicate himself to being primarily a defender who is the third or fourth option on offense, this just might work out.

As far as me not liking him, well, now that he’s older and broken down, I kinda feel sorry for him, and if he turns out to be a team player who helps bring the Suns a championship…

On Being A Fan

I love to watch sports of all kinds, and am a casual fan of many teams. I like cheering for the Phoenix Suns in the NBA, I like Gonzaga’s basketball team, and in the NFL, I’ll root for anyone who can beat the Patriots.

As a fan though, my true passion is split between two teams: the Atlanta Braves and the Arkansas Razorback basketball team (I cheer for the Razorback football team as well, but not on the same level as the basketball team).

In the early part of the 90s, these two teams served me well. Arkansas generally went deep in the NCAA tournament each spring, winning it in 1994, while the Braves were the dominant force in the Major Leagues, winning the World Series in 1995.

Things declined a little in the late 90s, as both teams continued to consistently qualify for post-season play, but began to be eliminated in earlier rounds.

Since 2000, the situation has continued to deteriorate to where now, I spend all season worrying and hoping that either team will just qualify for the post-season (the Razorbacks have done so the last two years, while the Braves haven’t).

This year though, with the Razorback basketball team, I thought I wouldn’t have to worry. Returning six seniors and the SEC Freshman of the year from a team that lost in the SEC Championship Game and qualified for the NCAA tournament last March, along with a new and, in theory, superior coach, I thought we were set. No longer would I spend the final minutes of each game in gut-wrenching agony as the Hogs win or lose at the very end.

Of course, the operative word in that last paragraph was thought.

So far, the Razorbacks this year have proven eerily similar to last season’s bunch. An early season loss to Providence and a shameful home loss to Appalachian State had fans such as myself reeling, when all of a sudden, the Razorbacks pulled out a surprising road victory against a good Baylor team, and then started SEC play at 2-0 for the first time in years by beating Auburn (on the road!) and Alabama. Things were starting to look good.

Then last night happened, when we lost to South Carolina, perennial SEC doormat, at home.

Looks like it’s going to be another one of those seasons.

Hmm, maybe the Braves will be good.

Appalachian State? Did you not watch the Michigan game?

I thought the Arkansas Razorback basketball was going to be good this year. Apparently, I was wrong.

That’s really all I can stand to say about that right now.

A Busy Few Days In The World Of Sports

I am supposed to be working on the second halves of other posts (and I am), but there have been several momentous developments in the world of sports, and I wanted to mention them briefly before they were all old news.

• Barry Bonds has been indicted on four counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice. Apparently, the Federal Government is not convinced that Bonds told the truth when he claimed that he had never knowingly taken steroids. Go figure. Bonds could face up to 30 years in prison if convicted on all counts (no matter what, he won’t serve nearly that much time), so he’s facing some pretty serious charges.
  
• News reports have confirmed that Houston Nutt will not be back next season as the head football coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks. No one knows for sure yet if he is being let go, is stepping down on his own or is off to ruin someone else’s football program, but whatever the specifics, the majority of Arkansans will now have one more thing to be thankful about on Thursday.
  
• The Razorback Basketball team lost its first game under new head coach John Pelphrey yesterday, suffering a 16-point defeat at the hands of Providence at an early season tournament in Puerto Rico. The alarming thing is that the Hogs have committed 58 turnovers over the course of the last two games, which, outside of Junior High games, has got to be about the highest total I have ever heard.
  
• It looks like A-Rod will be a Yankee next year (and several years after that) after all. Rodriguez swallowed his pride a little and went back to the negotiation table, this time without agent Scott Boras. Analysts have surmised that Boras’ reputation will take a hit from this episode, which might be supported by the fact that Kenny Rogers has already fired him.
• Oregon QB and Heisman hopeful Dennis Dixon saw his season end Thursday night in the first quarter of his team’s loss to Arizona when he went down with an ACL tear. Dixon is another in a long line of Heisman candidates who have had disappointing seasons due to injury, inconsistent play, or being on a bad team. The injury will help out the chances of Arkansas’ Darren McFadden, but after another mixed performance today (D-Mac had a 50+ yard TD reception and threw for a score as well but ended up with less than 100 yards on the ground), it will probably take a huge game against LSU to give him the Heisman hardware.

There are probably a couple of other developments that I missed. I don’t remember the last time so many big sports stories broke at the same time.

As If You Needed Another Reason To Dislike Memphis…

Former Razorback standout Corey Beck was shot there last week.

Beck and a friend made the mistake of being in Memphis, in a car, and paid for it when two men in masks and a shotgun approached and tried to rob them.

Beck was shot in the face and hands, but managed to drive to a nearby fire station from where he was taken to the hospital.

Originally listed in critical condition, he had been upgraded to fair condition by Wednesday.

Beck was the starting point guard for Arkansas team who won the National Championship in 1994 and finished second in 1995.

He was probably only the third or fourth best player on the team, but that says more about how deep that team was than anything else.

Here’s hoping that Corey has a speedy and full recovery.