Arkansas coach John Pelphrey recently talked to ESPN’s Andy Katz about the off-the-court situations going on with his team. You can read the story here. Katz wrote a small story about the conversation he had with Arkansas’ third-year coach and posted it on his ESPN blog.

Pelphrey told Katz that all the news going on with Arkansas’ basketball program is a “… very, very unfortunate situation” and that coaches within the program are doing a lot of “damage control.”

“There was a lot of damage control, communicating to a lot of people about the information,” Pelphrey said. “It’s been a very, very unfortunate situation. We’re trying to get to a number of spots (in recruiting) and we’re trying to communicate.”

Pelphrey also told Katz that since the legal process has been completed, coaches and other administrators will look into the situation about yesterday’s story and see if any university rules or team policies were broken.

Pelphrey was scheduled to participate in Thursday’s Pro-Am of the P&G Beauty NW Arkansas Championship, but withdrew at the last minute.

Stay tuned as we find out more information and reaction to everything going on with this story.

Arkansas’ Stephen Cox won the Men’s Stroke Play Championship of NWA at Stonebridge Meadows Golf Club on Sunday, shooting a two-day total of 2-under 146. In case you didn’t know, Cox played golf at Arkansas before deciding to instead play basketball two years ago.

After Cox’s round on Sunday, he had some interesting comments about his future with the Razorback basketball team and his last year of athletic eligibility.

“Right now, it’s basketball or golf, one of the two,” Cox said. “I’m kind of leaning more towards golf. If I have a future in anything, it’s going to be golf, for sure. I’m not going to make it to the NBA and I’m not going to go overseas to play (basketball).”

Cox, who has one year of eligibility left, said he recently graduated, despite having 10 hours left to complete his undergraduate degree. 

If Cox does leave Arkansas’ basketball team to instead play golf, it’ll be good timing for himself, considering how the Razorbacks finished runner-up in the NCAA National Championships in Toledo, Ohio, on Saturday against Texas A&M.

“The golf team did outstanding over the weekend, I was really proud of them,” Cox said. “To make it that far, to beat the teams they did, including Georgia in the semifinals, it was just incredible.”

Cox, who is from Jonesboro, redshirted on the golf team during his freshman year under former golf coach Mike Ketcham before playing “in about five or six tournaments” the following year. During his sophomore and junior seasons, Cox played basketball under Arkansas coach John Pelphrey.

This season, Cox played in only 18 games, averaging 2.2 minutes per game. He finished with seven rebounds and scored only one point — a free throw against Texas Southern on Dec. 3.

In this edition of HogTalk, Nathan Allen, Ryan Malashock, Vernon Tarver and Alex Abrams talk about Arkansas’ loss to Vanderbilt on Sunday and its chances in this week’s SEC Tournament in Tampa, Fla. The guys also talk about the Diamond Hogs’ big weekend series against California and Alex gives us a rundown on the National Indoor Track Championships, which will be this weekend in College Station, Texas.

Check out an audio preview of tonight’s contest by listening below with Morning News sports writers Nathan Allen and Ryan Malashock

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OK, so there’s a basketball game today in Bud Walton Arena, as Arkansas squares off Georgia in a matchup of last place teams in the SEC. But really, the main event will take place before the game and at halftime, as Arkansas’ 1994 national championship team is finally honored.

Should be a memorable day in Fayetteville, as Nolan Richardson and his assistants and players receive official recognition from the university. They’ll all sign autographs beforehand from noon to 2 p.m. and they’ll participate in a halftime ceremony.

All but two players made it back, and former assistant Mike Anderson (now Missouri’s coach) will be the only coach missing. As for the game, well, John Pelphrey’s Razorbacks have only pride left to play for; that, and they won’t want to disappoint Arkansas’ former stars.

Georgia (11-17, 2-11) at Arkansas (13-13, 1-12)
When: 3:05 p.m.
Where: Bud Walton Arena, Fayetteville
TV: KHOG (Cox channel 7, Cox HD channel 707)
Radio: 107.9-FM, 92.1-FM, 105.3-FM, 97.9-FM, 1290-AM in our readership area
Line: Arkansas by 9
Series: Arkansas leads 14-10 (Georgia has won past three meetings)
Last Meeting: Georgia beat Arkansas 66-57 on March 16 in the SEC Tournament championship game in Atlanta

About Georgia

The Bulldogs might be the worst team in the Eastern Division, and they have lost their coach, Dennis Felton, to a midseason firing. But they won’t be intimidated by Arkansas in any way. Georgia lost 11 straight games at one point this season.

But under interim coach Pete Herrmann, the Bulldogs have won two of their past four contests, upsetting Florida and Vanderbilt at home. Oh, and Georgia has beaten Arkansas three straight times, including in last season’s SEC Tournament title game.

Players To Watch

Arkansas
Stefan Welsh, 6-3, 185-pound junior guard

The Razorbacks’ junior leader has struggled recently with his scoring. He continued his shooting slump Wednesday at Alabama by missing 7 of his 8 shots, including all five of his 3-point attempts. Welsh hasn’t nailed a 3 in his past four games.

Georgia
Dustin Ware, 5-111, 182-pound freshman point guard

Ware has benefitted more than any Bulldog since the coaching chance. Herrmann likes playing with him at the point, and Ware has produced as of late. Ware has 44 points and 19 assists over his last four contests.

Gameday Links
• We have plenty of coverage on today’s celebration in the Morning News, provided by Robbie Neiswanger, Alex Abrams and myself. First off, here’s a ‘Where Are They Now?’ on all of the players, coaches, trainers and managers involved. Robbie wrote our main story on this weekend’s celebration. I looked into the famous game-winning shot by Scotty Thurman in the ‘94 title game. Alex had stories on Razorback fan Bill Clinton and Saturday morning’s basketball clinic put on by the ‘94 coaches and players. Also, Hawgs Illustrated’s Dudley Dawson was at Saturday night’s banquet.

• Chip Towers of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution blogged on the fact that these are the two teams that met in last year’s SEC Tournament final.

LSU 72, Arkansas 69 (FINAL)

Obviously, the one thing that has hurt the Razorbacks the most this season (finishing games) hurt them again tonight. Arkansas showed spurts of playing well throughout the game, but other times, had a few lapses where nothing went right. Either way, the result is Arkansas’ 6th straight loss, which leaves it 1-10 in SEC play.

Here are some final individual stats for both teams …

LSU: Thornton (28 points, 6 rebounds, 7 steals); Mitchell (20 points, 13 rebounds); Johnson (12 points, 12 rebounds, 6 blocks).

Arkansas: Washington (10 points, 8 rebounds); Sanchez (5 points, 4 rebounds); Fortson (17 points, 7 rebounds, 5 turnovers); Clarke (17 points, 2 steals, 4 3-pointers); Henry (10 points, 4 rebounds).

Here are some final team stats for both teams …

LSU: 15 turnovers, 15 assists, 9 blocks, 28-64 FG; 4-16 3-pointers; 12-24 FT; 41 rebounds.

Arkansas: 16 turnovers; 7 assists; 3 blocks; 25-60 FG; 6-18 3-pointers; 13-19 FT; 34 rebounds.

Attendance: 16,079

Be sure to check out all of our coverage of the game in Thursday’s edition of The Morning News or online at www.nwaonline.net

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Arkansas 68, LSU 64 (3:37)

At this point, Arkansas is doing everything it can to hold on to its lead. LSU has made a couple of big 3-pointers within the last 3 minutes, which has helped it stay in the game.

One of those 3-pointers came from Marcus Thornton, who is continuing to have a huge game. Just after Arkansas had a big offensive possession a few moments ago, which got the Arkansas fans on their feet and yelling at the top of their lungs, Thornton drained a trey from the right side to silence the crowd.

We’ll see if Arkansas can hold on to its lead in the last 3 minutes of the game …

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Arkansas 61, LSU 52 (7:36)

We’re getting down to the end of the game and Arkansas has still managed to hold on to a lead, which is pretty significant considering this is a team that has not been able to finish games very well this season.

Right now, nobody is in serious foul trouble for either team. Washington leads the Razorbacks with 3 fouls; he also has 9 points and 4 rebounds.

LSU’s Marcus Thornton has continued to have a huge game. He’s scored 19 points while Tasmin Mitchell has 16 points. Leading in rebounds for the Tigers are Mitchell (10) and Chris Johnson (11).

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Arkansas 49, LSU 45 (11:46)

Well, it seems that Arkansas has found a little momentum all of the sudden. The Hogs went from being down by a point to now leading by four. Again, Rotnei Clarke is having a big game, not only offensively, but he’s playing pretty good defense. A few moments ago, he got a steal and took it the other way to score a fastbreak layup, giving Arkansas its current lead.

Clarke leads all scorers with 14 points while Jason Henry and Courtney Fortson both have 8.

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LSU 37, Arkansas 36 (15:57)

Well, things have turned for the worse in the second half. Arkansas, which led by as much as 18 points in the first half, now trails by 1. LSU has basically found its game, dominating the inside of the lane and being more consistent from the floor.

Arkansas coach John Pelphrey also picked up his first technical foul since Arkansas played North Texas on Jan. 3. It was also his fifth technical foul of the season. He argued to one of the referees that Michael Sanchez got fouled when he was going up for a layup on the left side of the goal — obviously, the refs disagreed.

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Arkansas 32, LSU 26 (Halftime)

Well, we all knew LSU would make some kind of rally, and that’s exactly what its done just before halftime. The Tigers ended the first half on a 16-4 run to cut Arkansas’ lead to only six points.

Ok, here are a few leading scorers for both teams:

LSU: Mitchell (10 points, 6 rebs); Johnson (6 points, 7 rebs); Thornton (8 points, 2 rebs, 4 turnovers).

Arkansas: Washington (2 points, 3 rebs); Fortson (6 rebs, 2 assists, 5 turnovers); Welsh (3 points, 2 rebs); Clarke (12 points, 1 reb).

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Arkansas 28, LSU 15 (3:51)

The Razorbacks still have a big lead, but LSU is slowly creeping back into the ballgame. LSU senior guard Marcus Thornton hit a fastbreak 3-pointer in the face of Rotnei Clarke to pull the Tigers within 13 points.

Still, Arkansas has managed to play well enough to maintain a double-digit lead. Its getting great production from players underneath the basket, as the Hogs are outrebounding LSU 22-17.

Arkansas is also 4 of 8 from the 3-point line, which is another big reason why it has such a big lead. We’ll see, however, if it can keep that up.

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Arkansas 26, LSU 9 (7:30)

Rotnei Clarke is going off and Arkansas fans are going crazy.

The Razorbacks just had a couple of huge possessions where Rotnei Clarke hit a 3-pointer from the left corner and then got a quick turnover, where he scored a layup and got fouled. Overall, Clarke scored 6 points in 14 seconds, giving the Razorbacks a huge lead.

A few moments after that, Clarke hit another 3-pointer from the top of the key, giving the Razorbacks their current lead of 17 points. Right now, Clarke has 12 points as he’s 3-of-3 from the perimeter.

Stefan Welsh just had a bit of scary moment when he suffered some kind of injury or cramp on his right foot. With 9:38 left in the half, Welsh ran to Arkansas’ bench after a made shot and fell on the ground, grabbing his right foot. After a few moments with team trainers, Welsh began walking around the sideline area before later returning to the game.

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Arkansas 13, LSU 7 (11:33)

The Razorbacks are still playing well, taking advantage of every offensive possession. In fact, Jason Henry is having a pretty good game with 6 points, 3 rebounds. Two of Henry’s rebounds were from put-backs. LSU isn’t shooting the ball well at all right now (3 of 12, 25 percent) and the Tigers have committed four turnovers.

Also, either Pelphrey is feeling a little better on the bench or he can’t help from being himself during games. He was pretty fiery a few moments ago when Michael Washington got called on a foul that Pelphrey argued was all ball on Washington’s part.

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Arkansas 7, LSU 1

The Razorbacks have definitely started the game in a big way. The Hogs went on a 7-0 run thanks to two layups from Michael Washington and Stefan Welsh and also a 3-pointer from Rotnei Clarke from the top of the perimeter.

So far, the game has been really sloppy, with a combined four turnovers for both teams, including three from Arkansas. Also, the crowd has filled in a little more and we’re saying there is probably a crowd closer to 14,000 in attendance.

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Tonight’s Starting Lineups

LSU (21-4, 9-1)

Tasmin Mitchell (6-7, 235, 16.8 ppg)

Marcus Thornton (6-4, 205, 20.0 ppg)

Terry Martin (6-6, 210, 5.1 ppg)

Garrett Temple (6-6, 190, 6.7 ppg)

Chris Johnson (6-11, 210, 8.2 ppg)

Arkansas (13-10, 1-9)

Michael Washington (6-9, 239, 16.4 ppg)

Courtney Fortson (5-11, 180, 14.6 ppg)

Stefan Welsh (6-3, 185, 12.7 ppg)

Rotnei Clarke (6-0, 184, 11.0 ppg)

Michael Sanchez (6-8, 236, 6.2 ppg)

By the way, there’s not much of a crowd here tonight. I guess Arkansas’ 5-game losing streak is affecting the attendance. I’m not good at guessing crowd sizes, but I’d say about 10,000 are in the building.

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Pregame

Okay, I know it says this is Ryan Malashock up above, but tonight it’s not true. This is Nathan Allen, and I’ll be doing all the game blogging from Arkansas’ game against Louisiana State in Bud Walton Arena.

Let’s go ahead and get a few quick-hitters out of the way first …

1. First, the media was informed earlier that Arkansas coach John Pelphrey has bronchitis. Because of this, he obviously won’t be himself tonight, like yelling from the bench at his own players or game officials. It’s going to be a little weird seeing Pelphrey so subdued considering how firery he can get during games.

Arkansas assistants Tom Ostrom, Isaac Brown and Rob Evans all have additional duties tonight to assist Pelphrey. Ostrom will be doing the postgame news conference, Brown will be doing the postgame radio interview with Mike Nail and Rob Evans will be doing Thursday’s news conference to discuss Arkansas’ upcoming game against South Carolina on Saturday.

As to who will be the head coach tonight, we have no idea … Be sure to stay tuned, this should be interesting!

2. Arkansas freshman point guard Courtney Fortson is on the floor warming up. Of course last Saturday against Kentucky, Fortson was suspended by Pelphrey for undisclosed reasons, but returned to the team earlier this week during practices. We’re pretty certain Fortson is going to play, if whether or not he starts is still up in the air.

As of right now, there is still 17:40 left on the clock before tipoff, and fans are still piling in Bud Walton Arena. Should be a competitive game tonight, stay tuned for more blogs.

Turns out Arkansas basketball coach John Pelphrey won’t ride along with the Blue Angels fighter jets near Little Rock on Wednesday as planned. The reason: At 6-foot-7, Pelphrey is too tall.

In a statement released through the university, Pelphrey said, “I’m disappointed, but I’m appreciative of them extending the invitation. … I did ask if they could make the plane bigger, but I’ll have to live with my disappointment. This is the first time in my life I’ve wished I was smaller.”

The Arkansas basketball team held its media day on Monday in Bud Walton Arena, which smells like paint pretty much everywhere you walk because of the numerous renovations taking place there.

There will be a story and a notebook in tomorrow’s edition of The Morning News, where we’ll also have comments from athletic director Jeff Long about the progress of those renovations.

Here are a few media day highlights:

• Arkansas coach John Pelphrey, who lost six seniors and Patrick Beverley from last season’s 23-12 team, didn’t hide the fact that this is a rebuilding season. He said as much, commenting that it’s an understandable perspective anytime a team loses “80 percent from any offensive category you want to look at.” That said, Pelphrey said expectations wouldn’t be lowered for this season.

• Pelphrey did address the Beverley situation, admitting that his loss was a big blow to this year’s team. He also looked at the bright side of the departure, stressing that other players would just have to step it up in his absence.

• Because of Arkansas’ small roster (11 players), Pelphrey said the Razorbacks would hold walk-on tryouts tomorrow (Tuesday) at the HPER building. He said he hoped to add a couple of players but didn’t rule out adding as many as four.

• Pelphrey lauded the continued maturation of juniors Stefan Welsh and Michael Washington, who will both shoulder much of the leadership duties this season.

• Welsh said he didn’t once go home to Virginia this summer and added 10 pounds of pure muscle in the offseason. Washington said he put on 15 to take him to 240 pounds.

• Pelphrey singled out each of his seven newcomers at his news conference. Of note, he called freshman point guard Courtney Fortson a “tough, nasty point guard” and compared freshman combo guard Rotnei Clarke to a former Kentucky teammate — “Travis Ford on steroids.”

• Freshman Jason Henry and junior Montrell McDonald, both small forwards, each said the departure of Sonny Weems played heavily into their choices to come to Arkansas.

• Arkansas’ first practice will be on Friday. The Hogs will then practice twice on Saturday and twice on Sunday before taking one day off early next week. The Red-White game, the first chance for fans to see the Razorbacks, is the evening of Oct. 24 in Bud Walton Arena.

Updated 11:15 p.m.

Oh, and here’s a late addition I forgot to include earlier (this was pretty funny):

• Pelphrey was asked a series of questions about flying with the Blue Angels on Wednesday at the Air Force base in Jacksonville. Only problem: Pelphrey hadn’t told his wife, Tracy. Oops. Pelphrey said, “I’ll have to tell her now,” and went on to talk excitedly about the opportunity.

The wait is over. Arkansas’ men’s basketball schedule has finally been released. Nonconference games of intrigue include trips to Missouri State (Nov. 22) and John Pelphrey’s old team South Alabama (Nov. 26), as well home contests with Oklahoma (Dec. 30) and Texas (Jan. 6).

The Razorbacks will play North Texas in North Little Rock on Jan. 3 — instead of Baylor, as was originally planned. Arkansas also couldn’t find a fourth team to join Stephen F. Austin and Austin Peay in the Jim Thorpe Classic in Fayetteville (Dec. 17-20).

As for Southeastern Conference action, the Hogs open play at home against Mississippi State on Jan. 10 before playing back-to-back games on the road at Ole Miss and Florida.

Arkansas has four games scheduled for national television, all in Bud Walton Arena: Northwestern State (Dec. 27 on ESPN2), Texas (Jan. 6 on ESPN2), Alabama (Jan. 29 on ESPN or ESPN2) and Kentucky (Feb. 14 on CBS).

Here’s a link to the schedule.