The Six Games Into the Season Hog Basketball Report

I've done one sorry ass job of basketball coverage so far this year on this sorry ass blog (self-depreciating humor is supposed to be the way to go from what I hear), but now that football season has ended prematurely, I can pretty much focus on Pel's boys who are off to a 5-1 start.

The Hogs rolled last night behind freshman Jason Henry, who was returning from a three game suspension for beating Coach Pel in a game of horse after practice a few weeks ago (Pel is a super, fiercely competitive guy, and the lessen here is always let your coach win. Freshman mistake by Henry). Henry had 19 and 7 last night off the bench in the Hogs 80-61 win over Texas Southern.

"I think Jason has learned his lesson," said Pelphrey after the game.

One of the interesting side notes is that Texas Southern was coached for most of the game by Rob Flaska who was formerly an assistant here with Stan Heath. TSU head coach Tony Harvey was ejected with 9:31 remaining in the first half. Harvey got into numerous "disagreements" with officials throughout the beginning of the game and berated the officials by continually yelling "your momma!" at them after every call that went against his team. He was finally ejected.

The Tigers committed 18 turnovers mostly due to Courtney Fortson's hair said Coach Flaska after the game.

"Courtney has some of that crazy-scary, braided, pony-tail hair that really intimidated some of our players," said Coach Flaska after the game, "Hell, we come from the Southwestern Athletic Conference. We're not used to seeing hair like that, and it really freaked out a few of our guys. Courtney has game and the hair to go along with it."



Fortson finished with six points, five rebounds, and 11 assists. Rotnei Clarke added 16 points for the Hogs on 4-9 shooting from the three point line.

The Razorbacks should be 6-0 at this point. The only loss was a disappointing road loss to Missouri State who is 3-2 this year and projected to finish near the bottom of the Missouri Valley. I didn't see the game, but I'm sure the horrible officiating is to blame for that one.

Next up for Arkansas is a home contest next Wednesday against North Carolina Central.