Former Baller Beverley Drafted

A year after leaving the University of Arkansas under still slightly cloudy circumstances, former guard Patrick Beverley was drafted last night in the second round of the NBA draft.

Here is ESPN.com's Chad Ford and his take on the Heat's draft choices...

Analysis: The Heat did OK for themselves in the second round. They fell in love with Beverley upon his first workout back from the Ukraine and had been pursuing him ever since. Beverley and Dozier both are terrific athletes. Beverley also is a good defender and scorer. Dozier blocks shots and runs the floor.

This draft is not going to dramatically change the fortunes of the franchise, but I do think Beverley in particular could help the Heat down the road.

Here is my take on it...

Patrick Beverley was a tenacious baller during his time here at the U of A. If he keeps his head screwed on straight, becomes a top-notch defender, gives the ball up to D Wade enough, and just does what he's told, he could find some playing time off of the bench for someone somewhere. If nothing else, he's proven he can play overseas. Good luck Patrick.

Wow, How Time Flies

The summer is here and the laziness has set in (as is evidence by my lack of posts this month). The Hogs made a great late season run to land in the final four of collegiate baseball teams. Unfortunately, they didn't quite have enough...



Fire power! (sorry this will only make sense to you if you have kids or can't get enough of Ben Stiller movies)


The real unfortunate result was that the CWS finals featured Texas and LSU. I was cheering for a continuous rain delay or a never-ending scoreless tie. Trying to decide who to cheer for in that is kind of like deciding between death by shark or death by falling into a volcano. Either way it sucks and is quite painful, and that's what watching the CWS best of three series between LSU and Texas was like.

The only thing I can say about LSU is that Paul Mainieri seems like a genuinely good guy and it was pretty cool that he got to celebrate his first championship with his dad on the field after the game.

Back to the Razorbacks though, big ups to Diamond Hogs for rebounding from their late season slump to almost bringing home a national championship. The Hogs didn't quite have the fire power or the horses needed to endure a 14 day stretch in Omaha like Texas or LSU, but they left everything on the field and for that I couldn't be more proud of the boys and Coach Van Horn especially since it was the bright light among the big three sports this year for Arkansas.

Now, as college baseball fades into the distance, all eyes will once again focus on the upcoming football season, and I for one couldn't be more ready.

Nice

In one hell of a CWS game, the Razorbacks hung around just long enough to capitalize and steal one from a Virginia team that squandered opportunities at every turn.

Andrew Darr did it again with the winning double in the 12th and Dallas Kuechel was a beast getting out of numerous jams in the 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th to win it for the Hogs. This was all after Cox singled with two out and two strikes in the bottom of the ninth setting up a 2 run homer by Brett Eibner to tie it three.

Awesome, awesome game. I don't know if anyone will be available to pitch Friday against LSU (probably Eibner again) but that was a game for the ages indeed.

Another Reason LSU Needs to Lose 2 in a Row

This clip is pretty funny even though Mike Irwin may disagree with you. It occurred after last night's crushing loss at the hands of LSU, and Irwin was a split second away from cracking some skulls in Omaha.



What was the idiot South Carolina fan doing there? I like how Mike cracks on LSU fans towards the end of the clip though. Hang in there Mike and beat down one of those punks with your microphone next time it happens!

Omahogs 1-0, Take On LSU Tonight

Well, we easily dispatched the Cali boys from Fullerton on Saturday, and now we face some real competition - SEC competition. Once again the Hogs and LSU Tigers will square off on the diamond. Only this time, the winner will have the inside track to the best of three championship series.

The Hogs went 1-2 during the season against LSU. The first loss started an eight game SEC losing streak that ended in the SEC tournament with two wins over Florida. The game will be at 6pm tonight on ESPN.

Darr To Believe

Ice down the cooler, pack up the car... road trip to Omaha!

Andrew Darr's 2 run double in the bottom of the ninth against Florida State clinched the two game sweep and is sending the Hogs to Omaha for a first round matchup this weekend against Cal St. Fullerton. It's the Razorbacks first trip to the College World Series since 2004.

Super Regional Time Baby

Get ready Semiho's, because the Diamond Hogs are coming for ya. Playing the underdog, no respect card really well lately will be the Razorbacks this weekend in Tallahassee.

All three games if needed will begin at 11 a.m. CST with Friday and Sunday's games being on ESPN and Saturday's game being on ESPN2.

Sure the Seminoles (#6 at 45-16 on the season) raked this past weekend scoring like 500 runs or something, but I don't see that happening again and I see the Hogs rolling in a two game sweep!

Things Are Not Britty for Arkansas Basketball

Ernest Hemingway once said “An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools.” In Marcus Britt's situation, the fool was himself after he was charged with DWI by Forest City police last weekend. You didn't know I was going to break you off some Hemingway today did you? Consider yourself enlightened and use that quote next time you're out slamming wine coolers with your buddies.

Britt, the Hog baller, who averaged 3.7 points per game last season registered in at .113 on the ol blood alcohol register and has been suspended indefinitely by Coach Pelphrey. This is GREAT news coming on the heals of the whole Patrick Beverley thing, the transfers of Brandon Moore and Andre Clark and the whole academic mess that the basketball program is in right now.

In addition to the DWI, Britt was charged with driving with a suspended license, no insurance, failure to appear, running a stop sign, kicking baby kitties, bad breath, and not being a better offensive player.

Britt is known more for his defensive play so it was surprising that he made such an offensive move like running a stop sign. That's what the booze will do though.

The failure to appear stems from a 2007 warrant for failing to appear after Britt receiving a speeding ticket. Dude, show up and take your beat down like a man. Did he really think the legal system would just forget about him?

As usual Homer Simpson explains an athlete's need for drunkedness as only he can...



“Son, when you participate in sporting events, its not whether you win or lose, its how drunk you get.”

In Marcus Britt's case, it's not drunk enough to make this all go away and that's what he needs right now.

Mom Confirms Mallett Broke Finger Throwing Footballs Into Space

It appears that Razorback QB Ryan Mallett has a broken right ring finger he sustained during "a workout" and will be out of action for a couple of weeks.

Ryan's mother Debbie confirmed that Ryan broke his finger, but that it's not going to be that big of a deal.

"It's the stress and strain Ryan puts on his throwing hand when he starts chunking footballs into space," said Debbie, "It really upsets me when he does this because those footballs aren't cheap, and for him to just throw those damn things into space to never be seen again is disrespectful to me, it's disrespectful to potential airplanes flying above, and it's disrespectful to those people that need those satellites in orbit. He thinks it's funny, but this wouldn't be the first time he's knocked a satellite off it's proper course."

Mallett, who beat out Tyler Wilson in the spring for the starting job, has been praised by the coaches for his strong arm and leadership abilities. The only negative on the transfer from Michigan is his ability to hold his alcohol.

"I would say that's the most disappointing thing about Ryan so far," said one coach wishing to remain anonymous, "His arrest for being drunk in public and not being able to dial a cell phone or speak coherently leads me to believe that he might be a little bit of a lightweight when it comes to drinking. We can work on that and he can improve in that area. That'll just come with growth and maturation."

Mallett will be sidelined a few weeks before he can begin throwing again. At that time he'll continue his free lance summer demolition work where he's hired to throw footballs to knock down houses and buildings as a cheaper alternative than paying for a crane and wrecking ball.

Patrick Beverley Didn't Do All His Own Work? Shocker!

Personally, I've always been under the impression that all collegiate athletes do all of their own work and are never assisted. Ever. Whether they're at Furman or Florida I've never thought it matters. Now? Collegiate athletics has been tainted for me.

Apparently former Razorback basketball player Patrick Beverley was caught cheating last year and that was the main reason for his leaving/dismissal from the University.

"I definitely don't want to throw anybody under the bus," Beverley said. "But people were doing papers. I was given paperwork. Someone wrote a paper and I turned it in. Like I said, I was wrong about that. To this day, I'll always tell the truth. I stood accountable and told them, ‘Yeah, I turned in a paper that wasn't mine.'"

The University stands behind some lame student privacy law and won't confirm or deny anything at this point, but I for one am shocked!

In a reported rumor, Coach Pelphrey may or may not have had this to say:

"Patrick Beverley is a dumbass. You don't have someone else do your work and then turn it in. Back at Kentucky when I used to do papers for Jamal Mashburn we would always get together and read over it and make it sound like Jamal's verbage before turning it in. Patrick Beverley is not a 4.0 valedictorian from Maumelle and his paper should not have reflected that."

After further investigation by our Hog Tale insiders, Beverley's paper that was questioned was entitled "Patrick Beverley's Theory on Quantum and Nuclear Physics."
The "A" that Beverley received on the paper helped him garner a passing grade in his Physics class going from a "F" to a "D." His previous papers entitled "The Po-Po Be Trippin' - A study about the physics of falling" and "Pitbull Fights be Physics-cal" both received failing grades for not really having anything to do with Physics.

All Smyly in Norman

Talk about easy. Was there ever any doubt about the Hogs this weekend? OK, you don't have to answer that question. The beleagured, faltering Diamond Hogs stumbled into Norman having won only 3 of their last 13 games. However, something in Norman suited the Razorbacks just fine. The color red? The combined 4-0 record against WSU and OU during the regular season? The stinch of cows grazing in the outfield? Whatever it was, the Arkansas bats were resurrected and with it their season in a three game domination of Washington State and OU twice.

Redshirt freshman Drew Smyly tossed 8 and one-third innings no-hit ball yesterday along with 12 K's to lead the Razorbacks to an 11-0 Regional clinching win. What a performance by a guy who hadn't lasted more than 6 innings or had more than 6 strikeouts in a game yet. Those OU Spooner players are still trying to catch up to Smyly this morning.

Oh, sorry Andy Wilkins did not hit five homers for you like I promised last week. You'll just have to settle for his 12-16 performance with 2 homers, 5 doubles, and 11 RBI's. That was a good enough performance to earn him the Most Outstanding Player award.

The Razorbacks are now 36-22 and headed to Florida State University for a best of three super regional this weekend just two wins away from a trip to Omaha.