You're Going Down, Pepperdine

Tomorrow (Friday) at 3pm, the Pepperdine Waves (39-16) will be going down at the hands of the SEC's 9th place team - the Arkansas Razorbacks. The two teams haven't played since their meeting in the first round of the College World Series in 1979 (which the Hogs won 5-4).

Apparently Pepperdine's best hitter (Eric Thames?) has an injured leg (likely excuse) and may not play at all in the Stanford regional.

My 100% or your money back Guaranteed Prediction:
Arkansas Razorbacks 9
Pepperdine Gay Waves 5

Our Female Tennis Player is Better Than Your Female Tennis Player

How about this for some minor sports coverage...

Lady Razorback tennis phenom Aurelija Miseviciute, ranked #1 in the last collegiate tennis rankings, fell in the NCAA singles semi-finals Sunday after an impressive run that included 52 singles wins this season - the most in Razorback tennis history.

Don't even try to pretend that your female tennis player is better than ours, because she's not. Ours lost in the semis only because she was drugged or doped or something that prevented her from playing her best. Perhaps, as some sort of self-motivation, she decided to watch the movie "Wimbledon" the night before her semi-final match and the movie made her puke because it was so disgustingly bad. Whatever the reason, she didn't deserve her fate.

Miseviciute dropped a 7-6, 6-4 match to 25th ranked Zuzana Zemenova of Baylor - an upset of epic proportions if you ask me. 25th? Fault! I say. This was a once in a lifetime win by Zemenova that would never happen again as far as I'm concerned. Curse you, Zemenova! And curse the rest of your Baylor tennis team as well! (for those of you interested, Zemenova lost in the championship to some chick from Georgia Tech who wasn't nearly as good as Miseviciute either).

Miseviciute was rightfully named unanimously to the All Southeastern Conference First-Team to go along with SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year. So, in case that didn't make any sense to you, that means she's also a brain. So our female tennis player is not only better than yours, but she is also smarter than yours.

Aurelija helped lead the University of Arkansas to its first ever SEC Western Division title and Elite Eight appearance in the NCAA Team Championships.

For this tennis season, I say game - set - match.

But for next season, I say beware of the Lituanian Love and don't be surprised if she goes undefeated.



There will be no kissing of the singles title this season, but just wait until next year!

Oh Me of Little Faith

Well, a good Memorial Day to ya, and a good Memorial Day indeed to the Razorback baseball team who ended up in the NCAA tournament today and will face Pepperdine in a first round game later this week. The Hogs ended up in the Cal St. Fullerton regional where Cal St. is the #5 seed overall. I initially had a bad feeling that the Hogs would be left out, but the strength of the SEC is too hard to ignore and so the 9th place SEC team will be heading out west to Stanford University, the host site to the Razorbacks, Pepperdine, UC Davis, and of course Stanford.

Here's the bracket.

Sit and Wait

I'd like to be able to tell you all right here that the Razorback baseball team is going to the NCAA Tourney. I'd like to tell you that a ninth place finish in the brutal SEC is still good enough for the Diamond Hogs to take a trip somewhere and keep on playing.

But... I just have this bad feeling that the Hogs are on a sinking ship with no life boats. That their chances of making it in are more in line with Hillary's chances of being the Democratic presidential nominee than Obama's (do you smell what Barack is cookin'?).

We won't know for certain until Monday when the field is announced, but at this point I don't think 34 wins and a losing SEC record is going to get them in.

Here's hoping I'm wrong... for the first time ever.

The Last Razorback Standing

Well, the man with no conscience, aka Jannero Pargo was the last remaining Razorback in the NBA playoffs until the Hornets couldn't get the job done in game 7 at home against the Spurs. Pargo went 6-16 in game 7 including 13 shots in the fourth quarter for 18 points.

Joe Johnson went out in the first round for the Hawks, and Utah's Ronnie Brewer went down in 6 to the Lakers.




The Spurs remind me of Ivan Lendl. Yes, I'm going old school tennis on you right here. If you remember Ivan Lendl during his playing days in the 80s and early 1990s, he was the most dominant, machine-like, frustrating player to watch. He was never spectacular or a fan favorite, but he always beat your favorite player just like the Spurs do these days. The Spurs are the champs. They keep winning titles without any kind of flare. They are steady and boring and just keep beating your team every year. Now they get the Western Conference top-seeded Lakers for the Western Conference championship. Don't count them out by any means.

Congrats, Jannero on a lengthy and outstanding season even though you probably jacked it a little too much down the stretch last night.

Dear Razorback Fans: Montrell McDonald is Smart

It was with nothing more than a passing glance this weekend that I noticed that 6'6" Cowley County (Kansas) Junior College forward Montrell McDonald changed his oral commitment from Texas Tech University and signed a letter of intent to play for John Pelphrey and the University of Arkansas.

After thinking about it a little more, I realized that Montrell is of above average intelligence and deserves to be applauded right here in The Hog Tale. Why? Well, you know his mamma or pops or whomever helped him make a decision on where to play basketball set him down and showed him this...



... and then asked him "Do you know where in the hell this place is?"

After careful consideration, I'm convinced Montrell shook his head and said that he was pretty sure that wherever this Lubbock place was that he was pretty sure he didn't want to be there. This decision was followed up by numerous high fives among the family and a party into the wee hours of the morning. I think it's very possible that Montrell was just a little confused and thought he was headed for Austin or Dallas or someplace cool before being shown this map.

So, this cerebralness has me now believing that Montrell is not only a future SEC all conference member but also an academic all american as well.

Razorback fans, you should be proud of Montrell for the smartest decision he's ever made.

No Love For Finishing Ninth

Ninth places finishes don't get any love do they? What's up with that? I don't know about you, but I was pumped after Tres Borrachos (pictured left) finished ninth in The Preakness on Saturday. That's my boy... errr, horse! Tres Borrachos translated means "Three Drunks". What's not to love about that horse? Well, the fact that he got blitzed by Big Brown and most of the rest of the field is probably what's not to love about him. But, the fact that he was in Maryland running is something to be proud of.

Unfortunately, the Hog baseball team also finished ninth in the SEC, and won't be invited to Hoover, Alabama for this weekend's SEC tourney.

My actual paying job kind of ruined any real posting time for last week, but the biggest Razorback storyline heading into Thursday was whether or not the Diamond Hogs could win a couple or three and find a way to get into the SEC Tournament while in Starkville, MS this weekend.

The Hogs lost the first two games 6-5 (the second when they gave up four runs in the ninth to lose 6-5... arrgh), and bounced back with a 15-10 win on Saturday in what was legendary MSU Bulldog coach Ron Polk's final game at the helm (take that, Polk!). Polk got himself a car given to him as a retirement gift (somebody check the NCAA rule book about that), so it wasn't a total loss for him on Saturday.




(Three drunks just didn't have it on Saturday, much like the Razorback baseball team this past weekend in Starkville.)



Alas, though, it was not to be as the Hogs finished in Tres Borrachos place in the SEC by half a game with a 33-22 record and 14-15 in the SEC (a game at Vandy was washed out earlier in the year and never re-scheduled).

But, c'mon. Basketball has figured a way to run a SEC tourney with 12 teams, why not baseball? Why can't teams 5-8 host teams 9-12 in a best of three game series Monday through Wednesday, and then the winning four teams go onto Hoover, Alabama to participate in "Part II" of the SEC tournament with the final eight say on Friday through Tuesday. It's just a thought, but it's probably "too much" or "makes too much sense." Sure, it's probably too much for teams five through 12, but the top four should get some sort of slight advantage just like the basketball tournament. What do they get now? To wear their home jearsey in the first round? You say teams nine through 12 don't deserve to be in the SEC Tourney? Tell the Georgia Bulldog basketball team that. Anyway, I'll get off my soapbox for now.

Ironically, in what will probably be the Diamond Hogs final game of the season (their odds of making the NCAA tournament look slim at best), the Hogs take on the Western Illinois Leathernecks at Baum Stadium in their final home game Monday evening at 6:35pm. The Razorback football team opens the season in 104 days in Fayetteville against WIU.