Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

More than two weeks after the national holiday, Arkansas basketball coach John Pelphrey presided over a Thanksgiving lunch of sorts as he was the featured guest of the first Downtown Tip Off Club meeting of the 2010-11 basketball season. Pelphrey could look right below the dais into the audience for two big reasons to be thankful: a couple of tall, gifted Arkansas high school seniors who will help the coach win more games in coming seasons.

The Downtown Tip Off Club meets on Mondays in the ballroom of the Wyndham Riverfront in North Little Rock, and the room was nearly filled to capacity except for the far corners as Pelphrey had his usual tip-off honors as the first speaker of the season.

Ahead for the club are luncheons with former Razorback great and current University of Central Arkansas coach Corliss Williamson (Jan. 3), former Hog assistant coach and now Houston head coach James Dickey (Jan. 10), and current UTEP head coach Tim Floyd (Jan. 17). ASU coach John Brady, UALR men's coach Steve Shields, UALR women's coach Joe Foley, former Razorback and NBA star Sidney Moncrief, and former UA coach Lanny Van Eman are set for later in 2011.

On Monday, the club coincidentally had two boys co-Players of the Week that also just happen to be recent signees for Pelphrey: 6-foot-11 Hunter Mickelson of Jonesboro Westside and 6-7 Aaron Ross of Little Rock Parkview (Ross claimed he's up to 6-8 now).

Along with East Poinsett County's Rashad Ky Madden, the 6-5 guard who, according the Pelphrey and others, was unable to attend to make it a tri-Player of the Week celebration because he was taking care of some academic work, Mickelson and Ross represent the future of Arkansas Razorback basketball the way fans knew it in the early to mid-1990s. Pelphrey referred to them as "Triplets 2.0," with the original "triplets" being the 6-foot-4 trio of Sidney Moncrief, Marvin Delph and Ron Brewer, who put Hog basketball on the national map in the late 1970s.

"Today is different, just different," Pelphrey said to the crowd, explaining his feelings on this trip compared to the past four. "To see the two guys [Mickelson and Ross], their coaches, their families here ..."

Pelphrey has moved from delivering an almost never-ending talk to the club like he did a few seasons back to keeping it brief, covering the high points of recruiting and the current team, and then fielding questions. Some of those queries, and his answers, proved to be interesting - from his thoughts on improved play from center Delvon Johnson and unheralded guard Julysses Nobles, to the health of Marshawn Powell ("His foot is fine, we're just getting him in better condition now and he's almost there," Pel said), to the one-and-done players ("I'm fine with it except for Aaron and Hunter," he said, drawing a laugh) to the always controversial block-charge call in the game ("they never get it right," he said, eliciting another laugh).

With a team that's 6-1 and faces two games this week (at home Wednesday vs. Mississippi Valley State, then Saturday in Arlington, Texas, vs. Texas A&M) as university final exams wind down, Pelphrey seemed much more at ease about his program and his future, considering Arkansas has won 12 and 14 games the past two years. Mickelson and Ross, plus Madden, along with the knowledge that Dallas signee Devonta Abron (a 6-8 player averaging nearly 30 points and 15 rebounds a game) and 5-star St. Louis guard B.J. Young are also on the way, would make any coach feel secure.

"A year from now we'll have everything we need from a talent standpoint," Pelphrey said.

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The surprise of this season so far has been the play of Delvon Johnson, the 6-10 center who arrived with little fanfare last season from a junior college. Before that, he had played at a small Division I program, Western Illinois.

"He completely changed his body over the summer," Pelphrey said. Johnson also appears to have spent considerable time working on the fundamentals of shooting inside and rebounding, plus blocking shots without fouling.