Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

Arkansas guard BJ Young arrived at Bud Walton Arena about an hour before practice and could be heard well before he was seen Monday.

Young was singing along to something, and the sound of his voice echoed off the walls on the first floor of Walton Arena. When he rounded the corner to walk down the same hallway I was in, Young flashed a big grin as he bobbed his head to whatever was coming out of his headphones.

This looked — and sounded — nothing like a guy who could easily be lamenting an uncharacteristically unproductive performance at LSU. Young scored three points, a total well below his average for the season as Arkansas lost.

If you’re Mike Anderson you have to hope the rest of the team is enjoying life these days as much as Young appeared to be. Anderson’s boisterous freshman guard met with media later in the day and swore there’s no loss of confidence for he or the rest of the Razorbacks. He's unmoved by a game in which he shot 1 of 5 and turned the ball over four times before fouling out against the Tigers.

Arkansas didn’t fare much better as a whole. The Razorbacks turned the ball over 19 times and fell to 0-7 away from Fayetteville. At Bud Walton the team is a well-documented 16-0. Despite the road troubles Anderson has his team in the top half of the SEC at the midway point of the season.

Young doesn’t want to look back. He’s looking forward to Wednesday’s 7 p.m. tip at Georgia. There's far too much to play for with eight games left in the regular season.

“I’m just ready to move on to the next one,” Young told reporters prior to practice Monday. 

It’s the midway point of the SEC season. Arkansas is sitting at 4-4, having split its home and away games. Look at the standings and Arkansas essentially represents the midway point for the league’s elite and also-rans. That middle ground is a fitting spot for the Razorbacks, considering they're not quite awful and not quite awesome. Only Tennessee (11-12) is worse than the Razorbacks away from home (0-7 on the road), while Kentucky (23-1) and Florida (19-4) are undefeated in their friendly confines.

Prior to Saturday a chorus of folks was saying Arkansas belonged in the NCAA Tournament conversation, especially if a road victory finally happened. Skeptics wanted to see the road victory before really considering the Razorbacks, who have a tournament resume otherwise, as a candidate for the Big Dance.

Win three of the next eight and Arkansas will match its conference victory total from the last two seasons. Hitting 8-8 in the league would give the Razorbacks 20 wins for the year. Already they have three victories against teams in the Top 40 RPI. Put a couple road wins on that resume and Arkansas has a strong postseason argument.

Who saw that coming? There is a lot of basketball to be played, but if this team can hit 20 entering the SEC tournament is there really a better candidate for national coach of the year than Anderson?

Frustrating as those road losses have been, it’s hard to find much fault with what Anderson and the Razorbacks have done so far this season. Remember, this is a team that lost three transfers in the offseason and has been without top player (and legitimate interior scoring threat) Marshawn Powell since the second week of the season.

Arkansas spent a month after Powell’s injury redefining roles on the team. Younger players were forced to develop quicker and Mike Sanchez/Marvell Waithe, guys that should have been options off the bench, were forced into bigger roles. Then Waithe — who is no doubt the most improved player on the team — went down and has played a whopping seven total minutes the last two-plus weeks.

“They’re still learning. There is so much room to grow with this basketball team,” Anderson said. “ As we speak right now – you say it’s the midway – when this thing is over, they’re going to continue to change before your eyes. Going through what they are going through right now can only, hopefully benefit them and help them really improve. You’ve got eight games left and then your tournament starts. Then you talk about the sense of urgency really picking up.”

It might sound like a lot for young team to handle: the season coming to an end and the pressure to close strong mounting. But as Young reminded us Monday before practice, there’s plenty of noise that can be made by guys on this team.