Jim's Notebook: Who's Minding the Store With Basketball Hogs?

WHO'S MINDING THE STORE?: Through all the Wednesday controversy, with word the Washington County prosecutor was looking into rape allegations that possibly involved the Arkansas basketball program, to the dropping of the case, to a couple of statements from Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long, we never heard a word out of Razorback basketball coach John Pelphrey.

We still haven't heard a word -- not even one of those prepared statements out of the information office with Pelphrey's name attached to it.

Now, we've learned that Pelphrey pulled out of a Thursday pro-am at the LPGA event being held at Rogers' Pinnacle Country Club. No doubt the northwest media would have been on the scene to attempt to get some comment or reaction from Pelphrey about the scandal. So, somebody figured it was best for him not to show in Rogers.

The entire sordid mess deserves some response from the head coach about the program he's running and the players in it, even if the case was quickly dropped by the county prosecutor.

The irony in all this is, apparently all this went down the night and early morning (Aug. 26-27) before Pelphrey showed up in Little Rock for the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Arkansas celebrity roast and toast as its honoree, in part for his mentoring of young men, according to the organization.

(UPDATE: Seven hours after this column first appeared, the UA sports information office released a statement, at 6 p.m. Sept. 10, attributed to John Pelphrey: "We are in the process of reviewing all of the information associated with this matter. We will move forward judiciously and will take appropriate action when the review is complete. We will continue to emphasize to our student-athletes that as members of the Razorback program they have a responsibility to conduct themselves and represent our University and our basketball program in an appropriate manner. As we focus our attention on the review, I will have no further comment until the process has been completed.")

PICTURE THIS: Willy Robinson fielded the questions Wednesday after Arkansas' football practice, and Chris Bahn blogged about the Razorback defensive coordinator's new role on the sidelines rather than up in the press box, where he spent last season.