On Monday, I took no pleasure in bringing y’all “Epitaph on a Disaster.”
By Tuesday evening, some sort of interplanetary disruption brought Bobby Petrino back to the Broyles Complex and made Hog football suddenly compelling again.
Then Petrino was among the overflow crowd of 20,000-plus Wednesday night, beaming alongside Sam Pittman, whose visage had completely and obviously changed for the better. The basketball Hogs, themselves dragged down by a Bahamian funk, got right in a hurry with an 80-75 win over No. 7 Duke in a throwback to the 1994 championship game.
What a week, and it’s not totally out of the realm of possibility that another bomb may drop shortly when KJ Jefferson elects to stay or go.
When that mirthless excuse of a football season mercifully ended last Friday, everything Hog-related seemed so damn painful. Jefferson spent months looking frustrated, and his exit has been long presumed. Petrino’s return, however, could signal either the quarterback’s renewed energy and passion, or it could end up being an amicable parting.
Pittman and Petrino sat in a box and couldn’t have looked more at ease Wednesday night. The fans noticed that, too, and paid suitable tributes accordingly.
Just Sam Pittman and Bobby Petrino chillin in the box at Bud Walton Arena… #WPS pic.twitter.com/Nu8xaxWuOK
— Jonathan J⃝ (@magicwhiptx) November 30, 2023
Meanwhile, on the court, Arkansas really took control of the pace of the game at the tipoff. The listless, bricklaying, slow-to-rotate team that left the Bahamas gave way to a team that challenged Duke’s perimeter defenders and was even stingier near the rim, with ten team blocks. Six of those came from Chandler Lawson, who more than offsets some offensive limitations with a tough, physical interior defensive presence that belies his 6-foot-8 frame.
The Blue Devils had a 26-point outing from Kyle Filipowski, and 23 of those came in the second half. Most of those, however, were also at the line or in a futile comeback attempt. Seasoned shooting guard Jeremy Roach added 22, but they were the sole double-digit scores, and Duke shot a meager 35.8% from the floor.
And while Arkansas wasn’t perfect, clanging 11 free throws in 30 attempts and losing the turnover battle 12-8 (most of those in a shaky final 90 seconds), the Hogs also outrebounded the Devils and nailed nine threes in 20 attempts. It was a gritty, near-complete effort at both ends of the court.
Environs and score paralleled the win over No. 1 Auburn on the same court in February 2022. Devo Davis didn’t cap this one with a posterizing slam, but he did make one final steal on the Devils’ final possession to punctuate it.
The Tigers’ 80-76 loss to the Hogs was really ragged, though, and this one showed two teams that have enormous postseason potential given their pedigree and depth. Trevon Brazile and Khalif Battle were also the only Hogs in double figures, but five more players had between six and nine points, and Layden Blocker and El Ellis played pivotal roles pushing the tempo and distributing.
The postgame scene was, thankfully, a complete departure from how the work week began. Everyone in that arena was all smiles during and after the game, and though the Hogs never stretched their lead past 14 in the second half, Duke also couldn’t even get a lead at all after halftime and never led by more than three points in a hotly-contested first half. It simply felt like a heavyweight bout, and Arkansas weathered every blow capably.
Pretty impressive psychological turnaround, huh? And, I guess, so typically Razorback, too. One day is stormy, the next is sunny, and so on and so forth. Ending the week better than it started is always preferable.