by Alan Smith
The picture above is close enough to describe Arkansas’ game against Florida last night, and also most of John Pelphrey’s tenure as Arkansas’ coach. Just his look of disappointment describes the way the Arkansas fanbase has felt lately. While watching the game, I could not help but o pull for Arkansas mainly because I have a deep hatred for Florida, but also because I truly feel for Pelphrey. One again, his Razorbacks gave a good fight, but fell late to the Gators 71-66. He deserves better than this, not just this game, but also the past three seasons. After taking over for Stan Heath and Dana Altman, after Altman pulled a Billy Donovan and went back to Creighton, Pelphrey came in his first season at Fayetteville and performed fairly well, finishing with a 23-13 (9-7) record and a second round finish in the NCAA Tournament. But the last two seasons have had somewhat disastrous proportions, finishing under .500 last year and struggling to stay around there this year. But overcoming a struggle to accomplish successful goals is nothing new to John Pelphrey.
Going back to his college days at UK, Pelphrey had been apart of the infamous 1989 team that was the only team to have a losing season since the 1920’s and was also apart of a scandal. Instead of bailing on the situation, Pelphrey along with two other Kentucky-grown boys, Richie Farmer and Deron Feldhaus, along with Sean Woods, decided to stick around and play through the NCAA probation. Despite having NCAA sanctions for three seasons, the group of loyal young men along with a talented Jamal Mashburn led Kentucky out of the rubble and breathed new life into the program, leading them to the Elite Eight in 1992.
He left pro ball in Europe to enter the coaching ranks in 1993-94, assisting his former head coach Eddie Sutton at Oklahoma State. He then joined close friend and one of his coaching mentors Billy Donovan as he was an assistant coach under him, two years at Marshall then six years at Florida. While at UF, he helped the program to their first title game appearance in 2000 and to four straight tournament bids while he was there, a school-record. In 2003 he then took the job at South Alabama. While struggling to even have a winning record his first three seasons, he eventually took the program to the NCAA Tournament in 2006 and the NIT in 2007, not to mention he also won the Sun Belt Conference title in 2006.
During his time at Arkansas so far, his teams have shown promise but fail to live up to their potential the entire season. After defeating #4 Oklahoma and #7 Texas last season, Arkansas was 12-1 in January heading into conference play. Then for no apparent reason, the Hogs struggled and lost 14 of their last 16 to finish with a 14-16, (2-14) overall record. Then in November this season, Pelphrey was forced to suspend 5 players, two of whom are starters, for violating team rules. He did as much as bring two players on the golf and football teams to fill in temporarily, and still managed to get a great effort from the team and be at least two games above .500 at 7-5.
Since then, he Hogs have fought hard, but fell themselves the victims of close losses to UAB (73-72), Texas (96-85), and Mississippi State (82-80). The Razorbacks did manage to dump Alabama bu then took another step back with tonight’s loss to Florida and now sit at 8-10.
This Saturday is probably Pelphrey’s best chance to pull a large upset and show his team’s upside. Not only that, but it will also show the fanbase and administration at Arkansas that he has the potential to accomplish great things in Fayetteville. It will be a large statement win on his coaching resume, especially against his alma mater. It will also be a true test for both teams, to see which one has the most heart in it to pull out a victory, a chance for UK to prove it is not overrated and deserves every vote for that number one ranking. Although I would love to see Pelphrey succeed in the long run, you get the feeling that he really needs a win in Lexington on Saturday to keep the wolves at bay in Fayetteville.
This is Pelphery’s third attempt trying to get the “W” on his former team as he lost 63-58 in 2008 and 79-63 last season. Unfortunately it does not seem to be in the cards as while the Hogs have heart, they are horribly outmatched. While I am sure that his Razorbacks will play well and maybe even provide another moral victory, near upsets are not enough to keep the alumni happy at Arkansas.
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