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Vandy downs Arkansas in SEC Tournament
By The Associated Press
This article was published March 14, 2013 at 9:07 p.m.
PHOTO BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Arkansas guard Mardracus Wade (1) vies for a loose ball with Vanderbilt's Dai-Jon Parker (24) and Kedren Johnson (2) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game at the Southeastern Conference tournament, Thursday, March 14, 2013, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Kedren Johnson hit all four of his free throws in the final 19.8 seconds, and the 10th-seeded Vanderbilt Commodores upset No. 7 seed Arkansas 75-72 Thursday night in their first chance at defending their Southeastern Conference tournament championship.
The Commodores (15-16) lost the top six players off that title team with three now playing in the NBA. They will play No. 2 seed Kentucky in the quarterfinals Friday night in a rematch of last year's championship game.
Arkansas (19-13) lost for the 12th time in 13 games away from Fayetteville including three times on neutral courts. Not even the fans calling the hogs helped it feel enough like home as the Razorbacks last led at 7-4.
Rod Odom led Vanderbilt with 20 points, Kyle Fuller had 19, Johnson finished with 13 and Dai-Jon Parker 11.
BJ Young led Arkansas with 16 points. Marshawn Powell had 13 and Michael Qualls 10.
The loss was the Razorbacks' sixth straight in the SEC Tournament.
Comments on: Vandy downs Arkansas in SEC Tournament
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cliffcarson says... March 14, 2013 at 9:34 p.m.
During the game the men doing the color and calling the game were wondering why Arkansas can't win on the road. They cited that it has lasted over a decade with three different coaches playing three different styles of ball. They concluded that it was just a mystery.
It is not a mystery to me. I have watched many of those games over the years. And I have one observation that many of you might also have. We don't seem to get a break from the officials like the other teams do.
In the game tonight there were several game turning calls - did Arkansas get 50% of them?
Do they ever on the road? How many times did you see a Hog player get knocked to the floor? How many times when that happened was a foul called against the Commodores. When two teams are evenly matched it doesn't take much one sided calling to affect the outcome.
I do believe that Anderson will change this over the next couple of years but not by much.
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Jfish says... March 14, 2013 at 10:09 p.m.
cliff with the typical UA excuse, it was the officials. I guess the poor defense that allowed about 12 3-pointers had nothing to do with it. What about the ball that Madden clearly knocked out of bounds and they gave the ball to arkansas? This team and coach have no excuse, poor fundamentals will get you beat almost every time.
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cliffcarson says... March 15, 2013 at 12:17 a.m.
Yes JFish you are correct about those Arkansas errors you mentioned. But what I was complaining about was the external influence that changes momentum and ultimately games over the course of a season and as the TV people were discussing over the last decade.
Before you dismiss it out of hand think about it.
There were six variables over this span of time that applied to the DIFFERENCE between the on the road record and the at home record. The only constant was the officiating.
The Coach, Anderson, has been highly successful everywhere and he will be here also, but I am not limiting this accusation to just THIS coach.
I wrote that over the last decade the six variables were three different coaches each with a different style of coaching and game plan. Combined the Road record has been abysmal.
The last highly successful coach here was Nolan and when we went to the SEC he began to have the same problem although not as bad.
My only question was why. I also offered what might be a statistical truth.
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HotSpringsLawyer says... March 15, 2013 at 7:18 a.m.
It seems to me that the offi ials do make the difference, but in a different way. At home we get away with continually holding and reaching in on the press, and that gives us a huge advantage that we dont get elsewhere. You could see it last night when they let us start doing that near the end and we were able almost to catch up.
Fact is the team has gotten better under Coach Anderson, but we do need better players, and hopefully we are going to get them.
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Populist says... March 15, 2013 at 7:36 a.m.
Go Dores!
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cliffcarson says... March 15, 2013 at 8:25 a.m.
Populist
I have several relatives who have graduated from Vanderbilt and they are fans to the end. They are for Arkansas until it comes to a match between us and them.
Hot Springs Lawyer, I agree with you that we can always use better players - Arkansas is not like Duke or North Carolina that gets to choose which High School All Americans they want to bring in. I do remember the old UCLA almost unbeatable teams who pressed from beginning to end. The Razorback method is certainly not new. Reaching and grabbing is something that is visible and all teams do it, but sometimes it is only visible on one end of the floor is my point.
Nolan remarked at the beginning of the season that Mike didn't have any good shooters. That is obvious. As to rough housing you might remember in Temple's heyday that they would mug the other team and the coach became famous for the time one of his bench players revealed that his job was to go into the game and punish the opponents players physically.
Last night Vanderbilt had several fouls called on them and we did too. What really bothered me was some calls that I thought was at a minimum borderline wrong at critical times, for example calling a walk on Powell when he scored that would have brought us, seems I recall to 1 point difference. When they showed a couple of replays, I didn't see the walk and there are several more examples. What I am talking about is momentum killers. But it is just a game. Must remember that.
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Jfish says... March 15, 2013 at 8:29 a.m.
cliff, how is officiating a constant when over the course of several years, you have hundreds of different officials? My theory is that as a coach, at any level, you can either adjust to your players and improve, assuming you have decent talent, or you can't. There are going to be missed calls and horrendous calls every season, but any good coach will tell you that those are a drop in the bucket when compared to a 30 game season.
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drs01 says... March 15, 2013 at 9:26 a.m.
I believe that the officials needs to adjust their game as much as the players. We are entering the "big dance" time and we should see games where they let 'em play. I still remember Arkansas' first SEC road game at Alabama. I was there to see Todd Day get called for a charge when he went to the basket with his back turned. Yes officials do make a difference.
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Populist says... March 15, 2013 at 9:27 a.m.
I always root for Arkansas except when they play UVA and Vandy. I once watched an Arkansas--Maryland basketball game a few years back and was a little unsure of which team I would support. The Razorback band started playing and the cheerleaders started calling the hogs, and I joined in and started screaming for the hogs. You can take the girl out of Arkansas, but you can't take the Arkie out of the girl.
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Jfish says... March 15, 2013 at 9:41 a.m.
drs, the direction of an offensive player's body has nothing to do with whether a player can commit a charging foul. If a defensive player has established his position, you are not allowed to run over him. If that was the case, Shaq would have been the undisputed greatest player to ever play.
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cliffcarson says... March 15, 2013 at 9:45 a.m.
Yes Jfish all that is true. But what I am alluding to is a mindset that is imbedded over time something akin to repeating a false claim over and over until it becomes public knowledge as a truth. As a team lets say Arkansas, develops a reputation as not being able to play well away from home don't think for a moment that doesn't seep in to officials psyche, just as a team superstar gets all the benefit of the doubt ( all calls goes his way) simply because of his status as superstar, so does another player get the short end because of his status as a "bad boy". The most telling example to me is the forward for Eddie Sutton during first couple of years as a Razorback coach. I forget the players name but he wore a beard and was plagued by officials fouling him out of games. Sutton told the player that if he would shave his beard he would quit getting so many fouls called on him. He shaved his beard and his foul count dropped immediately and significantly. I'm not sure he ever fouled out of a game after the shave.
Anybody remember his name and the event?
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drs01 says... March 15, 2013 at 11:14 a.m.
jfish...the direction of Day's body was not the point. He got the charge call at a deciding moment in the game...in fact, the basket was disallowed...and we lost. My point was that especially this time of year, we don't need the officials to decide games. When the real tournament starts you will see officials let them play. One day Arkansas will get back to being allowed to play like they did for Nolan. Since many of these so-called student-athletes have higher hopes for more hoops, maybe the officials should get in tune with the NCAA-NBA rulings that have created a farm system for the pros. Let them play like the pros and have officials who understand the mission.
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HotSpringsLawyer says... March 15, 2013 at 11:43 a.m.
Cliff, they should call travelling on Powell when he shoots free throws! He never seems even to line up in the same place twice. One try he was standing right in the middle of the semi-circle. Don't they coach this stuff?
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cliffcarson says... March 15, 2013 at 11:59 a.m.
I notice that he lines up behind the line by about 2 feet. The team does need to get lots of training on how to shoot free throws. I notice most of the the misses are what I call jack ups. I once saw a blinded folded man shoot twenty consecutive successful free throws because he had the routine down pat.
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Jfish says... March 15, 2013 at 12:44 p.m.
cliff, what you saw last night was two very mediocre teams and one made fewer mistakes than the other and won. You can rest assured that Kentucky will put Vandy out of their misery today. There is no excuse for a team that has played 30 games, to miss 12 freethrows and allow 12 three pointers. Also, have you noticed how poor Young's shooting form is, even on freethrows, is there not a coach who can help him?
Drs., while I do agree with your premise about officials, do you know what they teach at officiating camps/schools? That you officiate advantage/disadvantage, so when two lightning quick players make contact, in 0.5-second you are supposed to make a decision and only call a foul if one player gains an advantage, pretty easy huh?
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Ran2133 says... March 15, 2013 at 12:53 p.m.
The home team is going to get the benefit of the doubt from the officials in just about every game; every coach knows this! From what I see, a large percentage of players do not play as a team, especially away from home. Let's face it folks, this Razorback team is not a "good basketball team," and won't be until they learn to play better on the road. However, they are better than last year and, I believe, will keep getting better!
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HawgFan says... March 15, 2013 at 3:35 p.m.
I'm reserving my judgement for Anderson and his staff until after next year, then we'll see. I have NEVER bought the 'young team' excuse for any team, any sport, period. Everyone plays with young players, they're all college kids that have been playing their sport of choice for years!!! I DO buy the 'new coach, new system, didn't recruit these guys' excuse, for a while. We should get an NIT invite this year, but next year we should be dancing!! Anderson gets $2 million a year to figure out how to get these guys to steal a few games on the road, so I expect that to improve next year.
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