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At Arkansas

You’re going to see some ugliness if what I heard is true. You know how things go … who knows what is embellished, underplayed, flat out lied about and the counters on those sort of things. Hard to make sense of it.

Let’s just say pretty team wide chemistry issues, issues a little bit different than what is typical.

I’ve heard Muss wants/wanted to get out before it explodes.

I’m sure there will be shit tons of damage control with it.
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Stranger than fiction, good way to end the

Workday.

I’m still floored.

I had a serendipitous event today.

I found Hank. He’s 98 years old, still alive. Still has his mind, was blind in one eye (the patch) and the other eye he barely has vision. His hearing is almost gone.

I’ve searched for him for quite awhile. Not, eh, let me to an internet search for him type of search. Had friends exhaust their avenues, checking obits; old numbers, old friends, I faxed the office at the complex he lived in, called them, drove to his complex and asked around … and I’d call his number every week, all disconnected. I figured the worst given his age. But I tried and tried and tried and tried, even as of Friday last week. Today, not looking for him at all, I found him.

We met in 2000 and took in many basketball practices together. He’s been to my home for some holidays and other occasions. Many other Rebel occasions. Everyone at least knew who Hank was … the patch was the dead giveaway and he was always around men’s basketball.

Even though he stopped attending practice (he just couldn’t get there anymore, too hard for him. Menzies banned him from practice and he stopped going, by the time Kevin was here, he just couldn’t get there. So he and I would talk every week, every couple of weeks, he’d call, I’d call, always keeping tabs on each other.

I loved his stories because he lived them. Loved hearing about the depression and wars, culture and the politics. Hank and I agreed on things less than 1 percent of the time; whether it be hoops and hoops strategy, world events, politics, anything. We talked about everything. It really was like grandfather/grandson in many ways. Even though we never agreed and we can both be hardheaded (I can’t match Hank though), there was never any hard feelings. I respect the hell out of the guy, peculiarities and all. We just got along well in spite never agreeing on anything. I respect elders especially enjoy when they can share wisdom and experiences.

I mean there were times where it got red faced heated and I’ll probably always be a fkn jughead to him but I’ll probably always be a goddamn son of a gun to him - and he will always be a crotchety son of a bitch to me.

Anyway, I can’t get into too much detail, obviously. He’s doing ok. Not dying of anything chronic but he’s 98 and falling apart, losing senses but not his mind, though it is starting to slip, but I’ll cut him some slack.

It really was a great way to end the day.

Tourney Expectations

We had two play-in games that matched up a MWC team with and equally seeded team. Won one/lost one. ALL the rest of our games went according to seeding. We won the ones we were supposed to and lost the ones we were supposed to. We had no upsets.

I don't get all the pant wetting about the performance. This went exactly the way the NCAA selection committee thought it would.

And our top two seeds got blown out by two NO. 1. seeds. They are way better than us, and It showed. Did anyone really think we stood a real chance in this games? I didn't. And when things go downhill in BB a team can get blown out. Remember the AF game? When nothing is working it can get totally out of control fast.

As far as our schedule goes this years was O.K. If we won what we could have, we would have been in the dance. We don't need to go into lions dens and get blown out. Blowouts hurt our ranking. But we do have to get some decent teams on the road. We need to do that because very few top 50 teams will play MWC teams in their home arenas. They are afraid of a bad loss.

Future of CKK

I flip flop on this worse than I'd like to admit. One day I think that he needs to be fired at the next TV timeout while the next week I think he needs a statue erected alongside Tark (ok, not this dramatic but not that dramatic the other way, either).

I'm currently in the 'let's keep him' camp. I've seen him switch some stuff up and break away from some of his usual tendencies. I think we've seen a zone out of him and his offense is moving the ball better. We aren't doing so much 'chucking it from the cheap seats' (minus Jackie Johnson) since we are running our offense through the post.

I do anticipate that we split the next two games and, likely, only win one in the MWC Tournament. I don't see this changing the way that I feel about this.

He could still improve the roster construction but he's utilizing the length and athleticism we have in a better way. I also feel like he's getting more comfortable on the sidelines during games as he's showing more emotion and working the refs better. Overall, I've seen improvement in his 'Junior year' of coaching.
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