Life Genuinely Better for Arkansans When Team Actually Plays Like Razorbacks

Excuses, gaslighting need to permanently go away so positibe impact to people can continue

Arkansas Razorbacks forward Jonas Aidoo tries to power up a shot against the Georgia Bulldogs at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville, Ark. | Nilsen Roman-Hogs on SI Images

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Thursday afternoon, an elementary teacher brought back a bit of perspective on the impact of Arkansas basketball.

She had headed in to work earlier that morning a bit anxious because she knew she was about to teach a concept her math students were about to struggle with mightily. While she knew they would eventually get it, seeing the kids she loves so much have a difficult time always wears on her.

However, just before class started, she remembered Arkansas finally won an SEC game by actually playing like Razorbacks in the late evening the night before. She said it brightened her morning up so much that it changed the rest of her day.

Up until this past season, that's how things worked around Arkansas for decades. My father was, and despite his age, still is in the logging business.

Every day he came home drenched in sweat and covered in sawdust, bug bites and tons of scratches from briars. There would be days when the dangerous reputation of the job proved true.

He once had his leg snapped literally in half. However, that didn't prevent him from lining up and demonstrating how to fire off the ball properly in a tackling drill during my team's football practice despite a fresh full leg cast.

At one point a massive limb thicker than most trees came crashing down out of nowhere onto his father's head. It split his safety helmet in half on impact and landed him in the hospital with a significant head injury, but he soon bounced out and joined my dad back in the woods trying to keep the lights on at home.

One day, while my dad was back at the work truck filing the saws, his father calmly walked up and told him he needed to driven to the hospital. My dad glanced down and saw a copperhead hanging from my grandfather's chaps with a fang buried in his leg and no way to get it out during the mile long walk to the truck because of the protective properties of the chaps.

There were definitely hard times. If it rained, the crew couldn't work which meant a day with no money.

At times, the saw mill would cut quota or stop taking loads all together, leading to my dad's crew being temporarily laid off until things opened back up again. In these times, he would help a friend out spraying houses by climbing under them in tight spaces filled with snakes, spiders, and more often than one would like, families of skunks.

During many months out of the year, there was just enough money to keep the house and pay the AP&L bill so the electricity could run another month, but hunting, fishing and a well-managed garden shared among five families were typically relied upon to provide the bulk of the food.

However, as tough as it all was, my dad kept a happy demeanor. He had his family, church, and Arkansas basketball to bring positivity into his life. The Razorbacks played with the tough, never give up attitude he and the people around him brought to their general lives, and it paid off with more nights like the one Arkansas experienced this past Wednesday than disappointment.

There were times the team wasn't as talented, so, despite how hard they worked and tried to the bitter end, it just didn't work out. He was OK with that because he knew that sometimes, no matter how much you put into it, the odds are stacked against you and life wins.

So long as he saw that relentless effort needed to make sure there were no reasons that could be put forth for a closer game or a win, he was pleased with the Razorbacks and they made his day-to-day life better. However, all that went away last season.

Players stopped giving it their all, a trend that frustratingly continued into this season, breaking the hearts of a lot of fans. Losing they can stomach, but not giving maximum effort isn't taken well.

Hustle, grit and fight are qualities the people of this state know can still pull out a win when the shots of life aren't falling. It's baked into their DNA.

That's why so many fans were openly frustrated that once this team showed it understood that lesson for at least a half against Georgia and saw the fruits of that type of attitude and approach, John Calipari and his team chose to attempt to gaslight them. Even before SEC play began, fans grumbled about what they perceived to be overpaid mercenaries who lacked the heart and effort needed to reflect the state and the program.

They didn't see hustle or fight on the court. They saw players going through the motions looking like they just wanted to get to the next game and the next check.

It wasn't Razorbacks basketball, and that was the overwhelming perception of the fan base. It was clearly shown by the record-low lack of support given even by the few fans who bothered to continue to show at Bud Walton Arena.

Had the messaging afterward simply been about seeing the fruit of playing hard, having a never quit attitude and making a conscious decision to no longer let teams punk them or people to believe they are soft, it would have been a message that fully had Arkansas fans ready to jump back into the fray. Instead, what led off the message was a long list of excuses and a claim the players have been giving it their best effort from beginning to end and it just not working out until Wednesday night.

The people of Arkansas have a specific saying about excuses that isn't fit to print in a family publication. Just know it involves things stinking and they don't take well to them.

As for trying to gaslight them, many took it as an insult. It dampened what was an uplifting moment.

Arkansans know better than anyone what fighting through adversity looks like. They know what it means to leave it all on the floor.

They've seen less talented teams do it over and over, earning their respect despite the losses. Calipari's Hogs didn't have the respect of the people of Arkansas because they specifically weren't giving it their all from an effort standpoint.

The hope among the fan base is the lesson will be learned. No longer will they have to watch this team go through the motions and waste its talent by not showing the heart and grit to overcome when nothing else is going right.

For one half, the fans in the arena showered this team with the respect reserved for true Razorbacks. They've made it clear they want to continue to do that if the players want to show they deserve it.

Life is better in Arkansas when the basketball team plays like a reflection of the tough, gritty people of this state. For people like my dad and that elementary math teacher, hopefully this is a lesson learned.

The excuses can be left where they belong and there won't be a need to try to convince people Arkansas attempted to play hard from beginning to end. If so, this is going to be a much greater experience for both sides of the Arkansas basketball equation.

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