Fayetteville, Arkansas – Are the Arkansas Razorbacks the bad guys now?
The room when security guard Anthony Black turned to a Vanderbilt bench, made a sad face, and made a crying motion not once but twice after escaping from what should have been clearly technical. It was a discussion at
“I don’t know who I want to root for right now,” one fan quipped before finally leaving the room.
After watching things unfold in the first half of the Arkansas-Vanderbilt game on Saturday afternoon, there were many such confrontations at home and online.
Arkansas was a team that had to face the perception of being soft on the court, both physically and mentally, and the SEC team picked up on the idea. As a result, opponents have played them rough and spent a lot of time joing, especially against Black.
Razorback fans openly want to fight tougher to more accurately replicate the attitudes of people across the state that the jersey represents. That’s what Black did in starting the chain of events that came to be.
With less than a minute left, Black knocked down a layup and fouled Arkansas to make it 37-32.
An emotional response of excitement and determination was guaranteed. Instead, Black stepped forward a few times to his right, so he stood over Quentin Milora Brown, looked down at him, and started talking crap in an attempt to embarrass Milora Brown on national television. I was.
This is something Black has done before and doesn’t seem to be addressed.
Vanderbilt’s Ezra Munjong pushed Black, who was standing over his teammates, in anger at what was being done. That’s why Razorback guard DaVonte Davis didn’t seem to see Black deliberately put himself on top of Milora Brown and went to his teammate’s defense.
What Davis did is completely within what Arkansas fans would normally tolerate for Razorback player behavior.
The look on his face was dangerous. Davis legitimately intended to hurt Manjong, and it would have been all bad if the referee hadn’t intervened between the two.
Arkansas Razorbacks’ DaVonte Davis (4) and Vanderbilt Commodores’ Ezra Mungeon (5) had to pull away after a first half play at the Memorial Gymnasium. (Christopher Hawinkel/USA TODAY Sports)
He may be the smallest on the floor and probably has the friendliest personality of anyone on the team, but he’s also the last Razorback anyone should dare to mess with.
Black’s attempt to insult another human being was bad enough, but if Davis was expelled or criminally charged for what he was trying to do in Black’s defense, it was inexcusable. I guess.
Shortly after, Black verbally chased the Vanderbilt coach, who duly saved Black from himself by pulling him out of the scrum of players.
Black’s intimidation tactics were embarrassing, but if they had stopped there, they could have dealt with them after the game. But what he did next deserved to be on the bench right away.
Halfway through shooting the free throw, Black turned to the Vanderbilt bench, put on his best sad face, and began to run his hand over the international symbol of a crying baby. It included an overzealous Jerry Stackhouse, who had just received a technical for exploding with the idea that a player had received a technical foul when he went down Scott-free.
Vanderbilt head coach Jerry Stackhouse said the umpire would call the players technicals instead of Arkansas guard Anthony Black during the first-half altercation against Arkansas at the Memorial Gymnasium. (George Walker IV/USA TODAY Sports)
Black followed up with a series of classless actions by staring at Vanderbilt’s bench and making the crying motion again.
Arkansas coach Eric Musselman is forgiven for not addressing this during the game.
From there, it’s hard to say that Black intentionally stepped over Milora Brown. We also couldn’t see what Black was doing to the Vanderbilt bench.
This whole chain of events mimics the dynamic of elementary school students trying to do the same thing in return for children they think might be weak.
Even if it’s culturally accepted, Arkansas isn’t good enough to try and show them by standing above their people. I smell a man standing up and screaming with his chest pounding.
It’s already frustrating to hear commentators constantly stating how highly rated these players are each game, and how they’re all NBA draft picks.
Adding classless bravery to piling up losses and underwhelming performance is not a formula for success.
play hard.
Show energy.
Don’t let the team push you.
Block out noise.
Represent Arkansas with grit and class.
That’s the Razorback way.
And today it was not.
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