Arkansas’ football and basketball teams have entered that time of year where everything temporarily slows down.
The men’s basketball team beat Delaware State on Monday night and don’t play again until next Wednesday (Dec. 16). The football team has stepped away from the practice field for a few days, too. It’s all because of final exams, which begin tomorrow and run through next week.
The Arkansas basketball team will practice during the stretch, though. Coach John Pelphrey gave his team Tuesday and Wednesday off, but said they’ll be back on the floor in between final exams Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The classroom is the biggest emphasis right now.
“We get to kind of clear our mind from basketball right now and focus on academics and knock a semester’s worth of work out of the way and improve our standing instead of letting it slip,” Pelphrey said after Monday’s win. “And then go back and try to get better here once we get school out of the way and just focus on basketball and try to continue to improve and get better.”
The same can be said for the football program, which has three days off, will practice once, then spend three more days away from the field before getting back together full-time on Dec. 16. It will be the first of seven practices in eight days before the Hogs break for Christmas on Dec. 23.
Arkansas defensive tackle Malcolm Sheppard said the first two bowl workouts — when half of Arkansas’ coaching staff was on the road recruiting — wasn’t as intense as he thought. But the senior expects the intensity to kick up when the Razorbacks get through the semester.
“It hasn’t been too tough here yet, here, for this bowl game,” Sheppard said. “I guess with finals going on we’re not going to kick it off until next week.”
I’m using the slow time to step away for a few days as well. The good news: I’m leaving the bitter cold here tomorrow and heading to sunny and warm Orlando for a long weekend. The bad: I won’t be updating here on the blog or on Twitter (although there could be a occasional message).
Keep checking ArkansasNews.com for stories, though. We’ll still have plenty of content while I’m gone.
