Spending a teacher's salary on a hobby and eating a sandwich the size of a 10-gallon hat

Just having myself a nice little Wednesday

One week ago today, the Razorback Foundation sent out an email to all basketball season ticket holders. It’s something they had been planning for 3 years. They are completely reseating Bud Walton Arena for men’s basketball games.

It doesn’t matter how long you’ve had your seats or how much money you give. Everyone will now be ranked based on their priority points and then go in order to pick their new seats later this summer.

But there’s one caveat to that statement. If you join the newly created Broyles-Matthews Diamond donor level you can keep your current seats or be guaranteed courtside or equivalent seats.

I’d like to meet the fella that was on the fence about doing this until he saw he was getting a lapel pin.

In my opinion this was just terrible timing. Arkansas’ pre-season hype and big spending on new head coach John Calipari and a roster full of future NBA players were a bust. They were just 1-6 in conference play.

And the Foundation had already taxed the fans by charging more for concessions and merchandise to help raise money for the NIL profit sharing that begins on July 1. Why couldn’t they wait until next year when we were winning?

But then we did the improbable, we got just our 2nd Quad 1 win of the year against #12 Kentucky on Saturday. And we didn’t just win. We dominated.

I butchered the Tiger Woods quote, “Winning solves everything.” And I wasn’t serious, but the winning part is true. As George Steinbrenner said, “Winning is the most important thing in my life, after breathing. Breathing first, winning next.”

And just like that attitudes have changed. According to a source at the Foundation, they have sold 56 Diamond donors in the first week. Their goal is to get 125 at that level. 49 of those increased their donation by $20k to move up from Broyles-Matthews Platinum, 4 of those increased their donation by $30 to move up from Broyles-Matthews Gold, and 3 of those are first time donors.

If they hit their goal, they think that about half of the Broyles-Matthews Silver donors ($5,000-9,999) will be forced to sit in the upper deck. Basketball is now a rich man’s sport.

So what’s next for the hoopin’ Hogs? A good ol’ Sandwich Game.

We have the opportunity for 2 Quad 1 wins in one week with a sleepy road game in between. If we eat the whole sandwich we will likely go from basketball obscurity to being ranked in the top 25. With the upset of #12 Kentucky behind us, all we have to do is beat Texas and #3 Alabama. Sounds easy right?

In the 1770’s John Motagu was an English nobleman more known for his gambling habits than successful leadership. According to historian David Blackmore, “Seldom has any man held so many offices and accomplished so little."

And yet, we still reference this man inadvertently almost everyday. You see, when Motagu was riding a heater at the card table he would refuse to get up and leave to go have a proper meal. Instead, he would order his servants to bring him “slices of meat between two slices of bread".” And since his official title as governmental leader of the county seat in the city of Sandwich located in Kent County, England was the Earl of Sandwich, other gamblers began ordering “I’ll have a Sandwich, too.”

I wonder how famous I’d have to be and what weird creation I could come up with to be known as a "sheridan”. Maybe I should start small like John Rausch of Rausch Coleman Homes who got the “Big John” added to Wrights BBQ menus.

Kentucky was the top toast or upper-bun (that sounds kind of dirty but I’m sticking with it).

Tejas is the filling. So maybe I should have called it a torta game or taco game (is a taco a sandwich?).

Tonight the 13-8 Arkansas Razorbacks head to Austin, Texas, to face the 15-7 Texas Longhorns. Texas is favored by 7.5 points and ESPN analytics give them a 79.1% chance of winning the game.But if the team is in fact trending up and the Kentucky game wasn’t a fluke, this is a winnable game.

#3 Alabama would thus be the bottom bun on Saturday in Fayetteville.

So how are we going to eat this sandwich? Put some mustard on it.

When someone urges you to put some mustard on it, they want you to add some energy and vigor. It’s a reference to the sharp flavor of a spicy and acidic mustard, and has a long history in baseball. According to Baseball Almanac it means, “To reach back for a little extra velocity on a fastball.”

Several months back one of my group chats fired up debating which condiment is the best. There was a healthy discussion on whether gravy or cheese dip counted as condiments. Chick-fil-a sauce and A1 were named by brand while things like ranch, ketchup, and mustard were just referenced generically. But with a 4-1 vote, mustard won.

What’s our mustard?

Defensive intensity and a rotation of players that are willing to put it all on the line.

Looking at the difference in our 3 big wins this year (Kansas exhibition, Michigan, and Kentucky), the team just looked and felt different. We played lock-down, in-your-face defense, helped, trapped, and blocked shots.

We let the defense fuel easy transition points. And that level of intensity wears out the opposing team, too. So they are just a step slower when trying to defend us on the other end, which leads to less contested shots and a higher field goal percentage.

What allowed us to just turn up the D in those games? We played the right guys. Brazile and Aidoo played about half their season average minutes against Michigan and Kentucky and were out with injuries against Kansas. Karter Knox, DJ Wagner, and Big Z all play above their season average in minutes.

Maybe that’s a rotation that can serve as our secret sauce.

There it is. A glorious sandwich sitting right in front of us. It’s the bologna sandwich from Turkey and the Wolf that caused it to be ranked the best restaurant in the United States. And it’s right there in front of us (and for some reason we ate the top slice of bread first and are now staring at an open-faced sammie).

To use another catch phrase from baseball made popular by the 90’s movies Rookie of the Year and Tincup, for the Razorbacks Basketball team, it’s time to let it eat.

“Letting it eat is just going out there and letting everything go, giving it all you've got, not holding anything back,” said Astros catcher Jason Castro.

That’s all we are asking for as fans: a little effort. You want our money and we just want you to want to win more than we do. We can make this arrangement work.

-WPS