LITTLE ROCK — Marshawn Powell is a trip.
Going into last season’s SEC Tournament, the true freshman declared he was going to be more of a leader.
That the team needed more leadership.
In front of a sparse crowd - the late game on opening day will never be thought of as prime time - the Arkansas Razorbacks promptly lost to Georgia, which would finish the season 14-17.
Fast-forward almost a year to Monday, when Powell was asked if he had been providing the promised leadership.
Not until the team reported back after Christmas break, he said, because of his slow start due to a broken foot.
If he actually provided leadership it was probably closer to New Year’s since he was suspended from the Dec. 29 game. Great leaders are seldom suspended for breaking team rules.
Then he dropped the bombshell that he would not comment on whether he has a strained relationship with Coach John Pelphrey.
Pelphrey, who couldn’t be on a hotter seat if he were sitting on a full flame Viking stove in the Mojave Desert,didn’t need that.
The program and school didn’t need that.
The fans, especially those who have remained incredibly loyal to the program, if not Pelphrey, by attending the games, didn’t need that.
Does anyone ever remember such a thing happening during Eddie Sutton’s or Nolan Richardson’s tenure?
No, and you can bet your grandma’s cornbread recipe they had players who didn’t like them.
None, though, would have ever refused in a news conference to endorse the head coach. Maybe out of respect, maybe out of fear, or maybe out of both, they would have waited until the end of the season to refuse to comment.
What Powell didn’t say was almost as surprising as the fact that he was one of the players selected for the news conference.
Powell is a trip, and the coaches know that.
There is no way to spin this or do damage control. No matter what is said now, at the moment of truth, the truth was Powell didn’t want to talk about whether he had a strained relationship with Pelphrey.
From this point on the belief will be they have a problem, which is a problem for the UA in several ways, including that the Razorbacks basketball program cannot afford more transfers.
Basketball has teetered recently on the edge of losing a scholarship because of the Academic Progress Report.
Out of Pelphrey’s first three recruiting classes, seven out of 16 players transferred, and that doesn’t include Courtney Fortson, who left early to pursue professional basketball.
Those kind of numbers take a heavy toll, and the APR might have something to do with why Jemal Farmer is still on the team after allegedly quitting.
At least two current players have reportedly tweeted about being unhappy at Arkansas, and Powell was one of those.
Now Powell passed on a chance to give his coach some relief from the heat.
That is not a rumor. That is a fact.
Yet, there haven’t been this many rumors in the athletic department since Houston Nutt’s last season as the head football coach.
Where there is this much smoke, there has to be some fire.
What John Pelphrey needs is to find a way to use what Powell didn’t say to motivate the Razorbacks enough to get a victory over his alma mater tonight.
That might stop a some of the rumors that Powell seemed to endorse by being a trip.
Sports, Pages 19 on 02/23/2011