Fatigue makes cowards of everyone.
Sprinters trying to go a route race with distance horses.
So many different sayings went through the mind in the University of Arkansas' 85-68 win over Colgate in the first round of the NCAA Tournament that it would be impossible to use all of them.
Bottom line: Defense is why the Razorbacks won and advanced to a game Sunday against Texas Tech.
Yes, Justin Smith came up huge for the Hogs in his homecoming.
Smith transferred to Arkansas from Indiana, and Friday he showed off. The only thing missing was a parade.
Smith, who graduated from IU in three years, scored 29 points, grabbed 13 rebounds and more importantly he had 5 steals.
Arkansas' pressure defense, when applied correctly, can crush a team.
Friday, it crushed the Raiders, who didn't get a shot in the last 5:26 of the first half and managed only 10 points, four of them on free throws, in the final 8:41.
When they hit the wall, they did it head first.
The Raiders suffered 22 turnovers, 13 of those were steals (JD Notae had three), and the Hogs cashed in for 34 points off turnovers.
The last time a Razorback team played defense that well, Nolan Richardson was patrolling the sidelines.
It was pure Hawgball.
More than that, it was fun to watch.
Colgate is a nice team and can really shoot the three, and they managed 12 of 27. There are teams in this tournament they could beat.
Arkansas was a bad match-up for them.
The Raiders didn't have the stamina or the toughness to overcome the constant challenge of the Razorbacks' defense, whose hands would make a pickpocket jealous.
The Hogs were in their faces, and they read the Raiders' offense like they had been in team meetings with Colgate.
The Raiders didn't see anything close to the Razorbacks this season, playing five Patriot League teams.
While Smith was shining like a fresh-cut diamond, the win was a team victory.
Five players scored in double figures, and five had at least one steal.
The Raiders came out and threw a scare into the Hogs, bolting to a 14-point lead before Eric Musselman seriously reminded his team to tighten up.
That lead disappeared faster than the last cupcake at a Boy Scout rally.
As the game ended, the announcers said Seth Davis, a CBS analyst, had once again fired up a team.
Davis picked Colgate over Arkansas, and of course Musselman texted him.
Davis was part of the studio show during the Hogs' game but didn't say much after the game.
Since the days when Richardson was talking about fatigue and cowards at Arkansas, the Razorbacks were 3-5 in NCAA Tournaments and had been left out more times than they were invited to dance.
Now the Hogs will take on Texas Tech, which is the exact opposite what the Hogs faced in Colgate, which like the Razorbacks, like a fast tempo.
Coach Chris Beard, who spent a year as the head coach at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and took the Trojans to the NCAA Tournament and beat Purdue, learned his basketball under Bob Knight and Tom Penders.
The common ground with Musselman is defense comes first.
Beard likes games to be in the 60s.
He despises zones but will most likely throw one on the Razorbacks.
The pace he prefers is slow and deliberate. His favorite animal is probably the turtle because in the story, The Tortoise and the Hare, the turtle beat the rabbit.
Beard is an excellent coach.
So is Musselman, and Sunday's game will have a clash of the minds, as each uses all he knows to try to get to the Sweet 16.
The game will be determined, though, by the players and which ones dictate the tempo.