Bobby Portis Discusses How He Could Have Helped Arkansas Against Syracuse

Courtesy Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Last night I had a good interview with Razorback signee Bobby Portis, whom ESPN has ranked the nation’s 12th best senior. The 6-10 Portis plays for Little Rock Hall High, and a glance down his Twitter feed shows there are plenty Razorback fans who likely wish he’d skip his senior season altogether and join Arkansas for SEC play (a la Jarnell Stokes at Tennesse last season).

This won’t happen, but it’s fun to imagine.

Portis himself can’t help imagining how he could help this year’s batch of Hogs as he cheers them on. Last Friday night, he watched the Hogs fall 91-82 to No. 6 – ranked Syracuse and said he thought he could have used his size and quickness to neutralize the rangy, long athletes who comprise Syracuse’s famed zone defense:

Syracuse’s zone was just killing us. I think I could have flashed to the high post and knocked a couple jumpers down to make [the defenders] come up and then that would have opened up driving lanes for B.J. [Young] and Ky [Madden]  to drive to the hole and stuff like that.”

It’s hard to argue Portis could contribute right away. Last summer, he took an unofficial visit to the Fayetteville campus and scrimmaged on a team including Kikko Haydar, Rickey Scott, Michael Qualls and Anthlon Bell. That team played against teams composed of other Hogs excluding Marshawn Powell,  who was recovering from injury. Portis recalls his team going 5-0.

A more detailed Q&A with Portis will publish in the Dec. 19th issue of Sync magazine