Bobby Portis [Had] a Shot at Greatest Junior Season In Razorback History

How could you not stay? @BPortistime @Mr_WALKONAIR pic.twitter.com/5qoQitZNp5

— Tanner Wagner (@tdw_1) April 12, 2015

Without question, Corliss Williamson had the greatest sophomore season in Arkansas Razorback basketball history. No other Arkansas player may ever match his quad-fecta accomplishment of 1) SEC Player of the Year  2) Second Team All-American 3) National Champion and 4) Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA Tournament. While knocking out the last two deeds, though, Big Nasty might could have left the door open for his protege, Bobby Portis, to surpass him in junior year greatness.

In the 1994 NCAA championship game against Duke, Williamson broke his left, nonshooting wrist, an injury that wasn’t detected until a month later. This meant Williamson couldn’t lift the weights he’d thrived on since high school. For the first time since fifth grade, he didn’t play full-time in the summer, as sportswriter Paul McMullen wrote in 1995:

Williamson sat at home last summer and got fat. There was a day in his honor in Russellville, Ark., and many Big Nasty Combo Platters at a family restaurant owned by cousins. All those bacon cheeseburgers, fries and sodas added 40 pounds to a 6-foot-7 frame that is at its best when he weighs 245. Even if I didn’t have a cast on my hand, I was going to rest last summer,” said Williamson, who withdrew from the U.S. Goodwill Games team, “but I wasn’t able to develop my game at the pace I wanted. That hindered me a little early in the season…

It showed. In an early season matchup with John Calipari’s Massachusetts, Minuteman forward Lou Roe ate up “Big Nasty” in a 104-80 romp by the Minutemen. Roe had 34 points and 15 rebounds, Williamson 15 and seven. “He had been embarrassed before a national television audience,” McMullen wrote.

In the end, as you see below, Williamson’s junior year numbers slightly decreased from the year before:

Via basketball-reference.com

This kind of dip is would have been unlikely from Portis, who in terms of individual stats has had the greatest first two seasons season at Arkansas since Williamson, as the numbers below show:

Comparison: Corliss Williamson and Bobby Portis through 34 games in their sophomore seasons (CW’s year ended at 34): pic.twitter.com/JiT2t329kp

— HogStats.com (@HogStats) March 16, 2015

Portis has partially matched his long-time mentor by securing an SEC Player of the Year award and second-team All American honors as a sophomore. Williamson’s slow start in 1994-95, combined with the increased double and triple teams he saw, gives Portis a shot at surpassing Big Nasty in terms of junior year production.

Barring injury, the prediction here is Portis likely averages around 19 points and nine rebounds next season. With the addition of a star recruit Jimmy Whitt and Ted Kapita, along with the addition of transfer Dusty Hannahs and development of Anton Beard, he would not face would not have faced as much triple-teaming as a junior as Williamson did.

If Portis soon declares he is returning, If Portis had returned, he would have immediately become a front-runner for numerous 2015-16 national player of the year awards. There are six such major awards, and no Razorback has ever won one. He would also likely battle have likely battled the likes of LSU’s Ben Simmons and Gonzaga’s Kyle Wiltjer for a spot on the  AP’s first-team All American team – which would be a notch up from Williamson’s junior year repeat of second team.

[OK, by now you get that I originally wrote this before Portis announced his decision to go pro. That should explain the language in the rest of the piece]

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