Coach Bryan Hodgson didn’t waste time eating the frog at Monday afternoon’s press conference. “Obviously, everyone is aware of the situation that came of this weekend with three of our guys. Clearly this does not represent the culture we want to have for our program and what our program is about. I’m disappointed in what’s occurred. We’re going to work through the matter internally, handle discipline internally. We’ll navigate through this and get to the bottom of it.”

Coach Hodgson was referring to the troika of A-State men’s basketball players arrested early Saturday evening for lifting $278.91 worth of merchandise from a Jonesboro Walmart. The three student athletes involved were A-State returners Terrence Ford, Julian Lual, and recent portal transfer Dyondre Dominguez. The crime is a misdemeanor, with punishment to be doled out by the state at a future date. Meanwhile, Hodgson wasn’t forthcoming with what punishment the three players will face within the program. “As of this moment, they are still Red Wolves,” he said.

And as of that moment, the team had just met for an hour-long workout, apparently with everyone* in attendance. “Whether your agree with it or not,” said Hodgson, “sometimes sending a kid back to their apartment or dorm room to watch TV or play video games might not be the best way to discipline them. Sometimes requiring them to be at things and to face other people in the room can be more of a learning experience.”

With that, Coach Hodgson discussed the schedule, which is still a work in progress, though an away game with Iowa is set for November 17. The heavily bearded coach also revealed he was in talks with Penny Hardaway at Memphis, where a game between the two programs may one day materialize soon. Overall, the coach suggested that the non-con would be tough to better ready the team for a difficult Sun Belt schedule.

“I think you’ll see you’ll be happy with our schedule,” hinted Hodgson. “It’s hard to get quality opponents at home. We’ll have at least one or two NCAA Tournament caliber opponents here. I think you’re going to see Arkansas State basketball play one of the toughest schedules we’ve seen in the last ten or fifteen years. I’m a firm believer that you need to test yourself in the non-conference to prepare yourself for the Sun Belt, which is an extremely strong league.”

He went on to talk about his new assistant coach additions, including Logan Ingram and Derek Rongstad – two young talents pulled from Alabama. “I think Alabama will be okay,” quipped Hodgson. Coach Hodgson also dove deep into his passion of analytics, discussing some of his processes.

Meanwhile, Hodgson was most interested in getting to know his players these next eight weeks. “You saw that Connecticut won the NCAA Championship in April,” said Hodgson. “But it was really won in the summer. So really the work starts now.”

Photo Credit: Mine

*The workout did not include one unnamed transfer player still acquiring credits from his former school