Thus far in the season, it looks like Mike has the best starting 5 he’s had at Arkansas. With the emergence of Adrio, there aren’t any multiple weaknesses in any one of the 5. The obvious star (despite Joe’s shooting) is our All American center, Gafford. Joe has a chance to set all time 3-point shooting records for the Hogs, and has shown flashes of being a very good defender. Jones is the glue guy who is 2nd in nearly every statistical category on the team, 3-point shooting, rebounding, assists, and steals. These last 3-4 games, Harris has become exactly what this team needs, an honest-to-god true PG. Very quietly, he has also become our top free throw shooter (.815), which is so important for a PG in crunch time. Adrio has improved as much as any player I’ve seen during Mike’s tenure. He’s quietly assumed the role of the team leader.
After saying all that, unfortunately, at this point in the season, it looks like he has his weakest bench since his first year here. The bench is very young, so hopefully, 2 or 3 can emerge as stand-out bench players. For the team to take that next step to a top 15-20 team, the bench has to provide more help. If that doesn’t happen, Mike may have to pull back on his “fastest 40 minutes” to get the full value of this outstanding starting five.
This could be a bit premature, as we’ve only played 6 games and we’ve seen Mike’s teams look like world beaters in pre-SEC games, then crash and burn early in the SEC season. So far, the one stand-out weakness of this group, is what we had the last 2 years, just 2 really good 3-point shooters. Fortunately, those 2 (Joe and Jones)are great shooters, averaging .462 and .452 respectively, on 3’s. I’m more excited about this team than I have any of the teams since Mikes been here.