The Good: This was a complete team win. Yes, some players stood out like Barford, Gafford, and Jones, but 10 players scored in this game for Arkansas. Add on, there were 23 assists in this game. The defense was decent and made crucial stops to continue pulling away from Minnesota.
The Bad: Sporadic energy level. Most of the game we were full of energy but we had bouts of laziness.
The Ugly: The officiating! They were awful on both sides, but the telling fact is 37 FT’s for Minnesota and 13 for Arkansas. A 24 free throw difference!!! That’s ridiculous!!! If it wasn’t for this HUGE difference, Arkansas would have destroyed Minnesota. Instead, we only beat them 16.
It was a good complete game GH. There were times when the energy level dropped but it appeared to be the team that was on the floor at the time. I must give CMA credit, he didn’t let it continue very long. I know once I thought he should sit Macon for a short period to get his head straight and bingo he did it. I like to see him coach on the sideline. He pulled several guys out tonight when they made bonehead mistakes but he went back to them later. There is improvement to be had and they will need it when league play starts.
The energy was fantastic from the start til the end… You could tell the Razorbacks had fire in their eyes after last yr’s game. BWA was the best it’s been in yrs, great atmosphere. The officiating was terrible though, I agree. Free throw shooting sucked, we will lose games, if that doesn’t improve. The team distributed the ball excellent though, Rebounding not great, but adequate. Macon dished the ball awesome last night, I know his shooting was off a little, but he sparked a lot of guys with his passes. CJ Jones is our best player, his j-shot is as smooth as it gets… Okay, they worked their way out of that hole they created in Houston, now lets keep going…
Troy is a really good team, Chuck Person’s son Wesley plays on that team, and they almost went up into Lexington and came out of there with a win. This will be as tough of a game as tonight was, maybe more, because even though it’s in NLR, it’s not the home court. Wesley is a sure first round prospect in the NBA draft, it will be interesting to see how our NBA prospects, Macon and Barford match-up with the real thing, live an in person… Troy rebounds very well also, Hicks and Varnado both rebound at a high level… Tough game in NLR…
Overall a nice win, team shows tremendous potential but we have to get better defensively. We are doing to much reaching and not enough of sliding our feet and staying in a defensive position. If we up the ante on defense we will be a force, defense is a mind set that has to be developed. Best opportunity Arkansas has had in years I believe to make a good run! WPS
I’m excited. The depth is really showing up this year. When Gafford went down I had a bad feeling but Cook and Thompson filled in nicely and we would have won without him returning. This is our deepest team in a while and Mike is rotating in such a way that the other team has trouble cutting the lead to single digits. Now, I have no idea what happened at Houston other than running into a buzz saw but hopefully that was our worst game of the year.
Watching that game, I felt like Houston could do no wrong. They couldn’t miss a shot. Their shooting percentage was something like 56% at the half with a high 3-pt percentage as well.
I think that Houston team, on that night, would have beaten probably 7 of the top 10 teams.
I do, however, also think it was a good lesson with a steep price. We got punched in the mouth early and could not find a way back to competitiveness–and it showed in our body language as well. I’m sure the young guys on this team do not want to experience that again. I’d be shocked if we get run out of a building again this year.
I agree, but it’s hard to consistently play with energy when there’s no flow to the game. College basketball needs to reevaluate the refing style sooner rather than later.
As for the gameplay, I was impressed that we could show up like that even with Macon’s bad shooting night. Once others show how dangerous they are he will get more open looks.
Gafford played well, and I know he’s all the talk at the moment, but CJ is something else, and he’s far from reaching his ceiling. Can’t wait to see what’s next with his development(hopefully improvement on defense).
Long break between Minny and Troy and in Little Rock. We always play down in Little Rock, but with a lot of these kids being from that area I think theyll show out.