RAZORBACKS (cont.)
quickness. Bolton, is a really good, really good 3-point shooter who’s got good range, and they come off the bench with (6-8 forward Anton) Watson who can play multiple positions.”
Few has more than a few concerns about Arkansas.
Especially, Few said, how well Musselman’s men play defense.
Offensively, if he can stay out of foul trouble, Arkansas senior guard JD Notae, 18.4 points per game, can explode with the best inside and outside and as a distributor. Grad transfer Stanley Umude, 20 points against Vermont, also has excelled inside and out.
Sophomore 6-10 center Jaylin Williams, along with Notae and sixth man sophomore guard Devo Davis integral returnees from the Razorbacks 25-7 Elite Eight team of last year, has established himself as a charge-taking defensive bulwark who can also score and assist.
Au’Diese Toney, the grad transfer 6-6 guard-forward, is among the nation’s most versatile defenders who can guard a point guard to a power forward.
Little 5-7 guard Chris Lykes sometimes gets on a big roll off the bench.
It would seem against the big Zags that Musselman needs more from 6-6 starting grad transfer Trey Wade. Wade played just over six minutes against New Mexico State, supplanted by Davis and Lykes.
“Trey Wade is one of our highest graders in doing all the intangibles,” Musselman said. “We went small last game during stretches because we wanted to pressure the ball and felt like we needed to cause some turnovers which obviously we did. Trey is more of a disciplined defender. He’s more of a guy that guards his guy and is a great weak-side help defender and gives us physicality. So in the last game, there was nothing that he did wrong. It was more us just trying to become a little bit more pressure-oriented.”
In his third Arkansas year, the NCAA Tournament was canceled his first year because of the covid pandemic, Musselman has taken Arkansas to two Sweet 16s all the way to last year’s Elite 8.
Few has zigged the Zags to 7 consecutive Sweet 16s.
Last year’s 31-1 Zags didn’t lose until the national championship game against the Baylor Bears. The same Baylor Bears beat Arkansas in last year’s Elite 8, but this year one of the two No. 1 seeds were eliminated.
