Razorbacks set for showdown with No. 1 seed Gonzaga
Arkansas will look for a Sweet Sixteen upset against Bulldogs
arkansasrazorbacks.com FAYETTEVILLE — Fourth place in the SEC/ fourth-seeded in the West Regional Arkansas plays with underdog house money against West topseed/ national No. 1 Gonzaga in Thursday’s West Regional semifinals at the Chase Center in San Francisco.
Tip-off is 6 p.m. and televised by CBS also televising later Thursday at Chase the West semifinal between No. 2 seed Duke and 3-seed Texas Tech.
Thursday’s winners meet Saturday in San Francisco advancing the West champion to the Final Four in New Orleans.
Las Vegas oddsmakers install Gonzaga’s 28-3 Bulldogs, often called Zags, as 9.5 favorites advancing beyond the 27-8 Razorbacks Thursday.
“Nobody is talking about Arkansas even having a chance in this game,” Arkansas coach Eric Musselman said. “I’ve got two good eyes and my internet works really good, and I haven’t found anybody that’s even giving us a chance to even be in the same arena with Gonzaga.” Musselman and his Razorbacks are exceptions. Imagine there are others, too.
In a 68-team, four regions tournament pared to 16 minus two of the four No.
1 regional seeds and No. 2 seed/SEC runner-up Kentucky knocked out in the first round by 15thseeded St. Peter’s, nothing seems a given.
In fact the West is the lone regional with its top four seeds in the Sweet 16 intact. Barely.
Arkansas had to claw to the finish in Buffalo, New York, to subdue 13-seed Vermont, 75-71 and by 53-48 over New Mexico State, the 12-surprise stunning fifth-seeded UConn in the first round game.
It took coach Mark Few’s Spokane, Washingtonbased Zags until the final 10-minutes to subdue 16-seed Georgia State by a deceptive, 93-72, in their first round game at Portland, Oregon.
In Round Two at Portland, the Zags trailed the Memphis Tigers by 10 at half before escaping, 82-78. They were rescued by 6-foot-10 All-American Drew Timme scoring 21 of his 25 points in the second half while totaling 14 rebounds and point guard Andrew Nembhard sinking four free throws in the final 25 seconds.
“The way we came out fighting in the second half I thought it was more who we are,” Few said post Memphis. “These guys have had better nights at the free-throw line (13 of 24). Thank God we have Andrew.”
And Timme, on a roll, scored 32 points with 13 rebounds against Georgia State.
Add 7-foot freshman All-American Chet Holmgren, second in scoring at 14.2 and deadly on 3-pointers at 40 of 102, and leading Gonzaga’s rebounders, 9.8 and shot-blockers, 115, and guards Julian Strawther, 11.8 scoring and Bolton Riser, 11.2 scoring hitting 62 of 132 treys, to junior All-American Timme, 18.2 points and 6.7 rebonds and former Florida point guard Nembhard, 12.0 points and 181 assists, and you have the nation’s best most cohesive starting five.
“They present a lot of problems,” Musselman said. “That’s why they’re the number one seed. They have a potential lottery pick in Holmgren. Timme has been as good as any interior player in the entire country. Those two run a great high-low game together.”
Musselman didn’t stop there.
“Nembhard’s one of the smartest point guards in college basketball,” Musselman said. “He’s really improved as a 3-point shooter. “Strawther, they bring him off screens, he’s got deep, deep range, he can catch and shoot with
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Photo courtesy of the Arkansas Razorbacks 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.
