Ingram pleased by crowd

Real Deal in the Rock founder Bill Ingram said Friday night’s crowd at P.A.R.K. was “historic.”

Ingram said more than 3,000 basketball fans found their way into the Geyer Springs Road gymnasium Friday night and another 300 fans were turned away at the door.

“I thought it was a history-making event [Friday] night,” Ingram said. “The crowd was at an all-time high. We had the governor [Asa Hutchinson] and two former senators here. We had current Razorback players, future Razorback players. I’ve never seen anything like that in summer basketball.”

A standing-room-only crowd was there to see a group of five future University of Arkansas, Fayetteville players and 6-7 forward Zion Williamson, who plays for the South Carolina Supreme. Williamson is rated as the top player in the country for 2018 and he has been offered scholarships by 27 Division I programs, according to ESPN.

Ninety minutes before the Arkansas Hawks tipped off with the Dallas Pacers on Friday night, all of the gymnasium’s seats were taken.

Ingram said Williamson is regarded as the best high school player to come along since LeBron James.

“The craziest thing to me was when the crowd went nuts when Zion Williamson missed a dunk during the warmups,” Ingram said. “I’ve never seen a crowd react to a missed dunk like that. The fans were ‘oohing’ and ‘awwing’ over a missed dunk. To me, that’s the funniest thing that happened. But I thought he lived up to his billing during the game. His talent level is off the charts.”