Razorbacks set to take on Golden Gophers
FAYETTEVILLE - Like the Houston Cougars last Saturday avenging last year’s loss against the Arkansas Razorbacks in Fayetteville by annihilating Arkansas in Houston, the Razorbacks tonight in Fayetteville seek to avenge last season’s loss suffered to the Minnesota Golden Gophers in Minneapolis.
Coach Mike Anderson’s 6-2 Razorbacks of the SEC and coach Richard Pitino’s 8-2 nationally 14th-ranked Golden Gophers of the Big Ten clash at 5:45 p.m. at Walton Arena televised on the SEC Network.
In Arkansas’ third game of last season, Pitino, the son of former Louisville and Kentucky national champion coach Rick Pitino, directed the Gophers to digging Arkansas an early deficit from which the Razorbacks never recovered in an 85-71 defeat.
“I tell you what, they really took us to the woodshed and they got most of those guys back,” Anderson said.
A season-ending injury has cost Minnesota Eric Curry, the alum of Southwest Christian Academy in Little Rock, who scored 12 points off the bench with four rebounds against Arkansas last season in Minneapolis, but starting Gophers guards Nate Mason, Amir Coffey and Dupree McBreyer and big men Jordan Murphy (6-7, 250) Reggie Lynch (6-10, 265) all return.
Mason (seven assists plus 13 points), Coffey (19 points) and Murphy and Lynch (each with 10 points and 7 rebounds while combining for 5 blocked shots) devastated the Hogs in Minneapolis.
“Mason was leading the charge,” Anderson recalled. “Murphy (averaging a double-double 19.9 points and 12.8 rebounds) is an outstanding player.
“He’s got 56 offensive rebounds and as a team we’ve got 73. And you’ve got the shot-blocking presence of Lynch (45 blocked shots already) and the Coffey kid is outstanding.
“You look at their team they’ve got three, possibly four All-Conference players.”
The four sure looked the part last season, “rattling” the Hogs Anderson recalled in Arkansas’ first road game last season.
“Last year, the first 10 minutes was back and forth and then it seemed like we hit a wall and we couldn’t score,” Anderson said.
“And they really started spreading the floor and getting second shots and dunks and their crowd got into it.”
The bench, Anderson’s usual antidote for struggling starts, got its chance last season in Minneapolis, but didn’t come through.
“We had some subs come in and they (Minnesota) had an explosion in scoring and we made turnovers that led to easy buckets for them,” Anderson said.
“Once we got down, I felt we started to play what I call ‘hero ball.’ This guy tried to do it, that guy tried to do it and before you know it (with Arkansas committing 21 turnovers individually forcing the issue) that deficit you had that was 12 was almost 20.
“And to their credit, Minnesota didn’t let up. They took the momentum and ran with it.”
Off Arkansas’ last game, Anderson feels great about his bench.
For after an all-senior Arkansas starting five started down 13-4 against Colorado State last Tuesday night in Walton, off-the-bench freshman forwards Daniel Gafford of El Dorado and Darious Hall of Little Rock Mills and sophomore guard C.J. Jones fueled a 19-0 run that ignited senior guards Jaylen Barford and Daryl Macon back to form, as Arkansas led 47-29 at half and won 92-66.
Anderson said it’s imperative that Arkansas’ depth forces Minnesota extensively to play beyond its starting five and to “take care of the ball” as close as it can to Arkansas’ turnover-free first half against Colorado State.
However, young Gafford, though 6-10 and extremely talented, will be giving 20 pounds to Murphy and 35 to Lynch. He’ll likely need some physical help from 6-9 starting senior Trey Thompson and 6-8 seniors Dustin Thomas and Arlando Cook.
“Minnesota is a really physical basketball team,” Anderson said. “Especially Lynch and Murphy and Coffey.”