Young Hogs persevere SEC test

Sometimes you don’t want to be right because it will prove to work against your best interests, just as Arkansas men’s basketball head coach Mike Anderson predicted for his younger Razorbacks.

Even though younger players had found success off of the bench during Arkansas’ 10-2 start in non-conference play, Anderson predicted they would experience a harsh new world opening the Southeastern Conference season.

Freshman Daniel Gafford, of El Dorado, became an integral starter. Freshman swingman Darious Hall, of Little Rock Mills, and shooting guard C.J. Jones, a sophomore barely above freshman experience considering his limited playing time last season, contributed from the bench.

Arkansas opened its SEC slate Saturday, overcoming and then holding off the No. 19 Tennessee Volunteers, 95-93, in overtime before a capacity

18,696 at Bud Walton Arena. The younger players did experience a harsh, new world, though Gafford ruled in the second half. He overcame his first-half tormentors to be a key factor with 15 points, eight rebounds and five blocked shots factor.

“As you get into conference play, we know the sense of urgency,” Anderson said during his press conference on Friday. “It goes up 10 notches. The guys who have been here, it’s easier for them to understand and imagine what’s going to take place. For the younger guys, it’s going to be an eye-opening for them.”

Even playing a tough nonconference schedule, which Arkansas did, does not replicate a conference game, Anderson said Friday.

“The physicality is going to come now,” Anderson said. “The younger guys already know the speed of the game, they have a sense of that, but now they are going to understand the urgency of it. That loose ball that you are reaching at, two or three guys are diving at it. They’ve got to have that understood.”

Hall, so athletic defensively and scoring 11 and 14 points his last two outings against Oral Roberts and California State University, Bakersfield, committed three turnovers Saturday in a nervous three first-half minutes. Anderson glued him to the bench for the second half. It was mainly because senior guard Jaylen Barford had to overcome first-half foul trouble to achieve his stellar 28 points while fellow senior guard Daryl Macon scored 33; Jones had to play 13 minutes.

Jones did score one athletically impressive bucket, the sophomore shooter went 0-for3 on treys and missed his only two free throws. For this game Anderson, survived Hall and Jones’ jitters.

But Anderson had to have an effective Gafford in the second half. Arkansas trailed 38-31 in the first half with Gafford just

1-for-3 from the field and just two rebounds while knocked around by shorter but older and wider-bodied Tennessee big men, Grant Williams and Admiral Schofield. Gafford gave as good as he got and then some in the second half, including a thunderous dunk for Arkansas’ lone lead in regulation at 73-72.

“I thought Daniel got his first taste of SEC basketball,” Anderson said during Saturday’s postgame. “We talk about the sense of urgency, how it goes up a couple of notches. The first half you could see, it’s one thing to hear, but it’s another to play against it. I just thought the nerves were going on. In the second half he was much more comfortable, and I thought he played big for us.”

So did Tennessee coach Rick Barnes.

“I think he’s good,” Barnes

said. “I think throughout a 40-minute game, you’re going to see guys adjust to what’s going on. They’ve got to learn to adjust to officiating. They’ve got to adjust to how they’re being guarded, how the scouting report reads on them.”

Gafford not only battled Williams and Schofield, he outlasted them. Williams fouled out late in regulation with 12 points, six rebounds and two blocked shots. Schofield fouled out in overtime with 16 points and seven rebounds.

The freshman center logged the last of his 33 minutes with four fouls and helped open the perimeter and driving lanes for Barford, Macon and senior guard Anton Beard, who netted 10 points. Barford and Macon said they appreciated Gafford’s second-half help after helping the rookie through his first half.

“I think it’s just a learning process for Daniel,” Barford said. “I know he struggled in the first half because he wasn’t used to that physicality. He had Williams and Schofield banging him, so it just took encouragement and keep pushing because he is a young freshman. That second half he really helped us out a whole lot. He got blocked shots, deflected shots, getting great rebounds and the dunk to actually put us up one in the last minute. He pulled it out for us today.”

Macon foresees much more to come from the freshman phenom.

“He has so much potential, I don’t even think he knows it,” Macon said. “To have a big like that, it takes a lot of pressure off us. We can just throw it down and trust him to go to work.”