Arkansas to focus pressure on Butler
FAYETTEVILLE — Defensive pressure will be a focal point of Arkansas’ game plan against Butler on Friday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
“Obviously, teams don’t apply it the way we do it,” Arkansas coach Mike Anderson said Tuesday before the Razorbacks practiced at Walton Arena. “But they’ve been pretty good. As the stats say, they only turn it over like nine or 10 times a game.”
Arkansas (23-11) is the favored seventh-seed from the Southeastern Conference with the veteran coach. Butler (20-13) is the 10th-seed from the Big East Conference with a young first-year coach in LaVall Jordan.
The teams are matched up in the first round of the East Regional in the 2018 NCAA Tournament. The game is scheduled for Friday at 2:10 p.m. at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit and will be broadcast on truTV (Resort Channel 67)
The Bulldogs are geared to withstand pressure. They have 6-7 senior forward Kelan Martin, averaging
20.8 points as a go-to scorer. Starting guard Kamar Baldwin and sixth-man guard Paul Jorgensen are prolific scorers, too, averaging 15.5 and 10.5 points, respectively. Baldwin, Jorgensen and freshman starting guard Aaron Thompson are adept ball-handlers. but joining freshman starting guard Aaron Thompson as
In 33 games, the Bulldogs have turned it over 369 times against 462 for their opposition. Arkansas has committed 374 miscues in 34 games, while forcing 492 turnovers by their opponents.
Averaging 79.1 points to Arkansas’ 81.1, the Bulldogs also have taken care of the ball even while playing at a fast offensive pace. Anderson and his star senior guards, Daryl Macon and Jaylen Barford most compare Butler in style with Auburn.
“I can see a lot of Auburn (in Butler),” Macon said Tuesday. “They shoot a lot of threes, and that’s what Auburn does. They like to run. They can get scrappy on defense.”
“I think they are a team that has multiple guys that can handle the basketball,” Anderson said. “I think their strength is their versatility. Guys that can handle the ball inside and outside. They open up the floor. They are a skilled team.”
The Butler guards not only pass it and handle it well, but Baldwin and Jorgensen join Martin as 3-point scoring threats.
“The Baldwin kid is really, really good,” Anderson said. “He’s a left-handed kid. He can go left; he can go right. He can score. He can distribute. Thompson’s more of a distributor/defender. Both of those guys have gotten over 100 assists throughout the year. The Jorgensen kid, he’s got that 30-foot range of shooting the basketball and he plays really hard.”
Butler 6-6 starting small forward Sean McDermott,
41 percent, and reserve guard Henry Baddley, 47 percent, are the most efficient 3-point shooters for the Bulldogs.
“Our defense has to be an all-time high in this particular game,” Anderson said. “You can’t put them on the free throw line. They shot 80 percent in conference play.
So ,defensively, we are just going to have to dig down deep and we’re going to have to really rebound the basketball. I think the guard play is going to be critical in this game here, how we defend their guards and, obviously, they’re going to say how they defend our guards.”
Barford, Macon and freshman center Daniel Gafford will keep Jordan and his staff glued to video of the
Razorbacks, just like Anderson and his staff study Martin. Barford, Macon and Gafford average 18, 16.9 and 11.9 points per game, respectively. The winner between Arkansas and Butler will play again in Detroit on Sunday against the winner between No. 2 seed Purdue (28-6) and No. 15 seed Cal State Fullerton (20-11). Indiana media is already studying the possibility of an in-state matchup between Purdue and Butler.
“We’ve got to worry about Arkansas,” Jordan said. “They’re a really good, really talented team. We’re worried about that one, and that one only. And then whatever comes after that, we’ll be prepared for when the time comes.”
The Razorbacks will practice this morning at Bud Walton Arena before flying to Detroit to begin their preparations at Little Caesars Arena.