Anderson: Hogs need to rev it up
FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas’ turnover margin is down, and Coach Mike Anderson said he knows why.
“We’ve been playing at everybody else’s pace,” Anderson said. “It’s been a possession game.
“We want to increase our tempo.”
Today’s 8 p.m. SEC Network game with South Carolina (11-9, 2-6) at Walton Arena would be a good time to start speeding things up, especially after what Florida did to Arkansas last Saturday in Gainesville, Fla.
Florida held Arkansas (165, 5-3) to a season-low scoring total in its 57-56 victory over
the Razorbacks at the O’Connell Center, and the Razorbacks committed more turnovers than Gators, the fourth time Arkansas has turned it over more than its opponent in its past seven SEC games.
Arkansas is 1-3 in those games, losing to Ole Miss at Walton Arena and splitting two games with Tennessee, despite committing more turnovers than the Vols both times.
The Razorbacks’ turnover margin for the season is down to +3.2 per game, including +2.8 in SEC play.
That’s good enough to rank No. 18 nationally, but Arkansas ranked No. 2 in turnover margin during the 2012-2013 season (+5.9) and No. 4 last season (+5.5).
The Gators committed two fewer turnovers than the Hogs, and Arkansas struggled to hit shots against Florida’s half-court defense.
Arkansas junior guard Michael Qualls, who is averaging 15.9 points, might have been the Hog most impacted against the Gators.
Qualls made 2 of 10 from the field at Florida and scored five points.
“He’s an open-court player,” Anderson said of Qualls. “I think the more the court’s open, it’s going to give him an opportunity to really play like he’s capable of playing.”
Sophomore forward Bobby Portis had 21 points and 10 rebounds against Florida, but he said he feels the Razorbacks are “kind beating ourselves sometimes” by having too many turnovers, which also explains the down-to-the-wire victories against Alabama, Missouri and Tennessee.
“I don’t really like those close games,” Portis said. “Me, personally, I like blowing people out by 20, 30 points.
“That hasn’t happened here lately. Hopefully, our team can get something going.”
For Arkansas to get a comfortable margin against South Carolina, the Razorbacks likely need to get some easy transition baskets from turnovers — the kind they haven’t been producing in recent games.
South Carolina Coach Frank Martin’s teams are known for physical half-court defense.
“They’re probably as good and as tough defensively as anyone that we’ve played,” said LSU Coach Johnny Jones, whose Tigers beat the Gamecocks 64-58 last Wednesday. “They get after you and make it very hard to score.”
South Carolina broke a four-game losing streak with a 67-50 victory over Georgia last Saturday. Martin said it was good to finish strong after being tied or leading in the second half of every SEC game except against No. 1 Kentucky.
“I’ve been really happy with the way we’ve played the last two weeks even though it hasn’t resulted in wins,” Martin said. “I think their preparation has been good. Our ability to go out and play a certain way has been good.
“We just haven’t been making enough shots. We made enough against Georgia, and I hope it’s something that continues.”
South Carolina went 9-3 in nonconference games, including victories over Oklahoma State, Clemson and Iowa State, but Martin said the Gamecocks didn’t handle success well when SEC play began.
“We got a little lazy with cuts, screens, technique,” he said. “We’re starting to play better, and in the second half of the Georgia game we probably played as well offensively as we have in awhile.”
The Gamecocks are shooting 37.4 percent from the field in SEC games, but Anderson said he’s concerned about the Gamecocks’ offensive rebounding.
“If you crash the boards like they do, you’re going to have second-chance points, scoring layups or getting to the free throw line,” Anderson said. “That’s how they want to control the tempo of the game.”
Arkansas wants to control tempo with its defense and speed up the Gamecocks so they’ll wear out in the final 10 minutes.
“We’ve got to make this a 94-foot game,” Anderson said. “It can’t be just a half-court, grind-it-out game.
“That’s what they do, and we want to be the opposite.”