Abilene Christian building reputation
FAYETTEVILLE — Abilene Christian’s basketball program doesn’t get much national recognition, but the Southland Conference member is 54-15 since the start of the 2018-19 season.
“We’ ve been under the radar,” Wildcats Coach Joe Golding said. “We kind of like it that way.”
Earlier this season, Abilene Christian (7-1) came close to pulling off an upset that would have raised its profile. The Wildcats were within three points at No. 15 Texas Tech with less than two minutes left before the Red Raiders hung on to win 51-44.
Abilene Christian, in its fifth season as a full-fledged NCAA Division I program after moving up from the Division II level, will have another shot at a marquee victory when the Wildcats play the University of Arkansas (7-0) at 4 p.m. today in Walton Arena.
“I would hope we gained some confidence at Texas Tech being in a one- or two-possession game,” said Golding, a former assistant coach at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. “I think our guys will have some more belief that we can go on the road against
high-major programs that we have so much respect for and be able to compete with them.”
Arkansas Coach Eric Musselman said Abilene Christian, which beat Hard in-Simmons 95-73 on Wednesday in its last game, will be the best team the Razorbacks have played so far this season.
“They’ re really well coached,” Musselman said. “They create disruptions. They deny passing lanes. They’re a high steal team. They’re a very well-balanced scoring team.”
The Wildcats are forcing an average of 23.9 turnovers to rank No. 2 nationally; average 11.0 steals to rank No. 5 nationally; and are tied for No. 9 nationally with Houston in scoring defense at 55.8 points per game.
“They took us out of a lot of the things that we like to do,” said Texas Tech Coach Chris Beard, a former UALR coach. “We obviously played against one of the best defenses in college basketball.”
Abilene Christian plays primarily man-to-man defense and will use a zone press at times.
“It’s something we pride ourselves on,” Golding said of forcing turnovers. “Whatever you hold your guys accountable to and is something you think is important and you work on it all the time, guys start to embrace it. We believe in forcing turnovers and getting easy baskets on the other end, stealing possessions from other teams.
“We’re obviously pretty aggressive in the passing lanes, and then we’ve kind of morphed into being a pretty good swipe team where if guys put the ball on the floor, we can get it. We like to fly around and get teams out of what they’re used to doing.”
Musselman said ball-handling is a concern against Abilene Christian after the Razorbacks had 15 turnovers in their 87-76 victory over Oral Roberts on Sunday.
“The majority of their offense is created through their defense, so we’ve got to do a really good job of taking care of the ball,” Musselman said. “We can’t try to make home run plays. We can’t try to thread the needle.
“We’ve got to throw rope passes. We’ve got to be strong when we’re dribbling the basketball. We’ve got to have a good arm bar when we’re dribbling the ball. We’ve got to come and meet the pass with two hands. You can’t wait on the pass against Abilene Christian.”
Golding chuckled when asked about Arkansas’ turnovers against Oral Roberts.
“I wish they would have saved some of those for this game,” he said. “I’m sure they’ll take much better care of the ball.”
Arkansas has five players averaging double figures in points with freshman Moses Moody at 16.3, senior forward Justin Smith at 13.7, junior guard JD Notae at 13.6, junior guard Desi Sills at 12.3 and senior guard Jalen Tate at 10.5.
“We’ve got our hands full,” Golding said. “You watch Arkansas on tape, I think they’re really, really good. Some people might say they haven’t played the toughest schedule, but I don’t think that has anything to do with it when you see a good team on tape.
“They’ve got great players. They’ve obviously got NBA talent. This is definitely our biggest challenge of the year on the defensive end.”
A bigger challenge than defending Texas Tech?
“I think so, because I just think Arkansas can put five guys on the floor that really, really score, and Coach Musselman does a great job of giving them confidence,” Golding said. “If it’s within their scheme and it’s a shot that they can make and have worked on, you can tell they have the green light to take it.
“Arkansas plays faster than Texas Tech, and they’re going to try to speed up the game. The Texas Tech game we were able to pretty much make that a half-court game.”
Musselman decided the pace of Arkansas’ game against Oral Roberts wasn’t to the liking of Connor Vanover, so the 7-3 sophomore who has been starting and is averaging 8.9 points and 8.1 rebounds didn’t play in the second half when the Razorbacks scored 57 points to rally from a 40-30 halftime deficit.
Vanover figures to play a bigger role today with Abilene Christian starting 7-foot senior Kolton Kohl.
“I think they’ll both be happy to see each other, because they don’t get to play against 7-footers all the time,” Golding said. “I’m sure they’ll enjoy the opportunity and not have to be chasing around smaller guys.”
Senior guard Coryon Mason and junior forward Joe Pleasant are each averaging 9.9 points to lead the Wildcats, and Kohl is averaging 9.8 points. Eight Abilene Christian players average at least 5.9 points of the team’s 74.0 total.
“There’s not one or two players that you can focus on,” Musselman said.