Arkansas Exhibition

[leo from jersey]

Watched it. Lack of senior leadership as Thomas was frozen on the breaks and was a spectator. NO I said NO interior defense. Sure Ark had the better athletes, but UC played with their hands and not their feet. Abev had horrid shot selection and is a ball hog. CWM can change that. On one drive he had a teammate under the Basket but he took an off balanced , bad angle shot several feet away. Tillery got blown by a few times as his man went too easy to the basket. Now for the good -- Frenchy can be of help this year. There is a lot of work to be done -- Can CWM do it. He did get them going to the basket instead of threes, but they couldn't hit bunnies and were bothered by Arkansas' defense big time.

[Gmann]

What a mess! It's good to receive this beat down before the real season starts because there is a whole lot of improvement necessary.

[leo from jersey]

I forgot to mention when Ark wasn't blowing by them to the rim and were running a set offense -- no on ball pressure and nobody put a body on Ark underneath. That isn't a new team thing and needs practice, but a mental thing. A lack of hustle and desire. Coaching staff we have seen this before, but it wasn't always the case. It is hard to fool folks who have watched the Cats for decades. Just an exhibition and should change, but you do play as you pactice.

[London 'Cat]

Maybe a wake up for the team and especially CWM and staff. This year is a make or break year for the coaching staff. If last night is any indication of what the season ahead will look like, this will be a long season and our last with CWM.

[Oldtimer_UC_fan]

Blowouts happen....even in the NBA. Good news is...it was a practice game. Hopefully, we learn from it.

[bearcatjd]

Is Arkansas that good or are we that bad?????

[swilsonsp4]

Is Arkansas that good or are we that bad?????

The Razorbacks are quite good, and the Bearcats played poorly. I don't believe this is representative of future results. There are a lot of new pieces (virtually the entire roster). They're going to need time to mesh. That exhibition certainly provided a lot of training tape for cutup and review.

[leo from jersey]

The Razorbacks are quite good, and the Bearcats played poorly. I don't believe this is representative of future results. There are a lot of new pieces (virtually the entire roster). They're going to need time to mesh. That exhibition certainly provided a lot of training tape for cutup and review.

Good points, but Ark had many new players. Acuff who left Tillery standing still is just a frosh. My hope is that this was just a bad game and better things are to come. Ark had the much better athletes.

[leeraymond372@gmail.com]

I did not see the game, but I was shocked at the final score. UC was hammered by 28 points. It was losing at halftime by 20. This loss is very disturbing. With this roster, should UC lose games by almost 30 points? It does not matter if the game is an exhibition if UC is really trying to win the game. One thing is for sure; Arkansas was not messing around with UC. I am not sure what UC, and its coaching staff, were thinking about. Clearly, they did not think about the Arkansas game in all of its facets.

Think about this for a minute. In two preseason games, UC has given up an average of 93.5 points while scoring 80.5 points. Also, UC was outscored 44-24 in the paint by Arkansas. Likewise, UC gave up 23 fast break points to Arkansas. Where is the #@&% defense? What is UC doing?

UC has lost its last three quarters of basketball. UC was outscored by Michigan by 16 in the 2nd half and was outscored by Arkansas by 20 in the first half. UC has been outscored in the last three quarters by an average of 14.6 points. Michigan scored 64 points in the 2nd half. Arkansas scored 48 points in the first half (the most points ever scored by Arkansas in an exhibition half, according to the UA post-game notes).

This UC team may be in trouble. If they are not scoring, they probably will be losing.

I know what you are all thinking. Hey, it's just the preseason, what are you talking about UC may be in trouble. It is the WAY that they are giving up points that disturbs me. Outscored in the paint by 20 and gave up 23 fast-break points to Arkansas. Outscored by 16 points in the second half at Michigan. Different year, same old Miller trying to outscore people. UC cannot win without having a strong defense. UC may be able to get by without strong defense against undermanned non-conference teams. However, if it does not strengthen its defense, it will have major problems playing against the more competitive national teams, especially the more defensive oriented teams.

Let's stop here. I have said enough.

[BearKatz]

I missed the game, was it really that bad from what I'm reading?

[leo from jersey]

I missed the game, was it really that bad from what I'm reading?

Yes -- even the announcers were stating UC didn't play defense, were not quick and couldn't drive and had little, if any, on ball defense. Shots were either blocked or altered under the rim.Ark scored regularly under the rim

[D.A.H.]

Yes -- even the announcers were stating UC didn't play defense, were not quick and couldn't drive and had little, if any, on ball defense. Shots were either blocked or altered under the rim.Ark scored regularly under the rim

I watched the first half, and had to turn it off - Arkansas just rolled UC - quicker, looked way more athletic, just wanted it more. "only an exhibition" doesn't cut it. either you play hard all of the time, or you're going to get rolled, when you want to play big boy basketball - i remember huggins always saying (paraphrasing) that, if you had to lose a game to learn anything, you're not real bright.

[Carthage World]

Arkansas beat Memphis 99-75 (in Memphis) in their second exhibition game last night.

[leeraymond372@gmail.com]

Arkansas beat Memphis 99-75 (in Memphis) in their second exhibition game last night.

Yeah, I saw that game too. I have a much better understanding of how UC lost the Arkansas game. Arkansas is relentless in its hustle. All game long; they do NOT stop with their hustle. Also, Arkansas plays good defense. It held Memphis to 32% and held UC to 28% shooting. It also has a good bench. Arkansas' bench scored 51 points against Memphis (by the way, Arkansas only played 8 against Memphis. They wanted to win that game). Lastly, Arkansas does not take a lot of low probability shots. In two exhibition games, 70% of Arkansas' shots came from two-point range. To compare that with UC; check this out, 48.6 % of all UC's shots against Arkansas were from three-point range. Almost half of all of UC's shots came from behind the 3-point line against Arkansas, where UC only shot 25%. It is hard to win like that.

Going through UC's box score (Arkansas game) did reveal some surprises: 1) UC's bench outscored Arkansas bench 38-37, 2) UC had 8 more offensive rebounds than Arkansas, 3) UC had more second chance points 15-5, and 4) Jordi Rodriguez and Halvine Dzellat had good games off the bench, where Dzellat lead the team in scoring with 10. Along with McKinley, he was the only one that did not take a three-point shot. Let's also note that Celestine shot the ball well from 3 (42.8%).

After watching Arkansas destroy Memphis, I think differently about the Arkansas loss. It appears that Arkansas overwhelmed UC with hustle and flat-out just outworked UC. Now UC and its coaches know what it takes to win at high levels. Let's hope that the lesson was learned along with the butt-kicking. Go UC.

[leo from jersey]

Yeah, I saw that game too. I have a much better understanding of how UC lost the Arkansas game. Arkansas is relentless in its hustle. All game long; they do NOT stop with their hustle. Also, Arkansas plays good defense. It held Memphis to 32% and held UC to 28% shooting. It also has a good bench. Arkansas' bench scored 51 points against Memphis (by the way, Memphis only played 8 against Memphis. They wanted to win that game). Lastly, Arkansas does not take a lot of low probability shots. In two exhibition games, 70% of Arkansas' shots have come from two range. To compare that with UC; check this out, 48.6 % of all UC's shots against Arkansas were from three-point range. Almost half of all of UC's shots came from behind the 3-point line against Arkansas, where UC only shot 25% from 3. It is hard to win like that.

Going through UC's box score (Arkansas game) did reveal some surprises: 1) UC's bench outscored Arkansas bench 38-37, 2) UC had 8 more offensive rebounds than Arkansas, 3) UC had more second chance points 15-5, and Jordi Rodriguez and Halvine Dzellat and good games off the bench, where Dzellat lead the team in scoring with 10. Along with McKinley, he was the only one that played that did not take a three-point shot. Let's also note that Celestine shot the ball well from 3 (42.8%).

After watching Arkansas destroy Memphis, I think differently about the Arkansas loss. It appears that Arkansas overwhelmed UC with hustle and flat-out just outworked UC. Now UC and its coaches know what it takes to win at high levels. Let's hope that the lesson was learned.

Please don't mention out hustled and out worked as I have a memory. CWM still talks about UCs tradition. It is time to show some after all these years of his tenure.