No. 23 Arkansas will close its nonconference schedule Monday night by hosting Oakland in Fayetteville, Ark., in the final tune-up before beginning Southeastern Conference play.
With Arkansas (10-2) rotating just nine players due to injuries, coach John Calipari wants Jonas Aidoo, a second-team All-SEC selection for Tennessee last season, to go all out on the court as he continues to rehab an offseason injury.
“(His presence) makes us different,” Calipari said after the 6-foot-11 Aidoo’s strong showing in a 95-67 win over North Carolina A&T on Dec. 21. “Going for three, four minutes at a time, in that time, he has a huge impact on the game.”
Aidoo produced season-high totals in points (17), rebounds (11) and blocks (three) to go with two assists.
When healthy, Aidoo provides good size for the Razorbacks and creates a three-man rotation with Trevon Brazile and Zvonimir Ivisic that allows Calipari to put two big men on the court at once — though Ivisic is nursing an ankle injury.
Aidoo said he was glad to see electric guard Boogie Fland achieve a double-double with 12 points and 11 assists against NC A&T.
“A five-star guard, really young … his mind is just racing,” Aidoo said after Arkansas won for the fifth straight time. “Definitely great to play with a player like that. He’s a special player, for sure.”
Fourth in the SEC in field-goal percentage at 50.8 percent, Arkansas leans on forward Adou Thiero, who leads with 17.6 points and 5.7 rebounds per game. Fland and fellow guard D.J. Wagner score 15.3 and 10.1 per game, respectively.
As a No. 14 seed last March, Oakland stunned third-seeded Kentucky and Calipari 80-76 in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament, but the current version of Oakland (4-9) is very much different.
In the middle of December as his team prepared to face in-state foe Michigan State, coach Greg Kampe admitted he had plenty of thinking and decisions to make regarding his Golden Grizzlies’ offense.
With his team sputtering with the ball — it scored 50 points in a loss to Youngstown State on Dec. 7 — Kampe, the longest-tenured coach in the NCAA with 41 seasons, said he had hard decisions to make.
“By the time you are (10 games in), you should have a pretty good idea of your personnel and what’s going to happen,” said Kampe, whose first season at the Horizon League school was 1984-85. “I’ve got to make some decisions on playing times and minutes.
“I’ve got to figure out what can we do offensively to have success … (because) it’s not successful.”
However, he may have something offensively in reserve Malcolm Christie, who has scored in double digits in five straight games and set a season high in points (27) in a 73-70 overtime loss to Hawaii in the Diamond Head Classic’s third-place matchup on Christmas night.
Christie, a senior from Fredericton, New Brunswick, made 7 of 22 shots from distance. During his streak, he has canned 26 of 70 (37.1 percent) from beyond the arc, but Oakland is 1-5 since losing to Youngstown State.
Joining Christie (11.2) in double-figure scoring this season are leader Allen Mukeba (13.1), DQ Cole (11.4) and Buru Naivalurua (11.3).
–Field Level Media
