No. 18 Arkansas and Troy are like-minded teams that will square off Wednesday night in a non-conference game in Fayetteville, Ark.
The Trojans have won their first two games by double digits — 84-74 in the season opener against Toledo and 78-61 at New Orleans on Saturday.
Arkansas (1-1) lost to then-No. 8 Baylor 72-67 on Saturday after beating Lipscomb 76-60 in the season opener on Nov. 6.
Arkansas and Troy are near mirror images on defense, with the Razorbacks throwing a variety of full-court presses at opponents to speed up the game. Troy guards in the full court as well and will even press after an opponent’s miss.
“We have to make the game a rock fight,” Troy coach Scott Cross said. “We’ll win the majority of our games if we do that. If we try to be pretty and just outscore the other team, that’s not when we are at our best.”
Because they return 12 players from last season’s team that posted a 20-win campaign for the third straight year, the Trojans are experienced. They have 100 combined starts on their roster from seven players, and 10 players have combined for 262 games played.
“There’s not a lot of difference between starters and backups,” said Cross, whose team was picked to finish third in the preseason Sun Belt Conference poll. “I could have 100 million different starting combinations. The guys starting in there have been around the program and know what we want. But we have complete confidence in all our guys.”
Jackson Fields leads four Trojans who average double figures in scoring with 12.5 points per game and a team-high 7.0 rebounds per contest. Tayton Conerway and Thomas Dowd each average 11.5 points, and Myles Rigsby is at 11.0.
Similarities don’t extend into roster construction, however. It’s the first season at the helm of the Arkansas program for John Calipari, and the Hall of Fame coach has 13 newcomers — seven transfers and six freshmen.
Freshman guard Boogie Fland has lived up to his billing as a five-star recruit and leads Arkansas with an average of 17 points per game. Adou Thiero is coming off a monster game against Baylor in which he scored a game-high 24 points with six rebounds, two assists, two blocks and a steal.
“(Thiero) is in attack mode now,” Calipari said. “Instead of messing with the ball, he’s in attack mode. Now he can get to where he needs to go. Probably got to get him to do a little stride-stop so if he gets stuck, he can turn and make plays for his teammates. That may be one of the things he can do for us.”
Even though Arkansas enters Wednesday’s game off a hard-fought loss, it’s the type of challenge Calipari wants the Razorbacks to face early in the season as they prepare for Southeastern Conference play.
“You could play a team and try to win by 50,” Calipari said. “And what you learn is that you can beat that kind of team by 50.
“This (loss to Baylor) showed us some good stuff. We have a lot of work to do, but I still think my team is pretty good. We’ve got to make a shot or two. You don’t have to make them all — you just can’t miss them all.”
–Field Level Media
