Final dress rehearsal: No. 16 Hoop Hogs at TCU in second charity exhibition game before regular season tips up next week

By Kevin McPherson

LITTLE ROCK — In a charity exhibition game that did not count toward their official won-loss record and did not boost their postseason resume, the 16th-ranked Arkansas Razorbacks were seeking to experiment with lineups and test different schemes while competing to win when they hosted No. 1 Kansas last week, and the results in many ways exceeded expectations as the Hoop Hogs impressively rolled to an 85-69 victory over the Jayhawks in a game where neither team was at full strength.

The next assigment is much the same, but this time Arkansas will hit the road to play TCU of the Big 12 Conference (7 p.m. CST, Friday, Nov. 1, Dickies Arena, Fort Worth, Texas, no television or livestream available).

It’s the Hoop Hogs’ final dress rehearsal before the start of the 2024-25 campaign officially tips up next week. But, it’s also an opportunity for a nearly brand-new roster with a brand new coaching staff to establish a travel routine to the Dallas-Worth area, which could pay dividends eight days later on Nov. 9 when Arkansas will play No. 8 Baylor in a neutral-site game in Dallas in what will mark the Razorbacks’ second regular-season contest.

Just call it a Razorbacks “road kill” hack.

“Anytime you play against another team, we want to use those experiences as a real game,” Arkansas associate head coach Chin Coleman said during his press conference on Wednesday to preview the matchup against TCU. “TCU played, obviously, in the Southwest Conference when Arkansas first started playing basketball. So we’re looking at that as a rivalry game. We understand the importance of, we’re going to Dallas. A huge amount of our alumni lives in Dallas, to give them opportunity to see the team, as well as, we took the team to Pine Bluff, we took the team to Hot Springs, and now we taking the team to one area where we have a huge alumni.

“But for us, basketball-wise, it’s a road game. So our routine as a road game, we’re going to follow our routine. So they’re going to understand what it looks like and what we do. What are our routines? What is our habits, right? So that they can understand the next time we come back to Dallas, on the road when we play Baylor, we have a routine. You know what it is we do. You know what time we film. You know what time we eat. You know what time the late night snack. You know what time stretch is. You know what time weight is. You know what time all of these things are. So we’re using it as an experience for road kill. It’s what we like to call it — road kill.”

Playing TCU also gives Arkansas a chance to taste winning away from home, or at least how to learn from losing, with the goal being getting prepared for the Baylor tilt and 12 more away-from-home contests to follow in the regular season.

The road and neutral-site environments won’t be as comforting as what the team faced against Kansas last Friday in Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville when the Hogs shot the ball better than their opponent both from the field and at the free throw line (28-of-58 field goals for 48.3% compared to KU’s 29-of-64 for 45.3%, and 23-of-28 free throws for 82.1% compared to KU’s 4-of-10 for 40%). They were also better in turnovers (17-13), points-off-turnovers (21-12), and transition scoring (16-10) as they built leads of 13 points in the first half and 19 points in the second half.

Playing without preseason All SEC center Jonas Aidoo (undisclosed injury), the trio of sophomore guard DJ Wagner (24 points and 4 rebounds), freshman guard Boogie Fland (22 points, 6 steals, and 5 assists), and sophomore 4/5-combo Zvonimir Ivisic (18 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, and 1 block) provided most of the firepower in a game that Arkansas took command of out of the gates.

It remains unclear if Aidoo will be available to play against TCU.

“I think that’s up to our medical staff,” Coleman said. “He’s working extremely hard to get back on the floor. To get back to playing the game he loves. Something he said to me yesterday, he had a workout yesterday, looked a lot better. I think he’s coming along, but I think that our goal is for everybody to be healthy by our first game. These games are very important because they’re opportunities for us to play against a different opponent. We would love to have everyone healthy right now, but I think that the main thing is for everybody to be healthy by the beginning of the real, regular season.

“That may or may not happen, but I think we’re close and I think he’s chomping at the bit to try and be available for us at the beginning of the season. I think that he’s close, but our medical staff, Matt and the doctors, are doing a really good job. Strength and conditioning coach, B-Rich, they’re working extremely hard to get him and have him available.”

In addition to building on the parts of their game that worked well against KU, the Hogs will also be trying to improve in areas that did not play to their advantage in that matchup as Kansas won the rebounding battle (35-34), including plus-2 on the offensive glass (9-7) for a plus-5 advantage in second-chance-points (13-8). The Jayhawks also won points-in-the-paint (44-40).

My takes on Arkansas starters / rotation

Obviously Aidoo projects as a starter when healthy and available. Not knowing who will or will not be available on Friday, let’s look at this two ways …

If all nine top-rotation players are available, our assessment for a starting five goes Aidoo, Wagner, Fland, senior guard Nelly Davis, and junior 3/4-combo forward Adou Thiero with Ivisic, fourth-year junior forward Trevon Brazile, freshman guard / wing Karter Knox, and wing Billy Richmond in the top rotation while playing off the bench.

At full strength, that first-five lineup maximizes Arkansas’ offensive firepower in the backcourt while thrusting physicality and plus-defensive prowess into the frontcourt. Wagner and Fland are proving they can maximize their impact playing together, Davis will be looking to get into a flow after showing offensive rust against KU, and Aidoo and Thiero both can provide opportunistic scoring while setting a tough tone on defense.

If Aidoo remains out, our assessment is to start the same group as detailed above but with Ivisic getting the nod at the center spot.

Of course, there could be alternative scenarios where other players are unexpectedly unavailable, which would alter the projections laid out above.

Scouting the TCU Horned Frogs

TCU opens ’24-25 unranked in the initial Associated Press Top 25 poll, and the Horned Frogs open at No. 58 in KenPom.com’s pre-season college basketball ratings.

In a secret scrimmage against Texas on Saturday in San Antonio, TCU lost 80-52, according to CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jon Rothstein.

Long-time Horned Frogs head coach Jamie Dixon’s NCAA Tournament team finished 21-13 overall last season (9-9 in the Big 12 to tie for 7th place in the league), but like Arkansas he’s facing a roster rebuild as he brings back only one key returnee in veteran 6-11 big man Ernest Udeh, Jr. (4.3 points per game, 5.3 rebounds, 1.0 steal, 17.3 minutes, 60.9% field goals, and 56.0% free throws in ’23-24).

Transfers Trazarien White (UNC-Wilmington), Frankie Collins (Arizona State), Vasean Allette (Old Dominion), RJ Jones (Kansas State), Noah Reynolds (Green Bay), Brendan Wenzel (Wyoming) combined with freshmen Malick Diallo, Isaiah Manning, Micah Robinson, Ashton Simmons, David Punch, Adam Stewart, and Jace Posey pose a lot more question marks than they do known commodities for TCU entering the season.

“A brand new team,” Coleman said of TCU. “To start, they have a brand new team like we have a brand new team. They only return probably one player, and that’s who they — I hope I’m not botching his name, but he was a transfer from Kansas and everybody else is pretty much new for that team. They had five fifth-year seniors last year that went to the NCAA Tournament. So, they’re new, but again, we don’t take anything for granted as far as how they performed in that first game, right? They’re going to be better in their game against us being that it’s their second game, and also, you’re right, they watched us on film.

“They saw what we were able to do with the No. 1 team in the country, saw what we could do with them. Whether you saw we won or lost, we competed and that’s what we want to do, compete and get better game-to-game. So, we were able to get better from our game. I’m sure they were able to get better from their game against Texas. We have been able to do some advanced scouting, so we have some material that we’re going to use to put a game plan together for them. For us, again, we want to win every game. We’re not doing this for funsies, but we also want to win or learn. So, we get the opportunity to play TCU, where we can win and/or learn, well, we’ve done our job going up there to place TCU in Dallas.”

Last season, TCU went 10-deep in its top rotation as the team averaged 79.2 points, 37.0 rebounds, 17.0 assists, 9.1 steals, 3.8 blocks, and 12.8 turnovers per game while shooting 46.5% from the field, including 35.6% from 3, and 73.0% from the free throw line.

Keys to Arkansas success against TCU

– Maintaining and building on successes from the Hogs’ first exhibition game while improving on the weaknesses, and given this Arkansas team has more collective talent, size, length, athleticism, and experience than its opponent it will be key to NOT play down to the opposition for lengthy stretches of the game.

– Arkansas may have enough firepower to win without Davis clicking on offense — he shot just 2-of-9 from the field, including 1-of-6 from 3, to register 5 points in that 16-point win over KU — but the Razorbacks will once again encourage their perceived top player to look for his spots to shoot the ball, and once again there will be offensive sets run with Davis being the primary option.

– Will Fland and Wagner continue to thrive playing alongside each other? Both were superb and efficient on offense, and both were disruptive and effective on defense against KU, but getting out of their comfort zone playing on the road will test how steady they are facing a hostile fan environment while taking turns running the offense and setting the tone on the perimeter defensively. If they are once again on the same page complementing each other, it could be a long night for the Horned Frogs’ backcourt.

– Hitting the glass. While only a minus-1 rebounding against Kansas, the Razorbacks were minus-5 in second-chance-points and if that trend continues Friday at TCU it could be an issue, especially if the game is tight coming down the stretch as being better on the margins will likely decide the outcome. Expect Arkansas to put forward a more determined effort on the glass in this one.

– Leaving the court with no more injuries, ahem players “beat up,” moving forward.

Razorbacks updates, rankings, and tidbits

– Arkansas is 105-38 all-time in games that count against TCU, most of those results coming when the two teams were members of the now defunct Southwest Conference. In the programs’ most recent matchup during the 2019-20 season, The Hogs defeated the Horned Frogs, 78-67, at home in the Big 12/SEC Challenge in January 2020.

– The Hoop Hogs are 2-1 in charity exhibition games against high-major opponents. In addition to the team’s aforementioned 85-69 win over top-ranked Kansas a week ago, the Hogs knocked off Purdue, 81-77, in overtime in October 2023, and in they lost at Texas, 90-60, in October 2022.

– Davis was named to two National Player of the Year preseason watch lists on Wednesday — the Naismith Trophy and NABC Division 1 — and earlier in the week he and Fland were named to the preseason watch list for the Jerry West Award that is given to the nation’s top shooting guard at the end of the season.

– Following their road charity exhibition game against TCU, the Razorbacks will return home to face Lipscomb in the regular-season opener (7 p.m. CT, Wednesday, Nov. 6, SEC Netwrok Plus livestream).

– Arkansas is No. 16 in the preseason Associated Press Top 25 poll and No. 25 in KenPom.com’s initial analytics rankings.

– The Hoop Hogs were slotted as a 6-seed by Joe Lunardi in his most-recent ESPN Bracketology update (Tuesday, Oct. 22) that predicts the entire NCAA Tournament 68-team field.

– Hogville is your one-stop shop for complete 2024-25 Arkansas Razorbacks men’s basketball coverage, and linked here is the team’s schedule including our thoughts on the top 20 tilts on the slate (this will be updated with game results with attached game articles as the season progresses): https://forums.hogville.net/index.php?topic=768616.0