Tale of the tape: Arkansas vs. No. 3 Alabama at BWA another big test for surging Hogs

By Kevin McPherson

Saturday tale of the tape …

Arkansas (14-8, 3-6 SEC, NET No. 43) to host No. 3 Alabama (18-3, 8-1 SEC, NET No. 6) on Saturday at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville … game tips at 7:30 p.m. CT on ESPN

– Hogs 3-6 in Quad-1 games, 1-2 in Q2, 3-0 in Q3, 7-0 in Q4 … KenPom No. 29 in defensive efficiency rating and No. 81 in offensive efficiency rating

– Tide 6-3 in Quad-1 games, 7-0 in Q2, 4-0 in Q3, 2-0 in Q4 … KenPom No. 40 in defensive efficiency rating and No. 3 in offensive efficiency rating

– Hogs 10-3 at home (that’s 9-3 at BWA, including 1-3 in SEC home games)

– Tide 6-1 in true road games (includes 4-0 in SEC road games)

– Arkansas is on a two-game winning streak and has won 3 of its last 4 contests

– ‘Bama has won five consecutive games

– Hogs are 2-4 against ranked teams

– Arkansas, in the absence of star freshman guard Boogie Fland (thumb injury), has gotten the bulk of its production from its starters in the last four games … in that span: senior guard Johnell Davis 17.3 points, 4.3 rebounds, 3.3 steals, 2.5 assists, 87.5% free throws … junior 3/4-combo forward Adou Thiero 15.5 points, 7.3 rebounds, 1.5 steals, 59.3% field goals, 28 made free throws … sophomore guard DJ Wagner 12.8 points, 5.0 assists, 3.3 rebounds, 81.8% free throws … freshman wing Karter Knox 10.0 points, 4.5 rebounds, 1.3 steals, 41.7% from 3, 89.5% free throws … and sophomore center Zvonimir Ivisic 10.0 points, 6.5 rebounds, 1.8 blocks, 40% from 3

“I think last time we talked, I talked about how many different teams we’ve had to coach this year with guys in and out of the lineup,” Arkansas assoicate head coach Chin Coleman said during a zoom press conference on Friday to rpeview the matchup. “In and out on our depth chart. So we’re kind of settled in right now with what we have, the eight guys that are playing. Coach Cal (Hogs head coach John Calipari) has done an unbelievable job with changing our style of play, right. Our style of play is a little different now because this is a different team. And so coach has done a great job of figuring out, Okay, how we’re going to play with this team. How are we going to play with these guys. If we have to go big lineup, what are we doing? How are we playing? So we have meetings ad nauseam about those things as a staff and coaches just keep coming up, keep finding for us to figure out how ways we’re going to play offensively, with this being a different group. But, we were able to have a week off with this group and so we spent a lot of time scrimmaging and a lot of time on that in terms of how we want to play offensively and these guys are really settling in their roles. We talked about it again this morning, how much confidence our guys are playing with. We don’t want to shake that up. We want to continue to have them play with supreme confidence.”

– Hogs in their last two league games outshot both of their opponents in overall field goals, three-point field goals, and free throws

– Arkansas, through 9 SEC games, is minus-4.4 in rebounding margin, plus-1.4 in turnovers, and plus-2.3 in blocks

– ‘Bama ranks No. 1 in Division I in scoring at 90.2 points per game and is plus-11.9 in scoring margin; 2nd in rebounds (44.8] … 4th in free throw attempts (27.1) … 5th in two-point field goal percentage (60.3%) … 8th in made field goals (30.4) … 9th in made free throws (19.2) … 10th in three-point field goal attempts (30.3) … 12th in three-point field goal percentage defense (28.8%) … 18th in blocks (5.2) … 21st in assists (17.0) … and 22nd in three-point field goal makes (10.2)

– Tide goes 10-deep in its rotation with 4 players averaging double-figure scoring: senior 6-1 guard Mark Sears (18.1 points, 5.1 assists, 3.1 steals, 35.9% 3FGs, 83.1% FTs) … senior 6-11 forward Grant Nelson (12.8 points, 8.4 rebounds, 1.4 blocks, 54.0% FGs, 26.6% 3FGs, 64.9% FTs) … sophomore 6-1 guard Aden Holloway (11.7 points, 48.1% FGs, 41.5% 3FGs, 86.7% FTs) … and freshman 6-4 guard LaBaron Philon (10.5 points, 3.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 45.0% FGs, 27.8% 3FGs, 73.7% FTs)

“I like to call it NASCAR, Formula One offense the way that they move,” Coleman said of ‘Bama’ offense. “Whoever’s closest to the ball, whether it’s a guard, whether it’s a big, gets it out and gets it up quick on mades and/or misses. Very similar to Michigan in a way when we played them. Michigan was playing at a breakneck pace. And so by understanding that transition defense is going to be a premium. Now, the thing for us though with transition defense, we’ve got to throw some punches like we’ve been doing the last few games and they’ve got to get the ball out of the net instead of missing shots or live-ball turnovers and keep them out of transition.

“We want teams to play against our set defense. When teams have to play against our set defense it’s been hard for teams to score on us when we’re set. And so that’s been something that we’ve preached to our players is that, ‘Guys, don’t you realize it’s hard for a lot of these teams to score on us if we complete the series with a two-handed rebound in the half court. So we want to make it a half-court game defensively and obviously take our opportunities when we get them in transition because we’re pretty good in transition as well. But we can’t have this an 85 to 90 possession game. That’s where they thrive.”