Arkansas defeated UCA 82-57 Saturday in Simmons Bank Arena in North Little Rock.

The Razorbacks never trailed in the game and built the lead to as much as 31 points, 80-49, with 4:44 remaining in the game. The Hogs dominated as one would expect particularly in the paint 44-18. John Calipari started both Jonas Aidoo and Trevon Brazile with Adou Thiero out with illness and Zvonimir Ivisic limited. Calipari was asked if Aidoo is now at full strength?

"He’s not at full strength yet," Calipari said. "But he gives you a physical presence. He was an all-conference player. You’re not talking about just another guy. You’re talking about a 6-10, 6-11 all-conference player. Now, the Michigan game I had to show him some tape of him running. Like, you can do this, you just choose not to. Because he ran that Michigan game. He was not giving them anything over the top. Which tells you he’s probably a little further along than I give him credit for.

"Then the other one is Trevon. I mean, when he plays spirited, he’s good. Blocking shots, rebounding balls, being long, smart player. But then there’s times where he’ll kind of back up and I call it getting arrogant, and all of a sudden you’re back-doored, you’re this and that. I just took him out. You’re not playing that way. You’re capable of doing the other. Play that way."

Arkansas (9-2) held a 46-28 lead at halftime and then cruised in the second half. UCA (2-8) was simply overmatched, but played hard for 40 minutes. The Hogs had six players score in double figures led by Boogie Fland once again. Fland had 16 points, 5 rebounds, 9 assists and 5 steals in 34 minutes. The Hogs didn't have the slow start to the game that has haunted them most games.

"We had a terrific practice yesterday in Fayetteville," Calipari said. "We had a terrific practice. Our shoot around today was one of our better shootarounds. So I felt good coming into the game. The only thing that happens to this team at times, you stretch it out and we get a little arrogant. Then all of a sudden we give up a 3, we foul a 3-point shooter, we give up a layup, we miss two shots, we turn it over — and we’ve all seen it. Then all of a sudden it’s a 6-point game."

Fland also talked about the fast start to Saturday's game.

"Just playing hard," Fland said. "Coming out with some intensity. We knew it was going to try to be their Super Bowl so we wanted to stop all the emotions and come out with some energy."

Arkansas Karter Knox had one of his best games this season. He scored 14 points, pulled down 4 rebounds and dished out 3 assists. D.J. Wagner and Aidoo, who is getting better each game, each had 13 points. Wagner handed out 6 assists. Aidoo added 4 rebounds and 2 blocks. Brazile and Johnell "Nelly" Davis each had 11 points as well. Brazile had 7 rebounds and 5 blocks.

UCA was topped by Elias Cato with 15 points. Layne Taylor added 13 points and Ben Fox 12. UCA shot 33% (18-54) from the field, 25% (7-28) from behind the 3-point line. Both teams shot 78% from the charity stripe. UCA got there for 18 attempts making 14. The Razorbacks beat Little Rock 79-67 earlier this season. Calipari addressed playing in-state schools.

"I know Coach (Frank) Broyles wouldn’t let anybody do that back in the day," Calipari said. "You were not going to play an in-state team. I think times have changed a little bit. I don’t want us to get beat by an in-state team, but I think it’s good for Darrell Walker to coach back in our building. I think this was good for John Shulman to have his team in this building in a packed environment. How many times are they going to do that, be in this kind of environment? So yeah, I would say we would. I don’t know how many we can do, but this year was two."

Shulman was very complimentary of Calipari and the Hogs.

"I know that Coach Cal can recruit," Shulman said. "I also bring him good luck. Last time we played them, they won the national championship. I played him when he was at Kentucky and I was at Chattanooga. They're really well coached. To get all the talent and to try that hard defensively against little old central Arkansas. Sometime or another, y'all got to give that dude some credit because that guy can coach and more power to them. They were prepared. They played hard. 

"Their length is difficult to play against. Give them some credit.  It's just, you know, it's hard. We're kind of beat up right now,  beat up mentally and beat up physically. It's hard to play these games. It's fun. It's fun when you talk about them in July. It's great in July. It's just not as much fun when you have to go out there and you look out there and Brazile's out there denying your point guard the ball and he's a little bigger than your point guard."

The Razorbacks shot a sizzling 60% (33-55) from the field and 45% (9-20) from deep. The Hogs won the rebounding 36-22. The Hogs committed 12 turnovers. Arkansas had 18 bench points to eight for UCA. Calipari liked the results from behind the 3-point line.

"Well, the way they play, I thought maybe we'd end up taking 30 because of how they play," Calipari said. "But the guys, you know, you remember the one that we drove, swung it posted, Jonas skipped it, he drove and we did lob. I mean, that's, to me, that's beautiful basketball. That's playing off each other, that's creating space. But I would like us to shoot 25 threes. That's what I'd like. But I have said if we get 9, 10, 11 threes in a game, we'll be hard to beat because we're pretty good defensively. We're pretty big, we can block shots, we can make it hard. Now if you make four, three, that happens. Including teams that want to shoot 40, they make three or four. You just hope that they'll only make three or four. But yeah, that was, I didn't– nine for 20 is pretty big for us."

Arkansas has a week off now until they host North Carolina A&T (3-7) at 1:30 p.m. and televised on the SEC Network. UCA will host The Citadel (5-4) Monday night at 6 p.m. UCA has a big game on Sunday, Dec. 22, at noon when they travel to face No. 13 Oklahoma (9-0).

Photos Courtesy of Craven Whitlow CW3 Sports Action