FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas will get a chance at the SEC Tournament to avenge its ugliest loss of the season on Wednesday when they face South Carolina in Nashville.
South Carolina (12-19, 2-16) defeated Arkansas (19-12, 8-10) 72-53 on March 1 in a game that wasn't as close as the final score indicated. For much of the game, South Carolina's Collin Murray-Boyle outscored the entire Razorbacks by himself. South Carolina led 32-14 at halftime.
Arkansas Associate Head Coach Kenny Payne expects another battle from the Gamecocks and talked about what his team has to do different on Wednesday.
"Well, they manhandled us last time," Payne said. "They’re a very physical team. They dominated us with the 4 and the 5. I think they scored around 50-something points between those two. They posted the ball. They offensive rebounded. This is going to be a physical game. Our guys have to play with a sense of urgency. Our bigs have to do a good job of defending those guys around the basket, not giving them angles to the basket, fighting early for post position, not letting them get deep and keeping them off the boards.
"Those are two good players. They’re a very good team. Their record doesn’t indicate exactly how good they are, but when you watch them and you really pay attention to what they are doing, defensively they're very good in the half court. They make things hard for you, so you better move the ball and put them on their heels, or you’re going to be on your heels."
Payne rehashed the first half when the Razorbacks only managed 14 points.
"No, I thought that the first half was bad," Payne said. "We missed open shots, we missed layups, missed a lot of shots around the basket. You know, we didn't fight on defense around the basket, defensively, post defense. They were the aggressors, and they put us on our heels for most of the first half. The second half, we started out OK. When you look at the stats, I think it was a tie score or a one-point lead by them or us or whatever, but it was a close second half, but the first half separated the game, and we never made up for it."
Murray-Boyles finished with 35 points, seven rebounds, two assists and four steals. Payne knows the talented Murray-Boyles who is projected as a Round 1 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft is capable of repeating that performance.
"No, the scouting report is the same," Payne said. "You know he's strong, left handed. He's a bull at driving the basket. You have to stay in front of him. You cannot give him angles. He posts up hard. They'll run a segment of stuff where they lift a bunch of players and throw it over the top. So you got to really be in tune to what's going on on the floor. And the teams that have caused him problems have done a good job of over a 40-minute game, not just making it about one player stopping him, it's the team playing together and being in gaps and being in the lane to prevent him from, and all of them, from really having success."
It wasn't all Murray-Boyles, Nick Pringle scored 18 points, pulled down nine rebounds and had two steals.
"I think the first thing is matching his physicality and matching it early," Payne said. "He’s a guy that fights for low post position. Well, if you let him get there and try to fight, you’re too late. He’s too big, he’s too strong. I think the way that he rebounds, you’ve got to him early there and try to keep him off the glass. He runs the floor very well and they look for him in the post and they try to get him going.
"So we (laughs)… We have a scouting report that really this won’t be our first time playing them, where those two kids, one had 35 and I think the other kid had 18 or 20. So those are a lot of baskets for them and we have to do a much better job defending them, making it tough, but knowing that also the other players on the court, they’ve got good shooters, they play hard, they can drive the ball. They’re a good team."
In an odd twist, Payne didn't rule out Adou Thiero playing when asked about it. Thiero is traveling with the team and Payne was asked any chance he puts on a uniform?
"We hope so," Payne said. "I know he’s still doing his rehab. There hasn’t been an update to us yet, but he’s working to get better and we’ll go from there."
Most feel the Razorbacks are in the NCAA Tournament though it's certainly not official until the announcement is made on Sunday. But even if they are a lock for the tournament seeding is still at stake and that matters a lot. With that in mind, Payne was asked how much emphasis the team has placed on having success at the SEC Tournament?
"Well, the postseason, everybody’s 0-0, and that’s how we approach it," Payne said. "We want to win every single game that we go into. What we’ve talked about as a team is that, we have to come into this and build momentum and play hard and play winning basketball. We control our own destiny and not allow anyone else to control it for us. That’s our mentality. That’s what Coach is preaching. I think we’ve done a great job of getting these guys to stay engaged in us, with us for winning, which is hard to do in this day and age when you don’t have the success early. Go back to 0-5 or 1-6, whatever we started, to see where we are now with all the adversity that we’ve been through with players being out. We’ve found a way and we couldn’t do that without high-character kids that really want to buy into winning."
The tip on Wednesday is at noon and televised on the SEC Network. The winner of Wednesday's game will advance to face Ole Miss (21-10, 10-8) on Thursday at noon. The Razorbacks fell to Ole Miss 73-66 on Wednesday, Jan. 8.
