Razorback head basketball coach Eric Musselman shows his excitement at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville, AR.
By Otis Kirk
FAYETTEVILLE -- No. 10 Arkansas will return to the court at Bud Walton Arena on Friday night to host Fordham.
Both Arkansas and the Rams are coming off victories to open the 2022-23 season. Arkansas downed North Dakota State 76-58 while Fordham topped Dartmouth 88-74. Eric Musselman talked about the challenges Fordham will present his team.
"Fordham, they have five players which we deem red shooter, meaning guys we just cannot give a three-point shot to, and it starts with No. 3 (Darius) Quisenberry, who is an all-league player, was an all-league player at Youngstown State, as well," Musselman said. "No. 10, (Kyle) Rose, at the small forward spot can really hit threes. He’s really good in one corner, especially from three. Their point guard (Antrell Charlton), No. 24, is another guy that can make shots.
"They bring their big guy off the bench, No. 15 (Rostyslav Novitskyi), who can make shots, and then No. 1, (Will) Richardson, has a reputation of being a guy that can make shots. We’ve got to defend the three. We can’t let an all-league player like Quisenberry get good looks. We need to make his shot attempts, whether at the rim or beyond the three-point arc, we need to make those as difficult as possible. Those are some of the things we’ve got to do a good job. Then No. 2, (Khalid) Moore, at the power forward position, you’re talking about a player that has started close to 100 games in the ACC at Georgia Tech. We have our work cut out for us, because Moore is probably their second-best player and a guy that we have to have great respect for, as well."
In the win over Dartmouth, Quisenberry led the way with 20 points while adding four rebounds and three assists. Charlton also had three assists while putting in 16 points, Moore had 18 points and led the team with seven rebounds. Rose had 11 points and Novitskyi blocked three shots.
Musselman's team will enter the game with players banged up in addition to guard Nick Smith Jr. who will miss his second consecutive game due to knee management. But others are injured as well.
"I mean, we’re banged up right now," Musselman said. "Ricky (Council IV) hurt his elbow. TB (Trevon Brazile) has an ankle that he rolled pretty good, and then obviously Anthony (Black), so how it looks over the next 48 hours before Friday’s game, I don’t know. I know that we’re down 3-4 guys today in practice. Until I get off with the media I won’t know who is suiting up for practice, but I certainly know because I got an e-mail this morning and have some conversations with our trainer that there are four guys who will not be going full court today and will be limited at best to some half-court situations."
In the win over North Dakota State, Council IV had 22 points to lead the Hogs. Brazile posted his first career double-double with 21 points and 12 rebounds. Brazile was 3 of 6 from behind the 3-point line. Davonte Davis added 18 points. Black had three points, seven rebounds, three assists, three steals and a blocked shot.
"Anthony just does things that normal guys don’t," Musselman said. "I talked about the hook pass, cross-court passes he can make. He was really effective in pick-and-roll. I think we ran 13 pick-and-rolls with him and thought he did a good job on reading and getting other people involved. His rebounding gives us a whole different dimension. When you have a player his size at the point guard position and he can be second on the team in rebounding, there’s little things that people don’t talk about. Him as an inbounder on baseline out of bounds has helped us a lot, as well.
"I think he’s played really well, and then defensively, I don’t have the stats in front of me, but I don’t think that the NDSU point guard scored a field goal, so he did phenomenal job of using his length and not allowing the guy that he was assigned to (to score). And then he’s really good at covering up for teammates on what we call X-outs when we get into defensive rotations — stuff that a fan could never probably notice. But I’ve got a three-page report from Coach (Keith) Smart of our defensive grades. Everybody is graded out there, and he’s graded pretty well defensively."
Brazile, who transferred in from Missouri, is a sophomore and had his best game in college on Monday night. Musselman was proud of the 6-foot-10, 212-pound Brazile.
"Physicalness," Musselman said. "Holding his ground and not getting dislodged is going to be important. I think because he's such a phenomenal shot blocker that sometimes he'll allow his man to catch that thing and he'll try to alter the shot. If he fronts the post, I don't know that anybody is going to be able to throw a lob over him. So, we just want to encourage him to get in the habit of post fronts maybe a little bit more than what we saw against North Dakota State."
Musselman did provide an update on Smith Jr., who is projected to be a lottery pick in the 2023 NBA Draft.
"Just the same as it has been," Musselman said. "It's day to day. He's not going to practice today. He's not going to practice tomorrow. So, I would anticipate he's not going to play. I think we kind of leave that up to the trainer and Nick, but the anticipation is right now is that we have to worry about trying to get these other guys that did play as close to being healthy as possible."
Sources indicate Smith Jr. could be out up to three weeks. Musselman talked about the other players developing with the talented freshman on the sidelines.
"Nick is such an unselfish player that I think the guys want to see him back with us as quick as possible," Musselman said. "They like playing with him. Nick is a tenacious competitor. I think with anybody in any sport, it's about who is healthy, who's available, how do we make this thing work and how do we get a win?
"Nick was probably too engaged during the game at the end of the bench. The referee kept telling guys to sit down. Finally, I went down there and said who are they talking about, and four or five guys pointed to Nick. We're still trying to figure out who we are. Roles are fluctuating, and the starting lineup is fluctuating. With 11 new players, that's just kind of how it is going to be. But obviously when someone as offensively dynamic as Nick is is not in uniform, somebody else is going to get an opportunity. The shot distribution is going to go to other people, and you just need them to step up and play well."
Arkansas and Fordham will tip at 7 p.m. Friday night. Fans can view the game online at SEC Network+.