FAYETTEVILLE -- On Saturday, it will be No. 14 Arkansas hosting No. 3 Purdue in a charity exhibition game at 3 p.m. in Bud Walton Arena.
Arkansas is coming off a 92-39 win over UT Tyler this past Friday night in an exhibition game. Saturday's game against the Boilermakers will be a much, much bigger test. Purdue (29-6, 15-5) last season won the Big Ten. They were the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, but suffered a surprising 63-58 loss to No. 16-seed Fairleigh Dickinson. That was only the second time in history a No. 1-seeded team lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament to a No. 16.
On Tuesday, Eric Musselman was asked how this team came about?
"Coach Todd Lee had been talking to the Purdue staff, and then Coach (Matt) Painter and I have a relationship just through the Nike coaches’ things that we’ve done. From afar I’ve always had great respect for how hard his teams play and how well coached they are from an execution standpoint. Certainly to get a chance to play somebody in an exhibition game … To be able to play a team that has a chance to win a national championship certainly makes this game way more meaningful and way more special than just a normal exhibition game when you look at lessons that can be learned once this game is over."
Following the easy win against an overmatched UT Tyler team, Musselman said he wanted more physicality. He will likely get his wish against Purdue, but it started in practice this week.
"Yesterday was Day 1 of the practice week and I thought it was a really good practice, a very physical practice," Musselman said. "Purdue, obviously the physicality with (Zach) Edey inside, the physicality of No. 4 (Trey) Kaufman-Renn, those two guys are physical. No. 1 (Caleb) Furst is really physical, as well. 0 (Mason) Gillis is another physical player. And then their guards are just so scrappy, so we’ve got to have physicality 1 through 5 positionally as we prepare for Purdue.
"And then certainly the physicality on the glass, because they do a great job when the ball goes in to No. 15 Edey, they do a great job of cutting with force to offensive rebound from their 4 spot. Defensively block outs because extremely important, as well. But I thought yesterday we had a good practice as far as preparation, but again, we understand internally that Purdue is, just based on their returners and roles and understanding expectations, they’re probably way ahead of where we are not only today, but where we’ll be even two weeks from today. But it’s a great game for us, for sure."
Edey is a load to defend at 7-foot-4, 300-pounds. In 2022-23, Edey averaged 22.3 points, 12.9 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 2.1 blocks per game. Musselman was asked what's the plan to defend Edey?
"That’s one of the reasons that we’re so excited about playing Purdue, is you’re talking about maybe the hardest player in college basketball to game plan against," Musselman said. "Because of his size, because of his skill level and because of his teammates that play surrounding him.
"Coach Painter has done a great job of getting shooting to surround a player that’s got great skill [on the] interior. So I would say that this prep for a Coach Painter team, they’re tough, they execute, a lot of continuity. I would say they’re for sure way ahead of where we are today, and they’re probably way ahead of a lot of other programs. And then you add the fact they played four games overseas with a bunch of returners, this is a team that’s going to present a lot of things that we need to try and cover between now and Saturday afternoon."
It was figured by most Makhi Mitchell would take on the role of defending Edey, but Musselman has likely opted for a different option and explained why.
"Obviously Khi went through a stretch this summer of being injured," Musselman said. "He missed a good part of our offseason with a broken foot. But he did a great job continuing to lift weights with our strength coach. I think in this particular game, Chandler Lawson will get an opportunity to guard Edey and obviously Khi will get an opportunity to guard him. Jalen Graham, if he’s able to suit up, would possibly get a chance to go in and guard him. Maybe Baye Fall. So there’s a lot of different guys that might get the opportunity, but certainly Khi and Chandler are the two players on our roster that have the experience of maybe defending some of the more physicality guys that we could see. Because it’s not just Edey.
"Again, Kaufman-Renn is really, really physical, as well, inside and was their leading scorer in their four games overseas. And they’ll play two centers together. There’s a possibility that 15 Edey will play alongside Kaufman-Renn and then we have a decision whether we’ll match up big-to-big or whether we’ll go with a big and a small and add perimeter shooting and dribble-drive game against maybe two bigs. So those are some of the things that we’ll look to experiment with once we get into that 40-minute experimental game."
Lawson is a 6-8, 210, transfer from the University of Memphis. Lawson talked about facing Edey.
"It's going to be a tough matchup for us," Lawson said. "We've got a lot of guys that are going to be guarding him, some fours and some fives. I feel like offensive-wise, we've got to run the floor and put him in so much pick-and-roll coverage. I feel like we've got to outrun him. The goal is just to run, run, run, just make him keep up with us and our athleticism. On the defensive end, it's going to be a whole group team effort. We've been doing a lot of drills in practice lately. The Edey rules, that's what we call it. I feel like we're doing a great thing at practice, just covering what Zach Edey likes to do and his tendencies."
Lawson admitted even playing at a good school like Memphis he has never played in an exhibition game like this.
"We played like D2, so you don't see too many Top 15 matchups like this in October," Lawson said. "I feel like this will be a great challenge for us and also for them to see what we need to work on in the future. This is a huge test for us, seeing what we need to work on in the future. I feel like a lot of guys are ready, and I feel like we're already getting prepared for this moment. It's like a March Madness matchup, and I feel like it's going to be a great event Saturday for the fans to see in October."
Houston transfer guard Tramon Mark has complete confidence in Lawson.
"He’s nasty," Mark said. "Another high IQ guy. He comes with a lot of energy in practice, a lot of energy in the games. He just knows what he’s doing on the basketball floor. He’s a great addition to our team and he just knows what he’s doing out there. He can shoot the three-ball well."
Trevon Brazile, Arkansas' talented forward, scored four points and pulled down three rebounds in 19 minutes, 29 seconds, against UT Tyler. How has his knee that forced him to miss most of last season responded since then?
"TB’s done a great job," Musselman said. "I think his intensity and workload have increased, especially yesterday. I don’t think they’ll be a heavy minutes restriction on him at all, to be honest with you. I think that probably 15 to 25 minutes we feel comfortable playing him."
Saturday's game will be available at the SEC Network Plus livestream.
Photos Courtesy of Craven Whitlow CW3 Sports Action
