FAYETTEVILLE -- No, 15 Arkansas will take to the road to face Ole Miss Wednesday night in SEC action.
Arkansas (11-3, 1-0) defeated Tennessee 86-75 on Saturday at Bud Walton Arena. The Razorbacks didn't win their first SEC game until the sixth try last season. Ole Miss (8-6, 0-1) fell at Oklahoma 86-70 on Saturday. Arkansas assistant Chuck Martin previewed the Rebels on Tuesday.
"Coach (Chris) Beard’s had a reputation over the years of being a heck of a defensive coach and that hasn’t changed," Martin said. "The effort every night, they play hard, they’re physical. Defensively, they’re one of the best defensive teams in our league. So yeah, it’s going to be a battle. It’s an SEC game on the road. Physicality, rebounding, toughness — again, SEC game on the road, it’s not going to be an easy game."
This will be Arkansas' first true road test since facing Michigan State on Saturday, Nov. 8. Martin spoke on that.
"We haven’t talked too much about it," Martin said. "Obviously the Michigan State game you just mentioned I think is going to serve us well heading into SEC play. That was our first true road game, that Michigan State game, and as good as our young guys and our returning guys are, particularly our young guys, they’ve never played on the road before until that Michigan State game. So hopefully that atmosphere, which seems like it was a year ago, but it was a great atmosphere, it was a tough atmosphere. Hopefully that serves us well going into tomorrow night’s game."
Ole Miss is led by senior forward Malik Dia, 6-10, 250, who gave the Hogs a fit last season. He leads the Rebels averaging 14.6 points and 7.0 rebounds per game.
"He’s a handful," Martin said. "He’s a really good player because of his versatility. His ability to shoot the ball from the 3-point line, I think the last five games he’s shooting 35% from 3, attempting 3.5 threes a night. But that doesn’t mean that number can easily jump up to 39% or almost 40% if you don’t close out on him. The challenge with him is he's got great size and he's skilled enough to shot fake you in and back you down into the paint. At 6-foot-10, he's a handful for a lot of teams in this league. And you're absolutely right, he had his way with us last year. Hopefully we'll have more success with him this year."
The Razorbacks led by Darius Acuff Jr. has shown the ability to put points on the board despite playing some of the very best defensive teams in the nation.
"We’ve got a handful of weapons," Martin said. "We’re fortunate to have a bench, guys that come off the bench, and give us production. And then we’re unselfish. We’ve got an unselfish group that’s willing to move the ball, pass the ball, share the ball and it’s a fun group. Obviously really talented on the offensive end, but super unselfish. I think that’s key in any program. If you’ve got a group of guys that are willing to share the ball and celebrate other guys’ success, good things are going to happen."
Acuff is averaging 19.5 points and 6.0 assists per game. One of the key bench players is Meleek Thomas, Arkansas' other freshman guard. Thomas is averaging 15.4 points per game and shooting 37.2% from deep coming off the bench. He has snapped out of a three-game shooting slump from recently.
"I think it's important to recognize, when you — and I get what you're saying with the slump — but in one of those games, he had seven assists, and, I think, had two steals and had five rebounds in one of those games," Martin said. "So although he didn't shoot the ball particularly well, he played well, and I get it from a fan's perspective, you're thinking, ‘Hey, man, he's shooting the ball so well, why can't he continue to shoot the ball at that rate?’ But in the games that he was in a slump, he distributed the ball, he defended the best offensive player on the opposing team. He stuck his nose in there and grabbed five or six rebounds. And because he had that energy about him, that spirit about him, it was inevitable that he was going to get out of the slump and shoot the ball a bit better."
Arkansas is getting better play from Florida State transfer big man Malique Ewin in recent games as well.
"It's tremendous," Martin said. "It gives you a low post presence, which we desperately need. Everyone does it at this level. You need someone to scroll around the basket. And he gives you versatility. He can score it down low. He can beat you off the dribble around the free throw line. He gets his feet set, he can knock down a 3. So it's just another weapon for us to have. We're fortunate to have him."
Arkansas and Ole Miss will tip off in Oxford at 8 p.m. and the game televised on the SEC Network Wednesday night.
