Nate Allen
FAYETTEVILLE - Gardner-Webb may sound like a law firm but on the basketball court it almost upset traditional power UNLV.
In Las Vegas Wednesday night, the Gardner-Webb University Bulldogs of Boiling Springs, N.C. and the Big South Conference only trailed UNLV, 60-58 with 48 seconds left. The Bulldogs missed two free throws then had to foul as UNLV escaped, 64-58.
Gardner-Webb nearly striking it rich in Vegas resonates in Arkansas because the 0-1 Bulldogs visit the 1-0 Razorbacks Saturday afternoon. Tip-off is 2 p.m. at Walton Arena on the Razorbacks Radio Network and Internet video available on SEC Network Plus.
Trailing lower division East Central Oklahoma University by 14 with 11:46 left of an exhibition game Arkansas won only 77-74, then last Tuesday trailing Mercer University down eight at half before Arkansas second-half surged winning, 74-61 its official season opener Tuesday night at Walton, Coach Eric Musselman’s Razorbacks already learned this young season their No. 16 national ranking seems more a target than an intimidator.
Musselman expects Coach Tim Craft’s Bulldogs firing into Walton with 3-point gunners blazing like ECU and Mercer did.
"We’re going to have to defend the three, obviously,” Musselman said. ‘Their guards can really score the ball.”
In particular Musselman cited G-W guards D’Maurian Williams, Lance Terry and Jordan Sears.
UNLV most especially would cite Williams and Terry. D’Maurian Williams double-doubled 21 points and 10 rebounds while Terry scored 13 on the Runnin’ Rebels in Las Vegas.
G-W Forward Zion Williams grabbed 10 boards while 6-9 forward Kareem Reid blocked two shots.
“They have perimeter guys that are three-ball shooters,” Musselman said. “Their interior guys are not 3-point shooters like we saw with Mercer, but their interior guys are physical around the rim and defensively, more shot blocking than what we saw with Mercer.”
In this first-week young season that Musselman said already has seen upsets like Navy over Virginia, UC-San Diego over the Pac 12’s University of California and near upsets like Hofstra at Houston and now Gardner-Webb at UNLV, the Hogs certainly have to be on guard Saturday.
Musselman said their so-far up and down 3-point defense, very up in the exhibition game victory over last March NCAA Tournament team North Texas, and rebounding, very up, 35-22 over Mercer, must ride the upside of their so far roller-coaster. But it’s the 3-game flatline of assists-turnover ratio, especially digging Arkansas’ first-half holes in the exhibition against ECU and Tuesday against Mercer, that most concerns Arkansas’ coach.
“The one thing we haven’t solved is assist-turnover ratio,” Musselman said. “That has to improve because right now it hasn’t.”
The two exhibition assists-turnover ratios read 9-10 and 10-14 and was 13-15 against Mercer.
Musselman of course loved combo guards JD Notae and Chris Lykes scoring 30 and 16 points against Mercer and combo guard Devo Davis’ defense against Mercer All-Southern Conference guard Neftali Alvarez, but noted it was 6-10 center Jaylin Williams’ five assists most assisting Arkansas second-half resurgence.
“I guess he’s now considered a point forward,” Musselman said. “If you clipped his minutes that he had the ball in his hands it probably was at the lowest end of the team, yet he lead us in assists. Other guys had the ball in their hands a lot and didn’t come close to his amount of assists. So maybe we change up some of our sets so that he can be a little bit more of a distributor because he's a willing passer and got great vision.”
Expect Craft to have his Bulldogs concerned with Notae’s scoring, Jaylin Williams’ passing and the all-round play of Au’Diese Toney. Via University of Pittsburgh graduate transfer forward Toney debuted with an 18-points/11 rebounds double-double against Mercer.