FAYETTEVILLE -- No. 14 Arkansas held a 48-28 lead at halftime Friday night in Bud Walton then opened the second half on a 23-10 run to take an 89-61 victory in the CareSource Invitational exhibition game.
It was obviously an impressive win considering Cincinnati had beaten No. 7 Michigan 100-98 earlier in another preseason game. The Cincinnati-Arkansas matchup is part of a broader, mission-aligned initiative sponsored by CareSource, a nonprofit managed care organization. The initiative aims to normalize the mental health conversation nationwide, break the stigma and promote the overall well-being of children and teens.
Arkansas took control of the game and built its lead to as much as 35 points, 82-47, in the second half. John Calipari liked what he saw for the most part Friday night.
“I think we had 27 lane touches in the first half and scored like 32 points off of it,” Calipari said. “There were a couple plays they want to— I tell them, ‘You want to show your bag of tricks and step back. Just go by the man. Just go by him,’ because we’re a good enough shooting team that they got to play. We got a lot of stuff to work on, but, to see them defend and play that hard and compete like they did, especially defensively.
“Man, it’s October 24 guys. That team was up 20 on Michigan at Michigan. We can all say, ‘Well, we won,’ but we played good, and we had a lot of guys play good. Look, we have eight guys, and Isaiah (Sealy) is nine. Isaiah is not that far off to be and we’d have nine guys. He’s just not where the other guys are right now. Those eight, they’re pretty good. We got to get Malik Ewin a little more active, little more passion, screen and run to the rim, sprint, all that kind of stuff. He started doing it. He was getting dunks and layups, and then the other thing he did is they converge, and we’re all open. Guard play was good, ability to score balls, but we got out in transition. How about Billy Richmond? Karter (Knox), you could see, is better. TB (Trevon Brazile) is better. I mean, guys got better. DJ (Wagner) and Darius (Acuff Jr.) being able to play together is big for us. You know, big. They both, defensively, you know what, those guards had trouble getting around them.”
Arkansas had five players score in double figures including a combined 35 points from freshmen Meleek Thomas (18 points) and Acuff (17 points). Thomas also led the team with seven rebounds. Brazile had 15 points, Knox had 13 and Richmond added 10.
Cincinnati only had one player score in double figures, Halvine Dzellat with 10 points. Calipari will take his team to Memphis and face the Tigers at 8 p.m. Monday televised on ESPNU. While generally liking the win Calipari still wasn't satisfied.
"We got a couple guys that got to catch up," Calipari said. "You can't have every [another indistinguishable yell] and you're kind of going through the motions. Like, sticks out like a sore thumb. And holding people's feet to the fire. Hope you watched. I started this group, and then the second half, I started this group and next game, Monday, I'll start another group and start— hold your feet to the fire. Let's go. Prove yourself. You want to be out there, you have to deserve to be out there. You get no entitlement here. I'm gonna play the best guys. I'm just— the biggest thing again, we got a bunch of good guys again, just like we had last year."
The Razorbacks open the regular season on Monday, Nov. 3, when they host Southern at 6 p.m. and televised on the SEC Network.
