FAYETTEVILLE -- As the regular season continues to wind down, No. 20 Arkansas will host Texas A&M Wednesday night in Bud Walton Arena with an 8 p.m. tip on ESPN2.
Arkansas (20-7, 10-4) and Texas A&M (19-8, 9-5) are fighting for seeding in both the SEC and NCAA Tournaments. Arkansas enters the game having defeated Missouri on Saturday. The Aggies snapped a four-game losing streak by defeating Ole Miss and Oklahoma last week. Arkansas' Chin Coleman has a lot of respect for the job Bucky McMillan is doing with the Aggies this season.
"You know, coach is doing a really good job at A&M," Coleman said. "Full-court pressure for 40 minutes. He’s been really successful this year doing that, and obviously it’s not the first time we’ve seen coaches over the years, I’m a little bit older, so I’ve seen coaches over the years play that style of play and have been successful. He’s having a lot of success in his first year in the SEC. He’s doing a tremendous job."
Forward Rashaun Agee has been outstanding for A&M this season. Agee is averaging 14.0 points, 8.9 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 1.0 steal and 0.8 block per game while playing an average of 25.8 minutes per game.
"He’s a big-time motor." Coleman said. "I mean, he has a big-time motor. It’s unbelievable how he plays. He’s on offense, he’s on defense. They score the ball, he’s at the point of the press. He tries to get a trap or a deflection, and then he sprints back and plays the opposing team’s five-man. He’s constantly moving, and unbelievable energy. So, our bigs have to match his physicality. Our bigs have to match his energy, and again, we have to go meet passes, because he does a great job of trapping and causing havoc."
The Razorbacks will try to limit turnovers facing the pressing from A&M. They apply pressure the entire game.
"I think the biggest challenge is that it's hard to simulate it because most teams don't play that way," Coleman said. "Most teams don't press that way. It is a unique way of applying pressure. Again, as I mentioned before, most teams will press on spot throw in, after a made basket, made free throw. They're going to apply pressure on misses. So, they miss a shot, you rebound the ball, they're not sprinting back. They're trying to trap and slow you down from getting in transition. So that's it's hard to simulate in practice, because that's not how we play defensively. But we've got some really good guards and we've got some really good wings, and we’ve got good synergy and good chemistry. We just got to take care of the ball. And we're not trying to reinvent the wheel. We're just trying to be ourselves and be super aggressive and attack the pressure."
Arkansas got some good news late on Billy Richmond III who appeared injured against Missouri. As it turns out, Richmond was only suffering from cramps. Isaiah Sealy has missed the last two games. Coleman commented on Sealy.
"He's getting better day by day," Coleman said. "We'll see how he feels today at practice, and then how he feels tomorrow at shoot around, but he's definitely getting better. And we'll see. We'll see by tip off tomorrow night."
In addition to Agee, the Aggies have four other players scoring in double figures plus another at 9.7 points each game. Coleman was asked about the challenges of facing a balanced attack like that?
"It's hard to," Coleman said. "It's a great question. It's hard to pinpoint one guy, they've got a balance attack. If I'm not mistaken, they're second in the country, in Division I, with bench points. They got guys coming off the bench with firepower. When you have a team that's as deep as they are, with multiple guys that can score the ball the way they can from the three point line, it makes it hard. It makes it challenging. So you're not just focused in on one or two guys. They've got six, seven, maybe eight, guys that could really go score the ball. I think they've got four guys who are shooting 40% or better. They're a good team, they're a good team, and we're up for the challenge."
The Selection Committee released its Top 16 seeds and the Razorbacks were just outside that group.
"Yeah, we didn't really focus in on that," Coleman said. "There wasn't much of a conversation in regards to that. Our focus has been on the next game. So obviously, we were aware that it came out, but I don't– we never really talked about it. That's not how we think. It's not how we attack the day we just kind of, you know, let's worry about practice. Let's lock in on the things that we can control, and let's continue to get better, day to day, week to week, month to month, and then we'll see in March. We'll see in March what happens."