12/29/2023 0 Comments Razorback basketballArkansas, as a group, shot 30.4 percent from 3 last season. Smith had three 3s in that game, which is something to watch with him: Can he provide high-level perimeter scoring, too? Can he genuinely stretch defenses? This is an area Arkansas struggled with last season, and often relied on (theoretically) low-percentage J.D. Arkansas Razorback Men's Basketball □ August 9, 2022 He was the obvious star of Arkansas’s win over Valencia Seleccion during their European exhibition tour on Tuesday, with 17 points, six assists and four rebounds, which is exactly the kind of do-it-all lines Arkansas’s staff is expecting out of Smith fairly regularly. Arkansas has him listed at 6-foot-5, and even at that size Smith will play like an attacking, scoring point guard, with the ball constantly in his hands. There is very little on the floor he can’t do. Rabid fans love anyone who comes to play hard for the program, sure, but they love their own even more. You played four years at Davenport North, Ricky! Slightly different situation here but still, shout out Sylvan Hills.) There is a special sauce when a hometown (or even home-state) kid this good signs on to a local program on the rise. As a native of Davenport, Iowa, it always stung that Ricky Davis listed his hometown as Las Vegas. (Felt obliged to get the Sylvan Hills shout-out in there. Smith arrives as heralded as basically any Arkansas player ever, not just because he might be the best guy in his entire incoming class but also because he’s a local star, first of Sylvan Hills High School in Sherwood and then, as a senior, where he led the team to a 26-3 record and a Class 6A state championship, at North Little Rock. Make no mistake: That danger begins with Nick Smith. If - OK, when - Musselman hones it, it will look as dangerous as any in the country. The roster is a jumble, no doubt, but in a good way. The biggest thing we talk about in meetings right now is who works best with who - and who is ready to produce, and who’s not sure.” “The biggest thing that stands out is the size, length and versatility is as good as Coach has ever had,” assistant coach Gus Argenal said. (Remember: Before the 2021-22 Razorbacks went 18-4 to finish the year, they lost five of six in December and early January, including to a 22-point loss to Oklahoma and a quasi-home defeat to Hofstra.) That process began in earnest in scrimmages and skill work sessions this summer, and from that work the stats-inclined staff gained significant insights. The Razorbacks sure seem loaded, but it will take some time, maybe even more time than usual, for Musselman and his staff to figure out exactly what they’ve got and how it all fits together. There are, count ’em, 11 new players in Fayetteville, not just another talented haul of transfer veterans but also, in a fun new twist, six top 100 freshmen, including three McDonald’s All-Americans. The fourth season of Musselman’s tenure has a chance to raise the level yet again, both in terms of talent and in sheer “let’s figure out what we’ve got here” unfamiliarity. Thanks to his facility for a quick turnaround, once-dormant Arkansas men’s hoops is very much back, the Muss Bus rounding into year four with back-to-back Elite Eight appearances and consecutive top-four NCAA Tournament seeds in the immediate rear view. It was a process not entirely unlike churning those CBA journeymen rosters of yore. Go find the best players you could get every spring, bring them together, and then, like a dad playing Factorio, spend a few months joyfully puzzling and tweaking and rewiring, optimizing the previously disparate parts. Forget slow-roasting your roster for four seasons. Muss obsessively cycled through guys, was the point, and so it was no surprise to see the Arkansas coach become the early transfer portal king of the immediate-eligibility era.
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