Eric Musselman analyzes Arkansas' effort limiting Gradey Dick

Arkansas came back from a 12-point deficit to fight with Kansas down the stretch and, eventually, knock off the No. 1 seed in the West Region and make the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. A big part of that was how the Razorbacks defended Gradey Dick and kept the Jayhawk’s star freshman quiet.

After the 72-71 victory, Eric Musselman said they weren’t wanting Dick to even squeeze any shots off. Limiting his attempts obviously limited his makes and, in the end, limited his performance.

“We just wanted to give no air space obviously to Gradey Dick,” explained Musselman. “He’s an incredible shooter, one of the best shooters in college basketball.”

“The general philosophy was not to allow three point attempts. That was the biggest thing. To stay attached,” Musselman said. “That’s also why they did a good job, I thought, of exploiting us hugging up on him by their middle pick-and-roll and their flip screen. Because (KJ) Adams got some easy baskets inside and we fouled him a few times off that roll. We just did not have a tag man because we didn’t want Grady to see any daylight. We felt like, if we could hold him to four or five three-ball attempts, they would play to our advantage.”

As a freshman, Dick averaged 14.1 points and 5.1 rebounds on 44.2% from the field and 40.3% from distance. Dajuan Harris was the only player who finished with a better percentage than him. Overall, though, Dick took 132 more attempts than him on the year. On top of that, he led Kansas in three-point makes with 83 total, 13 more than Jalen Wilson in second place.

Still, that version of Dick wasn’t who was out there on the floor in Des Moines on Saturday. He finished 3-9, including 1-3 from deep, for just seven points against the ‘Hogs. He also picked up seven rebounds but, in general, it was a quiet 36 minutes from Dick.

If he played like his usual self, Kansas likely would have held on considering the game was decided by a point. However, Musselman and Arkansas did enough to send him and the reigning champs home en route to their third straight Sweet 16 appearance.