Norm Roberts reveals what prevented Gradey Dick from getting shots

Kansas freshman guard Gradey Dick has been one of the best shotmakers in the country this season. But he wasn’t able to play his game in the Round of 32 against Arkansas due to the Razorbacks’ length and versatility on defense.

Dick scored only seven points on 3 of 9 shooting as eighth-seeded Arkansas upset the No. 1 seed Jayhawks, 72-71.

Acting head coach Norm Roberts said the Arkansas defense did a great job holding him in check.

“We’ve dealt with that all year but they have some long athletes that made it tough on him to get shots,” Roberts said after the game. “I don’t think we screened as well as we wanted to for him, maybe we could have ran a few more things for him, but they did nullify him a little bit. I thought we shared the ball pretty good and we had a lot of balance, but they did do a good job of preventing him from getting open looks.”

Dick finished his freshman year averaging 14.1 points, 5.1 rebounds and 1.7 assists on 44.2% shooting and 40.3% from beyond the arc. He also was selected to the All-Big 12 Second Team, All-Big 12 Newcomer Team and All-Big 12 Freshman Team.

Eric Musselman said the strategy on Dick was to not give him any space.

“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.”

Norm Roberts says Gradey Dick wasn’t the only one dealing with Arkansas’ defense

Gradey Dick was far from the only player who was stifled by a great performance from the Arkansas defense and the team’s overall size advantage. Roberts said that difference was a key factor in the final result.

“They did a good job of getting to the glass and getting their hands on balls and deflects, and we knew they were very active with their hands and their athletic ability,” Roberts said.