Scouting Report: Arkansas Razorbacks

It is time to bring the college basketball regular season to a close. The #23 ranked Kentucky Wildcats (20-10, 11-6) are coming off of a tough Senior Day defeat against the Vanderbilt Commodores. Meanwhile, the Arkansas Razorbacks (19-11, 8-9) have lost back-to-back games to Alabama and Tennessee respectively. Most important for the ‘Cats at this point will be the status of star point guard Cason Wallace. He suffered a lower-leg injury on Wednesday night that kept him out for most of the second half. CJ Fredrick remains questionable as well with ongoing pain in his ribs. The Wildcats are officially walking wounded to begin the month of March. However, we have seen them respond to adversity well throughout the season.

Arkansas has continued to see their season going through peaks and valleys. After rolling through non-conference play 11-1 they began their SEC schedule with a 1-5 record. Then, they ratted off five straight conference wins to get to 17-7 overall and 6-5 in the league. Now they have lost four of their last six to drop back below .500 in the SEC. Despite a lackluster resume, the Razorbacks remain a nine seed in the most recent ESPN Bracketology. A Quad 1 victory over Kentucky on Saturday at Bud Walton Arena would certainly lock up a NCAA Tournament berth and potentially keep the Wildcats from earning the coveted SEC Tournament double bye. There is still a lot to play for in the final hours of the regular season.

This will be a different Arkansas team than the one that came to Rupp Arena and won 88-73 back on February 7th. Coach Musselman has added superstar freshman Nick Smith Jr. back to the lineup and he has hit the ground running. The 6’5″ playmaker is the Razorbacks second-leading scorer at 12.8 points per game and has recent outings of 26 and 24 points since reentering the lineup. He adds another dimension to an already dangerous offensive attack. Kentucky must do a significantly better job on the defensive end on Saturday afternoon in Fayetteville than they did last month in Lexington. That will be especially tough as the Wildcats face more injuries while the Razorbacks have added a star back to the fold.

As always, we have a full scouting report to help prepare you for this contest. We will take a deep-dive into their personnel, breakdown their offensive and defensive schemes, and highlight the keys to the game. Let’s dive on in and get to know more about the Arkansas Razorbacks.

Arkansas Razorbacks Personnel

Starters

#0 Anthony Black: 6’7″ 198 lbs, Freshman Guard

12.7 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 4.2 apg

Bigger guard. Much more dangerous as a driver than a shooter. 25-78 from 3, but well over 50% from 2. Need to be close enough to give a hard contest to the 3’s, but more worried about his ability to drive it. Go under ballscreens and handoffs. The ones behind the ballscreen are not the 3’s he makes. No right hand drives! Very capable going either direction, but better going to his right. Wants to finish with his right hand. Need to get your hands up and be physical at the end of his drives. He is going to have a size advantage so you must make it as difficult as possible with a hard contest to all mid-range jumpers and floaters. You can help off of him, but can’t lose sight. Good cutter. Excellent offensive rebounder as well. Box out! Contest everything. More shots than points for him!

#4 Davonte Davis: 6’4″ 185 lbs, Junior Guard

10.9 ppg, 4.0 rpg, 2.8 apg

Lefty. Extremely quick and athletic. Wants to drive the ball left in a straight line. NO LEFT HAND DRIVES!!! He will push it hard in transition and attack downhill off of ballscreens. Have to stay between him and the basket at all times. Go under the ballscreens and handoffs. Those are not the 3’s he is going to shoot. Capable shooter, their best shooter, 39-113 from 3. Need to tighten up enough to give a hard contest to the catch-and-shoot 3’s. Have to respect his shooting ability. Next most dangerous in transition. Both because of his ability to catch-and-shoot and also his ability to drive it left on the throw ahead. Bounce back after initial closeout to guard against the left hand drive. Not a high percentage finisher with someone between him and the basket. Do not over help when he drives it right. No left hand drives. No layups!

#3 Nick Smith Jr.: 6’5″ 185 lbs, Freshman Guard

12.8 ppg, 1.6 rpg, 1.5 apg

Very talented and aggressive scorer. Capable shooter. 15-45 from 3 in 11 games. Have to respect his shooting ability. Be tight enough to him to give a hard contest to the catch-and-shoot 3’s. Try to break his rhythm when he is bouncing it on the perimeter without getting blown by. He is a very good jump shooter off of the dribble. Don’t let him be comfortable and dribble into a pull-up 3 or anything from the mid-range. Give a hard contest to all mid-range jump shots. No right hand drives! Stay between him and the basket and make him score over you. He is just 41.8% from 2. Stay down on the fakes, stunt at him will keeping some distance, bring help, and make him uncomfortable. Not really thinking about passing. Make him give it up. Contest everything. More shots than points for him.

6’7″ 205 lbs, Freshman Guard/Forward

7.0 ppg, 4.0 rpg, 0.9 apg

Athletic, talented wing. Much more dangerous as a driver than a shooter. 17-60 from 3, but 52.1% from 2. NO RIGHT HAND DRIVES!!! Closeout short to stay between him and the basket. Do not let him attack your closeouts. We want to make him take contested jump shots. Just get a hand up to contest if he shoots it from 3. You are closing out to contain penetration and take away the right hand drives. When he does drive it right we want to bring help and come take it off of him. Not thinking about passing. 27 assists, 31 turnovers. Always coming back right to finish. Be ready for shot fakes and pivots at the end of his drives to come back right. Right hand, left shoulder in the post. Contest the mid-range jumpers and face-ups in post. No right hand drives! More shots than points for him.

#15 Makhi Mitchell: 6’9″ 230 lbs, Senior Forward/Center

6.9 ppg, 5.7 rpg, 1.1 apg

Strong, physical post. Will ballscreen and roll to the basket. Capable of catching it on the roll and scoring. You need to give ground and stay lower than him to take away the layups and dunks on the roll. We should be going under most of the ballscreens anyway which will take away the need to help at the point of the screen. Don’t help up off of him at the rim and give up a dunk. Right hand, left shoulder in the post. Be physical and get him off of the block. His percentages will go down the further off of the block you make him catch it. Excellent offensive rebounder. Make contact when the shot goes up. Box out! Make him score everything with you between him and the basket. Don’t let him play harder than you. Match his physicality. No left shoulder baskets. No layups or dunks!

Bench

#1 Ricky Council IV: 6’6″ 205 lbs, Junior Guard

16.6 ppg, 3.4 rpg, 2.4 apg

Very aggressive. Best offensive player. Not a good 3-point shooter. 31-109 from 3.Want to stay between him and the basket and take away penetration. Do not guard him out beyond the arc and get beat off of the dribble. No right hand drives!!! Be ready to give a hard contest to all jump shots, but you are most concerned with containing penetration. Likes to use his size and strength to get to the rim. Bring some help when he is driving it, especially when he is driving it right. Come take it off of him. 56 assists, 56 turnovers. Will shot fake on the perimeter to lift you and attack your closeout. No reason to bite on the fakes because we don’t mind him shooting. Should closeout a step or two short anyway. Limit his paint touches. Contest everything. No right hand drives. More shots than points for him!

#11 Jalen Graham: 6’9″ 225 lbs, Senior Forward

5.8 ppg, 2.5 rpg, 0.5 apg

Backup forward. Very good around the basket. He is a NON-SHOOTER! 0-3 from 3. No reason to guard him out on the perimeter. Stay inside and guard against the right hand drives. No right hand drives!!! Exclusively looking to score at the rim. All right hand around the basket. Right hand, left shoulder in the post. Be physical and make him score over you. Will use a lot of shot fakes and pivots to try and lift you and score back with his right hand. Stay down on the fakes! Wall up and be physical on the left shoulder. Do not let him turn the corner. No quick drop steps. Stunt and fake at him when he has the ball inside. 14 assists, 34 turnovers. Come take it off of him after one or two dribbles. Stay down on the fakes. No right hand drives. Make him score over you.

#22 Makhel Mitchell: 6’10” 240 lbs, Senior Forward/Center

4.3 ppg, 3.7 rpg, 0.4 apg

Strong, physical post. Will ballscreen and roll to the basket. Capable of catching it on the roll and scoring. You need to give ground and stay lower than him to take away the layups and dunks on the roll. We should be going under most of the ballscreens anyway which will take away the need to help at the point of the screen. Don’t help up off of him at the rim and give up a dunk. Right hand, left shoulder in the post. Be physical and get him off of the block. His percentages will go down the further off of the block you make him catch it. Excellent offensive rebounder. Make contact when the shot goes up. Box out! Make him score everything with you between him and the basket. Don’t let him play harder than you. Match his physicality. No left shoulder baskets. No layups or dunks!

#20 Kamani Johnson: 6’7″ 230 lbs, Senior Forward

2.0 pg, 2.7 rpg, 0.2 apg

Backup forward. Very strong and physical. Looking to score everything right around the rim. He will ballscreen and roll to the basket. You need to give ground and stay lower than him to take away the layups and dunks on the roll. Aggressively help off of him when he doesn’t have it on the perimeter. Help pack it in and clog up the lane. He is going to drive it at you when he catches it. No right hand drives! Be physical at the end of his drives. Stay down, wall up, and don’t let him come back to his right hand. Make him score over you. Right hand, left shoulder in the post. Excellent offensive rebounder. Make contact when the shot goes up. Box out! Don’t let him play harder than you. Match his physicality. No right hand drives. No layups or dunks!

Arkansas Razorbacks Offense

The Arkansas Razorbacks have been streaky offensively due to being one of the worst shooting teams in college basketball. However, that has improved some of late. Still, they attempt only 15.9 3-pointers per game and make them at just a 32.1% clip. That is 290th in the country. However, what they lack on the perimeter they make up for with their ability to attack the basket. The Razorbacks score nearly 60% of their points from 2-point range which is 14th most nationally. Their attacking style also allows them to get to the free throw line a lot, but the convert at less than 70% at the charity stripe. They also set a lot of ballscreens and are excellent in transition. Our defense must be ready for them to attack the rim at all times and focus on staying between them and the basket. Let’s look at the film.

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So much of what Arkansas does offensively is geared around attacking the basket. Whether that be in transition, off of a ballscreen, or from zoom action like you see here they are going to get downhill to the rim whenever possible. However, we should be able to stay between them and the basket pretty well and limit the need to help because most everyone is a significantly better driver than shooter. Back up and stay in front of the ball. Tennessee actually does a pretty good job here and they have #1 Council IV going to his left hand. There was no reason to help this aggressively off of #0 Black in the corner. Let Council IV drive it left and see if he will finish. These catch-and-shoot 3’s are the ones Black can make.

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After knocking in the corner 3 on the previous possession, Coach Musselman went right back to the same Horns zoom action. This time they backcut in the corner so #0 Black turns and comes off of the handoff. Tennessee does a good job of staying underneath and cutting off the right hand drive. We will live with him making tough, contested 2’s like this. It is tough though because he is 6’7″ and a very good player. Just make it as hard on him as possible. We will let him score 2’s with his left hand over your outstretched arms.

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The Arkansas Razorbacks are doing to set a lot of high ballscreens for their dynamic guards. #0 Black, #1 Council IV, #3 Smith Jr., and #4 Davis are all dangerous attacking off the ballscreen. However, by icing the ballscreens more as we have recently, or by simply going under, we should be able to contain penetration relatively effectively. The first time around though we did a very poor job of taking them away on the roll. #15 Makhi Mitchell and #22 Makhel Mitchell are only going to score it right at the rim. On this possession Toppin should have been at least two steps deeper towards the bottom of the SEC logo. Fredrick should have been all the way in at the top of the restricted arc as well. Pack it in!

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Part of our struggles defensively have stemmed from a lack of on-court awareness. There is very little evidence that personnel based decisions are discussed or emphasized at all. Here you have a simple high ballscreen for #4 Davis. Fredrick jumps out to make him drive it right which is certainly fine. He is able to stay on his hip and is going to force him into a tough right-handed runner which would be a low-percentage shot for the left-handed Davis. However, Collins comes over and jumps to try and block the shot which leaves #22 Mitchell wide open for the dunk. We would rather make Davis finish with his right hand than give Mitchell a dunk. Do not help UP at the rim off of the Mitchell brothers.

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Allowing the Arkansas Razorbacks to shoot 28-42 (66.7%) from 2-point range in Lexington is what got us beat. However, we actually did a better job against the talented guards than you would think. Our downfall was letting #15 Makhi Mitchell, #22 Makhel Mitchell, and #11 Jordan Walsh combine for 32 points on 11-14 shooting. If you stay between the guards and the basket you have to live with the results. Here the Razorbacks call for an elbow ballscreen out of a Horns alignment. #1 Council IV is a very talented scorer so you just have to make it as hard on him as possible. There isn’t much more you can do than forcing him left and making him shoot a contested 10-foot runner. If he banks that in all night you just have to tip your hat.

Arkansas Razorbacks Defense

Under Coach Eric Musselman the Arkansas Razorbacks have become known for the aggressive style of defense. They are going to get out in the passing lanes, pressure the ball, and attempt to keep you on a side on the perimeter. Arkansas will ICE the side ballscreens which means they force you towards the baseline and look to funnel the ball towards the rim where they are among the best in the country at blocking shots. The Razorbacks are 18th nationally in block percentage and allow opponents to shoot just 45.9% from 2 which is 29th best in the country. What they lack in raw size around the basket they more than make up for with bigger guards and excellent 1-5 athleticism. Their goal is to make you uncomfortable with the ball and take you out of what you want to do offensively.

Keys to the Game

• Stay between the ball and the basket. Protect the paint. No right hand drives for #1 Council IV, #0 Black, and #13 Walsh. No left hand drives for #4 Davis. Can’t give up strong hand drives to those guys. Force them to score outside of the paint.
• Dominate the glass. Arkansas isn’t a great rebounding team on either end. We need to convert second chance opportunities and defensive rebounding at a 77%+ clip.
• Take care of the ball. The Arkansas Razorbacks pressure the ball, play in the passing lanes, and turn opponents over at a good rate. We need to turn it over 13 or fewer times in this one. Of those turnovers, six or fewer should be live ball turnovers.
• Shoot 75% or better from the free throw line.