From today's MA news conference

[Biggus Piggus]

Mike Anderson believes the team has good-quality depth at every position. Of course, a couple of players are quite a bit ahead of their backups. They are low post Moses Kingsley and high post Dustin Thomas.

One of the things they want to see in exhibition season is whether they can pull Trey Thompson out of the shell that he wants to stay in. Thompson passes up shots he should take. Overall, they have to get his activity level to be more constant. Has good physical tools. In improved condition.

Practices emphasize defense. Strong messages that defensive performance will influence playing time. Still trying to teach most players how to go hard for 4-5 minutes at a time, not save energy.

Not inclined to platoon just yet, prefers to establish a rotation of fresh subs when needed. But MA is keen to point out that his second-team group was the catalyst in some of the Spain exhibitions.

Continues to say very positive things about C.J. Jones. Also loves the raw talent of Adrio Bailey. Sounds like he will help soon. Brachen Hazen needs better strength to fit a role but has very nice basketball skills.

The exhibitions will help Arkansas calibrate its defensive effort/activity vs. officiating. Players have to avoid fouling too much. They're still learning the fine line.

R.J. Glasper was coming on before he messed up his shoulder, while will require surgery most likely.

[HoopS]

I'm not sure some realize we have a good one in Dustin Thomas.

[Razorod]

We have a chance to be good this year. If things fall into place, should definitely finish in the top 3-4, possibly challenge for 2nd in conference. I'm hoping this season marks the turning point for Anderson and the Hogs.

[Razorod]

Mike Anderson believes the team has good-quality depth at every position. Of course, a couple of players are quite a bit ahead of their backups. They are low post Moses Kingsley and high post Dustin Thomas.

One of the things they want to see in exhibition season is whether they can pull Trey Thompson out of the shell that he wants to stay in. Thompson passes up shots he should take. Overall, they have to get his activity level to be more constant. Has good physical tools. In improved condition.

Practices emphasize defense. Strong messages that defensive performance will influence playing time. Still trying to teach most players how to go hard for 4-5 minutes at a time, not save energy.

Not inclined to platoon just yet, prefers to establish a rotation of fresh subs when needed. But MA is keen to point out that his second-team group was the catalyst in some of the Spain exhibitions.

Continues to say very positive things about C.J. Jones. Also loves the raw talent of Adrio Bailey. Sounds like he will help soon. Brachen Hazen needs better strength to fit a role but has very nice basketball skills.

The exhibitions will help Arkansas calibrate its defensive effort/activity vs. officiating. Players have to avoid fouling too much. They're still learning the fine line.

R.J. Glasper was coming on before he messed up his shoulder, while will require surgery most likely.

As always, thanks for these updates and summaries.

[Danny J]

Dear God please let Trey shoot more this year...

[Little Lady Back]

We have a chance to be good this year. If things fall into place, should definitely finish in the top 3-4, possibly challenge for 2nd in conference. I'm hoping this season marks the turning point for Anderson and the Hogs.

Agree with you Razorod.

[ballinhog]

If everyone shoots as well as it seems they can, we may be one of the best 3pt shooting teams in the country, if not the best.

We have 4 guys that will likely shoot a fairly high volume of threes and all 4 are very capable of shooting over 40%

C.J. Jones
Dusty Hannahs
Daryl Macon
Dustin Thomas

And Barford will probably even shoot above 35%, possibly even above 40% but I don't see him taking as many as the others. Even Beard could shoot at a high clip if he gets his shot falling early in the season.

Gregg Popovich said either get on board with this 3pt shooting thing that's going right now or get left behind. Looks like Mike is on board. Now I just hope all these guys shoot well and don't make me look stupid bc I'm telling anybody that'll listen to me in real life right now that we are about to be doing some serious 3pt shooting lol

[Big Nasty 34]

If everyone shoots as well as it seems they can, we may be one of the best 3pt shooting teams in the country, if not the best.

We have 4 guys that will likely shoot a fairly high volume of threes and all 4 are very capable of shooting over 40%

C.J. Jones
Dusty Hannahs
Daryl Macon
Dustin Thomas

And Barford will probably even shoot above 35%, possibly even above 40% but I don't see him taking as many as the others. Even Beard could shoot at a high clip if he gets his shot falling early in the season.

Gregg Popovich said either get on board with this 3pt shooting thing that's going right now or get left behind. Looks like Mike is on board. Now I just hope all these guys shoot well and don't make me look stupid bc I'm telling anybody that'll listen to me in real life right now that we are about to be doing some serious 3pt shooting lol

Now that is quite the optimistic outlook! If that happens we will no doubt be a top 15 team, with Moses being a huge beneficiary.

I agree that Dusty definitely can be a 40%+  guy, but not so sure on the others. Barford and Macon were around 35-37% in JUCO and I would be surprised to see that increase in D1 basketball. And Thomas has a career average of 23.1% so that would be a monumental jump although not impossible.

If we can be 37%+ as a team I would be happy.

[Ironhawg]

R.J. Glasper was coming on before he messed up his shoulder, while will require surgery most likely.

How did Glasper hurt his shoulder?

[ballinhog]

Now that is quite the optimistic outlook! If that happens we will no doubt be a top 15 team, with Moses being a huge beneficiary.

I agree that Dusty definitely can be a 40%+  guy, but not so sure on the others. Barford and Macon were around 35-37% in JUCO and I would be surprised to see that increase in D1 basketball. And Thomas has a career average of 23.1% so that would be a monumental jump although not impossible.

If we can be 37%+ as a team I would be happy.

Yea I knew Macon and Barford shot those %'s but i was just giving the optimistic outlook and my reasoning is that I'm sure they've both shot hundreds of threes a day this offseason, so 40% is reachable for those 2. However, if they are around their juco #s that's not really a horrible thing as that's not bad at all.

And my outlook on Thomas has little to do with his stats at Colorado bc I'm expecting him to put up much higher numbers than he did there. If you're wondering where I got that he may shoot that well is his high school three point % which was 48% his SR year.

But as you noticed this is obviously a very optimistic outlook lol it's not likely to happen but you never know it could. Dusty and CJ are prolly the only guys who are actually likely to shoot as well as I was saying

[Biggus Piggus]

What we need are some decent mid-30s shooters to bolster the outside threat. Last year behind our top two, nobody else was better than 25% (after the one kid quit).

[ballinhog]

What we need are some decent mid-30s shooters to bolster the outside threat. Last year behind our top two, nobody else was better than 25% (after the one kid quit).

Screw that's let's shoot for 40 lol may as well dream big

[Big Nasty 34]

Yea I knew Macon and Barford shot those %'s but i was just giving the optimistic outlook and my reasoning is that I'm sure they've both shot hundreds of threes a day this offseason, so 40% is reachable for those 2. However, if they are around their juco #s that's not really a horrible thing as that's not bad at all.

And my outlook on Thomas has little to do with his stats at Colorado bc I'm expecting him to put up much higher numbers than he did there. If you're wondering where I got that he may shoot that well is his high school three point % which was 48% his SR year.

But as you noticed this is obviously a very optimistic outlook lol it's not likely to happen but you never know it could. Dusty and CJ are prolly the only guys who are actually likely to shoot as well as I was saying

If we have 3 guys hoovering around 40% we should make a legit elite 8 run. Would be one heck of a fun year!

[PonderinHog]

Live by the three, die by three.  Feed the beastmode and the three's will come.   :razorback:

[HoopS]

Live by the three, die by three.  Feed the beastmode and the three's will come.   :razorback:

that is what makes this a dangerous team. We can dump it down, kick it out, drive to the hole, hit from midrange, and hopefully shoot FT at a high clip. The scoring should be there and available from various parts of the court.

[jjdlc]

How did Glasper hurt his shoulder?

Someone said he dislocated it twice within the span of a couple weeks.  Didn't hear anything about how that occurred.

[BRHogfan]

Everyone on the team last year shot better than 25% beyond the Arc (that shot 3's).  Nobody but the transfer had over 30%.

[ballinhog]

Everyone on the team last year shot better than 25% beyond the Arc (that shot 3's).  Nobody but the transfer had over 30%.

Faith man let's have faith

[Biggus Piggus]

Everyone on the team last year shot better than 25% beyond the Arc (that shot 3's).  Nobody but the transfer had over 30%.

To be more precise:

44% Bell
43% Hannahs
38% Whitt (16 attempts)
29% Beard
28% Durham
25% Miles

Only six players took any shots at all. Whitt took two in the first 19 games. The other three shot poor percentages and combined to make 39 all season. Miles only shot four attempts. Essentially, Arkansas had four outside shooters, two good and two bad.

[mhuff]

Live by the three, die by three.  Feed the beastmode and the three's will come.   :razorback:

[hawginbigd1]

Live by the three, die by three.  Feed the beastmode and the three's will come.   :razorback:

Anything to read between the lines with this exhibition and Spain with MK's #'s being down, along with Hannah's? Intentional to bring the noobs along? Struggling? Are we going to be more balanced than past couple years?

[bolo1010]

Anything to read between the lines with this exhibition and Spain with MK's #'s being down, along with Hannah's? Intentional to bring the noobs along? Struggling? Are we going to be more balanced than past couple years?

Moses and Hannahs won't be relied upon to do as much as they did last year.  We got guys this year that can take the load off that they had to carry last year which is a good thing.  Their ppg might be down but it won't be due to the lack of not being as good this year.  Just have better players around them this season.  Which also will keep them more rested to do even more damage later in the game

[PonderinHog]

Anything to read between the lines with this exhibition and Spain with MK's #'s being down, along with Hannah's? Intentional to bring the noobs along? Struggling? Are we going to be more balanced than past couple years?

We were 1 for 18 from three last night and won comfortably, so I'm gonna take that as a positive for now, even though I was shocked when I first saw that stat.

[Ironhawg]

Someone said he dislocated it twice within the span of a couple weeks.  Didn't hear anything about how that occurred.

Ouch!

[hobhog]

I'm not sure some realize we have a good one in Dustin Thomas.

Hope you are right. He sure seems to be under radar.

I still feel we played our best last year when Trey was at high post. I know he needs to backup Moses but would like to see both in there more....

[Biggus Piggus]

Anything to read between the lines with this exhibition and Spain with MK's #'s being down, along with Hannah's? Intentional to bring the noobs along? Struggling? Are we going to be more balanced than past couple years?

Arkansas went out with an early intention to feed the ball to Kingsley. Central Mo set out to collapse on him, which bogged down the Hogs' offense. Eventually the rest of the team started taking what Central Mo was giving.

The Hogs do not simulate shot-denial man-to-man defense in practice -- not at all. They do not practice against it and do not play that style. When they first see it every season they look like crap.

Every year it seems to carry a bigger and bigger penalty to play ball-denial man. It will take great effort for Arkansas to extend its defense enough to prevent too many open threes. The fouling involved also is a growing issue. There's clear reasons why you see 3-pt shooting % rising in college hoop and turnover frequency falling.

I'm to the point I kinda wish MA would make the conversion and give up on pressure defense.

[azhog10]

Arkansas went out with an early intention to feed the ball to Kingsley. Central Mo set out to collapse on him, which bogged down the Hogs' offense. Eventually the rest of the team started taking what Central Mo was giving.

The Hogs do not simulate shot-denial man-to-man defense in practice -- not at all. They do not practice against it and do not play that style. When they first see it every season they look like crap.

Every year it seems to carry a bigger and bigger penalty to play ball-denial man. It will take great effort for Arkansas to extend its defense enough to prevent too many open threes. The fouling involved also is a growing issue. There's clear reasons why you see 3-pt shooting % rising in college hoop and turnover frequency falling.

I'm to the point I kinda wish MA would make the conversion and give up on pressure defense.

Not sure I agree with everything you said. I think ball pressure defense can be effective in todays game, but what has always frustrated me with CMA defenses and why I like the pack line defense so much is that when we get beat we have no help. I understand we want to make people play faster than they are used to playing and part of applying a lot of pressure on the ball is that you are going to get beat at times. But we have the worst help defense, and you just can't be successful at applying ball pressure and having no help. As much as I would assume we practice applying pressure you also have to be very good in "scramble" mode. Our first and second line helpers are routinely late, or just never there. I'm not in practice so I don't know if they just don't talk about it, or they do, and the guys just don't get it or what. But our help has to be better, this will also keep our fouls down bc if the on ball defender has faith in the guys behind him he's less likely to reach and grab when he's beat.

EDIT:
I will agree with ball denial, which may have been the premise of your post. Ball denial is the thing of the past at least in my book. I don't teach ball denial anymore but the kids I get at the high school level are being taught it before me. I'm constantly having to break them of this habit.