Living down here in SEC country I'm somewhat familiar with Arky. Honestly their record is at least partially by default (which explains their seed). The SEC is an embarrassingly weak league in hoops right now, especially on the front lines. Skilled Bigs outside of UK are as scarce as proverbial hens' teeth, which makes Portis stand out. He has feasted on SEC front courts (but did not do well vs UK). Theoretically we should present him with a much bigger challenge than he is used to. My worry is if we choose to guard him with a 5 man because of his stretch ability.
As for the rest this looks like a typical Mike Anderson team. They try to create mayhem with handsy, aggressive defense so being strong with the ball and hopefully some semblance of competent officiating will be important. Their preferred tempo actually plays into our hands IF we value the ball and it doesn't turn into an unsanctioned hack-a-thon. Ball-handling will be at a premium.
On that note I really wish we would be more aggressive on D instead of spending so much time in our base 20 like we did vs Harvard. The best way to beat a bully is to punch him in the snoot. Nothing about Arky's offense scares me, so I'd like to see us try to go after them and turn them over with some 30 and 40.
Finally, as far as our guys are concerned, it's not gonna be nearly as much about who "shows up" as about whom we put on the floor. The minute distribution we saw Thursday (especially down the stretch) will be highly unlikely to get the job done. We survived a self-inflicted close call Thursday, We can't count on doing that again as the competition gets stronger.
As for the rest this looks like a typical Mike Anderson team. They try to create mayhem with handsy, aggressive defense so being strong with the ball and hopefully some semblance of competent officiating will be important. Their preferred tempo actually plays into our hands IF we value the ball and it doesn't turn into an unsanctioned hack-a-thon. Ball-handling will be at a premium.
On that note I really wish we would be more aggressive on D instead of spending so much time in our base 20 like we did vs Harvard. The best way to beat a bully is to punch him in the snoot. Nothing about Arky's offense scares me, so I'd like to see us try to go after them and turn them over with some 30 and 40.
Finally, as far as our guys are concerned, it's not gonna be nearly as much about who "shows up" as about whom we put on the floor. The minute distribution we saw Thursday (especially down the stretch) will be highly unlikely to get the job done. We survived a self-inflicted close call Thursday, We can't count on doing that again as the competition gets stronger.
