Arkansas set for challenging exhibition with No. 3 Purdue
The Arkansas basketball team completed its first of two exhibition matchups last Friday with a 92-39 win over UT Tyler, and up next is a showdown with No. 3 Purdue on Saturday.
Following the UT Tyler game, head coach Eric Musselman said the Hogs needed to work on plenty of things — including physicality.
"We want to be a really ultra aggressive team," Musselman said. "We want to be a team that has physicality and I thought we did that. I thought our guards were really physical. I think inside interior, we have to probably be a lot more physical than we showed tonight at the 4 and 5 spot. Physicality’s gotta get a lot more aggressive, especially what we’re looking at a week from tonight."
On Saturday, Musselman's squad will have a far stiffer test than UT Tyler as they welcome the No. 3 Boilermakers into Bud Walton Arena.
Led by head coach Matt Painter, Purdue finished the 2022-23 season with a 29-6 overall record and wins over programs like Gonzaga, Duke, Florida State and Michigan State. Going into the NCAA Tournament as a No. 1 seed, the Boilermakers were upset in the Round of 64 by the Fairleigh Dickinson Knights, 63-58.
With arguably the top player in college basketball in 7-foot-4, 300-pound center Zach Edey, the Razorbacks will have their hands full in what should be an exciting preseason matchup prior to the 2023-24 season.
Edey averaged 22.3 points, 12.9 rebounds and 1.5 assists for the Boilermakers last season and shot 60.7% on field goals.
"Purdue, obviously the physicality with Edey inside, the physicality of No. 4 (Trey) Kaufman-Renn, those two guys are physical," Musselman said. "No. 1 (Caleb) Furst is really physical, as well. 0 (Mason) Gillis is another physical player. And then their guards are just so scrappy, so we’ve got to have physicality 1 through 5 positionally as we prepare for Purdue.
"And then certainly the physicality on the glass, because they do a great job when the ball goes in to No. 15 Edey, they do a great job of cutting with force to offensive rebound from their 4 spot. Defensively block outs because extremely important, as well."
Despite likely having his most experienced team since arriving in Fayetteville — nine seniors in total — Musselman said he believes that his team is quite a bit behind where the Boilermakers stand.
"I thought yesterday we had a good practice as far as preparation, but again, we understand internally that Purdue is, just based on their returners and roles and understanding expectations, they’re probably way ahead of where we are not only today, but where we’ll be even two weeks from today," Musselman said.
During last year's leadup to the season, Arkansas faced off against the Texas Longhorns and lost 90-60 an eye-opening matchup. The exhibition served as a wake-up call for the Hogs and gave Musselman some quality takeaways that he could use to better his team. Purdue offers the same opportunity for the Razorbacks this season.
"Well I think, 1, to be able to play a team that’s got an interior force like Edey and is a potential player of the year, so it’s two-fold in the preparation," Musselman said. "No. 1, we’re playing against a center that might be unlike anybody that we play all year, but we need to have some background, so body of work that we can refer to later in the year.
"And then from a scheme standpoint, what Purdue’s going to do, it’s going to… We’re going to be able to really dive into our preparation because they have so many returners, so we can build a scouting report off the fact that the coach is returning, the players are returning, their star player’s returning."
Musselman went on to say that he has questions regarding his team's ability to rebound and compete against one of the best teams in the country in Purdue.
"What a great opportunity for us to learn a lot about ourselves," Musselman said. "When we walk out of Bud Walton on Saturday at about 5:30 or 6, we’re going to know a lot more areas that we’ve got to get better leading into our first game."
Arkansas forward Chandler Lawson — a transfer from Memphis — gave a good synopsis on what the Hogs will have to do if they want to stop Edey from taking over the game on Saturday.
"It's going to be a tough matchup for us," Lawson said. "We've got a lot of guys that are going to be guarding him, some fours and some fives. I feel like offensive-wise, we've got to run the floor and put him in so much pick-and-roll coverage. I feel like we've got to outrun him.
"The goal is just to run, run, run, just make him keep up with us and our athleticism. On the defensive end, it's going to be a whole group team effort. We've been doing a lot of drills in practice lately. The Edey rules, that's what we call it. I feel like we're doing a great thing at practice, just covering what Zach Edey likes to do and his tendencies."
Houston transfer guard Tramon Mark also commented on Edey and how the Razorbacks will have to attack him around the rim. Last season, Edey averaged 2.1 blocks per game with a season-high seven blocks against Nebraska.
"You’ve got to watch out for him," Mark said. "National player of the year, so you definitely have to watch out for him. In a game like this you have to make adjustments with a big fellow like that in the paint, just having … just working on your game, having a floater, having a pull-up mid-range.
"I think if you put Zach Edey in a lot of ball screens, he’s going to play probably a drop coverage, so just being ready to come off that ball screen and make a pull-up jumper when he’s sagging off. Just reads like that you have to make in the middle of the game is going to be important for us."
This may come as no surprise, but Musselman is making sure his players take this matchup very seriously. With non-conference matchups in the Battle 4 Atlantis and against Duke, plus an ever-present difficulty within the SEC, this exhibition will help prepare Arkansas for the difficult road in front of them.
"I feel like every game is a regular game," Lawson said. "We take every game serious, you can't underestimate nobody. Even the last game we played, we took that game serious and detailed. From here on out, I feel like we're taking every game serious. After the game last week, we went straight on to Purdue and started preparing for them. Even though this is an exhibition game, I feel like this is a game to help us know what we need to work on to get prepared for the regular season."
No. 14 Arkansas and No. 3 Purdue will face off in an charity exhibition game this Saturday at 3:00 p.m. CT inside Bud Walton Arena. The game will be available to stream on SEC Network+.