Chandler Lawson shows why he earned start against No. 3 Purdue
Throughout the summer, there was much speculation over the starting lineup for head coach Eric Musselman's Arkansas Razorbacks entering this season.
While the lineup most likely isn't final yet, as the season still has yet to officially begin, a somewhat unexpected named earned a start in No. 14 Arkansas' 81-77 overtime exhibition win over No. 3 Purdue on Saturday.
Memphis transfer Chandler Lawson had his number called to matchup against reigning National Player of the Year Zach Edey. The 7-foot-4 big man struggled to get going in the matchup, largely due to Lawson's length and physicality in the paint.
"That’s a huge guy right there," Lawson said of Edey. "Coach was preparing me from Sunday to Saturday. I’ve been watching film on him to see what he likes to do. It was totally a team effort. If it weren’t for my teammates I feel like, giving me confidence, just go out there and use your quickness, use your length. If it weren’t for those guys, I probably would have laid down, but I wasn’t going to lay down tonight in front of the crowd we had."
In the first half, Edey had just two points and three rebounds in eight minutes of action. Lawson responded with three points and a rebound of his own in 13 first half minutes.
With Memphis last season, Lawson was one of only three Tigers to play all 35 games. He started on 24 occasions and played an average of 19.5 minutes per game. Lawson scored 5.0 points and ranked second on the team with an average of 4.5 boards.
Musselman said he was not surprised with Lawson's performance against the Boilermakers and he knew the athletic forward would be a good fit for the program from the transfer portal.
"I mean when we did the research, first of all, his coachability is off the charts," Musselman said. "He’s as coachable as any player I’ve ever coached. He really wants to please. He’s a great talker in practice, meaning he echoes play calls, he’s talking on defense, he’s in the right position. And then you look at the number of games he has from an experience standpoint of starting, and I thought he was phenomenal.
"Defensively, the blocked shots. Hit a big shot early in the game when we were kind of (wondering) what’s going to happen with us offensively. He’s a great teammate. And like I mentioned, he’s really great for the coaching staff. They all love when he comes to their drill. They love coaching him. He’s got a real positive, upbeat vibe to him."
Lawson, listed at 6-foot-8, 210 pounds, gave up a lot of size to Edey, listed at 7-foot-4, 300 pounds, but he managed to use his length and instincts to contain the big man and compete on both ends of the floor. It wasn't just Lawson, though, as the whole trio of bigs for Arkansas - Makhi Mitchell, Trevon Brazile, and Lawson - worked tirelessly over the course of the game to contain him.
"I feel like if I wasn’t scoring, I feel like my man can’t score," Lawson said. "That was my whole demeanor tonight. Me and Khi and TB we hype each other up, weak side block, we take our one on one matchups seriously. We’re competitors, so I feel like once we hold Edey down to his lower numbers, I feel like we were good."
Lawson finished with a final stat line of 10 points, two rebounds, three blocks and three steals.
While Edey finished with 15 points and nine rebounds, he fouled out near the end of overtime and only played 24 minutes. Last season in his campaign for National Player of the Year, Edey averaged 22.3 points, 12.9 rebounds, and 2.1 blocks in 31.7 minutes of action. He didn't reach any of those numbers Saturday.
The Razorbacks will now turn their eyes to the season opener against Alcorn State on Monday, Nov. 6th, at Bud Walton Arena. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. CT and the game will be streamed live on the SEC Network.