The Southeastern Conference is looking like the best conference in college basketball this season, and with just two non-conference games left before the SEC slate starts, the Arkansas Razorbacks (9-2, 0-0 SEC) are focusing on their defense.
Arkansas assistant coach Chuck Martin met with the media on Friday, where he previewed Saturday's game against North Carolina A&T and talked about what the team is working on in practice.
"We've really put a lot of effort into our defense and taking away the 3-point line," Martin said. "When you have a young team, or in our case a combination of a young team and new guys in a program, the biggest thing for us is for those guys to understand how we do it. How we do it here with coach (John Calipari), how we do it here in Arkansas, and that takes time."
Right now, Arkansas is middle of the pack among its conference peers in terms of field goal defense and three-point defense. The Hogs are 12th in the SEC in field goal defense with opponents hitting 41.4% of their shots, and are 10th in the SEC in three-point defense at 30.7%.
The Razorbacks have hung their hat on defensive play through the first 11 games of the season and are holding their opponents to just 65.6 points per game, which ranks seventh in the conference. A big part of that defense rests on the shoulders of third-year forward Adou Thiero and freshman point guard Boogie Fland.
The two are ninth and 10th, respectively, in the SEC for steals. Thiero averages 2.1 per game and Fland averages 1.8.
"(Fland) is starting to understand it’s not just about talent, which he certainly has talent, but so does the other team," Martin said. "The other point guard on the opposing team is pretty good too. I think him paying attention to detail in scouting report, understanding the strengths and weaknesses of opposing teams and how we can take advantage of those situations, he’s made tremendous strides over the last month."
The other side of that defensive coin is in blocked shots, and Arkansas has three players who are effective at denying shots at the rim. Zvonimir Ivisic, Trevon Brazile and Jonas Aidoo collectively block 4.3 shots per game, and Brazile is tied with several in the SEC for the most blocks in one game with five, which came against Central Arkansas last Saturday.
"I think he's gotten stronger," Martin said. "I think he's become more of a physical presence on both ends of the ball...(Brazile) is tremendous. We're happy that we have him. We're happy that he decided to stay another year, but he's really put the work into his game, starting in the summer, but really picked it up in the fall, and we're starting to see that the last few games."
It's not just in SEC play that Arkansas will need to tighten things up, though. North Carolina A&T doesn't have a ton of scoring options, but the Aggies' top two scorers — guards Landon Glasper and Ryan Forrest — are great scorers and average 19 and 18 points per game, respectively.
"They can score the ball as well as anyone, any guards that we've faced thus far," Martin said. "What makes them dangerous is they can make tough shots. They'll take tough shots. They can make it from deep, beyond the three-point line, or they can pull up from the midrange. And anytime you have a back court that can score on three levels, you know, it makes it hard for opposing teams. So we've really got to block in on those guys tomorrow afternoon."
The Razorbacks will tip off against the North Carolina A&T Aggies at 1:30 p.m. CT on Saturday. The game will air on the SEC Network.
