How to Listen, Scouting Report: Arkansas hoops vs. Hofstra
Arkansas hits the road for its annual game in central Arkansas tonight. Here's everything you need to know ahead of the game...
No. 24 Arkansas (9-1) vs. Hofstra (6-5)
The Basics
Location: Simmons Bank Arena (North Little Rock, Ark.)
Tip off: 7 p.m. CT
How to Watch/Listen
TV/stream: None
Radio: Razorback Sports Network (TuneIn / Razorback Gameday App)
Sirius/XM/internet: 111/190/953
Projections
-- Vegas spread: Arkansas, -12.5
-- O/U: 159.5
-- ESPN BPI: Arkansas has 74.4% chance to win, favored by 7.4
-- Bart Torvik: Arkansas has 81% chance to win, favored by 9.7 (proj. score: 83-74)
Scouting Report
~Hofstra is coached by former NBA player Speedy Claxton, who actually played for Eric Musselman with the Golden State Warriors in 2003-04. He is in his first season as the Pride's head coach after eight seasons as an assistant at his alma mater. "I’m not surprised at all that he’s a head coach," Musselman said. "Not surprised that his team plays with great spacing. They run a lot of NBA sets. No surprise there. They play with good pace and shoot a ton of threes. And he gives his guys a lot of freedom. Those are all things I assume Speedy would do, because they’re really, really good offensively."
~So far this season, Hofstra is 6-5 with a couple of non-Division I wins. Even though it has a losing record against DI schools, Hofstra has played a pair of ranked teams really close. The Pride lost to Houston in overtime to open the season and then lost to Maryland by just two points.
~The Pride are a prolific 3-point shooting team, making 10.7 per game (15th nationally) and shooting 36.3% from deep (76th nationally). On the flip side, Arkansas is allowing its opponents to make 37.3 percent of their 3-point attempts, which ranks 318th. "They are the best 3-point shooting team that we’ve versed and we know we have to make them put the ball on the ground," Jaylin Williams said. "We can’t let them get good looks from the 3-point line and really that’s one of the main focuses - just not letting them get good 3-point looks."
~Five different players are averaging double figures for Hofstra. Four of them are averaging between 12.2 and 13.8 points. The fifth is leading scorer Zach Cooks. The 5-foot-11 NJIT transfer is averaging 17.4 points
~The Pride have several dangerous shooters, but Jalen Ray and Omar Silverio are the two Arkansas must be aware of the most. They have the most attempts on the team, with 70 and 75, respectively, and they make them at an incredible rate. Ray is shooting 45.7 percent from deep, while Silverio is shooting 40.0 percent.
~Hofstra's leading rebounder is Abayomi "Baybe" Iyiola - a name that should be familiar to Arkansas fans because he spent two seasons with the Razorbacks, although transfer rules and a torn ACL limited him to just one appearance. He is averaging 7.1 points and 7.3 rebounds. "I’ve known this from Baybe playing here, that he’s one of those guys that plays hard," Williams said. "He’s going to get those offensive rebounds, get defensive rebounds. He’s going to run into screens. He’s going to be that energizer guy, that junkyard dog that gets all the loose balls, dives on the ground. He’s going to play hard, throw elbows, box out, all that stuff. So I’m just ready to play against Baybe, ready to play against my guy."
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