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Coming off a dramatic road win at Georgia Tech and playing without its star player, Arkansas welcomed Northern Kentucky - a solid mid-major - to town for a possible trap game earlier this season.
The Razorbacks survived the Nov. 30 matchup despite the Norse getting potential game-tying and game-winning shots off in the final 30 seconds.
His team came up short, but experiencing the passion of the crowd at Bud Walton Arena - even though it was from the bench - made an impression on Jalen Tate, who was missing the fifth of 10 straight games because of a broken left hand.
“Definitely just the atmosphere, it was great,” Tate said about what he remembered from the game. “It was a smaller game in November against a smaller college and they still came out.”
No one knew it at the time, but less than five months later, Tate would be able to call Fayetteville home. He announced Friday that he was going to play his final season of college basketball at Arkansas as a graduate transfer.
The decision comes after yet another solid season at Northern Kentucky. Tate returned from his injury in late December and finished the year averaging 13.9 points, 5.4 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 1.9 steals in 30.2 minutes.
As an all-conference performer, he helped the Norse finish second in the Horizon League and then collected tournament MVP honors as they clinched the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Tate entered the transfer portal a couple of weeks after the season ended and picked the Razorbacks two weeks later over teams like Cincinnati, Georgetown, Gonzaga, Ohio State and Minnesota.
“The coaching staff did a great job recruiting me and giving me all the information I needed to make my decision to come there,” Tate said. “The style of play, the system, the coaching staff being all NBA guys, the togetherness of the team and the culture they’re trying to build there, I really want to be a part of it.”
Normally when a player is looking for a school, whether as a recruit out of high school or as a transfer, campus visits are part of the process. However, the coronavirus pandemic has completely changed that.
Instead, head coach Eric Musselman and his staff had to get creative to show Tate the parts of Arkansas’ campus and facilities that he probably didn’t get to see when he was in Fayetteville as an opponent.
“I did a virtual visit as well as multiple FaceTimes with Coach Muss, where he just walked around the facility,” Tate said. “He showed me some things on there, as well, so they were extremely helpful. All the ways with the virus, just give all the credit to them for their hard work. It showed me how much they wanted to get me there, they got the job done.”
At 6-foot-6, Tate gives the Razorbacks a versatile guard who is comfortable handling the point and can put the ball in the basket.
Although not much of a shooter - Tate has made just 27.7 percent of his career three-point attempts - he is more than capable inside the arc, shooting an efficient 55.6 percent for his career and averaging 13.7 and 13.9 points the last two years.
He also has a knack for rebounding (4.4 and 5.4 rpg) and distributing (4.1 and 3.6 apg) the ball while playing elite defense. He’s a two-time Horizon League All-Defensive Team selection and was the conference’s Defensive Player of the Year this season.
If that kind of game sounds eerily similar to Jimmy Whitt Jr., you aren’t alone. Musselman actually used his success as a graduate transfer from SMU to convince Tate to come to Arkansas.
“We kind of had similar numbers and similar pieces to our games,” Tate said. “That was definitely something he harped on a lot and it helped me build that relationship with him as far as being able to trust him that he’s done this before and this is something he does often.”
