By Nate Allen
Special to the News-Times
FAYETTEVILLE - It isn’t just last Sunday’s 82-65 SEC Tournament championship game loss to Kentucky from which the Arkansas Razorbacks must rebound today.
It seems they must rebound period to extend their NCAA Tournament dreams beyond today’s first-round game with the Seton Hall Pirates to Sunday’s second round game of the South Regional at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, S.C.
Coach Mike Anderson’s eighth-seeded SEC third-place Razorbacks (25-9) and coach Kevin Willard’s ninth-seeded third-place in the Big East Pirates (21-11) clash at 12:30 p.m. on TNT.
The Arkansas-Seton Hall winner advances to Sunday’s second round presumably against the No. 1 seeded ACC champion North Carolina, who are prohibitive favorites in their first round game against 16th-seeded Texas Southern of the SWAC.
Neither Anderson nor Willard is heard to say a word about North Carolina. That’s not from fear of the Tar Heels, but respect for each other’s squads and the first and only step they present to surviving for Sunday.
Anderson’s respect for the Pirates starts on the boards and their 6-10 big man Angel Delgado, college basketball’s chairman of the boards as the national leader averaging 13.1 rebounds per game along with his 15.1 points while dishing 71 assists.
“One of the better rebounding teams in the country, especially from an offensive standpoint,” Anderson said. “They’ve got the leading rebounder in the country and rebounding is something that we haven’t done particularly well consistently. We have to shore up our rebounding.”
Willard sees Arkansas’ relentless pressure whether full court or adapted halfcourt in a matchup zone, deep bench and Arkansas scoring guards Dusty Hannahs, Jaylen Barford and Daryl Macon and Arkansas 6-10 shot-blocking senior Moses Kingsley and knows his Pirates could be headed toward choppy seas.
“Arkansas is a terrific team,” Willard said. “Great opponent. But you are going to get a great opponent in the NCAA Tournament.”
Their styles seem different, with Anderson coaching his “Fastest Forty” version of former Arkansas coach and mentor Nolan Richardson’s “Forty Minutes of Hell” but not their talent, Anderson said.
“Obviously, we want to play more uptempo,” Anderson said.
“So it’s a clash of styles. But from a player’s standpoint, I think we kind of almost mirror each other.”
Even pace might not be that far apart. The Big East, sporting reigning national champion and overall NCAA Tournament top seed Villanova that only beat Seton Hall 53-50 during last week’s Big East Tournament, tends to be more of a grind it out league.
But both with the Boston Celtics and Louisville Cardinals, Willard assisted decidedly uptempo Louisville coach Rick Pitino.
“They get up and down the floor,” Anderson said.
“They beat (20th-ranked) Creighton 87-81 so they can get up and down the floor. But they only play seven or eight guys, so those guys are playing a lot of minutes. Hopefully, it’s something we can take advantage of with our depth.”
Khadeen Carrington, Seton Hall’s 6-4 junior guard and leading scorer, 16.9 average, scored 41 of the Pirates’ 87 against Creighton.
“Carrington and the Rodriguez kid (junior forward Desi Rodriguez averages 15.9 points and 5.1 rebounds) are both lefties that can really score and in multiple ways,” Anderson said.
Depth is in Arkansas’ favor, though off the bench freshman guard Myles Powell is Seton Hall’s best 3-point shooter and 6-8 junior Ismael Sanogo is billed as the Pirates’ best defender while averaging 5.7 rebounds.
“It’s not just Delgado,” Anderson said of Seton Hall’s rebounding, though Delgado gives them an extra special rebounder because he often either gets fouled while rebounding or, like Arkansas backup big man and Forrest City High grad Trey Thompson, deftly passes off his own rebound.
“Delgado is a great passer,” Anderson said.
The Pirates present a lot of problems to Arkansas, Anderson acknowledges, but he also thinks his Hogs present problems to the Pirates.
“When we’re playing right, we’ve got multiple guys that can score,” Anderson said. “And hopefully we’ve got a presence inside. It’s like if you’re going to stop Moses and Dusty, there’s Barford and Macon. We’ve got other guys that can score. Our defense has got to continue to be pretty good and hopefully depth can become an issue.”