Arkansas Basketball: 3 keys to beat UConn Huskies in Sweet 16 matchup
By Elijah Campbell
#1 – Win the battle off the dribble
When Saint Mary’s jumped out to a lead against UConn in the first half of their second round tilt, they took advantage of the Huskies’ eagerness to run teams off the three-point line. The Gaels created dribble penetration with their guards and were able to manufacture opportunities near the rim.
Given UConn’s disdain for allowing three-pointers (they hold their opponents to the 12th lowest three-point attempt rate in the country), that same opportunity can arise for Arkansas. Since Arkansas is a team that doesn’t shoot many threes and quite frankly, rarely makes the ones they attempt, this could play into their favor.
The players that I look to exploit this are Anthony Black, Davonte Davis, Ricky Council IV and Nick Smith. For Black, he’s a 6-7 point guard with great ball handling and passing skills. He’s an automatic size mismatch for any traditional point guard and excels at getting into the paint off the bounce. For Council, Davis and Smith, they’re players who are solid off the dribble, very athletic and are better at mid range jumpers than three-pointers. While it’s certainly not the most efficient way to conduct an offense, that’s their skillset and when it comes to taking what the defense gives them, they’ll be required to be very efficient in those particular areas of the floor.
But here’s where this key can be the key that unlocks a win or at least keeps them in the game longer than they are supposed to be. That reason? The free throw line. Arkansas is great at using those perimeter players to draw fouls and get easy buckets with the clock stopped. Council and Black have very high free throw rates and against Kansas, Council and Davis combined to shoot 18 freebies. In a one-point win, those made all the difference. When it comes to UConn, keeping teams off the free throw line is the one thing they’re not good at defensively.
The Huskies rank 319th in opponent free throw rate and in their losses to Providence, St. John’s and Xavier, surrendered opponent free throw rates of over 50%, meaning that at the minimum, their opponents were shooting a free throw for every two field goal attempts. In the Providence loss, UConn allowed the Friars to attempt 35 free throws. The only team close to Arkansas in free throw rate out of that bunch, was Providence, who doesn’t even crack the top 50 in free throw rate. The Hogs are 23rd.
When it comes to taking what the defense gives you, Arkansas poses a good match-up against UConn’s defense.