The Junkyard

The Dawgs were much more aggressive on offense tonight, constantly pushing the ball up the court.

On defense, the Dawgs used a 3-2 zone to cut down on mistakes and force Ark. to shoot from the outside. The zone also helped the Dawgs' defensive rebounding, which in turn led to fast breaks. I've thought all year that the Dawgs are a better team when they play a zone defense.

Even though Ark. hasn't won on the road, they have talent and have logged some quality wins such as beating Vandy and Michigan (ranked 19th in the country at the time).

The best part about last night: Seeing our bigs be assertive on the offensive end. We attacked the offensive glass and destroyed Arky on the boards. I looked up at the stat board with 10 minutes to go and we had a 37-10 rebound advantage! We were the aggressor from the get-go. I hadn't watched Arkansas much this year, but I was shocked how lazy/lethargic they were defensively, on-the-ball and help. It was easy to see why Gerald had 27, most came on open driving layups. I was hoping we would have a performance like this at some point to pick up some momentum. As well as the post guys played, we will still have to make a high percentage from deep (9-20, 45%) to win this year (see Notre Dame). Hopefully we can carry this to Starkville on Saturday.