20. Arkansas
Nolan Richardson says he wants to turn his smallish Hogs into nasty little dogs. Then he can unleash his devilish plan
Posted: Wednesday November 18, 1998 02:08 PM
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To be a bigger threat, the Hogs need Hood to rule the
rim. Bob Rosato |
Arkansas
coach Nolan Richardson is going to Hell, and he can hardly wait.
For the first time since the Razorbacks reached
back-to-back NCAA title games in 1994 and '95, Richardson
possesses the necessary combination of athletes to unleash
the full wrath of his beloved
40 Minutes of Hell attack. "Lately we've been maybe 20
Minutes of Hell and then a lot of praying," Richardson
says. "This year we're back to running around kicking
and scratching and biting. It ain't pretty, but I've always
said that a raggedy ride is
better than a smooth
walk."
The spark to reigniting Richardson's frenetic strategy is
the
addition of six incoming freshmen
who the Hogs coach believes comprise his most talented crop
since Todd Day, Lee Mayberry and Oliver Miller arrived in
'88. Freshman guards Brandon Dean and Jason Gilbert and
forward Sergerio Gipson will add depth and lift some of the
scoring burden off
senior guard Pat Bradley, who is a 41% three-point shooter
despite wearing a bull's-eye throughout his career.
"Last year I had so many guys chasing me around, I'd
finish a game with cuts and bruises," Bradley says.
"The key to our season is finding some
more offensive options to scare the
defense."
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| STARTING LINEUP |
| POS. | HT. | CLASS | KEY STAT |
| SF Chris Jefferies | 6'8" | Fr. | 22.0 ppg** |
| PF Derek Hood* | 6'8" | Sr. | 6.1 rpg |
| C Jason Jennings | 7'0" | So. | 51.0 FG% |
| SG Pat Bradley* | 6'2" | Sr. | 14.8 ppg |
| PG Kareem Reid* | 5'10" | Sr. | 11.9 ppg |
'97-98 record: 24-9
Final rank (coaches' poll): No. 22
*Returning starter
**ppg as high school senior
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The Hogs boast one of the country's most experienced
backcourts, with a combined 165 starts from Bradley and
senior point guard Kareem Reid, a natural distributor who
needs 163 assists to break Mayberry's school record.
Another senior, Derek Hood, must
crash the boards as he did when he led the SEC in
rebounding in '96-97. Richardson acknowledges that the one guy who
can help the Hogs make a quantum leap is Jason Jennings, a
7-footer from tiny Bald Knob, Ark., who is the team's only
player taller
than
6'8". A rebounder and shot blocker, Jennings is a giant
Opie Taylor who needs to play more aggressively, so
Richardson has done everything short of insulting the kid's
mama to make him meaner. Ferocity is a critical element to
sustaining 40 Minutes of
Hell, and with it Richardson can honestly preach to his
diminutive troops that size doesn't matter. Says the coach,
"I tell my kids, 'It's not the size of the dog in the
fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog.' I've seen a
lot of big dogs running away
from little bitty dogs."
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