Next Up – Arkansas In The Windy City

SB Nation

Duke travels to Chicago this week for a Thanksgiving evening game against John Calipari’s Arkansas.

It’s still kind of strange to write that. Cal had been at Kentucky for a long time and was a dominant

presence in the sport, for a time rivaling even Mike Krzyzewski at least in terms of public and media perceptions.

He fell off though in recent years and basically left before Big Blue Nation had a total meltdown.

At both Memphis and Kentucky, Calipari had huge runs. In his first season at Arkansas, he was…okay, finishing 89th in the SEC.

That’s a typo, but it’s funny and not too far off from the current size of the SEC, so it’s tempting to leave it. Actually, the Razorbacks finished 9th and got to the Sweet 16, which had become a rarity for Cal in Lexington.

So what’s he got this year? It’s a bit confusing so far.

Arkansas is 5-1. The loss was to Michigan State (69-66) and the wins are over Southern, Central Arkansas, Samford and Winthrop.

The last two wins were surprisingly close: Samford fell. 79-75 and Winthrop was an 84-83 nail biter.

This is not what one would expect from a Calipari team and indeed, Kentucky fans turned on him precisely because of games like this.

Yet Arkansas very nearly took out a tremendous Michigan State team, which makes it fair to ask: what will happen against Duke?

And to that we say: Arkansas will come ready to play, same as Kansas.

Calipari has a nine-man rotation, led by 6-3 freshman guard Darius Acuff. He’s getting 16.8 ppg, 2.5 boards and 4.3 assists. It’s very common to see Calipari play freshmen heavy minutes, but things have changed a bit and we are a bit surprised to see a freshman guard getting 30+mpg, given that Calipari made some strong comments about the game getting older with the transfer rule and so on.

Right behind him in minutes played is another freshman, 6-5 Meleek Thomas, who’s getting 18.3 ppg, 5.2 rebounds and 4.2 assists.

DJ Wagner, the latest scion of the Wagner family: grandfather Milt played at Louisville on the 1986 team that defeated Duke for the national title and his father, Dajuan Sr., also played at Louisville. DJ started at Kentucky and left for greener pastures along with his coach.

He’s getting 9.3 ppg, 2.2 boards and 4.0 assists. If you’re keeping track, between them the three guards are putting up nearly 13 assists per game.

Terence Brazile is a 6-10/230 lb. senior getting 13 points and 7 rebounds.

Nick Pringle, also a 6-10/230 lb senior, played previously at Alabama and South Carolina, is getting 6.7 ppg and 6.0 rebounds.

The rest of the rotation includes Billy Richmond and Karter Knox, both 6-6 sophomores, 6-10 Malique Ewen, another sophomore, and Isaiah Sealy, a 6-7 freshman.

Calipari told CBS’s Jon Rothstein that “[y]ou can’t be out there trying to do your own thing, because the minute your stuff goes wrong — which half the time it does — you’re down, you’re moving your head, you’re hitting the floor. You’re losing your mind because you’re so concerned about you. Lose yourself in the team. That’s what I’m battling right now. And now we’ve got to go play Duke and we’re not connected how we have to be.”

That might explain those two close games.

Certainly Cameron Boozer should be a handful. The 6-9 rookie has already established himself as one of the best players in the country. He’s back up front by Patrick Ngongba and Maliq Brown. Ngongba is rapidly coming into his own and Brown is rounding back into shape.

The three of them have become a very effective rotation of overlapping responsibilities. Boozer is the best, but Ngongba is an effective scorer and rebounder too. And if you need shut-down D, no one is much better on that end than Brown – and the guy has some serious speed. When he fully harnesses it, he’s going to be a weapon.

We’ve seen erratic play from Dame Sarr so far, at least on offense, but his defense is already top-rate.

And Duke’s backcourt is also a challenge. Caleb Foster can shoot but sometimes doesn’t. He can also penetrate. What he’s best at though is defense.

By contrast, Isaiah Evans is best at offense and has a reputation for heating up like a thermonuclear explosion. Lately though, he’s been driving and dunking a lot, and the Evans you see on defense this year has nothing in common with the player who was often a liability on that end last season.

Then there’s Cayden Boozer, who is developing a nice role off the bench. He’s really smart in the open court and has a way of finding people, not least of all brother Cameron. He’s also shown an increasing ability to take the ball to the hoop in traffic, which we didn’t expect to see.

Finally, Arkansas has to deal with Nik Khamenia, and the only thing holding him back from being a major factor is a good meal and extended time in the weight room. Baby Hardass doesn’t always have the strength to impose his will…but that’s coming, and when it does, he’s going to be a nightmare.

If Calipari is correct about his team not really being connected, it’s sort of the opposite for Duke because for a mostly young team, the guys have really been in sync. This shows up on defense and also in a very high percentage of assisted shots, but it shows up in other ways, too.

One big way it shows up is that not only is Cameron Boozer a dominant player on the court, but he is a leader in the huddle as well. It’s really unusual for a freshman to take such a leadership role from Day One, and more unusual for older teammates to accept a freshman trying to do that.

We don’t generally make predictions and won’t be doing that here. What we can say though is this: the Razorbacks will have to match Duke’s intensity and team unity to win this one. If they do, it’s a great sign for Calipari’s program and augurs well for the rest of the season. If not, Duke will likely win.

We’ll add links as we find them, so check back for more.