By NATE ALLEN
Special to The Leader
FAYETTEVILLE – Everybody wants to discuss the past when dormant rivalries renew, and a still-lingering one renews today in Houston.
The 8-1 Razorbacks and the 5-4 Longhorns play each other for just the fourth time since 1991, when Arkansas departed the now defunct Southwest Conference and ended a longtime rivalry with Texas.
The game will be nationally televised by ESPNU and tip-off is at 1:30 p.m. today at the Houston Rockets’ Toyota Arena.
Though coaching Missouri during the three Arkansas vs. Texas nonconference meetings from 2008-09 through 2010-2011, Arkansas coach Mike Anderson knows the Arkansas vs. Texas rivalry firsthand. As a 17-year assistant to former Arkansas Coach Nolan Richardson, Anderson was involved in Arkansas’ last six SWC years against Texas, the last four filled with epic battles against then Texas coach Tom Penders including a NCAA Regional final in Dallas advancing Arkansas to the 1990 Final Four.
Anderson knows how much this game means to older Arkansas fans and that his players, not even alive during the Eddie Sutton vs. Abe Lemons and Richardson vs. Penders Arkansas vs. Texas apexes, can’t fully comprehend it.
“I think these kids are too young when you talk about the rivalry in itself,” Anderson said. “But knowing the history here, I think for our fans without doubt it’s a big game.”
The Razorbacks players know it’s a big game to prove they are more than merely the homebody Hogs. The one time this season that they ventured out of Walton Arena, Minnesota waxed them 85-71 on Nov. 22 in Minneapolis. The result was worse than the final score. Arkansas committed a season-high 21 turnovers to Minnesota’s 14 and got outscored 27-3 on 3-pointers and produced but eight assists.
“I want to see if we have learned something from it,” Anderson said.
He cited what they should have learned.
“One of the things we know about going on the road is you have got to be able to shoot the ball,” Anderson said. “You have to put the ball in the hole. You know you have got to defend and you can’t turn the ball over. In that game we turned it over. We had eight assists (Arkansas averages 18.2 assists per game) so we didn’t share the basketball and we didn’t shoot the ball well. They got to the free throw line probably more than we did.”
All the woes left too many of Anderson’s men hurriedly trying to put it back together by themselves again.
“We got down and I really thought we kind of panicked,” Anderson said. “Individuals tried to bring us back. We tried to make the 8-point play. And it just dug a hole that kept getting deeper and deeper. And so I think from that standpoint we learned that hopefully when adversity comes that we kind of bond together. That’s what I want to see in play when we play against Texas.”
The 5-4 record shows it hasn’t always gone Texas’ way.
At their Erwin Center in Austin, the Longhorns are 4-1, losing by 11 to the Texas-Arlington team that Arkansas edged by four in Fayetteville. Texas is winless on the road, losing by only three points at Michigan but blasted by Northwestern and Colorado in Brooklyn, N.Y., a more neutral site than Saturday’s neutral Arkansas vs. Texas neutral site given Austin’s proximity to Houston.
Second-year Texas Coach Shaka Smart, about the hottest coach in the country with five NCAA Tournaments including one Final Four, in six years at Virginia Commonwealth, discovered even at Texas it takes time.
Much like Anderson’s 2015-2016 Razorbacks, reeling 16-16 trying to rebuild from losing too many key parts to a 27-9 team from 2014-2015, Smart’s current team was hit hard by graduation and players turning pro early off last season’s 20-13 first-round NCAA Tourney squad.
The Longhorns are still a force, only young. They start two freshmen, 6-11 Jarrett Allen averaging 9.3 points and 6.3 rebounds, and freshman guard Andrew Jones, averaging 14.0 and are led by 6-7 swingman Tevin Mack, 15.0 points and 4.3 rebounds, and sophomore guard Kerwin Roach, 11.3 scoring average.
Consistently using its bench, Arkansas has played its best ball four games into December but that’s all been in the comfort of home.
STARTING LINEUPS
ARKANSAS (8-1)
F-Dustin Thomas 6-8 Jr. 8.1 pts. 4.2 rebs
C-Moses Kingsley 6-10 Sr. 11.1 8.2
G-Jaylen Barford 6-3 Jr. 10.8 2.2
G-Daryl Macon 6-3 Jr. 11.6 2.9
G-Manuale Watkins 6-3 Sr. 6.4 4.2
TEXAS (5-4)
F-Shaquille Cleare 6-8 Sr. 11.3 pts. 6.rebs.
F-Jarrett Allen 6-11 Fr. 9.3 6.3
G-Kerwin Roach 6-4 So. 11.3 3.9
G-Andrew Jones 6-4 Fr. 8.3 3.7
G-Tevin Mack 6-7 So. 15.0 9.3
