FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas forward Bobby Portis wants a rematch in Wednesday night's Red-White basketball game against the out-of-state guys.
Portis, a sophomore from Little Rock Hall, was among the players with Arkansas high school or AAU team ties who played on the Red team that lost to the White team's out-of-state Razorbacks 112-102 last year.
"I didn't like all those guys from the other states beating us," Portis said. "I need some revenge, so hopefully we can play then again, and this time the home state guys will win."
Arkansas Coach Mike Anderson said Monday he won't announce the Red-White rosters until today, but conveniently there are seven players from Arkansas high schools and seven from other states, and they appear to be evenly-matched on paper.
An all-Arkansas team would consist of Portis, forwards Alandise Harris and Trey Thompson and guards Ky Madden, Anton Beard, Manuale Wakins and Dusty Hannahs.
A team of out-of-state players would be guards Michael Qualls, Anthlon Bell, Jabri Durham and Nick Babb and forwards Moses Kingsley, Jacorey Wiiliams and Keaton Miles.
"Who knows?" Anderson said of whether he'll put all of the players from Arkansas on the same team again. "We may do it. We may not do it."
Tipoff for the Red-White game is 7 p.m. Wednesday at Walton Arena. Admission is free, but fans are encouraged to bring a non-perishable food item for donation to the Full Circle Food Pantry on campus.
Walton Arena's doors will open at 5:30 p.m. with players signing autographs on the court at 6 p.m.
Madden, a senior from Lepanto who played at East Poinsett County, agreed with Portis it would be nice to have a shot to avenge last year's loss.
"They got the best of us last year, so we really need to have a rematch," Madden said.
Anderson has a lot of options for how to divide the teams evenly because of the Razorbacks' depth going into his fourth season as coach.
"It's been very, very competitive in practice," Anderson said. "When you talk about the scrimmage portion of our practices, ti's been nip and tuck each and every game."
Anderson said one recent scrimmage went double overtime with a 114-111 score.
"I had to make it where it was just sudden death, where somebody hit a shot to get it over with," Anderson said. "That's how competitive it's been, and hopefully that's a good sign."
Anderson said it's time for the Razorbacks to get more into a game mode after three weeks of practice and see how they perform with officials on the court and fans in the stands.
The Red-White game, Anderson has told the players, will help him determine the rotation when the regular season starts.
"You're going to get a bunch of time, because all you guys are playing together," Anderson said is his message to the players about Wednesday night. "But once we start playing somebody other than ourselves, it changes.
"They're auditioning now, and hopefully their auditions go well."
Durham -- a junior who previously played at DeSoto (Texas) High School, NAIA school Lubbock (Texas) Christian and Seminole (Okla.) State College -- said it sounds fun to be among the out-of-state players going against those from Arkansas, but he'll be excited Wednesday night no matter how the roster is divided.
"I know we're not going to get 20,000 in here like for a big game," Durham said. "But whatever crowd we have is going to be more fans than I've played in front of -- high school, NAIA and juco all put together.
"I'm really looking forward to that."
Sports on 10/28/2014