FAYETTEVILLE -- There are going to be a lot of new faces on the basketball court this morning when the Arkansas women's basketball team opens its season against Southeastern Louisiana.
Eight of the 12 players on Arkansas' roster are newcomers -- that includes five freshmen -- heading into the team's season opener at 10:30 a.m. at Walton Arena.
"We are ready to play a game," said Jimmy Dykes, who begins his second season as the Razorbacks coach after leading Arkansas to an 18-14 record last season and into the second round of the NCAA Tournament. "We lack some game experience with eight newcomers, and we are a work in progress. I'm anxious to go up against another team and hopefully get a win and see where we are.
"We saw that our defense is not where we want it to be after the exhibition game. We have to be really, really solid in the halfcourt defense, and we are not there yet. Our schedule gets better and better with each game, and we have to match that improvement."
Senior forward Nanna Pool is the top returning player for Southeastern Louisiana after averaging 11.3 points and 8.6 rebounds a game last season. Southeastern has three starters back from a team that finished 7-22 overall and 3-15 in the Southland Conference.
"It's the first game of the season, and we have a lot of new players," said Southeastern Coach Yolanda Moore, who is in her second season. "I want to see how we're going to handle playing on the road and playing in those types of environments because that's what we are going to see for the first few games of the season."
Southeastern follows up its trip to Arkansas by playing host to another SEC team, Auburn, before it goes back on the road to face Atlantic Coast Conference member Georgia Tech in Atlanta and Big 12 member Texas Tech in Lubbock. It also plays at Wright State in Dayton, Ohio, and at Xavier University in Cincinnati.
"I want to see us execute our offense," Moore said. "I want to see how we can defend man to man, how we can handle the pressure and our mental capacity to playing in that type of environment."
Sports on 11/13/2015