FAYETTEVILLE -- When Charleston Southern's basketball team takes the Walton Arena court to play Arkansas at 7 tonight, it will be the Bucs' fourth game in eight days in three time zones.
Charleston Southern (1-2) began its odyssey with a visit to Wichita, Kan., where the Bucs lost to No. 9 Wichita State 88-63 last Friday.
The Bucs -- who play in the Big South Conference -- next traveled to California, where they lost at Stanford 93-59 on Sunday. they flew across the country home to Charleston, S.C., where they beat Johnson & Wales 97-65 Wednesday night before flying to Northwest Arkansas on Thursday.
By the time Charleston Southern returns home, the team will have traveled more than 7,600 miles for the first four games.
"It's been a very difficult travel schedule, but it's been good for our young team to be placed in so many adverse situations early in the year," Bucs Coach Barclay Radebaugh said. "We're fine physically.
"When these guys played AAU ball, they played three games a day. We're a young team and it really hasn't bothered us.
"It's been a great opportunity to play in some big venues and see different parts of the country."
Charleston Southern will play in Walton Arena for the first time. On the Bucs' only other visit to Arkansas, during the 1984-85 season, they lost to the Razorbacks 74-55 in Barnhill Arena.
The Bucs' timing for tonight's game may not be good considering Arkansas figures to be highly motivated after losing at home to Akron 88-80 Wednesday night.
The loss dropped the Razorbacks to 40-2 in Walton Arena in nonconference games under Coach Mike Anderson, along with a 91-82 loss to No. 6 Syracuse on Nov. 30, 2012.
Akron jumped ahead 10-2 and led the entire game.
"I thought we came out on the back of our heels," Anderson said. "I didn't see the intensity, especially on defense.
"Our defense has got to get better, there's no question about it."
Akron shot 50.9 percent from the field [29 of 57] and hit 13 of 28 three-pointers.
"We need to contain the ball better," Arkansas junior guard Dusty Hannahs said. "Dribble penetration makes you help, and then you get off the shooters and they make you pay.
"We definitely need to get better and stay on our man."
Anderson said the Razorbacks didn't have a sense of urgency to start the game and allowed Akron to dictate the game's tempo.
"Hopefully, they understand the effort you've got to come with no matter where you play," Anderson said. "Whether you're at home, on the road, a neutral site, it doesn't matter.
"You've got to come with effort for the full 40 minutes in the game. Our guys will learn from this."
Hannahs said the Razorbacks are glad to be playing tonight to get a chance to quickly atone for the Akron loss.
"This isn't the team we're going to be all year," he said. "We've got to keep coming on and make improvements every day.
"We've got to give Charleston Southern a problem."
Radebaugh said he expects playing the Razorbacks to present a lot of problems.
"Any time you play a Coach Anderson team, you know you're going to get tremendous intensity and tremendous focus, tremendous pressure," he said. "They won 27 games last year and they're used to winning.
"Coach Anderson has grown a very solid championship-type program there. We know we'll absolutely have our hands full."
Radebaugh said the Bucs typically would prefer to play up-tempo, but that they have to try to slow down the Razorbacks.
"I'm not sure it's in our best interest to come in there and try to run with Arkansas because of their athleticism," he said. "I'm not sure it's a good idea for anybody in the country to try to do that.
"I think we need to have a really smart game plan."
Sports on 11/20/2015