FAYETTEVILLE -- It's hard to imagine subtracting Bobby Portis from any Arkansas equation and summing the Razorbacks the better for it.
But here's one. Strictly on operating a high-low post with Moses Kingsley, Coach Mike Anderson's Razorbacks seem better off without Portis than with him.
Better correct that. Better off it's big Trey Thompson complementing big man Kingsley high-low from either spot.
As fast friends from AAU days constantly bettering each other's game in practice, Portis and Kingsley seemed ideally suited paired in a high-low post, particularly with Portis unselfish to a fault even while voted the 2015 SEC Player of the Year.
Yet they seldom quite meshed when periodically paired during the 2014 and 2015 SEC seasons.
Little Rock born and basketball bred Portis always ran ahead of the game that his buddy Kingsley had to learn on the fly in the U.S. having grown up playing soccer in Nigeria.
Now Portis and the big Arkansas shadow he cast have moved on to the NBA. In his own light, Kingsley has come into his own. Kingsley averages 16.1 points and 9.3 rebounds and blocked 69 shots after averaging but 4.0 and 3.6 points and 3.2 and 2.5 rebounds behind Portis the past two seasons. He has dished 38 assists, one more than he assisted the last two years combined.
Lately it seems many of those assists assist Thompson, totaling 21 points and 17 rebounds his last three games off the bench and that many of Thompson's 35 assists have assisted Kingsley.
"I love the combo of Trey Thompson and Moses Kingsley," Anderson said Monday off their high-low peaks in a three-game winning streak going into tonight's SEC game at Alabama. "They kind of brother in law high-low the ball to each other and finish it at the basket."
Thompson, a burly 6-9, 260, has become the Oliver Miller complement, Anderson said, to Kingsley's long, lean 6-10, 230.
Miller was the big-bodied, light on his feet and sleight of hand center complement to scoring guards Lee Mayberry and Todd Day on Nolan Richardson's conference champion Arkansas teams from 1989 to 1992.
"I thought Oliver was one of the more talented players to come through here," Anderson said. "His hands ... controlling the basketball and playing unselfish and blocking shots ... he could score as well and that's what Trey does. The thing Trey brings to the table is a high basketball IQ. And Trey is a great screener. When he puts that butt on people I tell you what he puts the wood on those screens."
Thompson said he and Kingsley have meshed into a natural fit.
"Me and Moses have a connection," Thompson said. "I feel like whether I'm on the high post or he's on the high post, we look for each other."
Even the shooting guards, Anthlon Bell and Dusty Hannahs, look for them and to receive from them as passers or from transition their defense creates.
Bell calls them "big on both sides of the ball."
Sports on 03/02/2016