Razorbacks welcome Central Missouri to Bud Walton Arena on Friday

NWA Democrat-Gazette/J.T. WAMPLER University of Arkansas' head coach Mike Anderson at practice Monday July 25, 2016.

— Two programs that have national championships to their credit - albeit two decades and a division apart - will meet up in a exhibition game Friday night at Bud Walton Arena.

Arkansas - which won the 1994 NCAA Tournament - and Central Missouri - which won the Division II title in 2014 - will face off at 7 p.m.

The Mules, who were 14-15 last season and return eight players are picked ninth in this season’s MIAA Preseason poll, feature Arkansas native former Clay County Central star Spencer Reeves (6-3, 195) as one of their starters after he averaged 12.3 points per game last season.

“Just two or three years ago they won a national championship at the Division II level and of course the coach at that time was Kim Anderson and he is the head coach now at Missouri,” noted Arkansas Mike Anderson, who preceded Kim Anderson at Missouri.

“It’s a program with a lot of tradition and gives us the opportunity to play someone other than ourselves. Any game we play we play to win. But it gives me the opportunity to put hopefully some of these pieces that I have talked about with this basketball team. Put those pieces together and hopefully formulate the team that we are going to be.”

Arkansas has five returnees and seven newcomers on this year’s squad with the rookies combining to score 131 points in the Red’s 118-113 win over the White squad on Sunday.

“The thing that I have seen time and time again is that we have a chance to have some really quality, quality depth,” Anderson said. “Talking about the positions that guys are going to play, we are probably two or three deep at each position. So it will be interesting to see them in a different setting where we are playing against somebody other than ourselves.”

Anderson knows that his players are looking forward to seeing different faces than the ones they have seen all month while practicing.

“They are excited,” Anderson said. “It is a grind when you have been going after each other. There are just so many match-ups you can create in practice so now they get a chance to play someone other than themselves. I really believe they are looking forward to it.

“This is their team, this is a new year, a new season and they want to be one of the better teams not only in our conference, but in the country.

“But there is work to be done. We are going to be a work in progress with so many new faces, guys have got to be familiar with one another in this kind of setting.”

Arkansas will play the next three Fridays, facing Emporia State, their second exhibition opponent, on Nov. 4 and then squaring off with Fort Wayne in the season opener on Nov. 11.