Razorbacks report

Bobcats sport nice win streak

Texas State head coach Danny Kaspar reacts during the first half of the Sun Belt Conference NCAA college basketball championship game against Troy in New Orleans, Sunday, March 12, 2017. Troy won 59-53. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

FAYETTEVILLE -- Texas State's basketball team is off to its best start in 60 years and brings an eight-game winning streak into Walton Arena today to play the University of Arkansas.

The Bobcats are 10-1 to match their best start since they opened the 1952-53 season when they were an NAIA team playing in the Lone Star Conference. They finished 21-3 that season.

"We've been playing pretty good together in terms of shooting the ball at a reasonable clip (47.5 percent) and defending at a pretty good clip (37.9 percent)," Texas State Coach Danny Kaspar said. "We've got a lot of experience with eight guys back who played for us last season and the leadership has been very instrumental to our success so far.

"The guys have bought in to what I'm selling more this year, and we haven't been injured, and that's been big."

Texas State's only other better start was during the 1951-52 season when the Bobcats were 29-0 before losing in the NAIA Tournament semifinals to Southwest Missouri State (now Missouri State) 70-67 in overtime. The Bobcats beat Portland 78-68 in the consolation game to finish 30-1.

Tempo, tempo

Arkansas has been held under 80 points for three consecutive games in losing to Western Kentucky 78-77, beating Texas-San Antonio 79-67 and losing to Georgia Tech 69-65.

"We've got to get the ball, push it and get some movement on offense," Razorbacks Coach Mike Anderson said. "I thought [Georgia Tech's] zone made us stagnant the other day and there were times they ran man-to-man, so we've got to get people movement, the ball moving and be in attack mode."

Anderson said he expects Texas State to play "a mid-paced to slow tempo" against the Razorbacks. The Bobcats are averaging 75.5 points.

"When you're playing at Arkansas, it's very important to control the tempo," Texas State Coach Danny Kaspar said. "Anything in the 80s or 90s is going to be a victory for Arkansas."

A key for Arkansas to speed up the tempo is with its pressure defense and converting turnovers into points.

Texas State redshirt junior guard Jaylen Shead has 55 assists and 20 turnovers.

"I don't think he's faced anything like what he's going to see from Arkansas," Kaspar said. "We hope he'll do well."

Kaspar said Texas State handled pressure defense well in its last game which the Bobcats won 77-68 at Texas-Rio Grande Valley last Saturday.

"But they're not Arkansas material," Kaspar said. "So we'll see how it goes against Arkansas."

Dunkin' Daniel

Arkansas 6-11 sophomore Daniel Gafford has more dunks than five SEC teams.

Gafford's 32 dunks are more than Ole Miss (25), Alabama (27), Florida (21), South Carolina (21) and Missouri (12).

The Razorbacks have 51 dunks to rank third in the SEC behind Auburn (59) and LSU (52).

Gafford has 107 dunks in 45 games at Arkansas.

Vs. the SEC

Texas State is 0-9 against teams currently in the SEC, including 0-3 against Arkansas and Missouri and 0-1 against Kentucky, LSU and Ole Miss.

The Razorbacks beat the Bobcats 90-68 during the 2001-02 season, 70-60 during the 2002-03 season and 73-67 during the 2005-06 season.

Pat's back

Pat Bradley, who ranks fifth on Arkansas' career scoring list with 1,765 points from 1995-99, will be the color analyst for the SEC Network's telecast of today's game.

Homecoming for Hausladen

Alex Hausladen, Texas State's director of basketball operations, is a 2006 Arkansas graduate who was a team manager for the Razorbacks.

Texas State Coach Danny Kaspar said Hausladen reminds him of Radar O'Reilly, the Army corporal on the television show MAS*H who always anticipated what his commanding officer needed.

"I call Alex our Radar," Kaspar said. "He knows what I need sometimes before I even ask the question. He just does a great job for us."

Pearson a scorer

Texas State guard Nijal Pearson, a 6-5 junior from Beaumont, Texas, is averaging 19.9 points and shooting 49.3 percent (36 of 73) on three-point attempts.

"Nijal's a really hard worker," Bobcats Coach Danny Kaspar said. "He spends more time in the gym than anybody on our team.

"The reason he wasn't recruited very heavily is because he wasn't known a a great outside shooter, but he's really put in the time to develop the confidence he needs to shoot at a very good clip."

Been here before

Texas State Coach Danny Kaspar was 0-3 against Arkansas as the coach at Stephen F. Austin. Kaspar's Lumberjacks lost at Arkansas 70-59 during the 2006-07 season, 67-51 during the 2008-09 season and 72-69 during the 2009-10 season. Kaspar also faced Arkansas in the Southwest Conference when he was an assistant coach at Baylor.

Sports on 12/22/2018