Isaiah Joe is an elite shooter
I first caught glimpse of Isaiah Joe's special shot-making ability prior to his sophomore season at Fort Smith Northside, where he would go on to shoot the Grizzlies to a state championship during his junior season. His high school coach, Eric Burnett, gave him the green light from inside halfcourt, within reason, obviously.
Joe's jumper is as smooth as any around. He always wanted to be a Razorback, and he is taking full advantage of the opportunity he's been given. What he's done with that chance is almost assuredly propelled himself into the starting lineup from Game 1 of his freshman season.
Joe led all scorers Friday night with 31 points on a sizzling 9/14 from distance in Red's 105-82 win over White. On the first episode of The Basketball Podcast of Mid-America, I said Joe was going to be one of the team's most efficient players and scorers. He rarely ever takes bad shots. He only took one, by my count, in this game and freshman forward Reggie Chaney swatted the 3-point attempt to the other side of the floor.
What makes Joe such an offensive weapon is that he is precise from essentially any spot on the floor. He knocked down all five of his 3-point looks on the right side of the court, including 2/2 on the wing and 2/2 in the corner. He also buried three triples on the left wing and one in the left corner. The corner 3 is one of the best, most efficient shots in all of basketball and he is prime to take plenty of those shots this season as well as he moves without the ball and off screens from bigs.
Joe is also not the type to let a single big night go to his head. The first thing he did when asked about his hot shooting night was credit teammates for finding him. In the postgame press conference, Joe said he routinely puts up 600 shots on Arkansas' shooting machines each day outside of the team's regular practices. He has the work ethic and the drive to be one of the best shooters to ever come through the program.
You never want to look too much into an intrasquad scrimmage that features next to zero defense, but Mike Anderson said what Joe did tonight is a reflection of what practices have been like to this point. Joe has a chance to be very special very quickly.
Jalen Harris shines in Razorbacks debut
Mike Anderson has talked on a number of occasions about the kind of impact Jalen Harris will make on this young basketball team. We saw tonight that he has electric speed and a great ability to penetrate and kick to shooters and find bigs for scores in the halfcourt and in transition.
Harris finished the Red-White game with 16 points and 10 assists to go with five rebounds and four assists. He did have six turnovers, which Anderson said he didn't like. But it is still very early and that should be worked out by next week's exhibition. One of Harris' turnovers – tossing the ball off the backboard to himself on a breakaway - can simply be chalked up to having fun.
Anderson also said that some of Harris' dribble pushes up the floor are as quick or quicker than other players' outlet passes. His speed will create some serious problems for teams this season. Next, you just need shooters in the right spots, which Arkansas appears to have with Joe and junior college guard Mason Jones, and attentive bigs.
The one concern I have with Harris is his jumpshot. All but three of his 11 shots in the game came in the lane and at the rim. He missed badly on his two 3-point attempts and barely drew iron on his one midrange jumper. Nevertheless, it was a good debut and one that should springboard him into the first exhibition of the preseason against Tusculum.
Getting a sense for a starting lineup
In his press conference at SEC Media Day on Wednesday, Anderson said he may not be the smartest guy in the world, but he can pencil Daniel Gafford into his starting lineup for Game 1 of the season. He also went as far as to say junior forward Adrio Bailey will likely be featured alongside Gafford.
Jalen Harris appears to have a firm grip on the starting point guard role, and Isaiah Joe is almost a shoe-in to start at the 2, which leaves one spot open. After tonight, I would have to slide Mason Jones in as the third guard in the lineup. Jones poured in 22 points on 9/16 from the floor – 2/6 from deep - in a losing effort for White. Anderson said he felt Jones disappeared a bit in the second half after adding 17 points on an efficient 7/11 shooting in the first.
Adrio Bailey also had a pretty solid night to complement Jones, finishing with 22 points on 8/16 shooting. Bailey stepped outside and knocked down a pair of triples, too. At this point, it feels like Anderson will go with some experience in the frontcourt and bring along players like Reggie Chaney – 9 points, 6 rebounds, 4 turnovers in his debut - and Gabe Osabuohien when needed.
Chaney and Osabuohien have a chance to be very serviceable players off the bench should Anderson run with Bailey and Gafford together. Chaney had his moments in the scrimmage and looked best when he made up his mind that he was going to attack the rim. Chaney finished 4/5 at the rim and 0/6 outside the lane, including 0/3 on midrange shots.
Osabuohien added 20 points for Red on 6/12 shooting. Gafford said Osabuohien will be a "decent aspect" of Arkansas' offense this season. The game has to continue to slow down for him – 5 turnovers, 6 fouls – but Friday was a solid start to the season for him.
Stray thoughts
– Freshman forward Ibby Ali has a lot of growing to do. He finished with six points on 3/10 from the floor to go with eight rebounds and three turnovers. Anderson said postgame that Ali has improved quite a bit since he first arrived on campus. To be a solid bench player, he's going to have to become much more sure of himself. That, obviously, will come with time. His hands are shaky at best right now.
"I think it’s just a matter of guys getting great passes," Anderson said of Ali. "He has to be able to catch it and finish it or make an outlet pass to somebody. There’s still a lot of work to be done with him, but he’s progressed."
– All of the talk surrounding Isaiah Joe shooting the lights out and you almost forget Daniel Gafford finished with 24 points and 12 rebounds in 30 minutes. Gafford was dominant inside the restricted area, where he dunked or finished 11/14 shots. The play of the night from him came on one of his few misses around the rim. As Reggie Chaney ball-watched, Gafford rose up and slammed the putback with one hand. He opened the night with a win in the team's dunk contest.
– One of the newcomers I was most looking forward to watching in person was Keyshawn Embery-Simpson. For the most part, he struggled to fall into a rhythm on the offensive end on Friday. He finished the night 2/8 shooting for five points and knocked down both of his shots in the second half after an 0/4 first half showing. Anderson said Embery-Simpson, like a number of players, dealt with some nerves. He is an intriguing offensive piece for the Razorbacks this season in my mind. He has a very nice, soft touch on his jumper and instincts you can't teach. We'll see if he settles in a bit more over the next couple of weeks leading into the season opener against Texas in El Paso.