One of Arkansas’ five freshmen made an immediate impression on the stat sheet last Saturday in the season opener.

Guard Ceira Ricketts came off the bench to lead the Arkansas women in three categories. She scored a game-high 14 points in 25 minutes to pace the 77-38 win over Louisiana Monroe. Ricketts also led the team in rebounds (7) and steals (5). Head coach Tom Collen said Ricketts’ athleticism was apparent when he recruited her out of Fairdale High in Louisville, Ky. Her effort wasn’t as evident.

“She is what I call a next level athlete,” Collen said. “I know she can run and jump. What we weren’t sure of when we signed her was whether she would play full speed all the time.”

Ricketts was recruited by Collen when he was the head coach at Louisville. He watched many of her high school games and noticed an effort level that wasn’t constant. It ebbed and flowed with the scoreboard and ability level of the other team.

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“I watched her play a lot of high school games where maybe the level of competition wasn’t good,” Collen said. “The game wasn’t close, and she didn’t play hard. The times that impressed me the most with her was when the game was on the line. Then that next level of athleticism came out, so you knew she had that potential.”

Despite her inconsistent effort, Arkansas, Louisville and Rutgers all vied for Ricketts’ services. Arkansas ultimately won the recruiting competition. Now Collen is tasked with extracting the most effort he can from Ricketts. He hopes she can sustain the level of play she showed in the opener for the remainder of the season, which continues tonight at home against High Point (1-1).

“We knew when we signed her that if we got her to play hard all the time, she could go from being a good high school player to a great college player. She flashed a glimpse to us. I hope that that’s something we’re going to see on a pretty consistent basis for her.”

Collen said Ricketts was recruited as a point guard but asked to be moved to off guard. Collen acceded despite Ricketts’ limitations as a shooter. Playing off guard, she’s still responsible for triggering the Razorbacks’ ball-screen offense and dribble-motion offense.

“I think what we’re finding out is that she’s probably the best person we have to start our ball- screen offense and to start our dribble-motion offense, because she’s probably the most explosive kid we have off the bounce.”

Collen said Ricketts’ skill set is also suited for the small forward position.

“She’s got that blow-by speed with her right hand. Her left is a little shaky. That’s why we were going to put her over in the [small forward] spot, because she’d get all of her catches on the left side of the floor driving right to the middle. I feel like if we can get her attacking middle the floor over there at the [small forward ] spot she’s going to get layups and kick-outs to shooters... I think her versatility is going to get her a lot of minutes.”

Arkansas relied primarily on its ball-screen offense last season. A dribble-motion offense akin to the one used by the University of Memphis men has been added to the repertoire this season. Collen said the addition of the new offense has made the high-ball screen offense better.

“I think it’s made our ballscreen offense a little bit better, because in the dribble-motion offense you have no choice. When you have the basketball you’re supposed to attack. The thing we didn’t do in our [ballscreen] offense all the time is we’d drive off the screen but we didn’t drive off there and attack. I think it’s encouraged all of our players to be able to drive harder.”