FAYETTEVILLE -- Don't be surprised if University of Arkansas sophomore guard Isaiah Joe breaks his own school record set last season with 113 three-point baskets.
Joe and other Razorbacks figure to take plenty of three-pointers with Arkansas having an undersized lineup.
The tallest starter for Arkansas (1-0) in tonight's game against North Texas (1-1) in Walton Arena will be 6-6 senior Adrio Bailey.
With 6-8 sophomore Reggie Chaney suspended indefinitely, the other big men in the Razorbacks' rotation are 6-7 senior Jeantal Cylla and 6-8 sophomore Ethan Henderson.
"Stylistically, the three-ball is something that's going to be extremely important to us," Coach Eric Musselman said after Arkansas hit 13 of 35 three-pointers in beating the University of Arkansas at Little Rock 79-64 in an exhibition opener last month. "Thirty-five attempts from beyond the arc is a lot, but that's kind of who we're going to have to be."
Arkansas made Rice pay for playing a zone defense by hitting 10 of 25 three-pointers in a 91-43 victory over the Owls during the season opener last Tuesday.
"We can do better," said junior guard Mason Jones, who hit 4 of 8 three-pointers and scored a career-high 32 points against Rice. "Isaiah had a couple of looks and I had a couple of looks we should have made.
"We've been pushing ourselves to be pros, and pros don't miss open shots. We want to get back in the gym and we want to be perfect. We know we're not going to be perfect, but we want to be close. Being 10 of 25 was just OK to be honest with you."
Joe, who hit 4 of 11 three-pointers against Rice, said the offense is designed to create a lot of scoring opportunities from the perimeter.
"Some nights we might not be on," he said. "But I feel like the flow of the offense is going to give us a lot of open shots."
Sophomore guard Desi Sills was 0 of 3 on three-pointers in the Rice game, but he shot 46% last season (29 of 63) while Joe shot 41.4% (113 of 273) and Jones 36.5% (76 of 208).
"We know Isaiah, Mason and Desi are really good three-point shooters," Musselman said. "We're going to try and get them as many looks as we can from beyond the three-point line."
Junior guard Jalen Harris could be a surprise three-point threat. He hit 2 of 2 against Rice after going 8 of 69 last season.
"Two words: Breakfast Club," Jones said. "That's all you've got to say on Jalen Harris."
Jones led a group of players -- including Harris, Joe, Sills and Cylla -- in early morning shooting workouts over the summer that became known as the Breakfast Club.
"Jalen's come a long way from where he was last season," Jones said when preseason practice started in early October. "I'm excited to see how he shoots this season, because I know he's ready to prove a lot of people wrong about his shot."
Harris credited assistant coach Corey Williams with helping him change his shooting technique. Harris said he now goes straight up on his jump shot rather than lean back -- a change that helps create more arch so the ball doesn't bounce off the front of the rim.
"You see Jalen looking for his shot more," Jones said. "Adding more scoring from Jalen is going to help us in the SEC, and he knows it and our team knows that. It was so good to see him having fun."
Harris is thankful his extra work from the Breakfast Club shooting sessions is paying off.
"It feels real good knowing that the coaches and the players have confidence in me to keep taking those shots," he said.
Cylla missed his only three-point attempt against Rice, but the graduate transfer could be another perimeter shooting threat. He hit 33 of 106 three-pointers (31.1%) last season at North Carolina-Wilmington.
"Let me tell you something, they've got some guys that can shoot the ball," said UALR Coach Darrell Walker, an All-American guard for the Razorbacks. "The only guy I see when they go to the perimeter who's not a great shooter is [senior guard] Jimmy Whitt, but I wasn't a great shooter, either. So if you don't shoot any threes, it doesn't hurt anything."
Auburn led the SEC and ranked fifth nationally with an average of 30.1 three-point attempts last season -- hitting 454 of 1,204 -- when the Tigers reached the Final Four.
"An open three-point shot is the best shot in basketball," Auburn Coach Bruce Pearl said at SEC media days. "It's worth one more point than any other shot. It's worth two more points than a free throw. Plus, there's no contact.
"On inside shots, you're going to turn the ball over sometimes. You're going to get in there and score about 50% of the time. Then 50% of the time a foul's not going to get called.
"The three-point shot is the highest percentage play on the floor, so that's why I've always believed in it and I've always said if you're watching a game on TV or listening to it on the radio and the color commentator says, 'You live by the three and die by the three,' listen to somebody else."
The Razorbacks averaged 22.1 three-point attempts last season to rank No. 186 nationally under coach Mike Anderson, who is now at St. John's. In the previous five seasons, Arkansas never ranked higher than No. 149 in three-point attempts.
Musselman's Nevada team last season averaged 25.1 three-point attempts to rank No. 68.
"Arkansas returns as many good shooters as anybody in the league, and that's a real factor in their favor," Pearl said. "Eric obviously is a good coach and strategist, so I'm sure they're going to be hard to guard."
During preseason practice, Musselman brought in Aubrey McCreary -- a friend and former NBA assistant coach with the Cleveland Cavaliers -- to watch practice and offer his assessment of the Razorbacks before they played UALR.
"Just to give me an outside, kind of consultant-type look," Musselman said. "We were at dinner and he said, 'Fifteen,' " Musselman said. "I said, 'What's 15?'
"He said, 'That's how many three balls you're going to need Isaiah to take.' "
Joe said having the NCAA move the three-point line back by 1 foot, 4 3/4 inches -- to 22-1 3/4 from 20-9 -- won't affect his shooting.
"No, no, no," Joe said. "Shooters shoot the ball no matter where the line is. I feel like a lot of my three-point shots last year didn't even come from the [old] line. So the new line really doesn't matter to me."
Joe said the Razorbacks will take more three-pointers in certain games than others, but it will be part of their game plan.
"We're going to try to get up as many as we can," Joe said. "Because the more we take, the more that have a chance to go in."
Sports on 11/12/2019