FAYETTEVILLE — Lipscomb won’t be at full strength when the Bisons play the University of Arkansas at 4 p.m. today in Walton Arena.
“This covid thing has wiped us out,” Lipscomb Coach Lennie Acuff said of the coronavirus. “I really, really like our team a lot, but this fall we have not had one practice with our whole team.”
The start time for today’s game was moved an hour earlier than originally scheduled and will be televised on the SEC Network in place of the postponed Georgia-Vanderbilt football game.
“We’ve been contact-traced three or four different times,” Acuff said of his team’s roster issues. “I feel like I’m coaching an NBA G League team where we’ve got this guy one day and then we don’t have him the next day.”
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Acuff stressed the Bisons (1-2) have enough players to take on the Razorbacks (3-0).
“Our guys are doing fine, but you sure would like to have all your bullets in your gun when you’re going to play at Arkansas,” he said. “We don’t have all our guys, but we’re coming to play.
“The kids need to play. We all need to keep our sanity. It’s been a tough eight or nine months for everybody.”
Lipscomb, the preseason pick to win the Atlantic Sun Conference in polls voted on by the coaches and media, is without three players who Acuff said would be in the rotation.
Junior KJ Johnson — who would be starting at point guard — and freshman guards Tommy Murr and Will Pruitt haven’t played this season and will be out again today, Acuff said, because of contact tracing.
“All three of those kids are really good players and would have a tremendous impact on our backcourt,” Acuff said. “But you’ve got to play with the hand you’re dealt.”
Murr set Alabama’s high school career scoring record with 5,716 points at Athens Lindsay Lane Christian. He averaged 44.3 points as a senior. Johnson averaged 11.4 points last season for the Bisons.
“The Johnson kid is really, really good,” Acuff said. “He moves the needle big time. We obviously miss him, and the other two kids would be in our top eight.”
Lipscomb opened with two games in New Orleans — beating Lamar 76-73 and losing to host Tulane 68-66 when Greg Jones missed a three-pointer with five seconds left and a stick-back attempt by Ahsan Asadullah was blocked as time expired — and lost 67-55 at Cincinnati on Wednesday night.
The Bisons led Cincinnati 47-38 with 11 minutes left before the Bearcats rallied.
“With about five or six minutes to go, we thought we were going to win the game,” Acuff said. “We just ran out of gas.”
Only six Bisons played for more than five minutes and senior forward Parker Hazen — the brother of former Razorback Brachen Hazen, who is now at Ball State — fouled out with nine minutes left after scoring eight points in 18 minutes.
“Then we were down to five guys,” Acuff said. “At the end we were running on fumes.”
Cincinnati Coach John Brennan compared the Bisons’ offense to Princeton’s because of its deliberate pace and backdoor cutting.
“They cut really hard,” Arkansas Coach Eric Musselman said. “They’re really good from the half court execution standpoint.”
Jones, a 6-3 junior averaging 15.0 points, and 6-5 senior Romeao Ferguson, averaging 14.0 points, are Lipscomb’s leading scorers.
“Ferguson’s kind of a Swiss Army knife,” Acuff said. “He can do a little bit of everything. At 6-5 he can play around the basket. He’s good off the dribble. He can make threes. He’s been really solid for us.
“Jones can really shoot the basketball, and he’s a straight-line driver.”
Asadullah, a 6-8 junior and preseason Atlantic Sun Player of the Year, is averaging 12.6 points, 6.7 rebounds and 5.7 assists.
“Asa is a load — he’s about 280 pounds — and a highly skilled player,” Acuff said. “He can really see the floor. He’s hard to double-team, because he’s such a good passer.”
Asadullah’s passing stands out to Musselman.
“Their big inside is not a good, but a phenomenal passer,” Musselman said. “If we don’t disrupt his vision from a passing standpoint, it really makes their offense click. So it’s going to be important that we have really active hands in defending him.”
Lipscomb played at Cincinnati in the afternoon, so on the bus ride home to Nashville, Tenn., Acuff watched Arkansas’ 72-60 victory over Texas-Arlington that was televised on the SEC Network.
“What jumps out at you is that Arkansas’ players are just fast-twitch, and it seems like everything they do on both ends, they do with a tremendous amount of energy with really elite athletes and size,” Acuff said. “I like their team a lot.”
The Razorbacks have nine newcomers.
“I know they were kind of an unknown coming into the season, but I think they really have a chance to have a good year,” Acuff said. “[Musselman] does a heck of a job. You can tell they really have a buy-in when you watch them play. There’s a commitment to what they’re trying to do.
“They have a lot of firepower and play with a lot of freedom and confidence. They’re fun to watch.”
Moses Moody, a 6-6 freshman, led Arkansas with 24 points and nine rebounds against UTA. He’s averaging 17.5 points.
“Moody, what he’s doing as a freshman, his whole deal is really impressive,” Acuff said. “He plays with a lot of swagger, which obviously he’s earned.
“He’s going to be a really good player in the SEC. How they play really fits him.”
Connor Vanover, a 7-3 sophomore who redshirted last season, is averaging 13.7 points, 8.7 rebounds and 3.7 blocked shots for the Razorbacks. He’s shooting 76.2% from the field (16 of 21) and has hit 6 of 9 three-pointers.
“How about his shooting numbers,” Acuff said. “Are you kidding me? He strokes that three like he’s been doing it his whole life.
“He’s a unique kid to be over 7 feet and have his skill set. He’s got a really high ceiling.”
Six Razorbacks are averaging at least 9.3 points.
“Arkansas has got a lot of weapons,” Acuff said. “But the thing about basketball is it’s a make or miss game a lot of nights.
“We’ve just got to hope that we catch Arkansas on a night where maybe they don’t shoot it great.”