Arkansas at Kansas State 12/6/08

[Dale8R]

I don't know that I will have a lot of intelligence to add to this thread, but this is certainly a matchup of interest. Both teams have been accused of playing (I'm looking for the right words here) a less than stellar schedule up to now. To editorialize just a bit, I never have felt that scheduling the easiest teams you can find is exactly the way to build a winner.

They are a combined 13-1, with Arkansas having lost to Oregon State a little over a week ago. This matchup should go a long way toward finding out whether either (or both) of them is a team of substance.

The knock on Arkansas comes down at least partly to a bunch of defections, the one of most interest to HoopsScoopers being that of Whitney Zachariason who pulled out after the exhibition season a year ago. On a side note, her NCAA imposed benching is coming to a close. It will be interesting to see what develops there, but that's a story for elsewhere. She wasn't the only one of course, and there have been other problems in the Razorback fold.

I am more than a bit curious about the lack of support for the Wildcats. Everything I read seems to indicate a pretty lukewarm degree of support, especially in the media. Look at their starting lineup and you note only one missing player from last season. To be sure, that one player, Kimberly Dietz, was vital to their success, but how can that not be offset by others stepping up?

But anyway, it should be an interesting matchup. I'm looking forward to it. I think I would put my money on the Wildcats if I were going to bet on the outcome.

[Dale8R]

Kansas State 65 Arkansas 56 No other information.

I expect we will get a report or two later on.

[catfan28]

I was very impressed with Arkansas tonite. They are very athletic and have some good mid range shooters on their team. They will be a force in the SEC this year. That freshman of theirs is solid.

That being said, I thought our girls were the better team, as the scoreboard indicated. Ashley Sweat was the MVP of the tourney, and rightfully so. She is playing so aggressive right now. I'm so proud of her.

Lehning had another ho-hum game with 10 assists and 9 rbs. :rotflol:

Gipson was solid with 16pts, including a great alley-oop play from Kari Kincaid, who was great in her own right with 13 pts.

K-State's defense is really good this year, only giving up 45 per game coming into tonight and held a good offense of Arkansas to just 56 and only 24 in the second half.

Look for K-State to pop into the Top 20 in the coaches poll next week. :)

[KStateProfessor]

catfan28's report is 100% accurate as always. Please note that catfan28 had predicted on another board that K-State would beat Arkansas by 64 - 57. The final score was 65 - 56!

Arkansas has an excellent team that is very physical. They pressed the entire game. I predict Arkansas will be an NCAA tournament team and will be ranked in the Top 25 during the season. Arkansas has a freshman, Ceira Ricketts, who was a highly-recruited guard out of Kentucky. She scored over 3000 points during her high school career. She is a difficult match up for anyone.

Although my wife and I are both graduates of Arkansas, we left our Hog hats at home and yelled for the Wildcats. K-State has a strong, experienced team this year. They play tough defense, shoot the ball well, and are great fun to watch. :)

[Jimi]

Your observations about Ashley Sweat being more aggressive are very on point. Ashley's defense has REALLY turned up several notches. She has been getting deflections that do not show up in the stats as well as her steals. I don't think the Arkansas guards were ever able to accept that a 6-2 big girl could move her feet that well and could have hands that quick. I have been more impressed with Sweat's new aggressiveness on defense but her offense and rebounding are improved too. Its been nice to watch.

Childs as a freshman still has lots of learning and adjusting to do but she makes solid contributions when she comes off the bench. Brown is also coming along but is a bit foul prone right now.

The alley-oop was a fun play and there were several fun plays. To me two things stand out. One is that every time Arkansas made a run the Wildcats answered with a score of their own, picked their defense back up, and did not get rattled. My nomination for play of the game would be Shalee Lehning scrapping for a loose ball and flipping it to Kincaid as she was falling down. Kincaid took the pass and drained a catch-and-shoot three right in front of Coach Collen as the shot clock expired. Collen was NOT pleased. :D

This team is fun to watch and I think they are going to make people earn any victories they give up.