Arkansas coach Mike Anderson likes what he sees.
The Razorbacks have won three of their past four games after knocking off No. 25 Vanderbilt on Tuesday and are 16-0 at Bud Walton Arena. But more than that, he loves the way his team is coming together.
“I thought this team grew up,” Anderson said. “I thought we grew up in a lot of areas. Not only in how hard you have to play, but also in how hard you have to play together. Our pressure was disruptive. It took them out of what they wanted to do.”
Anderson was an assistant under coach Nolan Richardson when the Razorbacks were one of college basketball’s dominant programs with their “40 Minutes of Hell” style of play. Arkansas won the NCAA tournament in 1994 and finished second in ’95.
At 16-6 and 3-3 in the SEC, the Razorbacks aren’t in the Top 25, but they’ve defeated three ranked teams, playing a similar style despite the fact that Anderson has only nine healthy scholarship players.
They’re without all-SEC forward Marshawn Powell, who averaged 19.5 points in two games before tearing knee ligaments in a practice Nov. 17. He’ll miss the rest of the season.
Nine players are part of the regular rotation, but everybody helps. Even backup quarterback Brandon Mitchell, who joined the basketball team two weeks ago. He played three minutes against Vanderbilt, his first action of the season.
“Whether it be two minutes or three minutes, we’ve got to have guys out there helping out,” he said.
Hot shot
Billy Donovan isn’t sure if Bradley Beal will leave Florida for the NBA after his freshman season, so he’s getting the most out of him while he can.
Beal had averaged more than 33 minutes per game entering Thursday night’s game, and the 6-foot-3 guard had averaged 14.1 points and 5.8 rebounds.
“He gives us a really good rebounder at that small forward spot, so we need him out there,” Donovan told the Gainesville (Fla.) Sun.
Beal, who was the Gatorade National Player of the Year last year, is considered a top-10 draft pick if he leaves after this season.
Have not
Former Tucker High star Cameron Tatum, who has started every game for Tennessee this season, has missed all 16 of his shots from the field in the past two games, going scoreless in a victory over Auburn and a loss to Kentucky.
Tatum, a senior, has averaged 8.3 points per game, but has scored only two points in his past three games, going 1-for-21 from the field and 0-for-9 from 3-point range.
On a roll
- Jeronne Maymon has been Tennessee's leading scorer in two of the past three games and had 19 rebounds in Saturday's win over Auburn. He was scoreless at halftime of Tuesday's loss to Kentucky, but scored the first seven points of the second half and finished with 13.
- Vanderbilt's Jeffery Taylor averaged 19.3 points in his past three games, scoring 23, 17 and 18 points as the Commodores went 2-1. He is the SEC's leading active scorer with 1,698 career points.
- LSU's Justin Hamilton has scored in double figures in 11 consecutive games.
Local ties
Freshman guard Dai-Jon Parker has played in all 22 of Vanderbilt’s games and has averaged nearly 12 minutes per game, often displaying the defense that he was known for at Milton High.
Parker, who led Milton to the Class AAAAA title in 2010, has averaged 1.9 points, and he helped the Commodores defeat Georgia 77-66 on Jan. 14 with a layup midway through the second half that gave them the lead for good.
He scored a career-high 10 points against Monmouth on Nov. 25.
Around the conference
A planning committee has recommended adding luxury boxes, suites, chair backs, a new scoreboard and new ribbon boards to Rupp Arena in Lexington, a project that would start in 2015. It would keep capacity around 23,000 and would cost between $250-$300 million. ... SEC teams have won 46 of their past 55 nonconference games, dating to Dec. 19. ... Kentucky has held its opponents to less than 40 percent shooting from the field in 14 of its 23 games.
Must-see TV
- Florida at Kentucky, 7 p.m. Tuesday (ESPN)
The Gators will try to snap Kentucky’s 47-game home winning streak, the longest one in the nation, but it’ll be their third game in six days.
Quotable
“He is a shot-changer. The dude is like 6-foot-10 with 7-6 arms. If you get in the lane, you’ve got to go at him, but it is always going to be in the back of your mind that this dude is huge, and he is probably going to block it.” — Tennessee’s Josh Richardson on Kentucky’s Anthony Davis
By the numbers
54 Consecutive games in which Vanderbilt's John Jenkins has scored in double figures.
19,024 Fans who packed Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville to watch Tennessee defeat Auburn on Saturday.
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