FAYETTEVILLE — Among the Razorbacks that Mike Anderson inherited and has since recruited, only freshman DeQuavious Wagner was truly recruited by the Razorbacks to play point guard.
That ‘truly’ part doesn’t bother Arkansas’ second-year head basketball coach, Anderson said earlier this week. Versatility was so widespread among the players he coached at Alabama-Birmingham and Missouri that his teams defied the traditional positions of point guard, off guard, small forward, power forward and center. It certainly described the peak of those 17 years that Anderson assisted Nolan Richardson at Arkansas. Lee Mayberry, in 1990, and Corey Beck, a member of the 1994 national champion and 1995 national runner-up teams, were the point guards for Richardson’s three Final Four teams, yet those teams had plenty of players who might play the point at anytime, even with Mayberry or Beck in the game.
That’s Anderson’s point now even if only Wagner and Fayetteville native Fred Gulley, who transferred in January from Oklahoma State and will be NCAA eligible once the fall semester ends, wear the point guard label. He points to Rickey Scott, a junior combination guard and two year letterman, and Ky Madden, a 6-5 sophomore swingman, as examples of guys who are versatile enough to take the point.
“I think we have a plethora of guards, point guards, guys that can control,” Anderson said. “You’ve got Dee coming in, Fred Gulley. Rickey Scott, I think, can be a guy who takes care of the ball for us. Ky Madden has played the point. We even have forwards that can play the point.
“Versatility is so big in basketball. You want to be unpredictable.”
For that matter, sophomore shooting guard BJ Young not only was Arkansas’ leading scorer last season (15.3 points a game average) but third in assists (73).
Young also got Anderson’s ignominious “Apple Turnover Award” at the postseason banquet for committing the most turnovers (74).
“I think we have enough guys to take care of the ball,” Anderson said. “We just have to do a better job of taking care of the basketball, and that’s not just necessarily the point guards. I think that would be the whole team. We have got the right pieces. We just have to develop and they have got to get better.”
Cutting down turnovers and playing sounder defense even while accelerating the fast pace that Anderson brought back to Arkansas basketball are among the coach’s objectives when preseason drills begin in earnest after the “Prime Time at the Palace” opening night scrimmage Oct. 12 at Walton Arena.
Anderson attributed fatigue to much of Arkansas’ turnovers and defensive problems during last season’s 2-8 finish after a sizzling 16-6 start.
Starting with losing forward Marshawn Powell for the season just two games into last season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament, last season’s Hogs just didn’t have the depth to maintain in February what they began in November.
“They hit a wall,” Anderson said.
Between Powell’s return and what has been recruited to go with a nucleus a year toughened to his system, Anderson believes this season his Hogs will hit back when that wall hits them in February.
Sports, Pages 20 on 09/29/2012