By SAM LANCE
Arkansas dominated Kansas, 85-69, in a charity exhibition game this past Friday in Bud Walton Arena. Despite Kansas missing three key players — Hunter Dickinson, Rylan Griffen and Shakeel Moore — and Arkansas being without Jonas Aidoo — the game offered plenty of insights.
The biggest takeaway, though, was the guard play of Arkansas.
“That’ll be the best trio of guards we play against this year,” Bill Self said postgame. “There won’t be anybody better than that that we play against.”
Those three guards — freshman Boogie Fland, sophomore DJ Wagner and fifth-year senior Johnell Davis — combined for 51 points, six assists and nine rebounds. Fland and Wagner each had 20+ points while shooting a combined 59.3% from the field.
“Our guards, they are pretty good,” John Calipari said. “They are good players. And you want to talk about what they did offensively. I want to talk about what they did defensively.”
Fland was a pest guarding Dajuan Harris, grabbing six steals. Davis added two steals and Wagner had one as well. That, combined with offensive performance from the three guards, was a big reason why the game resulted in a blow out.
True freshman Boogie Fland tonight aganst No. 1 Kansas:
— B/R Hoops (@brhoops) October 26, 2024
22 PTS
8-15 FG
5 AST
6 STL pic.twitter.com/6cXMgJZncq
And Self doesn’t think this was a fluke.
“I actually think this team’s better than some of the ones he’s had at Kentucky,” Self said of Calipari’s Arkansas squad. “We played them at least every other year for the last 10 years, and probably played them seven times in the last 10 years, or whatever. And you know, there were a couple of teams that were elite, elite, elite. This team, to me, has a chance to be terrific and maybe more talented as some of the teams that he’s had at Kentucky, not all of them, but some of them. So, yeah, I think they have a real chance.”
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