FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – A wild boar may be the overwhelming favorite in a fight with a raven, but make no bones about it, Carleton University will be no pushover for the Arkansas Razorbacks on Saturday evening in Nassau.
Arkansas easily dispatched of the Bahamas National Team 106-59 on Friday in the Razorbacks’ first test of four in the Baha Mar summer league but will face a much more formidable opponent on Saturday in Carleton, the winners of 18 U Sports tournament national championships over the last 23 years.
The Ottawa, Ontario, Canada-based school has experience beating SEC schools. Carleton has beaten Alabama and Ole Miss twice and also beat Vanderbilt in 2017. Its only two losses to SEC teams came against South Carolina and Kentucky, with the latter of which coming against John Calipari’s 2022 UK squad.
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After playing Arkansas on Saturday, Carleton will get a shot at two more D1 teams in Texas A&M and Valparaiso.
Arkansas came to the Bahamas with an incredibly young team that looked relatively crisp on Friday. Freshmen combined for 80 of Arkansas’ 106 points, with Jordan Smith Jr.’s 22 leading the way.
“We got a lot of work to do as a team,” associate head coach Kenny Payne said after Arkansas’ win on Friday, “But we have a lot of talent. Crazy talent. When you have 11 or 12 guys… typically coaches are comfortable playing seven or eight. We have 10 legitimate players.”
That number is only 10 and not 11 due to an eligibility issue with Miikka Murrinnen, which should be resolved by the time the regular season begins this fall. It’s against Carleton where Murrinnen’s absence is likely to be felt the most out of any of Arkansas’ four contests in Nassau.
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Still, Saturday’s game will be an excellent opportunity for Arkansas to face a juggernaut of a college basketball program, albeit one that puts gravy on french fries instead of biscuits.
Arkansas will need Smith, Davion Thompson, JJ Andrews and Maper Maker, among others, to grow up quickly during Saturday’s game in order to come out on top. For a group of freshmen playing in only their second game against live competition, that won’t be an easy task.
But that’s why teams play exhibitions in August: to ensure that when the season rolls around and Arkansas is facing the likes of Indiana, Michigan State, North Carolina, Arizona, Alabama, Auburn and Kentucky, players both young and old won’t be phased.
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The biggest question ahead of Saturday is whether or not Carleton can get into the heads of Arkansas’ young, inexperienced roster and play well enough to hand the Hogs a surprising loss, even if it won’t officially go down in the record books.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/arkansas as Carleton Will Be No Pushover As Arkansas Looks For Second Win In the Bahamas.
