Montana travels to SEC country to face Arkansas

Saturday, November 16

Fayetteville, Ark

3 PM (MT)

Montana

Arkansas

Photo by: Derek Johnson

11/15/2019 3:51:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Game Notes (PDF)Schedule Roster

By: Montana Sports Information

Montana at Arkansas / Saturday / 3 p.m. (MT) / Fayetteville, Ark.

Watch: SEC Network+
Listen: TuneIn
Live Stats: StatBroadcast

With four freshmen seeing significant minutes, Montana basketball coach Travis DeCuire knows the growing pains will be real, and that the team he sees now will look way different come January. It' a big reason why his main focus is to have his team progress from one game to another.

He also knows, though, that growth won't always be apparent, especially considering the schedule in front of the Grizzlies.

A week after opening the season at Stanford, Montana now travels to Arkansas. The Razorbacks boast one of the nation's top defenses, own one of the nation's top attendance averages and have been to the postseason in four of the past five seasons.

"You have to look past that other stuff and try to prepare for them the same way," DeCuire said. "When the ball goes in the air, the environment isn't the same, but your mental preparation has to be the same no matter who you're playing, so there's not slippage when you're not playing a team from the SEC or Pac-12.

"Arkansas is athletic and strong. They play a unique style that is tough to beat. They'll pose challenges for us, but I don't think we'll be intimidated."

After Arkansas is a trip next week to Washington, then one to New Mexico followed by another at No. 14 Oregon.

"We are going to have to weather a couple of storms here before we have a chance to develop a few scars and get through. I just want to see us getting better every time out, but the schedule gets tougher so it's going to be tough to see that right away. I don't know if the score is going to tell us every time out, but we will get there."

Saturday's contest at Arkansas (3 p.m. MT) can be streamed on SEC Network+. The contest can also be heard worldwide through the TuneIn app.

COLLEGIATE HOOPS ROADSHOW
Saturday's game is part of the Collegiate Hoops Roadshow Presented by AtmosAir. The Roadshow includes 11 schools from coast to coast. Montana's other games in the Roadshow are against Montana Tech, Texas Southern and Coppin State.

SCOUTING ARKANSAS

With wins over Rice and North Texas, Arkansas is 2-0 to begin the season. The Razorbacks received top 25 consideration in this week's AP poll.
Arkansas has one of the nation's top defenses through the first week of the season, holding both opponents to 43 points. Overall, the Razorbacks rank third for scoring defense (43.0 ppg), ninth for field-goal defense (.308), 10th for steals (12.5 spg) and 12th for turnovers forced (22.5 per game).
While opponents are shooting just .308 against the Razorbacks (including .095 from three-point range, which ranks third), Arkansas is connecting at a .509 clip (32nd).
Arkansas has two players averaging at least 20 points per game. Junior Mason Jones is averaging 24.0, including 32 vs. Rice, while sophomore Isaiah Joe is averaging 20.0, hitting eight total three-pointers.
Joe is one of 20 players on the Jerry West Award Watch List, which goes to the nation's top shooting guard. He was also named to the Preseason All-SEC second team.
Senior forward Adrio Bailey has swiped seven passes (20th in NCAA).
Arkansas is coming off of an 18-16 record a season ago, advancing to the second round of the NIT. The Razorbacks have played in the NCAA tournament in three of the past five seasons.
Arkansas averaged more than 15,000 fans per game a season ago, which ranked 11th in the country.
Eric Musselman is in his first season in Fayetteville. The former NBA head coach spent the past four seasons at Nevada, taking the Wolf Pack to three consecutive NCAA tournaments.

SERIES VS. THE RAZORBACKS
Montana and Arkansas have never met on the hardwood.

SERIES VS. THE SEC
Montana is looking for its first-ever win over an SEC school, holding an 0-8 record against current SEC opponents. Saturday will mark just the sixth time the Grizzlies have ventured into SEC territory, but three of those instances will have happened in the past five years, with Montana playing at Ole Miss in 2016-17 and Texas A&M in the 2015 NIT. Montana's last win over a Power-5 opponent came in November 2017, at Pitt.

FIRST-WEEK NOTABLES

Montana won its home opener for the fifth time in six tries under head coach Travis DeCuire, defeating MSU Northern, 64-50, last Sunday. Since the turn of the century, the Grizzlies are 17-3 in home openers.
Montana has used the same starting lineup in both contests, starting a pair of freshmen. The Grizzlies have only used eight players.
Montana has committed 10.5 personal fouls per game, the third-lowest average in the country.
Montana already has three scoring runs of more than 10 points (14-0 vs. Stanford, 13-0 vs. MSU Northern and 11-0 vs. MSU Northern).
After turning the ball over 18 times at Stanford, Montana gave it up just nine times vs. MSU Northern. Meanwhile, the Grizzlies forced the Lights into 18 mistakes.
Over the final nearly 16 minutes last Sunday, MSU Northern shot just 14.3 percent from the floor (3-of-21) with five turnovers.
Senior Sayeed Pridgett ranks 24th nationally with 23.5 points per game. He is coming off of a career-high 30 points against MSU Northern, scoring 14 consecutive Griz points in the second half.
In addition to his scoring, Pridgett has also led Montana for minutes played, assists and steals in both contests, and rebounding and blocked shots once. Against Stanford, his stat line included 17 points, 10 rebounds, six assists, three steals and two blocked shots.
Freshman Derrick Carter-Hollinger had a memorable debut, scoring 15 points and pulling down six boards off the bench at Stanford. Through two games, he has made 8 of his 10 shot attempts.
Just a true freshman, Josh Vazquez ranks second on the team with 36.5 minutes played per game while running the point. He had 11 points in his collegiate debut at Stanford.
Freshman Kyle Owens has started both games this season, scoring 11 points on 5-of-8 shooting vs. MSU Northern last week.
Sophomore Mack Anderson earned the first two starts of his career last week. A season ago, he became the first Montana native to play for the Griz as a true freshman since 2005.

FRESH FACES
Due to a variety of factors, including injury and transfer rules, just eight of Montana's 15 players suited up for the Grizzlies' game last Sunday vs. MSU Northern. Montana has played a tight rotation, with eight players seeing time in both games so far this season.

Four of the players – Derrick Carter-Hollinger, Eddy Egun, Kyle Owens and Josh Vazquez – made their collegiate debuts last week at Stanford. Vazquez's 36.5 minutes-per-game average ranks second on the team, while Owens is fourth (24.0), Carter-Hollinger is fifth (22.0) and Egun ranks sixth (18.5).

Overall, 50.5 percent of the team's minutes played have been recorded by players who were in high school or redshirting last season. The four freshmen also account for 45.2 percent of the team's scoring and 43.5 percent of its rebounding.

Shoutout to these four Grizzlies who made their collegiate debuts last week!#GrizHoops #GoGriz pic.twitter.com/MF3ZMzhB7B
— Montana Griz BB (@MontanaGrizBB) November 13, 2019

STARTING THEM YOUNG
Kyle Owens and Josh Vazquez have drawn starts for both games in 2019-20, marking the first time since 2014 that a pair of Montana true freshmen have started in the same game (Mario Dunn and Brandon Gfeller vs. Sacramento State on March 6, 2014).

Dunn and Gfeller started the same game just once that season, and one would have to go back to 2004-05 (Andrew Strait and Matt Martin) to find the last time it has happened multiple times. Still, Strait and Martin started together as true freshmen just four times, and neither started to begin the season.

Owens and Vazquez have the chance to become the first set of true freshmen to start more than four games together since Montana began tracking starters in 1979-80.

Complete Game Notes in PDF format, including additional notes, stats, charts and player pages

It was great to be back in front of #GrizNation again yesterday!#GrizHoops #GoGriz pic.twitter.com/EYy235nA0W
— Montana Griz BB (@MontanaGrizBB) November 11, 2019