The Ags take to the road and begin the most challenging stretch of their schedule tonight at 5 pm Pacific time when they travel to Fayetteville, Arkansas, to tangle with the Razorbacks of the powerful SEC in the 19,368 seat Bud Walton Arena. This is the home opener for Arkansas who got nipped by Texas 73-71 in their first game at the ESPN Armed Forces Classic in El Paso.
When it rains it pours so the saying goes and, after 2 lopsided loses at home to open the season, the Aggies are about to hit the road with stormy weather in the forecast. Jim Les says the team asked him to put together the toughest out of conference schedule in Aggie history and so he did and, if the first two Aggie games were any indication of the strength of this year's team, that decision appears to have been more impulsive than wise.
The Ags have been so discombobulated and out of sync that it's hard to find much to feel positive about so far. After these first two games the stats are not pretty: we are allowing 76.0 ppg while scoring only 49.5. That's a 26.5 point difference.
Les has often said that his teams are built around defense but our defense has been severely lacking this year and USF and USD averaged 51% shooting against us and we have been out rebounded by an average of 11 boards per game 40-29.
The offense has not been any better either. Our shooting percentages are dreadful: we are shooting only 33% overall and are 6 for 42 from 3 for a nearly unbelievable 14.3%.
Unless Coach Les has a magic bullet up his sleeve the next couple of weeks for the Aggies could be very rough.
I don’t expect a win, of course, but a better effort would be nice. We need to see something to build on. Hopefully John is closer 100% and maybe that takes some pressure off Siler.
Whoa, you're right: "Arkansas has finished in the top 12 in NCAA attendance for three straight years, and has posted a top 30 national attendance mark for 24 consecutive seasons since Bud Walton Arena opened during the 1994 National Championship run." (From http://www.arkansasrazorbacks.com/arkansas-among-nations-best-in-attendance/)
This is better than I expected especially the way we started. Siler to really out of sorts. He's 4-23 on the season that includes 1-10 from 3. That's got to be mental...