Inside the SEC: Arkansas and Tennessee unveil their new shooting stars

The answer turned out to be “not well,” though Lipscomb, which has won at Dayton, Florida State and Louisville during Acuff’s first five seasons, made it a battle before eventually losing, 76-60. Fland played 36 minutes, contributed 17 points and three assists and put together a plus-minus of 20.

“We had only seen him on film once (the Kansas exhibition),” Acuff says. “My first thought was he was bigger than I thought. And he was working like a pro. He was really serious minded.”

Acuff is equally impressed with Fland’s skill set. “He’s fast twitch,” Acuff says. “His frame. He’s just electric. Like I said, he’s got a little bit of Kyrie and Ja in him. I don’t know if he’s as good vertically as Morant, but he’s got that kind of twitch. We went under every ball screen they set for him. If we had tried to go over, he was putting his hands on the backboard. He’s also incredible in transition. That kid’s gonna make a lot of money.”

When Calipari made the stunning switch from Kentucky to Arkansas last April, Fland, who had originally signed with the Wildcats, followed him, as did fellow Kentucky signees Karter Knox and Billy Richmond III and former Kentucky players Zvonimir Ivisic, D.J. Wagner, and Adou Thiero. Cal and his staff convinced 6-foot-10 junior forward Trevon Brazile to stay at Arkansas after the departure of former coach Eric Musselman, and made a couple of astute transfer portal acquisitions, including 6-11 Jonas Aidoo, a second-team All-SEC center from Tennessee.

That mix, says Acuff — a respected offensive tactician about whom fellow coaches speak in reverent tones — is a handful.

“I think they’re very, very good,” Acuff says. “The thing I was most impressed with is just how well he’s got them guarding, and the discipline they’re guarding with, especially so early in the year. We couldn’t get a shot. They’re just so big and physical, and they’ve got true rim protection.”

It seems likely the Hogs are on the road to considerable improvement from Musselman’s last season, when they finished a surprising 16-17, including 6-12 (tied for 11th) in the SEC.

It will help if they can figure out how to win in the state of Texas. After beating Kansas in their first exhibition game, they lost their second exhibition by a point at TCU. And on Saturday, they lost to Baylor, 72-67, in a game played in Dallas.

The latter loss was no fault of Fland’s — he played a game-high 39 minutes and delivered 17 points and seven assists.

The Razorbacks will eventually get a chance to shake that Texas rut —they play at Texas on Feb. 5 and Texas A&M 10 days later.

Another Transfer Win for Tennessee

After last season ended with a trip to the Elite Eight, Tennessee coach Rick Barnes told his assistant coaches he wanted them to find another Dalton Knecht, the 6-foot-6 Northern Colorado transfer who led the SEC in scoring, was voted the league’s MVP and won the Julius Erving Small Forward of the Year Award. The assistants kind of laughed, as in, “Yeah, sure, we can do that,” while knowing full well that Dalton Knechts—unheralded but successful mid-major players who perform even better after transferring up a level—come along about as often as the Northern Lights are visible in the southern United States.

But it just so happened assistant coach Rod Clark knew of a guy. That was Chaz Lanier, who had played high school ball in Nashville. He didn’t see much action for two seasons at North Florida before finally getting his chance in 2023-24 and averaging 19.7 points and leading the nation in points per possession (1.2). After two games, Lanier doesn’t appear to have the temperament, as Knecht did, to rack up a 40-point night, but it looks like Barnes can pencil him in for around 20 a game.

Lanier began his Tennessee career with 18 points on 4-of-6 3-point shooting against Gardner-Webb. “He’s really big,” Gardner-Webb coach Jeremy Luther said after that game. “He’s really long. He’s really athletic. He’s really strong. And we knew that just watching film on him from his time at North Florida. When he’s shooting the ball like that, he’s tough to guard because he can get you from deep, he can put it on the floor, he can create. So it makes it hard for guys at our level to be able to defend that.”

On Saturday, Louisville found out it’s tough for guys at any level to check Chaz. He scored 19 points in the Vols’ wire-to-wire 77-55 victory, displaying like Knecht did an ability to hurt feelings from three, the midrange and at the rim.

“That dude can really score it,” Barnes says. “He does things in our shooting drills that DK never got to.”

In Tennessee practices, the Vols are tasked to run what Barnes calls the Kevin Durant Drill. That requires them to make 9 of 10 threes from seven spots on the floor. If they fail to hit that mark at any point in their journey around the arc, they go back to square one.

Lanier has already survived that difficult gauntlet twice. Knecht never did, and only one other player in Barnes’ Tennessee tenure, senior Jordan Gainey, has accomplished the feat.

Who’s to say whether Lanier or Knecht is the better shooter/scorer, so we’ll end with this cool stat. Last season, there were only two players in Division I who piled up more than 20 dunks and 90 three-pointers. One of them was Chaz Lanier.

The other was Dalton Knecht.

AROUND THE RIM

• So far, so good for first-year Kentucky coach Mark Pope. The Wildcats averaged 101.5 points in winning their first two games. Granted, the competition was Wright State, still adjusting after long-time coach Scott Nagy left for Southern Illinois after last season, and Bucknell, but cracking the 100-point barrier against anyone is a big deal. If you throw in Kentucky’s two exhibition wins (123-52 over Kentucky Wesleyan and 98-67 over Minnesota State), this team is averaging 106 points and winning by an average of 42.8 points a game.
  
  The competition is about to get tougher in a hurry (see below), but it’s interesting to look under the hood of the Wildcats’ regular-season victories. Against Wright State, six players scored in double figures and another scored eight. They shot 60 percent from the field, 45.8 percent from three and handed out 30 assists against 39 field goals. Oh, and they turned the ball over just seven times and made off with 11 steals.
  
  Does Pope’s style remind you of his mentor Rick Pitino or what? In the Bucknell game, five Wildcats reached double figures and another scored nine. They handed out another 23 assists, made nine steals and shot 48.1 percent from the field and 36.1 percent from three. That will get it done most nights. 
  
  Kentucky’s star so far has been Dayton transfer Koby Brea, a deadly 3-point shooter who last season led the nation (.498, 100 of 201). Brea’s touch has carried over from Dayton. He scored 20 points on 6 of 8 three-point shooting against Bucknell and 18 points on 4 of 4 from behind the arc versus Wright State. Allow us to add that up for you: Brea is averaging 19.0 points and shooting 83 percent from three and 74 percent from the floor.
  
  That’s just crazy.
  
• The FAU team that made an improbable run to the 2023 Final Four is gone but not forgotten, having scattered across the college basketball landscape. After coach Dusty May left to take the Michigan job, his players followed him out the door and two wound up in the SEC.
  

• Another of Arkansas’ excellent portal pickups is 6-foot-4 grad student Johnell Davis, who last year was the Owls’ leading scorer (18.2 ppg). He fits seamlessly into the Hogs’ rotation. After not starting in their two exhibition games, he started and played 36 minutes against Lipscomb, finishing with 15 points, six rebounds, and one assist, steal, and a blocked shot.
  
  “It was tremendous to get him because he’s the type that can put a team on his back,” Arkansas associate head coach Kenny Payne says. “He’s a natural scorer. He’s a tough-minded kid, a mature kid—the type of player that when all else breaks down, you can put the ball in his hands, and he can create offense. Not necessarily just to score, but also to create for others. He can really shoot the basketball.”
  

• Another FAU expatriate now plying his trade in the SEC is Alijah Martin, who wound up at Florida. Like his former backcourt mate Davis, Martin has quickly carved out a role. In the Gators’ season opener against Jacksonville, he started, played 31 minutes and contributed 15 points, four rebounds, four assists, and six steals. Martin made five of his nine shots, including 3 of 6 from three-point range.
  
  The plan is for Martin and returning star Walter Clayton, Jr. to take turns handling the point guard spot while also looking for their own shot. Clayton handed out seven assists against Jacksonville, giving the Gators 11 dimes from the position.
  

• It’s not easy replacing a coaching legend. In the SEC, the same holds true for radio play-by-play announcers, who often become celebrities in their own right. Think Cawood Leford at Kentucky, Larry Munson at Georgia, or John Ward at Tennessee.
  
  After the 1998-99 football season, during which Tennessee’s football team won the national championship, Ward retired and Bob Kesling took over, a daunting task because Ward was as revered as the coaches and athletes whose exploits he described with his matter-of-fact style and catch phrases that are still repeated in Big Orange Country to this day. Kesling stepped into Ward’s slot and for the next 25 seasons earned his own place in Tennessee lore as a consummate professional, peerless storyteller and generous steward of his community.
  
  This season will be Kesling’s last. His announcement last week that he was retiring surprised many, because he’s still relatively young by the standards of SEC announcers. Mississippi State’s Jack Cristil called games for 58 years, retiring in 2011 at 86. Munson worked until he was 85.
  
  Kesling, who turns 71 in December, wasn’t keen on breaking records for longevity. “You never know for sure the right time,” Kesling says. “This feels right.” Kesling, who first came to Tennessee in 1977 as a walk-on football player, has earned his place among the best to ever sit behind a microphone, and he considers himself fortunate. “When I started broadcasting, I could never have dreamt I would do games in Madison Square Garden, Pauley Pavillion, Allen Fieldhouse, Rupp Arena, the Rose Bowl, the Orange Bowl and so many great venues,” he says. “The games, the players and coaches I have met. It has been a magical ride, and I have been blessed.”
  
  Kesling has a close relationship with Tennessee basketball coach Rick Barnes, who needles the broadcaster relentlessly, on air and off. Barnes calls that his “love language.”
  
  “In my 10 years here, I’ve never been around Bob Kesling when he hasn’t put a smile on my face and in my heart,” Barnes says. “I enjoy our banter. I love the guy. He’s iconic. As long as he’s done it, he’s always enjoyed his work. He’s a pro. And he loves the Volunteers.”

Games to Watch

• Duke vs Kentucky in Atlanta on Tuesday, Nov. 12. (ESPN). Kentucky fans will get to see how well Mark Pope’s from-scratch restoration is going when the Wildcats play Duke and stat sheet-stuffing freshman Cooper Flagg, who seems destined to fill up his trophy room after his lone season playing college ball. But the Blue Devils have much more talent than just Flagg. This is one of the deepest Duke teams ever, including during the long tenure of Coach K, who won a natty or two with a six- or seven-man rotation. 
• Alabama at Purdue, Friday, Nov. 15 (Peacock). You think Alabama coach Nate Oats knew he had a special team on his hands? This get-together at the home of last year’s national runner-up begins an insane four-game swing that will also pit the Crimson Tide against Illinois (in Birmingham), Houston and Rutgers in the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas. Bama also travels to North Carolina for the SEC/ACC Challenge on Dec. 4 and hosts Creighton on Dec. 14. That wears us out just typing it. Good thing the Tide is loaded with preseason national player of the year pick Mark Sears and a host of other transfers and freshmen who can shoot the rock. Cliff Omoruyi, the 6-11  250-pound Rutgers transfer, is a fearsome inside presence.

• Ohio State at Texas Texas A&M on Friday, Nov. 15 (SEC Network). Already this season, the Buckeyes of first-year coach Jake Diebler have already taken out one Texas SEC school, those Longhorns from Austin. They’ll be trying to make it two in a row, but this game will be in more hostile environs than neutral-site Las Vegas, where they beat Texas. Texas A&M coach Buzz Williams has a rugged group of dudes who attack the basket, defend and pound the offensive glass like their NIL moolah depended on it. They should be pumped to atone for a surprising season-opening loss at UCF.

Chris Dortch is the editor and publisher of Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook.