Extended break no vacation for Hogs

Arkansas head basketball coach Mike Anderson during practice Tuesday October 7, 2014 at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville.
Arkansas head basketball coach Mike Anderson during practice Tuesday October 7, 2014 at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville.

FAYETTEVILLE -- It's practice, practice and more practice for the Arkansas men's basketball team.

The Razorbacks are in the midst of playing just one game -- their 69-55 victory over Dayton at Walton Arena last Saturday -- over a 13-day stretch.

UP NEXT

Arkansas men vs Southeast Missouri State

WHEN 7:30 p.m. Saturday

WHERE Verizon Arena, North Little Rock

RECORDS Arkansas 7-2. Southeast Missouri State 5-5

SERIES Arkansas leads 7-1

RADIO Razorback Sports Network

TELEVISION SEC Network

Arkansas, which next plays Southeast Missouri State on Saturday night at Verizon Arena in North Little Rock, doesn't have any games this week because of final exams.

This week's break comes after the Razorbacks (7-2) had five days between a 68-65 overtime loss at Clemson on Dec. 7 and beating Dayton.

Arkansas Coach Mike Anderson said the Razorbacks need to attack practice with intensity this week the way they did last week while preparing for Dayton. They had extra motivation for the Dayton game after back-to-back losses -- including at Iowa State on Dec. 4 -- but now need to stay focused after a victory over the 7-2 Flyers, who reached the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament last season.

"I've got to get creative with how we practice," Anderson said. "I've got to hopefully get it to where it's more like game situations, because we're not playing. But I think with the depth that we have, we'll be able to do that.

"With the finals schedule, we've got to juggle some things. At least they've got a good feeling about themselves and their team, so we'll get through it."

Arkansas forward Bobby Portis and guard Jabril Durham said they'd prefer to be playing games this week.

"You know in practice Coach is going to kill us again," Portis said. "It's kind of crazy to go from Saturday this week to Saturday next week [without playing a game].

"But it's all worth it at the end of the day."

Durham said he doesn't expect any let up from Anderson.

"It's going to be more than tough this week," Durham said. "He's going to be on us even more."

The Razorbacks did not practice Sunday.

"Other than that, it's back to work," Durham said.

Anderson said with four nonconference games left, the Razorbacks have to use this week's practices to their full advantage to be ready for the start of SEC play at Georgia on Jan. 6.

"Our No. 1 objective right now is to try to get this team better," he said. "We haven't clicked on all the cylinders that we're capable of."

Anderson changed the starting lineup against Dayton, inserting Durham and junior forward Jacorey Williams for seniors Ky Madden and Alandise Harris.

Durham had a season-high 9 points, 2 rebounds and 2 assists in 25 minutes. Williams had a career-high 3 steals, matched his career-highs with 6 rebounds and 4 assists to go with 6 points in 20 minutes.

Anderson said practices will determine whether he shuffles the lineup again for Southeast Missouri State.

"I stated early in the year we would have eight, nine, who knows how many starters?" said Anderson, who has given seven players at least two starts. " The key is to get playing time, and what you do with that time."

Durham said it was nice to start, but his primary goal is to be ready to play when Anderson calls on him.

"It's not just starting, but producing," Durham said.. "You could start and just not do anything in the game, but to produce -- that was the best part of it."

Sports on 12/16/2014

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