Hogs learn lessons on Spain trip

Arkansas guard Dusty Hannahs runs through a drill on Monday, Oct. 5, 2015, at the Razorbacks' practice facility in Fayetteville.
Arkansas guard Dusty Hannahs runs through a drill on Monday, Oct. 5, 2015, at the Razorbacks' practice facility in Fayetteville.

FAYETTEVILLE -- A tour of Spain earlier this month that included four exhibition games finished a lot better for the Arkansas basketball team than it started.

The Razorbacks opened the tour by losing to Euro Colegio Casvi 81-75.

"It was embarrassing for all of us," Arkansas senior center Moses Kingsley said. "We were kind of laid back.

"We thought we were going to do whatever we wanted, but that wasn't the case."

Senior guard Dusty Hannahs agreed the Razorbacks took their first opponent lightly.

"They didn't look like they could play, but they took it to us," Hannahs said. "We definitely the next three games were very locked in."

The Razorbacks won their final three games by a combined margin of 319-193, capped by a 124-55 victory over the European Academy.

"We were hitting on all cylinders that game," Hannahs said. "It wasn't even like the team was just that bad. We were really hitting everything, running, defense was working to a T. It was just a great performance.

"It gave us confidence definitely going into this year and to start building off of that."

Arkansas Coach Mike Anderson said Euro Colegio Casvi played harder than the Razorbacks.

"I thought it was a team that came out and really took the fight to us, and that's what we normally do when you talk about intensity, effort," Anderson said. "They out-efforted us."

Anderson said the Razorbacks "got hit in the head" but fought back the rest of the tour.

"I thought we learned from it," he said. "We responded in the right way."

The Razorbacks, who have eight newcomers blending with five returning players, were in Spain for 10 days.

"We grew together as a team," Hannahs said. "It made our family bond even tighter than it already is."

Anderson substituted frequently and saw how the Razorbacks performed in several combinations during the exhibition games.

"Playing with the different rotations, we got to know how we're going to play together," Kingsley said. "That's really good to help us during the season."

Anderson said the successful trip provided a better assessment of the potential of his roster.

"Coming away from that, I really like this basketball team," he said. "I think it could be a very athletic team. I think it could be a deep team with multiple guys in different positions, and I think that's the luxury that we didn't have last year."

Anderson said the relationship-building on the trip was important, too.

"The opportunity to go and get away and just be around each other," he said. "Get to know each other -- and not necessarily on the floor, but off the floor -- was big."

Freshman guard CJ Jones scored 56 points in 49 minutes in the four games and hit 20 of 38 shots, including 9 of 18 three-pointers from beyond the international line of 22 feet, 1¾ inches.

"His performance was very impressive," Kingsley said. "He didn't play that long, but he was very productive in the few amount of minutes he was out there."

Anderson said Jones has a chance to be a special player, but like all the Razorbacks, he needs to focus on defense.

"Defense was just a word to him in high school, as you can imagine with some of these guys," Anderson said. "But they'll learn team defense."

Anderson said the Razorbacks will resume individual workouts next week.

"Then a month before we actually start practicing, we'll get into the conditioning part," he said. "I think that's something they don't really look forward to, but that's big as we kind of fine-tune to becoming a team."

Sports on 08/26/2016

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