TAT: Arkansas Basketball A-Z - Wade and Williams

This article originally appeared on January 5, 2014 on The Arkansas Traveler website, uatrav.com.

Head coach Mike Anderson’s uptempo “Fastest 40” style of basketball requires fresh legs more so than any other system.

The Razorbacks have 12 players that play an average of 10 or more minutes per game. Furthermore, only three players average more than 20 minutes per game, the fewest in the Southeastern Conference. All other SEC teams have at least five players that average 20 or more minutes per game.

These statistics show how important Arkansas’ bench play has been this season.

Two of these bench players are senior Mardracus Wade and sophomore Jacorey Williams. Wade has played in 11 games, starting only once, while Williams has appeared in all 13 games and started none.

Combined, Wade and Williams contribute only 7.2 points, 3.6 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game, but both of them are capable of providing a vital shot in the arm during SEC play.

As one of three seniors that has been at Arkansas for four years, Wade has been in the spotlight before. Two seasons ago, as a sophomore, he shot 47.6 percent behind the three-point line, which led the SEC.

He also had 49 and 54 steals as a sophomore and junior, respectively, which led the team both seasons.

Standing at 6-foot-8, Williams is the third tallest player on the team, behind a pair of 6-foot-10 freshmen, Moses Kingsley and Bobby Portis.

Although Kingsley, Portis and senior Coty Clarke get most of the playing time as big men for the Razorbacks, Williams averages 11.7 minutes per game.

While that amounts to just over one-quarter of each game, that playing time could go up if a couple of the other big men get in foul trouble. Williams must be ready for this situation during SEC play.

Wade and Williams are only two of the Razorbacks’ bench players that will need to play well in Arkansas’ conference games if they expect to make the NCAA Tournament.

This is the 23rd of a series of short articles about the Arkansas basketball team. Each day leading up to SEC play, I will post an entry about something basketball related that starts with the next letter of the alphabet. Here are links to the previous entries, as well as the dates for the last three…

A – Anderson

B – Balance

C – Charity Stripe

D – Defense

E – Expectations

F – Fastest 40

G – Gulley

H – Harris

I – Identity

J – JUCO Transfer

K – Kingsley

L – Lackadaisical

M – Madden

N – Natives

O – Offense

P – Portis

Q – Qualls

R – Rebounding

S – Southeastern Conference

T – Turnovers

U – Underdogs

V – Victories on the Road

X – Jan. 6

Y – Jan. 7

Z – Jan. 8