Cleveland, Co. put clamps on McCollum

Some players might shy away from guarding a guy averaging 28.7 points per game. T.J. Cleveland is not one of those players.
Cleveland requested the assignment of guarding Centenary's Ronnie McCollum, who brought a 28.7 scoring average into Tuesday night's game against Arkansas.
"I take it as a challenge, and I think I play my best ball when I have challenges like that," Cleveland said. "I told Coach [Nolan Richardson] yesterday to let me guard him. He's a good player, so you know he's going to get his points, but we didn't want him to come in here and just have an outstanding game. Every point he got, he had to work for."
McCollum did manage 19 points, but got them on 6-of-16 shooting from the field, including an 0-for-5 night from three-point range.
More important, McCollum scored just two points in the first 14:51, when Arkansas built a 30-14 lead.
McCollum had just seven points at halftime, and scored 9 of his 12 second-half points in the final 13:47, when the outcome had long been determined.
McCollum also missed two of his nine free throws after missing just once in 29 attempts in Centenary's three previous games.
"It was extremely hard to even catch the ball," said McCollum, who was guarded by no less than six Razorbacks. "Anytime you face athletes like Brandon Dean, T.J. Cleveland and even Joe Johnson, and Coach Richardson is over there telling those guys not to even let me catch it, it is going to be extremely hard to do anything."

SECOND HELPING
Arkansas' 88-57 victory apparently didn't do too much psychological damage to Centenary Coach Kevin Johnson, who said he'd like to visit Walton Arena again next season.
The game was the second of a nine-game road trip for Centenary, which hopes to use games against the likes of Arkansas to boost the image of its team, which features eight first- or second-year players.
"I like our young guys, but we're just trying to build a program," Johnson said. "It helps to play Top 25 programs like Arkansas. We're going to use that with recruiting. Hopefully, we can come back up here next year."
It's hard to imagine the Razorbacks not obliging the Gents.

SAY WHAT?
Walton Arena public address announcer John George doesn't mess up often, but he got off to a rough start in Tuesday's game.
While introducing Arkansas' starting lineup, George incorrectly identified Joe Johnson's hometown as Canton, Miss.
That's not exactly the star treatment one would expect for Johnson, an All-America candidate, and -- for the record -- of Little Rock.

UP NEXT
WHO Memphis
WHEN 2 p.m. Saturday
WHERE Walton Arena, Fayetteville
TV/RADIO None/Arkansas Razorbacks Sports Network

This article was published on Wednesday, November 29, 2000

RETURN to main page

Copyright and permissions
Copyright © 2000, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc. All rights reserved.
This document may not be reprinted without the express written permission of Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc.