The ingredients for a shocker were there for a while – fairly quick turnaround from Maui, roster upheaval, a tough Trojan defense that presented some matchup issues for the Hogs – but the Razorbacks just have too much talent. A late 17-0 run turned a nailbiter into a double-digit victory to get the Hogs to 6-1.
Arkansas trailed at the half for the third straight game. That’s not really a concern for this game given the ingredients above, but as the football team learned against Liberty, if you keep flirting with slow starts you risk eventually getting bit.
Nick Smith’s return to the lineup had all the buzz, but his time on the floor was uneventful, as he didn’t score in six minutes. I would expect an expanded role off the bench against San Jose State on Saturday. The Hogs won’t really need him at full strength until the following Saturday: December 10th against Oklahoma.
Devo Davis didn’t play, as Eric Musselman said he’s “taking some time away from basketball.” There’s no point in speculating about what’s going on, but it’s hard to imagine that the fact that he didn’t play in the second half or overtime against San Diego State isn’t a major factor. Hopefully he gets into a better place and rejoins the team soon, as the Hogs will probably need him.
Advanced Stats
I thought Arkansas’ offense performed a little better than I expected, though much of that came late in the game. The Hogs were not able to get a good pace – just 68 possessions – so that’s why the Hogs only had 74 points despite scoring on 56% of trips up the floor.
Arkansas ended up having to win a halfcourt game, which I did not expect. I figured that Troy’s tricky defense would give the Hogs some issues in halfcourt, so they would need to dominate transition in order to pull away. Instead, the Hogs were very good in halfcourt, scoring 60 points and scoring on more than half of their halfcourt possessions, but only got 14 points in transition on 13% of possessions. That 17.5 seconds per possession is what slowed the game down, as the Hogs are normally around 15-16 seconds per possession.
Arkansas cut out turnovers in the second half but still finished with a slightly-elevated 22% turnover rate. Other than that, this was a solid performance from the offense. The Hogs got the rim without much difficulty, made shots there, got to the line, and crashed the offensive glass against a very good defensive-rebounding team. We’ll talk about it all year, but that’s the key for this team to succeed. The 3-point shots didn’t fall and that’s just going to be a work in progress.
Defensively, Troy became the second straight Hog opponent to top 50% from midrange… which is probably just bad luck for the Hogs’ defense. That’s somewhat scary that the Hogs have had bad luck defending long 2-point jumpers and yet the defense is still playing well. Other than that, the Hogs forced turnovers, defended the rim, and didn’t foul. The Trojans started hot from beyond the arc but eventually regressed to the mean.
Makhel Mitchell continues to dominate small sample sizes. He’s yet to have a bad game. He made his only field goal attempt, didn’t turn it over, and the Hogs were +9 in his seven minutes (just +4 in the other 33). Makhi also looked good on offense, although his defense near the rim still leaves much to be desired.
Ricky Council IV had another amazing offensive game. He’s still not at elite defender, and he gave up a couple of open looks to Troy, but as long as he’s scoring like that, it won’t matter. Also, it’s good to see Nick Smith finally appear on one of these, even if he didn’t do much this game.
Highlights
Up Next
The Razorbacks get an extra day of rest, with the next game being Saturday against San Jose State. The Spartans – terrible a year ago – are off to a strong start at 6-2.
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