Arkansas took care of business on Saturday at Simmons Bank Arena in North Little Rock, dispatching Fresno State, 82-58.
That doesn’t seem all that notable, except too often, Arkansas has not taken care of business in NLR. As it is not purpose-built for basketball, the arena has significant depth behind the baskets, which has had the effect of creating bad shooting nights (for both teams) in years past. The Hogs have had plenty of losses and ugly wins there in years past.
This one started out looking like it might be another ugly win. It was 5-0 Razorbacks at the first TV timeout and 16-7 halfway through the first half. At that point, we were on track for a 64-28 final score. The Razorbacks eventually picked up some steam, leading by 10 at halftime before starting the second half on a 33-11 run that pushed the lead out to its max of 32 points.
Darius Acuff had 18 points on just 13 shot chances and eight assists against one turnover. Karter Knox looked pretty good: 11 points, four rebounds, three assists. And Isaiah Sealy had eight points, earning some extended minutes in the second half.
- Box Score Breakdown: Arkansas 82, Fresno State 58
- What to expect from the Ron Roberts defense
- What to expect from the Tim Cramsey offense
Advanced stats
Lots to be encouraged about here. After losing the points off turnovers battle in several games to open the year (and ranking as low as 305th nationally in that stat), the Hogs have now won it three games in a row. Arkansas also had 26 fast break points, and their halfcourt defense was excellent (just 36 points in 60 possessions for Fresno State).
Offensively, the Hogs were very balanced. They shot decently from all three levels – the only quibble is that they took too many midrange jumpers, although Fresno’s defense was packing it in to force those kinds of shots – and the ballhandling was excellent. The Hogs had a strong 57% assist rate and a 2.1 assist-to-turnover ratio.
Defensively, the Hogs allowed a lot of paint shots, but they defended them really well. And Fresno struggled to shoot from 3.
Ok, this brings us to a really encouraging point. Darius Acuff has been solid in the boxscore all year, but I wrote this after the Samford game last month:
Darius Acuff has had a negative plus-minus in both close-ish games this year, while DJ Wagner and Meleek Thomas have yet to finish negative. Acuff is getting plenty of production for himself, but he’s not setting Arkansas’ offense up very well: the Razorback offense as a whole is 8.4 points per 100 possessions worse with Acuff on the floor than when he’s on the bench. The Hogs get an eye-popping 16.0 points per 100 possessions better when Wagner is on the floor, and Thomas (plus-4.5) is also positive.
…
It’s obviously way too early to push the panic button on Acuff, since he’s just a true freshman who will likely improve. But if he’s going to be the primary ballhandler, he has to set up his teammates, not just get points for himself.
Basically, Acuff has been getting stats all year, but his plus-minus has not been great compared to his teammates. Single-game plus-minus is essentially useless, and even over several games it’s useful only with extreme caution. But the fact that Arkansas’ offense was worse with Acuff in the game was emerging as an early pattern.
That’s no longer a pattern. For the last two games, Acuff has unquestionably made Arkansas much better on offense. And his performance against Duke was not a drag, either. Either the early-season pattern was a false pattern (hence the warnings about using raw plus-minus, even across a few games) or Acuff is actually doing a better job of setting up his teammates. Having 10 and eight assists in his last two games is evidence of the latter.
At this point, Arkansas has to defend at the 4 a little better, and they still need Knox and Malique Ewin to come along. With two of the next three games against Texas Tech and Houston, they need everything to come together soon. The Hogs will happily take a split in those two, but I do think that winning both is a possibility.
Highlights
Up next
Arkansas has a week off before taking on Texas Tech next Saturday in Dallas. Of the next two big ones, that’s easily the more winnable one, as Tech’s metrics have them behind Duke, Michigan State, and Louisville so far this year.