It’s hard to call it “revenge”, since there was no Elite Eight appearance on the line this time, but Arkansas-Texas Tech Part II felt like a Sweet 16-level game. This time, the Razorbacks were the ones who erased a double-digit deficit for a 93-86 win.
This was a big victory. Arkansas needed to win at least two of their five big non-conference games, and now they are 2-2 with one to play. More significantly, they’ve won two straight, both Quad 1A wins. Both losses are also Quad 1A. They have one more non-conference Quad 1A opportunity on Saturday against Houston in Newark. A non-blowout loss would be acceptable at this point, but a win over the Cougars would really get the hype train going.
But let’s stick with this one. Arkansas survived an onslaught from JT Toppin (30 points, 11 rebounds), who was only a couple of uncalled travels away from a triple-double. Red Raider point guard Christian Anderson pitched in 26 points. Tech’s problem? That’s about all they’ve got. Arkansas pushed the pace and even pressed a bit to try and get into the legs of a team that lacks depth, and it paid off late. After Darius Acuff, Karter Knox, and Malique Ewin were scoring leaders early, it was Trevon Brazile who finished this game, scoring 13 points in the final five minutes. Watching both sides late, it sure seemed like Arkansas’ depth was the deciding factor here.
- Box Score Breakdown: Arkansas 93, Texas Tech 86
- Box Score Breakdown: Arkansas 82, Fresno State 58
- What to expect from the Ron Roberts defense
Advanced stats
The Hogs had to pull off a comeback in this one. Texas Tech maintained a slight average lead throughout, leading by as many as 10 points. Arkansas did not take the lead for good until there were about four minutes left.
Arkansas did better when the game sped up, but much of this game was pretty slow. Arkansas managed to score its 93 points on just 67 possessions. The Hogs were forced to a slower-than-average 16.2 seconds per possession, but the Red Raiders lumbered to a 19.6-second-per-possession clip.
As we saw against Louisville, the Hogs dominated fast break points (18-4) and won points off turnovers again (10-5). They also ate up Tech’s halfcourt defense, scoring on a stagging 62% of halfcourt possessions. The Red Raider defense isn’t great, but that’s still really impressive against a good team.
Everything for the Razorback offense looks amazing here. The Hogs avoided turnovers (10%), crashed the offensive boards (44%, they’ve been off a slow start on that this season), assisted at a high rate (55%), avoided settling for midrange shots (only 8%), shot incredibly well from 3 (79% eFG%), and got to the free throw line (0.41 FTA per FGA). There’s not much to improve on. Maybe you can complain that 56% in the paint isn’t amazing, but it’s still fine.
Defensively, however, this was an unideal game, albeit against a very good offense. Arkansas allowed Tech to avoid turnovers, shoot well both in the paint and beyond the arc, and get tremendous ball movement. The main thing that worked for them is that they didn’t foul, and that’s been a consistent feature under John Calipari. His teams play good fundamental defense. Even if they get beat, they don’t foul very much.
The trio of Darius Acuff (20 points, 8 assists), Trevon Brazile (24 points, 10 rebounds), and Karter Knox (20 points, 6 rebounds, zero turnovers) statistically produced a 21-point advantage with their play. Acuff’s eight assists helps him to Offensive MVP, while Knox actually gets overall MVP per our numbers, producing a plus-9.1 advantage (against an actual plus-11 on the floor).
I think the minus-6.1 for DJ Wagner is unfair, as our numbers are calculated from Box Plus-Minus (BPM) with team On-Off used only for adjustments, so it probably undervalues non-statistical contributions. But Wagner played great perimeter defense, which is one of the main reasons he played so much despite scoring only four points.
For Tech, Anderson and Toppin never left the floor. That’s not going to work for Grant McCasland all season. They combined for a 53% usage rate, meaning that they absorbed more than half of Tech’s offensive possessions with shot chances (or turnovers). Hopefully they can get some other guys going to spread some minutes around and let their stars rest, or else finishing is going to be difficult for them.
Highlights
Up next
Before that big game against Houston next Saturday, the Hogs have midweek tilt against Queens University of Charlotte, a relative newcomer to Division I. You might consider tuning out due to the quality of opponent, but I wouldn’t recommend it. Despite Queens’ 5-5 record with blowouts against the only two power conference teams they’ve played, the Royals can score the basketball. They’ve topped 100 points three times while allowing Villanova and Virginia to score more than 90 against them. There’s a very good chance we’ll be on 100-point watch for the Razorbacks.