Arkansas Razorbacks 97, North Florida Ospreys 72: Don't Need Any Threes

This game was hyped as being a shootout between two of the nation's top three-point shooting teams, but the deep ball really wasn't a factor in Arkansas' blowout win. A win Donald Trump would describe as a "schlonging."

The Razorbacks didn't hit a three until nearly midway into the second half. They only attempted 10 for the entire game. Dusty Hannahs had his quietest night as a Razorback so far, scoring just five points on 2-for-8 shooting.

Arkansas didn't need it because they were shooting so well from inside the arc. The Hogs came into the game connecting on just 47.3% of their two-point shots, but tonight made 38-of-69 two-pointers (55%) so they were able to put the oddly-named Ospreys away pretty easily.  They also held North Florida to 72 points, their third-lowest output this season. They've scored over 100 three times this season. It was a good performance from the Hogs.

Moses Kingsley had another double-double. It's his seventh out of 11 games so far this season. That's a pretty solid ratio. By comparison, Bobby Portis didn't have his first 10+ rebound game until December 22nd last year, exactly one year ago. Kingsley already has seven such games. He's off to a helluva good start.

Anthlon Bell scored 20 points while only making two threes. That's pretty impressive from him. I'm not sure he's ever shown that ability to score so many points without having the deep ball going down. Anton Beard and Manuale Watkins also reached double figures with 13 and 11 points, respectively.

We should also give shoutouts to Trey Thompson for 7 rebounds and 5 assists (a lot for a big man) in his 21 minutes. Jabril Durham added seven more assists to his season total in just 22 minutes.

One of the bigger stories from this game could be Keaton Miles. Miles went down with an undisclosed injury in the second half and appeared to be holding his knee. He didn't return, and he was having arguably his best game as a Hog with 7 points and 9 rebounds when he went down. He's been a starter throughout the season, and the Hogs already lack depth in sheer numbers. Mike Anderson has to be praying it's nothing serious.

Overall, it was a good win. The Hogs are back over .500 heading into what we can describe as the really serious part of the season. Arkansas has one non-conference game left before SEC play and it's a doozy - a road game at Dayton. And the first SEC game is a road game at Texas A&M before hosting Vanderbilt. That's a really tough three-game stretch, but it's one that will be a real "prove something" point of the season. I'm excited to see what happens.