Did Arkansas Find A Solid Five?

JD Notae, Davonte Davis, Au’Diese Toney, Jaylin Williams and Kamini Johnson were the best combination of players by far in Arkansas’ 86-81 loss to Texas A&M on Saturday. I’m not one to highlight moral victories but yesterday felt different down the stretch. This group put together a solid outing combined with defense, shot making and a team focused to pull out a win.

The Hogs were clutch from the free throw line and out-rebounded the Aggies by 12. The only difference was every time it looked like Arkansas could take control of the game, the Aggies would hit a timely shot and seemingly put the game away. Down one point with a three pointer (79-78 with 1:08 left in second half) by Notae, Quenton Jackson drained a three 34 seconds remaining to seal a victory.

Yesterday showed that this Razorback team, despite an 0-3 start to conference play, still has some dog in them. This team is wired to not quit. It’s in their DNA. They have taken on the personality of its head coach, Eric Musselman. These Hogs hate to lose.

I would even add a sixth man to the rotation in Stanley Umude who has scored in double figures in each of the conference games. In true Musselman style, he usually finds a seven to eight man rotation by this point in the season and he might just have it now.

STATS

•Floor time: 9:42
The amount of time this combination played together against the Aggies on Saturday.

•Outscored A&M 29-17
Most of their time out scoring Texas A&M was during the second half while down 17. It shows me that they have fight in them and the ability to slow down another team defensively.

•Scored 2.9857 points per minute

•6 assists to 5 turnovers
The amount of turnovers compared to assists is still a little concerning but they also didn’t give up points off those turnovers either.

•Pulled in 13 rebounds. As I mentioned earlier the Razorbacks did out-rebound Texas A&M by 12. This is the physicality and attitude the Hogs need to have if they plan to come out of this 0-3 hole in conference. It is worth noting that the 13 rebounds by this group is the most of any combo of players during yesterday’s game vs Texas A&M.

•This combination plus Umude scored 80 of the Razorbacks 81 points.

The Arkansas Razorbacks will host the Missouri Tigers this Wednesday, January 12 at 8 PM. The Razorbacks will be looking to win their first conference game of the season and start a new winning streak at home after losing to Vanderbilt which ended a 16-game winning streak in Bud Walton.