5 Observations from Arkansas' 77-74 win over Texas

Daryll Macon

— Five observations from Arkansas' 77-74 win over Texas in Houston on Saturday.

— Macon free throws

As a team, Arkansas shot 29 of 31 from the foul line, a fantastic performance for a team that now leads the SEC at 79 percent, a mark that ranks 10th nationally and would be a school record if it held up, besting the current record of 77.6 set in 1961-62.

Daryl Macon more than did his share, shaking off a tough shooting performance from the floor by making all 14 of his free throws as he scored a game-high 23. He shot just 4 of 12, but was uber aggressive and got to the line as a result. Coming in, he was averaging just 2.9 free throw attempts a game and hadn’t taken more than six in a game.

After the game, he said his aggression was a concerted effort to return to his junior college form, when he averaged nearly 10 attempts a game. Aggressive Macon was a boon for the Hogs’ offense Saturday and is worth tracking moving forward.

— Free throws save ugly offense

Arkansas won the game because of its free throw prowess, a foul-line performance which salvaged a generally shoddy showing in the Hogs’ halfcourt offense.

Arkansas’ solid 104.1 offensive rating is deceiving in the sense that the Hogs were often ineffective when the game slowed down. The Razorbacks shot just 35.5 percent from the floor, a season-low. Every team has poor shooting games, but the lack of consistent movement was troubling and led to poor shot selection.

A particularly poor stretch allowed Texas to claw its way back into the game after the Hogs built a 54-45 lead. Over the course of nearly two minutes, the Hogs shots were as follows: Jaylen Barford airballed 3-pointer with the clock running out on a stagnant possession, Dusty Hannahs 28-footer over Jarrett Allen’s 7-foot-6 wingspan, Barford blocked baseline jumper with the clock running out, Anton Beard missed tough 3-pointer late in the clock.

Hannahs had a solid outing, scoring 15 on 5 of 11 shooting, but the trio of Barford, Macon and Beard shot a combined 10 of 31. Obviously Macon made up for his struggles by getting to the line. Barford had a big and-1 finish late to put the Hogs up six during a game-defining 10-1 run. Beard was second on the team with five rebounds, including two more on the offensive end. He has a good nose for the ball and is second on the team with 16 offensive rebounds (Moses Kingsley has 23).

All three had their moments and contributed to the win, but all three can at times pound the ball too much. Too often, Arkansas appeared to be going through the motions in the halfcourt Saturday, piling ineffective cuts and pin-downs on top of each other as the shot clock ran down.

To be clear, earning the win despite the shooting woes was an impressive display of grit. The Razorbacks have a good collection of offensively gifted players. There are signs the roster is gelling and players are growing more accustomed to playing off of one another, but Saturday was a step backward in that regard.

— Encouraging defensive performance

Arkansas’ defense played well in a fast-paced game, posting a solid 98.7 defensive rating.

The Razorbacks came in with a gameplan to slow Tevin Mack. That didn't go as planned much of the afternoon: Mack scored a team-high 20 on 7 of 12 shooting to go along with 12 rebounds. But the gameplan was perfect on the final play.

Jaylen Barford drew the assignment of checking Mack on the game's last possession with Arkansas clinging to a 3-point lead and needing one more stop. Texas drew up a play to get Mack — 4 of 8 for 3 on the afternoon — a look to tie it, but Barford denied the ball, setting off a chain of Longhorn reactions that ended with a deep, forced 3-pointer that wasn't close.

Texas entered the game ranked 322nd in the nation in 3-point percentage, having hit just 28.8 percent of its shots from beyond the arc. Arkansas has struggled to defend the arc, but the Longhorns were just 5 of 17.

The Razorbacks fouled too much (both teams did), but their halfcourt defense was solid. Through 10 games, the Hogs have an adjusted defensive rating of 99.4, which ranks 80th in the nation. It is slightly worse than the 99.2 they posted a year ago, but this defense has more tools than that one and may be putting it together, evidenced by Arkansas posting a second straight sub-100 defensive rating.

— Kingsley-Allen battle

Moses Kingsley had one of his more impressive blocks this season in the first half, timing his jump perfectly to reject a dunk by Texas freshman Jarrett Allen.

Allen earned a measure of payback in the second half when he finished a similar play with an impressive dunk over Kingsley.

The two went back and forth generating highlights for much of the afternoon. The above sequences notwithstanding, Allen outplayed Kingsley in the first half while Kingsley got the better of the matchup after halftime.

Allen used his unnatural length and athleticism to help bother Kingsley into a poor performance on offense. Arkansas tried to get the preseason SEC Player of the Year going in the post early in the game, but he had trouble converting in the paint against the Longhorns’ front line, chiefly Allen, a rare big who is bouncier than the athletic Kingsley.

Kingsley didn’t score in the first half, but produced seven points after halftime, including a key and-1 during Arkansas’ game-altering 10-1 run late. And he was effective in other ways, finishing with 10 rebounds and five blocks, including several of the violent variety in the second half. His rim protection can’t be undersold and his work on the glass kept Arkansas from getting beat up by a bigger Longhorn team.

Allen will be in the NBA, likely next year. DraftExpress.com has him pegged as a mid-to-late first-round draft pick and it’s easy to see why. He is a legit 6-11, has elite length and is very bouncy with a solid skill set. Kingsley isn’t in the top 100 for either DraftExpress or ESPN and struggled at times against the taller, more athletic competition, but acquitted himself well with a strong second half that helped spark the Razorbacks’ win.

— Cook provides solid minutes

Arkansas’ bench has destroyed teams since Dusty Hannahs moved out of the starting lineup, a trend that continued Saturday with the Razorbacks' backups outscoring their Texas counterparts 30-4.

Since the move, any lineup with Beard, Hannahs, Arlando Cook and Trey Thompson has been borderline dominant. The trend continued Saturday, with the bench mob extending Arkansas' lead to nine, its largest mark of the day, midway through the second half.

Cook finished the game, too, closing in place of Dustin Thomas, who struggled (0 points, 4 rebounds, 4 fouls in 21 minutes) for the second time in as many games outside of Bud Walton Arena.

Cook was solid, producing six points, two rebounds, an assist, a block and a steal in 17 minutes. He was a team-best +17 on Saturday and came up big late, scoring all six of his points in the final 4:33, including hitting all four of his crucial, late-game free throws.

Cook played within himself but still with the motor that gives him an edge when he's on the court. That can be a hard balance to strike, but he did on Saturday and it could lead to bigger minutes in the near future.