NORTH LITTLE ROCK — Five observations from Arkansas’ 90-56 win over Sam Houston State at Verizon Arena.
— Defensive improvement continues
Media seating for games in Bud Walton Arena is tucked into the corner of the lower deck across from Arkansas’ bench, a solid seat but a ways away from the action. No matter where you’re sitting, dozens of times every game, Mike Anderson’s go-to phrase when the Hogs are on offense — “Move!” — can be heard throughout the arena.
Media seating at the Verizon Arena is directly behind the goal on the side of the floor with Arkansas’ bench. Much easier to hear Anderson’s instructions and pick up nonverbal cues for what he and the staff want.
Anderson never wants opponents to know what to expect from Arkansas’ defense on a given possession. Good Anderson teams keep opposing offenses from getting in sync by combining defensive talent and multiple schemes. Sometimes they’ll show token full-court pressure. Other times, they’ll try to trap. Increasingly, they’ve gone to an effective 2-3 zone in the halfcourt. In man defense, they’ll play the pick-and-roll differently, at times switching and at times showing and blitzing opposing ballhandlers.
Anderson is at the center of it all, whether yelling out, ‘switch’ when an opposing forward sets a screen for a guard at the top of the key or hollering at a big to slide to the center of the paint to take away a potential passing lane.
The different schemes all have their inherent weaknesses, areas opposing offenses can exploit, like when blitzing a pick-and-roll leaves a shooter open because the weak-side defender has to help. Earlier in the year, the defense was rife with miscommunications, exaggerating any flaws.
But the Hogs have been much better lately, playing as a collective, on a string, on a much more frequent basis. And it’s hard for the opposing offense to figure out how to take advantage of what the defense is giving it if said defense changes from possession to possession.
Arkansas allowed just 72.7 points per 100 possessions Thursday, a mark that is better than national leader West Virginia (77.9). It’s the fourth straight game the Razorbacks have posted a sub-100 defensive rating. After a slow start, their adjusted defensive rating of 96.7 ranks 64th nationally, a workable number given the offense has been borderline great, ranking 30th and scoring 111.9 points per 100 possessions.
Sam Houston State shot just 30.7 percent Thursday. The Hogs deflected 43 balls on defense, three higher than their per-game goal. They’ve started to hit that mark with increasing frequency lately, a sign the old and new faces are beginning to grow accustomed to playing together in Anderson’s schemes — plural.
It’s fair to take a wait-and-see approach until the Hogs face a Florida team ranked No. 23 nationally with a 113.7 offensive rating, but they’re trending in the right direction and have come a long way since even the beginning of the month.
— Macon’s swagger
Moses Kingsley is Arkansas’ most important player, but Daryl Macon may be its best. He plays like he thinks he is, which is a good thing.
Thursday, he came off a ball screen at the top of the key a minute into the game and let an off-balance 3-pointer fly. Swish. He’s hit from deep in the first moments of two straight games. He plays with an exciting flare and has shown the ability to impact the game as a scorer, passer and defender.
He began the game as the de facto point guard with Dusty Hannahs inserted into the starting lineup for Jaylen Barford and was a scorer first and foremost against the Bearkats, finishing with 17 points on 6 of 9 shooting, hitting 2 of 5 3-pointers and 3 of 3 from the line.
It’s the third straight game he’s lead or tied for the team lead in scoring, a stretch that included 23 against Texas and 15 against North Dakota State.
The most impressive aspect of the recent stretch has been his ability to get into the paint and either finish or get to the line. Against Texas, it was the latter, with Macon making all 14 of his foul shots.
Thursday, it was the former, with Macon dazzling at the rim with a number of crafty finishes. That’s the adjective Texas freshman Andrew Jones used to describe the junior. He had a reverse layup and a number of scooping shots, his speciality, that allowed him to evade defenders and get the ball on the glass.
The first month of the year, Macon’s swagger was exhibited mostly by his tendency to shake a defender and launch a semi-contested 3-pointer. Lately, he’s used the hesitation — hesi’s, for the younger crowd — to get to the rack, where he’s shown a smooth ability to finish in creative fashion.
On a balanced team with a lot of offensive talent, he’s increasingly stood out.
— Kingsley starts strong
Arkansas made a concerted effort to establish Moses Kingsley in the post early in the game, which isn’t a foreign strategy. But the 6-10 senior had more success in Little Rock than he had in quite in some time while going against a smallish Sam Houston State front line.
Kingsley established deep position on several possessions, an area that has been an issue partially responsible for him shooting just 47.7 percent during an up-and-down nonconference slate. He converted the touches, too, showing patience but finishing with a sureness that hasn’t always been there early in the year.
The strong start set the tone. Kingsley finished with a season-high 17 on an efficient 5 of 9 night while hitting 7 of 9 foul shots, an encouraging performance. Maybe the most encouraging part: the 2 assists he had after recording just two total in the four previous games.
Most importantly, he continued to rebound and protect the rim, finishing with seven boards and three blocks.
Through 12 games, he’s averaging 8.3 rebounds, down from last year’s 9.3 average. But the slight dip isn’t a big deal given the team is rebounding better as a collective this year. His shotblocking is up, from 2.4 per game to 2.9.
Arkansas has more scorers, which negates the need or reality of Kingsley scoring as much as he did last year. But the improved efficiency and better positioning were an encouraging step in the right direction heading into the Florida matchup.
— Beard elevates Hogs’ offense
Mike Anderson inserted Dusty Hannahs into the starting lineup Thursday, starting the Little Rock native in his final hometown appearance of the year.
But the lone Little Rock native off the bench made the biggest impact. Anton Beard came in and scored nine first-half points on two shots, a ridiculous (small sample-size alert) 4.5 points per shot.
More importantly than the scoring, Beard is easily the Razorbacks’ best player at breaking down the defense off the dribble and setting up his teammates, whether it be a big on a duck-in, a cutter or a 3-point shooter spotted up. On a team with a lot of score-first guards, it’s vital to have someone who can fill the void as a distributor. No one else on the team creates looks for others like he does on a consistent basis.
Arkansas’ spacing and ball movement was better as a whole against the Bearkats, but it was particularly good with Beard in the game. Arguably the best stretch of the year, from a spacing, movement standpoint, came in an eight-minute period when Beard checked in during the early portion of the second half. The Hogs outscored Sam Houston State 22-6 over the course of 8:23 and the ball was humming, with players hitting cutters, working snappily off ball screens and moving the floor from side to side, resulting in some pretty sequences, especially from the bench unit with Beard, Barford, Jones, Cook and Thompson.
For a team that has struggled with stagnation, the movement and passing was encouraging. Beard has generated movement and looks by himself at times this year. He did more of the same Thursday, but he wasn’t alone.
— Thomas active
Dustin Thomas entered Thursday mired in a bit of a rough patch since finals, averaging more fouls (4) than points (3) or rebounds (2.5) while shooting 22.2 percent from the floor in 17 minutes a game.
He snapped out of the funk Thursday, mirroring Kingsley’s quick start by grabbing four boards and dishing a nice assist in the first four minutes. The level of activity was encouraging for the bouncy Thomas, who has been hit-and-miss as a playmaker after flashing a nice skillset in August. Some of that is because of the ball dominance of the guards in the rotation, but Thomas has been more hesitant to play with the same spice in a more rigid game setting,
He was better in that regard against Sam Houston State, grabbing all seven of his boards in the first half and finishing with six points, albeit still struggling to finish around the rim at times.
But it was an important performance for Thomas heading into SEC play. He joins Kingsley as the only Razorbacks who have started every game this year, but reserve Arlando Cook had outplayed Thomas the last two games, to the point where he closed (and closed well) against Texas and averaged nearly as many minutes (15) in the wins over the Longhorns and North Dakota State.
Cook was more productive, averaging 5 points, 2.5 rebounds and an assist while shooting 50 percent and hitting all six of his free throws. More importantly, Arkansas was +22 in Cook’s 30 minutes on the court in the two games and -5 in Thomas’ 34.
Cook was again better in that regard Thursday, an impressive +18 in 15 minutes, most of which came as part of killer bench units that doubled up the Bearkats 42-21. But Thomas was positive, too, a +14 in 17 minutes, a big step forward.
Thomas game is more well-rounded than Cook’s, but Cook had been more effective lately in large part because of his high energy, a motor that seems contagious especially when he’s harassing opposing guards full court. Thomas played with a similar activity level Thursday. He’ll need to keep it up or risk having his minutes slashed.
Stray Thoughts
— Great crowd of 12,153. They were loud and involved. Obviously the trip to NLR is a special, once-a-year occurrence, but the crowd was better than any in Bud Walton so far. It was impressive.
— It was interesting to note that Anderson said deciding to reinsert Hannahs into the starting lineup didn’t have anything to do with him playing his last game in his hometown.
— Hannahs didn’t make a very convincing case to remain a starter, finishing with just six points on 2 of 7 shooting. He only had one point before getting a few buckets in garbage time. If Jason Hooten is to be believed, a large part of Hannahs’ struggles had to do with Paul Baxter guarding him. Baxter was solid, but Hannahs has scored on plenty of good defenders. Chalk it up to a poor shooting night in front of a hometown crowd. Him coming off the bench makes a lot of sense and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him back in that role next week.
— Trey Thompson had two more blocks Thursday, giving him five multi-block games this year. He isn’t really a true shotblocker against regularly sized teams, but he is a very good positional defender who understands verticality and how to use his size to his advantage to contest shots around the rim.
— C.J. Jones has shown some promise running a pick-and-roll. A lot of the Razorback guards ignore the rolling or popping big, but Jones hooked at least one nice pass and looked comfortable doing so. Hannahs is also sneakily good at this.
— The freshmen got extended run with the game out of reach. Brachen Hazen had five boards in seven minutes and also tried to make a few passes that were probably ill-advised but were intriguing little flashes of creativity. Adrio Bailey had a huge block and got whistled for a shooting foul on what appeared to be a nice, clean contest on another play. He also skied to steal what should've been a routine inbounds pass. Anderson has paired him with Kingsley for stretches the last few games.
— What’s it going to take for walk-on Jonathan Holmes to get his name on the back of his jersey. Two appearances in, he’s still wearing No. 15 but doesn’t have a name. Can’t be that hard, can it? Alas, Thursday may have been his last chance to get in a game this year. Missouri looms large, but he is only a freshman.
— Jaylen Barford needs to be a little more multi-dimensional. Had 11 points that included a few nice takes and a corner 3 but was 3 of 9 and had just one assist in 17 minutes. Lately, he’s not done a good job of setting the table for others, definitely not in the same league as Beard or even Macon. Too often, he’s barreling into the lane for a difficult shot. He makes a decent amount of them, but not enough to justify that being far and away his main contribution.