FAYETTEVILLE — Observations from Arkansas’ 92-83 season-opening win over Fort Wayne.
Disclaimer: As always, keep in mind these are observations from one game and the sample size is small.
Parsing through Mike Anderson’s rotations
Anderson went with the same starting five he’s used since the second game in Spain this summer: Jaylen Barford, Daryl Macon, Dusty Hannahs, Dustin Thomas and Moses Kingsley.
Arkansas played with five backcourt players without freshman C.J. Jones (knee) in the lineup. In the exhibitions, that meant Anderson experimented with three-big bench lineups. In the opener, he kept one of Barford, Macon and Hannahs on the court at all times. Even with Jones, that seems like a smart, perhaps necessary, strategy against good competition.
Arkansas’ starting lineup has the potential to be potent offensively. Friday, the group was solid, outscoring Fort Wayne 23-19 in 8:49 time together. Interestingly, Anderson played with four guards for a decent chunk of the game, 11:39, time during which Arkansas outscored Fort Wayne 26-18.
Arkansas' four-guard looks were much better than any two-big look it used, aside from the starting lineup. The Hogs were +8 with their small lineups and +1 with big lineups, -3 with non-starter big lineups. A lot of the small-ball lineups probably had to do with the opponent. Part of it may have had to do with foul trouble (more on that in a bit), but it was an interesting decision.
Anderson operated a scorer’s table turnstile, using 11 different lineup combinations in the first half and 15 in the game. The Hogs’ second-most used lineup was easily the small-ball group of Barford, Macon, Hannahs, Manny Watkins and Kingsley, which outscored Fort Wayne 12-8 in 6:24.
That lineup and the starting lineup were +8, the rest of the lineups a combined +1 in 24:47 worth of time.
Watching how Anderson tweaks the rotations Monday, especially if Jones is added into the mix, will be interesting. Without him the backcourt minutes were: Macon 33, Hannahs 30, Barford 27, Watkins 27, Beard 16.
Three-point defense lacking
Fort Wayne cooled off considerably after a 6 of 11 start from 3-point range, making just three of its last 17 attempts to finish 9 of 28. But the Mastodons were able to generate a lot of open looks with good ball movement.
Fort Wayne did a good job taking advantage of Arkansas’ help defense when Razorback guards left players on the wing or in the corner to help, either helping the helper in the paint or taking a few steps in to the nail or below to bump the roll man, which is what happened to Barford here.
When you show/blitz the pick-and-roll, your weakside wing defender has to sag down to corral the role man. That can lead to open looks. Keep an eye on Hannahs in slow-mo here.
The Hogs struggled to recover in time, either giving up open looks or allowing Fort Wayne players to attack closeouts and further affect the defense.
Other times, the Hogs botched rotations and switches, likely a result of relative inexperience and newness in the system. There were a lot of mishaps.
Here, Hannahs and Macon bungle a pick-and-roll. Macon defends it like there’s a switch, while Hannahs sticks with his man. Wide-open 3.
Here, the Hogs are forced to rotate when Kingsley doubles down to help an overmatched Barford. Fort Wayne swings it and Hannahs and Barford both converge on the wing. Regardless of who made the proper rotation, Hannahs picks him up and Barford, rather than track the unaccounted-for shooter, sags down to the paint, leaving him open.
On this first-half possession, Barford and Macon, both JUCO transfers, miscommunicated on a switch, with Barford switching and Macon sticking with his man, creating a situation that would’ve resulted in a wide-open look had it not been for a Barford foul.
Arkansas tried a 2-3 zone in the second half, but quickly surrendered an open, made 3 that took it out of it. Some issues to be worked out, but a decent amount of them were miscommunications. Others are looks the Hogs have to live with in exchange for pressuring the ball. It's a give and take.
Rebounds and fouls stem from same issue
Fort Wayne won the rebounding battle 45-39 thanks to a whopping 21-10 advantage on the offensive glass that allowed the Mastodons to score 21 second-chance points. Arkansas was often out of position on the defensive glass, ball-watching instead of boxing out which allowed Fort Wayne to get repeated cracks at it.
Thomas looks at John Konchar, but doesn't put a body on him, just jumping for the ball instead. There was a lot of that from multiple Razorbacks.
Mike Anderson went with a small lineup at several junctures during the game, but even big lineups were inconsistent on the glass, including a Moses Kingsley-Arlando Cook frontcourt grouping gave up three offensive boards on one possession.
Arkansas was whistled for an unseemly 29 fouls that led to Fort Wayne going to the line 40 times. The Hogs are fortunate the Mastodons only made 24. There were some iffy calls, but, like with the rebounding, a lot of the fouls stemmed from players being out of position, bumping Fort Wayne drivers while trying to recover after being beaten off the dribble.
Others fouls came on Fort Wayne putbacks after the Hogs gave up offensive boards.
Hannahs shakes off poor shooting to key win
The senior shooting guard said his missed 3-pointers (1 of 6) and free throws (8 of 10) nearly gave him an aneurysm, but Arkansas may not win the game if he hadn’t stepped up in other ways.
Even though he wasn’t satisfied with his 80 percent — which is still a high mark — Hannahs got to the line a bunch and converted at a high rate. This for a shooter who got to the line a decent 3.6 times per game last year.
He made a number of plays off the bounce and scored in transition well, too, finishing around the rim at a high percentage. He was a big part of the run late in the first half to take control of the game.
When Fort Wayne cut the lead to four midway through the second half, Hannahs scored seven straight Arkansas points to push it back to 10. He had the look of a go-to scorer Friday.
Beard sparks game-turning run
Arkansas trailed 36-30 after giving up its sixth made 3-pointer late in the first half. Moments later, Anton Beard freestyled on defense, his gamble paying off when he left his man and interrupted a Fort Wayne post-up by knifing in for a steal. He went coast-to-coast, finishing with a scoop layup.
On the next possession, he shielded off a Fort Wayne big for a defensive rebound, drawing the foul and sinking two free throws to give Arkansas the lead. Both plays were reminiscent of the headiness and aggressiveness he oft showed as a freshman.
Beard busted out a nifty behind-the-back wraparound move on the break, then completed the fast break by dishing a slick pass to Watkins for a layup.
Less than a minute later, he drilled a 3-pointer.
The sequence featured shot-making, defensive smarts and toughness, staples of what made Beard an integral part of the Hogs’ NCAA Tournament team two years ago. They were encouraging signs from a player who struggled for obvious reasons last year.
Beard finished with 12 points, three assists and two steals in 16 minutes. With a full offseason under his belt, Beard looked like he was back to his old self.
Stray thoughts
— Almost all of Kingsley's seven blocks were 'wow' plays. He came out of nowhere a few times. The defense suffered when he got in foul trouble. Adrio Bailey is the only other potential shot blocker on the team.
— Barford wasn’t very aggressive for much of the game. Anderson said that was a point he was trying to drive home during the exhibitions. When in attack mode, he’s a very good penetrator and a creative passer. His line (10 points, five rebounds, four assists) is solid, but he didn’t have the type of impact on the game he’s capable of having. Struggled to finish shots he can and had one especially rough stretch where he missed a layup after a nice Euro step, didn’t chase down a defensive rebound which allowed a Fort Wayne offensive board, turned it over and committed an intentional foul. He shows flashes of the kind of player he is, just needs to play assertively more consistently. He did hit a key 3-pointer late in the second half and had some nice takes late.
— Macon is a player. His stat line: 13 points, seven rebounds, five assists, four steals provides a glimpse to his activity. He can help a team a lot of ways. While Barford appears to still feeling it out at times, Macon has been aggressive. He’ll take some quick-trigger 3-pointers without hesitation, a sign of a confident player. He has a knack for hit-ahead passes.
— Hannahs is easily pump-faked into the air.
— At times, Arkansas moved the ball really, really well and created open looks. Early in the game, the Hogs ran a lot of pick-and-roll action and generated some nice shots. Kingsley and Thomas have skills that make them really effective bigs in the PNR.
— Thomas’ size and athleticism at the head of the press and in traps could be an asset. He forced turnovers off both Friday.
— Hannahs made a few really nice passes that he wasn’t making last year.
— On that same note, Kingsley found Hannahs in transition with a really nice pass and later dished a quick no-look to Watkins for an uncontested layup after grabbing an offensive board.
— Thompson only took two shots in 13 minutes, but both were and-1s. One was a power-dribble, reverse layup through contact.
— Rough night for Arlando Cook. Hogs were -12 in his five minutes on the court. He picked up three fouls, got beat to a rebound off a Fort Wayne missed free throw, missed a few live-ball boxouts and got beat a few times on defense. Still, showing why raw plus/minus is a somewhat flawed metric, Beard was the other Razorback with a negative, finishing -4 despite providing a spark.
— Arkansas posted Barford up a few times. He kicked it back out on one and was whistled for a kinda iffy travel on another. That’s an interesting little idea I’d like to see them keep exploring these next few games. His size will give him an advantage in most matchups.