FAYETTEVILLE — Five observations, with video, as Arkansas hit the 20-win mark with a 98-80 victory over Ole Miss.
— Macon buckets
Daryl Macon treated Saturday’s game against Ole Miss like a mid-summer pickup outing at Harlem’s famed Rucker Park in New York City.
The junior guard performed with flair, played to the crowd and scored like he was going up against pickup game defense.
Macon dropped a career-high 30 points, the most an Arkansas player has scored since Dusty Hannahs had 33 in the SEC Tournament against Florida last March.
Macon was sizzling Saturday, knocking down 10 of 13 shots, including a 6 of 9 performance from 3-point range in the impressive victory. It had been a while since Macon had gone off. Sure, he’d hit clutch free throws to ice a few wins, but Ole Miss marked the first time he’d scored at least 20 in 2017.
With Jaylen Barford and Hannahs alternating big offensive performances the last few weeks, Macon played more of a supporting role, even coming off the bench the last four games, including Saturday.
Against Ole Miss, he was the main attraction (if you don’t count the incomparable Red Panda at halftime).
He was feeling it.
Mike Anderson said he’s been telling Macon to loosen up lately. This is a pass someone who’s playing loose makes.
He (and a number of other Hog guards) can go get a bucket with the clock winding down.
It was Macon’s best game this year on the offensive end and he also exerted a great deal of effort on the defensive end of the court, a major positive. Arkansas’ guards are playing lights out, a very welcome sign as March gets closer.
— More 3s, please
Arkansas is the best 3-point shooting team in the SEC. The Hogs entered Saturday shooting 37.9 percent from 3.
Arkansas shoots the least amount of 3-pointers in the SEC. The Hogs entered Saturday attempting just 17.8 per game, only slightly more than the 17 they averaged last year when they were also first in percentage and last in attempts.
But the Hogs have shown signs of evolving. They took a season-high 29 3-pointers against Ole Miss, besting the previous season-high of 26 they put up last week at LSU. They hit 12, a red-hot 41.4 percent.
Four players attempted at least 4: Macon (6-9), Anton Beard (3-6), Dusty Hannahs (1-6) and Jaylen Barford (2-4). Those first 3 could easily combine for 20 attempts a game. Barford is a streaky shooter who can get hot quickly.
The Hogs were hunting 3s against the Rebels, who played zone for large chunks of the game.
Arkansas got stops and got out in transition, taking advantage of a scrambling defense to get open looks.
Bottom line, Arkansas has the shooters to shoot more. It opens up the rest of the floor when the Hogs let it fly at the volume they twice in the last 8 days. The light may have come on.
— Trey’s Day
Trey Thompson holds the mantle of most under-appreciated Razorback now that Manny Watkins is hitting 3-pointers and looking for his own shot.
He makes winning plays whenever he’s on the court, but is mostly relegated to limited playing time because he usually plays behind Moses Kingsley. Saturday, he had plenty of time to shine, playing a season-high 24 minutes, including 12:23 alongside Kingsley. The Hogs outscored Ole Miss 38-17 with them playing together, including a 19-0 run that turned a 5-point game into a 75-51 lead.
And he didn’t disappoint. Thompson stuffed the stat sheet, finishing with 8 points on 4 of 4 shooting (even hit a mid-range, baseline jumper), 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 blocks and 3 steals.
He is the best passer on the team, hands down. He’s a master at hitting players on backdoor cuts and flings crosscourt lasers most bigs don’t even see as possibilities. He entered the game averaging 3.8 assists per 36 minutes, best on the team.
Arkansas’ motion offense can get stagnant at times, but rarely when Thompson is on the court. Players move and cut with vigor when he has the ball, knowing he’ll find them.
Nice cut by Macon. Barford has been really good moving without the ball and cutting backdoor against defenders lurching in the passing lanes. This is a beautiful sequence ending in a Thompson-Barford connection.
Thompson and Kingsley appear to have a good rapport playing together. Kingsley looked for Thompson on several occasions and obviously Thompson returned the favor.
Thompson has been a good rim protector this year, both positionally and as a shot blocker. The 3 blocks Saturday marked his 10th multi-block game this season.
Playing Thompson and Kingsley together gives Arkansas its most stifling paint defense, especially when the Hogs go to their zone.
Thompson volunteered to take the matchup with Ole Miss’ double-double machine Sebastian Saiz in the second half to keep Kingsley out of foul trouble. The 2 did an exemplary job on a player who will be an All-SEC selection. Saiz finished with 8 points on 2 of 13 shooting and grabbed just 5 rebounds, well short of his season average.
Anderson’s rotations are regularly fluctuating, but Thompson has now played alongside Kingsley for extended stretches in 2 straight games. He closed the South Carolina game with the extra-big look and played it more than he has all year against Ole Miss.
The spacing isn’t great with Thompson sharing the court with Kingsley, but it isn’t like defenses respect Dustin Thomas, Arlando Cook or Adrio Bailey’s jumpers.
Not every matchup is tailor-made for playing Thompson and Kingsley in tandem. That’s been the big question and dilemma Anderson has faced: how to handle minutes when your 2 best bigs play the same position and aren’t a perfect fit.
But Thompson is easily the Hogs’ second-best big. He probably has the highest basketball IQ on the team. The Hogs tend to play better when he gets extended minutes.
— Ball, player movement shines
Thompson makes passes like the ones above every game. Sometimes, he’s the only one consistently making an effort to make the extra pass or set his teammates up.
Arkansas entered Saturday assisting on just 47.6 percent of made field goals, a number that ranks 11th in the SEC.
Saturday was maybe the best and most unselfish the offense has looked all season against quality competition, particularly in the second half with players cutting with purpose and teammates paying off the movement with smart passes. The Hogs recorded 20 assists on 31 made shots, just the second time they’ve had 20 in the 15 games since SEC play began.
They played like a connected unit Saturday, moving and working unselfishly to probe for the best possible shot.
That doesn’t lead to a make, but the Hogs pushed the ball off the miss and then move it side to side, passing up good looks to get a wide-open corner 3.
Barford only finished with 1 assist (on a sweet, left-handed laser to Thompson in transition), but made some really nice drive and dish plays to set teammates up.
Even the young guns got in on sharing the ball and moving without it when they got some garbage-time run.
Arkansas posted a 125.6 offensive rating 3 days after a highly impressive 120.6 with just 12 assists against a South Carolina defense ranked No. 1 in the nation.
The Hogs have a great deal of talent on offense. They’ve proven they can score one-on-one, but Saturday showed how dangerous the offense can be playing off each other and working as a whole.
— Old Mo back
Anderson said it after the game: "We got the old Moses back. He's doing all the things that garnered him the attention.”
He’s right, of course. Kingsley followed up his most complete game of the year at South Carolina (16 points, 7 rebounds, 4 blocks) with a 14-point, 13-rebound, 4-block effort against the Rebels.
He hit 3 of his 4 shots, made all 8 of his free throws and also dished 3 assists, flashing the passing acumen he shows in spurts. His energy was evident in the way he ran the floor, competed on the offensive glass and protected the rim in the opening minutes of the game.
He has 13 blocks the last 3 games, which coincides with Arkansas using its zone defense more often. No coincidence there. Kingsley is a menace when he’s able to hang around the rim. He had some downright vulgar blocks Saturday.
His got the better of Saiz and has seemed reinvigorated recently. He averaged 15 points, 10 rebounds and 4 blocks this week, a sizable trend upward. That’s huge for Arkansas. The guards may put up big numbers, but Kingsley is still the most important player for this team, hands down.
Stray Thoughts
— The sense of urgency and force the Hogs played with was evident early on. Kingsley’s hustle was one example. Another was Anton Beard, apparently healthy again after being under the weather, dove for a loose ball, undercutting an Ole Miss player and allowing Hannahs to get fouled. The effort earned one of a few standing ovations.
— Really good crowd. The announced attendance was 15,214 and there was a long line outside the box office with people waiting to buy upper-deck tickets even as the game started. Probably the loudest it’s been all year and the team played well, leading to a few standing ovations.
— Bobby Portis, Alandise Harris, Chris Gragg, Jarius Wright and Jarrion Lawson were all in attendance and recognized at half-court at different points in the game. Portis and Harris sat in the court-side seats. Beard handed Portis the game ball as the final horn sounded and the rest of the team quickly made their way over to dap up the current Chicago Bull after shaking hands with Ole Miss players and coaches.
— Jonathan Holmes finally got his last name on the back of his jersey. About time! He checked in for the final 51 seconds and nearly made another shot, missing a step-back 3-pointer. All of his shots this year have looked good, but none have gone down.
— This was the most encouraging win of the year, from an offensive standpoint. The volume of 3-point shooting and player movement was really, really good. They can go into the zone for spells and get stops. This team may be rounding into form at the right time.