Five observations, with video, from Arkansas' 71-70 comeback win at Vanderbilt on Tuesday.
— Dusty to the rescue
There’s no getting around it. Daryl Macon is clutch.
The junior guard was fouled on a 3-pointer and hit all three free throws with 1.6 seconds left to lift the Hogs to the unlikely win, the second road game in eight days he’s helped clinch at the free throw line with clutch foul shots. He’s hit 42 of 46 from the stripe in Arkansas’ four wins outside the state this year, many of them coming in the final minutes with the game in the balance.
But there would be no Macon game-winning free throws without the heroics from Dusty Hannahs. The senior guard was brilliant down the stretch after largely being a no-show for most of the game.
Through 35:22, Hannahs had 3 points on 1 of 8 shooting and 1 of 2 free throws. He missed all 6 of his 3-point attempts, marking just the second time since Dec. 1 he’s failed to hit at least one triple.
But he came alive in the final 4:38, scoring 14 points to lead the furious charge back. He made all 4 of his shots inside the arc and knocked down 6 of 7 free throws in the rally. He took the game over by playing with an aggression he had yet to show this season, getting to the rim and either drawing a foul or finishing in the paint.
The first three scores are all high degree of difficulty finishes, plays where he essentially takes matters into his own hands with a little help from quality Moses Kingsley screens on two of them. Arkansas was hurt by its one-on-one mentality in a lull earlier in the second half (more on that in a bit), but Hannahs was able to get all the way to the rim late rather than settling for a low-percentage, contested floater or pull-up.
He scored or assisted on 16 of Arkansas’ 21 points in the final 4:38 as the Hogs closed with a 21-8 spurt during that time.
Last week, Manny Watkins’ 3-pointers helped the Hogs rally in College Station. This time, it was a special kind of takeover performance by another senior in his last go-around to will the Hog to an important win in the first of a crucial two-game road trip.
— Pressure does the trick
Vanderbilt had it won, up 70-66 with less than 50 seconds left. The Commodores just had to take care of the basketball.
But they didn’t.
First, Moses Kingsley switches onto Riley Chance and makes a great play in space, poking the ball away with 22 seconds left and feeding it to Hannahs for the layup to make it a 2-point game with 19.9 left.
Rather than foul immediately on the ensuing possession, Arkansas opted to see if it could create some havoc and force a miscue. There was enough time to try to force the turnover and the calculated risk paid off for the coaching staff.
Vanderbilt center Luke Kornet winds up bringing the ball up the floor and flings a risky pass when Hannahs springs a well-timed trap near halfcourt. Manny Watkins gets a hand on it and it winds up with Jaylen Barford. The turnover set up the final sequence as Hannahs missed a 3-pointer but Barford kept the play alive by tipping the ball out to Watkins, who got it to Macon, who was fouled on his 3-point attempt and won the game at the line.
Two critical possessions, two major turnovers forced by the Arkansas pressure. In a normal year, that isn’t a shocking development for a Mike Anderson-coached team. But it is with this team.
The Razorbacks entered the game ranked No. 9 in the SEC in turnover margin, sitting at just +1.0 for the season. They were also ninth in turnovers forced (13.3 per game), uncharacteristically low for an Anderson club.
More often than, pressure had simply served as runways for opposing guards to get a running start and create semi-transition opportunities around the rim or for 3-point shooters open because the Hogs were trying to stop the ball.
Pressing a team that can shoot can be risky business. Vanderbilt got a few good looks as a result of beating pressure Tuesday, but it was altogether a net positive for the Razorbacks. The Commodores are the best shooting team in the SEC, but don’t have the most athletically gifted backcourt in the conference.
Arkansas forced 15 turnovers and turned them into 16 key points. The Razorbacks forced turnovers on 21.7 of Vanderbilt’s possessions, far more than their now-raised average of 18.5 this season, which ranks No. 201 in the nation (they’re at 16.7 and No. 11 in the SEC).
The turnovers were a big part of the reason Vanderbilt’s 101.4 offensive rating wasn’t higher. The Commodores averaged about 1.3 points per possession when they didn’t turn it over — very high.
The pressure identity has produced mixed results more this season than in any other for Anderson, but it was an integral part of the win in Nashville.
— Offensive lull nearly sinks Hogs
If not for Hannahs’ outburst, this game would have gone down as an ugly road loss, the result of a grotesque second half offensive collapse.
The Hogs led 37-33 and then tied the game at 43 on a Macon 3-pointer with 13:19 left. They didn’t score again for 7:24, floundering as Vanderbilt took control with a 15-0 run.
The Hogs went 0 of 9 from the floor, 0 of 3 from 3-point range and 0 of 1 from the line with four turnovers during the dry spell that probably should have cost them the game. Hero ball reigned supreme, with forced shots and isolation ball the result.
Arkansas had four (!) assists on 17 makes in the game’s first 34 minutes. The one-on-one ball that can at times manifest itself on a team with a bevy of backcourt scorers became a plague during the scoreless stretch.
Here are a few of the more egregious possessions.
This isn’t actually bad offense. At least, it wouldn’t be if Trey Thompson had taken the open baseline jumper. The Hannahs-Dustin Thomas pick and pop manipulated the defense into leaving Thompson open. He passes up the open look and the Hogs wind up settling for a wild Macon drive.
Cook comes to set a screen for Macon, but Barford curls to the top of the key, bringing his defender with him and essentially cutting off a driving lane for Macon. Poor spacing. Macon instead swings the ball to Cook, who airmails a long, decently contested jumper, not his strong suit. Yuck.
Barford opts for the early clock, contested 3. He bricks it but Beard comes up with the loose ball, only to lose it on a baseline drive. Sloppy.
Kornet digs down to Kingsley as soon as Cook enters the ball. Rather than cut through and take the Vandy big with him, Cook lingers, giving Kornet license to ignore him and focus on harassing Kingsley. Kingsley’s move is slow-developing and he winds up surrounded by four Commodores on a play he was lucky wasn’t a turnover.
This is just a bad, forced shot early in the clock, a rare poor decision from Beard.
Arkansas wound up posting a 104.4 offensive rating as a result of the late-game push, but it was less than than 110.9 the Hogs came into the game averaging in SEC. Given that Vanderbilt was ranked No. 12 in conference play in defensive rating, the performance was pretty mediocre.
The iso ball almost cost Arkansas in a big way.
— Barford balls in first half
Jaylen Barford would be an All-SEC lock if he could put together two halves as good as some of the ones he’s had the last seven games.
Tuesday, he scored 13 points on 5 of 7 shooting, including hitting all 3 of his 3-pointers, in the first half to almost single-handedly get the Hogs into the locker room tied at 30 at halftime. His teammates combined for 17 points on 7 of 24 shooting in the first half.
Barford’s 3-point shooting was an unexpected bonus: he entered the night having made just 10 of 44 (22.7 percent), including only 5 of 34 (14.7 percent) since the start of December.
These shots came at a key juncture in the half.
He’s scored in double figures in the first half in four of the last seven games, adding Tuesday in with his 10 at Tennessee, 14 at Kentucky and 11 against Missouri. Throw in the 14 he had in the second half Saturday against LSU and his one-half scoring outbursts are becoming a thing.
He hasn’t been able to carry the scoring over into the other half in any of the above games and can still fall victim to bad shot selection, but he impacted in other ways Tuesday.
What a spin and what a dish. This may have been his best play of the night. He hasn’t shown the ability to set others up consistently this season and this may have been his best effort of the year in that regard. More, please. Also, it was nice that he didn’t get called for a travel on the spin. Seems like that has happened on a few legit moves this year.
He also came up with the turnover to set up the final possession and tipped the ball out to Watkins in the final 10 seconds, which led to Macon being fouled.
Barford has played with more consistency in January after an up-and-down nonconference season. That is a big positive for Arkansas and a key part of the four-game winning streak. Now, if he can just put two halves together.
— Hogs win with small ball
Anderson went small when he subbed Manny Watkins in for Arlando Cook with 6:44 left and Vanderbilt leading 56-43. The Commodores added two more points at the line and Anderson inserted Macon for Anton Beard with 6:02 left, the Hogs now facing a 58-43 deficit.
The Barford-Macon-Hannahs-Watkins-Kingsley lineup won the game over the course of the next 6 minutes, outscoring the Commodores 28-12 to roar back and snag the lead.
At 7-1, 250, Luke Kornet was Vanderbilt’s only true big in the game down the stretch. Jeff Roberson (6-6, 224) and Joe Toye (6-7, 208) were handled by the Hogs, who gang-rebounded down the stretch and grabbed all 5 of the available defensive rebounds while also pulling down three offensive boards during the stretch.
The small group allowed Arkansas to spread the floor more, unclogging the paint and providing Hannahs and Co. with room to attack the basket late.
That particular small-ball lineup entered the night as Anderson’s most-used four-guard look (12:27) and also one of his worst (minus-8). But the move unequivocally worked. Vanderbilt presented a matchup Anderson could roll out a smaller group and he took advantage, playing with four guards for 11:22.
Arkansas outscored the Commodores 36-24 with its four-guard lineups and was outscored 46-35 with two traditional bigs on the court. The difference was in the closing group. Anderson deserves kudos for going with it down the stretch.
Stray Thoughts
— Heck of a crosscourt find by Macon when he hit Hannahs in the corner for a 3 in the final seconds. About as good a look as you can hope for.
— Big close to the game at the foul line. Hogs started 10 of 17 but hit their final 7. Every make was needed and this is the fourth out-of-state game they’ve now won in large part because of their free throw shooting.
— Neither of the 4s played all that well. Arlando Cook had 2 points on 1 of shooting with 4 rebounds in 12 minutes. He had a few nice offensive boards and is always decent at switching onto smaller guards, but didn't offer much else and was a minus-7. A step backward after back-to-back solid performances. Dustin Thomas didn’t do much. Had 2 points, 3 rebounds and a block, a minus-4 in 16 minutes. The inconsistency of that position has to be highly frustrating for the coaching staff. Side note: Thomas posts up way too much for my taste. The guards don’t really enter him the ball often and he isn’t especially efficient when he does get it. But by posting up, he essentially clogs a driving lane.
— Manny Watkins took another 3-pointer tonight. Missed it, but it was a good look and the shot didn’t look bad. The kind of shot the Hogs have to be OK with him taking if he’s that wide open.
— By my count, 4 possessions ended in Moses Kingsley post-ups. He scored 3 points on and and-1, missed a shot and had 2 turnovers. Nearly had a third but it wound up being a jump ball.
— How about the Vandy fan flipping off Manny Watkins after the game? Classy.
— Huge win. Assuring at worst a split of the week’s road games is big and allows the Hogs to go into Stillwater with less pressure on them. Oklahoma State has won two straight after a brutal schedule to open Big 12 play. Cowboys lost by 4 at Baylor and by 7 at Kansas. Jawun Evans is the real deal. He may be the second-best point guard the Hogs face this year, behind De’Aaron Fox. The Cowboys shoot 39.6 percent from 3 and take more than 22 a game. Should be a very fun atmosphere.