Five observations, with video, from Arkansas' win over Ole Miss in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals.
— Kingsley, Macon step up late
Moses Kingsley tweeted and then quickly deleted a tweet voicing his displeasure with not being named SEC Defensive Player of the Year when the coaches selections were unveiled Tuesday.
He showed why he has a claim for top billing Friday, blocking 4 shots in the second half and 2 in the final minute as Arkansas held off Ole Miss.
His first last-minute block came on Ole Miss’ first-team big Sebastian Saiz.
Kingsley made life difficult on Saiz all night (more on that in a bit) and that block protected a 1-point lead with the game in the balance.
On Ole Miss’ final possession, he gets switched onto Rebels point guard Breein Tyree and reaches for the ball, something he loves to do when he gets iso’d on the perimeter with guards (he’s had his share of steals this year). He doesn’t come up with the steal, but recovers to disdainfully swat the shot and then, without pause, sprint to the corner to contest Deandre Burnett’s potential tying 3.
It was a near block and a borderline foul, but the effort paid off. Burnett missed and the Hogs survived.
In between, Daryl Macon stepped to the line and sunk a pair of free throws with 23 seconds left to extend the Hogs’ lead to 73-70. The makes improved Macon to 27 of 30 from the line in the final minute of games this year.
Arkansas is 6-1 in games decided by 5 or fewer points. Macon’s ability to step up and perform in the clutch has been the difference in several of those wins.
On a night when Arkansas’ offense struggled, the Hogs got to the line and sank 20 of 23 foul shots. Macon had the biggest makes and Kingsley sandwiched them with a pair of stellar defensive plays to allow the Hogs survive and advance.
— Shutting down Saiz the scorer
Andy Kennedy didn’t mince words when he talked about the first-half performance Saiz put together during his halftime interview: “Moses Kingsley kicked his ass.”
Strong statement. And an accurate one.
Saiz missed his first 10 shots and only had 1 point until he finally made a shot with 9:14 left in the game. That was the first of 4 consecutive important makes in a hotly contested game, but he missed his final 2, including the above block by Kingsley.
Saiz finished with 9 points on 4 of 16 shooting. Including the regular-season meeting, he went 6 of 29 from the floor against Arkansas this year.
Saiz did record 17 rebounds, but Kingsley, a second-team All-SEC selection, outperformed Saiz, a first-teamer, when they went head-to-head.
Kingsley didn’t put together a huge offensive performance of his own, but Arkansas has proven all year that it doesn’t have to have a big scoring game from Kingsley to succeed. Ole Miss relies on Saiz to score. He couldn’t in either meeting.
Kingsley did a good job using his length to contest Saiz’ looks, all you can ask for against a good player.
Kennedy probably owed Trey Thompson a shout out, because Kingsley definitely wasn’t alone in slowing Saiz.
Kingsley is the better shot blocker and rim protector, but Thompson is the superior one-on-one defender in the paint. This year, he’s given up just 0.585 points per possession on post-ups, per Synergy Sports, which ranks in the 87th percentile nationally. Kingsley allows 0.838 points per post-up, putting him in the 43rd percentile.
Thompson uses his bulk to prevent opponents from establishing deep post postion and his savvy to avoid falling for fakes and stay in position to contest shots.
Great defense by Thompson, who had a team-high 7 rebounds and was a team-best +17 in 25 minutes.
Kingsley got the shout out, but Arkansas used a tag-team effort to slow one of the better bigs in the SEC for a second time.
— Hogs survive rare off night from backcourt trio
Jaylen Barford, Daryl Macon and Dusty Hannahs combined for 43 points Friday, more than the 40.2 they came into the game averaging this season.
But they shot just 11 of 36 from the floor, their worst combined shooting performance this season and part of a poor offensive outing for the Razorbacks as a whole.
Arkansas shot just 36.5 percent from the floor, including only 30 percent in the second half.
The Hogs free throw shooting was a savior. They hit a solid 7 of 17 from 3-point range, but only took 6 in the second half. For a team that leads the SEC in 3-point percentage, they go through strange stretches where they’re unable to generate many 3s.
They got to the rim repeatedly, but struggled to finish, making an abysmal 12 of 31 layups. Barford, Macon and Hannahs hit a strong 6 of 15 from 3-point range but were just 5 of 21 inside the arc.
They missed quite a few looks they normally make.
Ole Miss is not a particularly great defensive team. Arkansas dropped 98 on the Rebels in the teams’ first meeting.
The Hogs just had an off night Friday. They’re fortunate it didn’t cost them.
— Defense leads to offense
With Hannahs, Macon and Barford struggling, Arkansas’ best offense was its defense most of the night.
The Razorbacks scored 22 points off of 13 Ole Miss turnovers, their fourth-highest total against a power-conference opponent this year and a big reason why they pulled out a win.
The number of turnovers wasn’t especially high: the 18.3 turnover rate is actually lower than the 19.6 Ole Miss had in SEC play this year. But Arkansas converted at a high rate when it forced a miscue.
Finding a way to get easy baskets was at a premium given the offensive struggles. Arkansas was able to score enough off turnovers to cancel out Ole Miss’ dominance on the glass.
The Hogs forced an average of 15.5 turnovers in their 2 meetings with Vanderbilt, a team that will cough up the rock when pressured (18.3 turnover rate ranks 146th nationally).
The matchup and the fact Vanderbilt lacks depth and will be playing its third game in as many days means Arkansas may turn up the heat against the Commodores in the semifinals.
— Rebounding nearly sinks Razorbacks
Saiz struggled offensively but made a huge impact on the glass, grabbing 17 rebounds, including 6 of the offensive variety.
That helped Ole Miss outrebound Arkansas 49-39, including an almost unreal 21 offensive boards that led to 18 second-chance points.
Arkansas’ initial defense was good. The Razorbacks held the Rebels to 37.8 percent shooting, a number that dropped to 33.3 percent in the second half as they hit just 1 of 10 from 3-point range after a hot 7 of 18 first half. Ole Miss hit a few open looks in the first half, but also knocked down some tough, contested shots.
Settling for tough looks didn’t kill the Rebels because they rebounded 43.8 percent of their misses, the third-highest rate Arkansas has allowed this year (Mississippi State, second Texas A&M meeting).
At one point in the second half, a TV mic picked up Manny Watkins screaming at his teammates to box out. Arkansas couldn’t, for the most part.
It’s been a season-long issue. The Razorbacks allow opponents to rebound a third of their misses, which ranks No. 325 out of 351 teams. They’ll show glimpses of being able to box out when they make it a priority (first Texas A&M meeting), but too often they give opposing offenses do overs by blindly jumping for the ball instead of finding an opposing player to put a body on and then getting the rebound.
Vanderbilt isn’t a team that excels on the offensive glass. In fact, the Commodores grabbed just 22 percent of their misses in SEC play, a number that ranked last in the conference. But they pulled down 44 percent in the blowout win in Fayetteville last month.
It’s March. Arkansas needs to get it together on the boards.
Stray Thoughts
— Watkins had a very solid game, scoring 9 points on 4 of 6 shooting, grabbing 6 rebounds and swiping 2 steals in 22 minutes. He brings it every game.
— Arlando Cook only scored 2 points on 1 of 5 shooting in 14 minutes, but he made some nice hustle plays when he was in the game. Dustin Thomas had 4 points on 1 of 3 shooting in 14 minutes. They combined to miss all 3 of the jumpers they took, dropping them to 15 of 49 this year.
— What a game from Terence Davis. Had 26 points, 9 rebounds and 4 assists. Arkansas didn’t have an answer for him for most of the game.
— Vanderbilt obviously destroyed Arkansas in the last meeting and should’ve won the first, but the Commodores seem like a better matchup than Florida, which beat the Hogs by double digits both games this year. The Gators are just so athletically superior to Arkansas.