FAYETTEVILLE — If you had told Vanderbilt first-year coach Jerry Stackhouse that his team would hold Arkansas’ Isaiah Joe and Mason Jones to just 13 points on Wednesday night, he would have liked his chances.
But Stackhouse, the former North Carolina and NBA star, did not foresee Jimmy Whitt scoring a career-high 30 points and Reggie Chaney tying his career high with a season-high 14 as the Razorbacks downed the Commodores 75-55 before over 14,321 fans at Bud Walton Arena.
“I think we had our focal points on guys, kind of scouting report was let those guys beat us if they can,” Stackhouse said. “They had not played up to that level that they could beat us. Our main concerns were obviously Joe shooting the basketball and Mason Jones. But again, they did what they had to do and we didn’t give them the resistance that is necessary.
“What we tried to do and the attention to details we want to do on the defensive end, we didn’t follow through on that. We are not a zone team, but we had to jump in a zone because we were not able to guard them with the game plan that we thought we could.”
Whitt, a 6-3 guard who plays in the post a lot, was 14-of-24 from the field and had eight rebounds. He had 17 points in the first half while Joe and Jones were scoreless.
“Jimmy Whitt will definitely be a lot more prominent our scouting report the next time around,” Stackhouse said. “I know that. I think we obviously were coming into the game thinking about Isaiah Joe and Mason, but he did everything for them tonight. He rebounded the ball and every time the offense stalled any, he was the guys that was making big shots for them.
“I thought without his play in the first half that we could have gotten a little separation, but he definitely held it together for them in the first half, and then in the second half Joe came out and we forgot about his prowess behind the 3-point line. I thought we had to pick that guy up a half court and he stepped into couple of threes and got a rhythm, and that was really the separation of the game other than the kind of self-inflicted wounds, turning the ball over the way we did.”
Whitt’s game is old school with many of his shots coming on drives to the basket or mid-range jump shots.
“He is kind of an anomaly right now,” Stackhouse said. “Everybody is kind of getting to the basket or shooting the three. There are not a lot of guys playing in the mid-range game, but there are some outliers out there. Some guys who are really good in the mid-range.
“A lot of the analytics and everything are kind of moving away from those shots, but if you have guys that can hit them at a high rate, as a coach we will take it.”
Joe had all 12 of his points in the second half. Jones scored 1 one point, but had 8 assists and 7 rebounds. Desi Sills added 13 points and a career-high 7 rebounds.
The Razorbacks had 18 points off 16 turnovers by Vanderbilt.
“We just turned it over too many times to be able to beat a team like that,” Stackhouse said. “They thrive with their defense and they thrive in transition and we allowed them to get that by not getting shots on the board.”
Vanderbilt was missing a couple of key players, including Aaron Nesmith, who was leading the SEC with 23 points per game before suffering a season-ending injury two games ago.
“We are adjusting to that a little bit, but we are learning a lot about the rest of our roster, too," Stackhouse said. "Guys that may have not gotten some opportunities if we were still who we were a week or so ago. Now we are having to play those guys and looking down the bench and try to find some other options.
“A guy that wasn’t even on our team last semester started for us tonight. So that is a little bit of an adjustment for us.
“But it is no excuse for us because I think we have enough talent and enough guys. I have seen them do it and do it well. We just have to find a way to do it for longer stretches. We’ll go back and watch the film and see where we are doing some things really well, but we are just not doing it long enough. That is on us to keep continue to stay positive, continue to stay together and hope we can do it for longer stretches.”
Arkansas coach Eric Musselman praised Stackhouse for his team battling despite the injuries. Saben Lee had 17 points, Maxwell Evans 16 and Scotty Pippen Jr. had 11 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists.
“Coach Stackhouse, he’s in a tough spot,” Musselman said. “He’s a really good coach, though, and I think his minor league background of being in the G-league when you have a fluctuating roster, he’s just going to keep tinkering.
“He started somebody tonight that hadn’t played much at all. He wanted to bring Saben Lee off the bench because that’s kind of what Lee’s role has been. Coach Stack, I’m sure he’s just going to keep trying to tinker.”
Jones, Joe and Whitt have all scored over 30 points for Arkansas in a game this season.
“It is great for them, I don’t know what it does for us, but they are a good team,” Stackhouse said. “We knew they were a good team coming in here. They have a really good record and they have had some quality wins so it was a challenge for us. There were things that we did to allow them to have the game that they did that we could have done better. Unfortunately we didn’t have enough of that tonight.”