FAYETTEVILLE — Three games into Southeastern Conference play, sophomore Reggie Chaney found himself in Arkansas coach Eric Musselman's doghouse.
Fast forward three more games, Chaney has become arguably the team's most efficient player.
Against Texas A&M, LSU and Ole Miss, the sophomore scored only two points, did not grab an offensive or defensive rebound and turned the ball over four times, including three on consecutive possessions facing the Aggies. But he broke out against Vanderbilt in the Razorbacks' 75-55 win in Bud Walton Arena.
He has now followed that performance with two more solid showings against Kentucky and Mississippi State, which feature two of the premiere frontlines in the conference.
Going back to the win over the Commodores, Chaney has gotten 12 of his 13 shots to fall in the lane. With two games still to be played in January, he is two buckets away from matching his two-point scores total from November and December combined.
"The big thing with Reggie right now is he’s finishing around the rim," Musselman said Thursday on the SEC coaches teleconference. "Reggie has done a great job of finishing around the rim. Obviously when you get into SEC play as opposed to nonconference play you face longer, better rim protection. It has not affected Reggie at all.
"He’s actually increased his productivity around the rim from nonconference, and that’s certainly something we want to try to utilize going forward."
Because Chaney has not played at least 40 percent of available minutes for the Razorbacks this season he does not qualify for a KenPom national ranking in terms of 2-point field goal percentage. However, he is shooting 79.4 percent, a mark that would place him first in the SEC were he eligible.
Chaney, who has not started a game this season, has been a spark plug off the bench of late, bringing infectious energy and big-time plays. In the last three games, Arkansas is plus-28 as a team with him in the lineup, and minus-22 when he sits. The offense has operated at a 1.10 point-per-possession rate when on the floor, and .84 when he isn't.
Mississippi State and Kentucky combined to score 93 of their 150 points with Chaney off the floor.
He is playing with an abundance of confidence, and it shined through in a pair of moves around the rim in Starkville, including one score in which he put the ball on the floor moving right and finished over Bulldogs forward Abdul Ado before he could put a hand up to contest.
I also liked the move he made against Kentucky in rebounding an Arkansas missed free throw and sticking it back in to pull the Razorbacks within 44-42 in the second half. Then there was the chase down block on a Kentucky layup attempt less than 30 seconds later.
He has been awfully impressive of late.
One area, though, Musselman needs more in from Chaney is the defensive glass. He has grabbed just eight rebounds through six league games, and five have come on the offensive end, which is great. But Chaney's 4.8 percent defensive rebound rate in SEC play, according to KenPom, has to improve.
"We’ve got to rebound collectively better 1-5, but certainly at our 5 spot we’ve got to get more defensive rebounds," Musselman added. "We’re not asking for more offensive rebounds, but defensively rebounding at that 5 spot, we’ve got to get more productivity."
Another positive for Chaney: Vanderbilt, Kentucky and Mississippi State rebounded just 14.3 percent of missed shots with him in the lineup. That figure jumps to 35.7 percent for lineups that exclude Chaney.
Joe’s scoreless stretches
In back-to-back games Isaiah Joe has buried at least one 3-pointer in the opening minutes, helping Arkansas get off to promising offensive starts against Kentucky and Mississippi State.
Facing the Wildcats, he hit two early 3s, sending the sold-out crowd in Bud Walton Arena into a frenzy. The next time his named was called throughout the building came with 2:29 to play. He disappeared after his second bucket.
As I mentioned following the loss to Kentucky, Joe was held scoreless for a 31-minute, 21-second stretch, missing all seven shots and all five 3-point attempts. He finished with 13 points, adding seven in the final three minutes, on 4 of 14 shooting.
Joe doesn't usually stay down long beyond the arc, and a bounce-back game Wednesday seemed probable. He did knock down his first 3 from the top of the key, tying the game 3-3. Joe, though, went on to miss his final seven 3s and 11 of his last 12 shots.
Again, the sophomore was held down for a significant period of time - 25 minutes, 15 seconds to be exact. Joe's second score came with 10:31 remaining, then he went 0 of 3 from the floor the rest of the way.
Musselman noted Thursday that the Bulldogs' defensive adjustments played a big role in Joe's struggles and scoring absence.
“Mississippi State put (Reggie) Perry, who is a 4-5 man, on our off guard, and then they’re going smaller on Mason and Isaiah," he said. "We’ve got to create ... if we’re going to play a smaller unit, which we are, we’ve got to create mismatches to our advantage. (Wednesday), we didn’t take advantage of certain matchups.
“That’s got to be something that as a staff and as a group we’ve got to figure out, because when we have taken advantage of mismatches it’s worked positively for us. That’s something going forward that we’ve got to continue to figure out.”
Arkansas was outscored by 16 points when Joe was in the lineup at Mississippi State, and the Razorbacks are minus-29 with Joe on the floor in their three SEC losses, shooting 23.2 percent from 3 as well.
Slotted at No. 31 in The Athletic's Sam Vecenie's latest 2020 NBA Mock Draft, Joe is expected to produce on a night-in, night-out basis, and the Razorbacks often struggle offensively when he doesn't chip in - unless, you know, Mason Jones or Jimmy Whitt completely take over.
Yes, Joe is 4 of 19 from 3-point range since last Saturday, which is a bit concerning, but he also isn't providing much inside the arc either. He has hit just 1 of 9 2-point attempts since Jan. 15, which followed a 6 of 9 stretch against LSU and Ole Miss.
Are Joe's legs simply tired? It's certainly possible given that he has played 90.5 percent of available minutes this season.
Cylla sees role increase
Grad transfer Jeantal Cylla had become something of an afterthought as the Razorbacks entered SEC play.
He saw the floor for only 10 minutes the entire month of December, and he didn't play in Arkansas' win at Indiana on Dec. 29. Cylla then got one minute of run against Texas A&M and LSU, leaving most to believe that if the 6-7 forward hadn't yet received significant time then he probably wouldn't moving forward.
Well, that's until Arkansas was bullied on the glass in Baton Rouge to the tune of a 53-24 deficit.
At Ole Miss, Cylla played his first meaningful minutes in quite some time, and while he failed to provide much of an offensive lift, he did rebound well, grabbing five boards in 11 first-half minutes. That is what Musselman hoped for.
On Wednesday, the former UNC-Wilmington regular played 17 minutes, his most in a game since Nov. 16 against Montana. And, finally, he flashed an offensive game, finishing with the left hand at the rim and knocking down a left-corner 3. He has hit two 3s this season, both in the left corner.
Cylla recorded two rebounds in the loss and also dished out his first assist of the season after 15 games played. It led to a Chaney layup with 55 seconds left in the first half.
"I thought Cylla did a phenomenal job," Musselman said Wednesday. "I thought he was awesome in his minutes played. ... I think it was good for him to build his confidence up."
In the seven games in which Cylla has played 10-plus minutes this season, he has helped Arkansas limit opponents to .65 points per possession and 11.1 percent from 3-point range over 216 defensive possessions, according to HoopLens. That's a good mark.
And it was also a good sign for him to find success on the offensive end at Mississippi State. The Razorbacks certainly need more production from their bench as the grind of SEC play approaches.
Team 3-point shooting
After downing Texas A&M 69-59 in Bud Walton Arena to begin conference play on Jan. 4, it appeared Arkansas was in a rhythm beyond the arc as a group.
The Razorbacks had made 10-plus 3s in four consecutive games and nine or more in six straight. That run followed a stretch in which Arkansas shot 28 percent or worse from distance six games in a row.
Aside from an 8 of 20 effort at Ole Miss, Arkansas' 3-point shooting has been iffy at best in SEC play, and it now sits at 30.7 percent for the season, which ranks 280th nationally. The Razorbacks have shot the same percentage in league games, placing them ninth out of 14 teams and behind the likes of Tennessee, Missouri and the Aggies.
“The bottom line is now we've got to figure out how to make some shots,” Musselman said Thursday. “We are one of the worst 3-point shooting teams in the league, we are one of the worst 3-point shooting teams in the country and we are one of the worst rebounding teams in the country. So, we’ve got to figure out how in some way to shoot the ball better."
The only SEC teams worse beyond the arc than Arkansas this season are Georgia, Texas A&M and the Volunteers. Desi Sills has made just 21.3 percent of his 75 attempts while Jones and Joe sit at 33 and 34.4 percent, respectively. Together, that group is 31.4 percent from 3 in conference play, and the rest of the roster is 5 of 19.
Joe, one of the highest-volume 3-point shooters in the country, has connected on 44.4 percent of his 3s in Arkansas' conference wins and a troubling 21.4 percent in the three league losses. Jones, too, is 4 of 21 over the last four games.
“It’s up to our staff to continue to tinker and get guys more wide-open looks, and it’s up to our players," Musselman said. "They have to shoot the ball with confidence as well.”
Entering Saturday, this Arkansas group is on track to be the program's worst 3-point shooting team since 2012-13.
Lookahead to TCU
Prior to hosting Kentucky last weekend, Musselman remarked that the Razorbacks were about to begin what he and his staff believed to be the toughest stretch of the 2019-20 schedule.
It obviously included the top-10 Wildcats, a suddenly hot Mississippi State club on the road, and TCU, which visits Fayetteville on Saturday for the Big 12/SEC Challenge. The Horned Frogs, led by longtime Pittsburgh coach Jamie Dixon, have had an up-and-down year, but comes in on a positive - a 65-54 win over Texas Tech on Tuesday.
Desmond Bane, TCU's go-to offensive weapon, scored a game-high 27 points against the Red Raiders, joining an elite list of players to add 25-plus points against a Chris Beard-coached Texas Tech defense. It includes Josh Jackson, Frank Mason and Davonte Graham of Kansas, Trae Young of Oklahoma and West Virginia guard Jevon Carter, among others.
Bane has taken 25.5 percent of the Horned Frogs' shots when on the floor this season and is shooting 43.5 percent from 3-point range - 49 percent in Big 12 play.
TCU is impressive defensively, too, and will challenge Arkansas on that end. It holds a defensive efficiency rating of 92.3 for the season, which ranks 34th nationally, per KenPom. That mark is aided by a turnover rate of 23.5 percent. Bane leads the team in that regard as well.
RJ Nembhard, a 6-5 shooting guard, is capable of a big scoring night. He added 31 points in an overtime win over Iowa State to begin conference play, and he also has five games with five or more assists.
Kevin Samuel, who has started all 54 games in his college career, is a 6-11 forward the Razorbacks must keep off the glass. According to KenPom, he is grabbing a team-high 13.6 percent of TCU's missed shots. That mark ranks 46th nationally.
Staring a potential three-game losing streak in the face, the Horned Frogs rebounded from consecutive blowout losses to Oklahoma and West Virginia with an impressive win over Texas Tech. Arkansas finds itself in a similar situation on Saturday.
Musselman has never lost three in a row as a college head coach, and he is 17-1 in home games at Nevada and Arkansas following a loss. He believes his guys will bounce back. They have been in this position before.
Saturday should be fun, and the Razorbacks have a shot to play a key role in what is perceived to be a big weekend for the conference.