Here's your sign: Hogs strong on glass in win over Bulldogs

FAYETTEVILLE — Mississippi State entered Tuesday’s game at Arkansas ranked No. 6 in the country in offensive rebound rate, according to KenPom analytics.

As his team prepared for the Bulldogs, Arkansas coach Eric Musselman made certain each player on the roster understood the importance of keeping Mississippi State off the offensive glass. There were reminders on the wall in the Basketball Performance Center across the street from Bud Walton Arena.

And there were “DEFENSIVE REBOUND” signs plastered on the wall in the team’s locker room. To further drive the point home, Arkansas’ staff even placed them on players’ cars.

“We planted them all over everywhere, because we felt like that was something we had to do to give ourselves a chance to win,” Musselman said following the Razorbacks’ 61-45 home victory over the Bulldogs.

Arkansas players took the message to heart Tuesday and limited Mississippi State's second-chance opportunities. The Bulldogs shot just 30.6% (15 of 49) and posted their second-lowest offensive rebound rate of the season (21.1%), according to KenPom.

Mississippi State's eight offensive rebounds were tied for its second fewest in a game this season. It finished with five against Vanderbilt and eight against rival Ole Miss.

"It was amazing. We were plus-11 on the glass, and I think that’s incredible against a team that’s top 10 (in rebounding)," said Arkansas forward Connor Vanover, who had 13 points and eight rebounds. "Making their main rebounder only have one rebound and holding all their others to less than they (normally) would I think was really good.

"We had really good buy-in from everybody — me and all of the guards making sure we defensive rebounded."

Vanover noted that each player also received individual sheets with game-specific points of emphasis. His included "toughness, no duck ins and defensive rebounding." Of his eight rebounds, five were on the defensive end.

He was one of three players with five-plus defensive boards, alongside Justin Smith (7) and Davonte Davis (6). Moses Moody chipped in four and JD Notae grabbed three off the bench.

"One of the guys that I worked for in a summer all-star game many years ago with the Nike All-Star team was Hubie Brown, and he always talked about the guards being great rebounders," Musselman said. "It covers up a multitude of things. We don’t want our guys to leak out. Our guards did a good job of folding down, double blocking out. I mean, one of the drill segments we had in practice the last two days was for our guards to go down there and double block out on No. 35 (Tolu) Smith and No. 24 (Abdul) Ado.

"Ado had one rebound. One of the fiercest rebounders in our league had one total rebound. And it wasn’t just our centers that had that impact — it was our guards folding back and double squeezing him on shots that went up for him."

On a night in which Arkansas posted the third-best defensive efficiency rating (60.7) of Musselman's college coaching career, he was also proud of the fact the Bulldogs' starters came away with only two offensive rebounds — both to Smith.

His final offensive board came at the 8:12 mark of the first half. Mississippi State finished with only eight second-chance points in the loss.

"It's something we all knew we had to do, and it was something that we looked forward to doing during this game," said Davis, who grabbed a season-high eight rebounds. "They're one of the top in the country in rebounds per game, so that's something we put a big (emphasis) on and we got the job done.

"Hopefully going into the next game we keep that same energy on the boards."