Razorbacks Basketball Report

Moody has Alabama’s full attention

Arkansas guard Moses Moody (5) passes the ball during a game against Georgia on Jan. 9, 2021, in Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville.

FAYETTEVILLE — About the only positive for the University of Arkansas basketball team in a 90-59 loss at Alabama on Jan. 16 was the play of Moses Moody.

The Razorbacks’ 6-6 freshman guard from Little Rock scored a season-high 28 points and hit 10 of 25 shots.

Excluding Moody, Arkansas shot 28.9% from the field (11 of 38).

“The rest of the team, we did a pretty good job on,” Alabama Coach Nate Oats said. “Moody killed us.”

Moody is projected as a first-round pick in the 2021 NBA Draft by most analysts and some have him as a lottery selection.

“They’ve got him going in the lottery. I can definitely see why,” Oats said. “He’s super talented. He scores it every possible way you can. He hits threes, hits pull-ups, finishes at the rim, scores in transition, handles it in ball screens, comes off screens, plays in isolation.”

Moody is averaging 16.2 points and 5.6 rebounds going into tonight’s rematch against Alabama.

“We’ve got some guys that want to play in the NBA, and should be playing in the NBA,” Oats said. “Well, this kid’s supposed to be a lottery pick, which we certainly helped all those projections the last time we played him.

“So our guys that want to play [in the NBA] need to step up and meet the challenge and do a better job of guarding him than we did the last time for sure.”

Late cancellation

The Razorbacks were packing up their bus to drive to the airport to fly to College Station, Texas, last Friday when Coach Eric Musselman got the news Arkansas’ game at Texas A&M had been postponed because of covid-19 issues within the Aggies’ program.

“The thing that is overly frustrating is nobody knows — unless you’re in our practice gym — what we do for a game prep,” Musselman said Monday night on his radio show. “That means film sessions pre-practice. That means film sessions after practice. That means all the 1-on-1 stations, 2-on-2, 3-on-3, 5-on-5. Full court, half court, pick-and-roll coverages. Learning their personnel in meetings individually with the coach.

“It’s exhausting to do a prep. To finally have the prep done, the book’s closed on this prep, and then you get a call that the game’s not going to happen. It’s tough, and it’s happened twice now with the same team.”

Arkansas’ game against Texas A&M scheduled for Feb. 6 in Walton Arena also was postponed because of the Aggies’ covid-19 issues.

“Look, the covid thing, really difficult for each and every program, really difficult for the league,” Musselman said. “But we’d like to find out [earlier if a game can be played]. Maybe it can’t. Maybe that’s just how this virus happens.

“But now twice we’ve been unable to get another game in. The first time, I thought maybe LSU would come here, because they were off and we were off, and we both found out on Friday [Feb. 5]. But I guess we couldn’t come up with a game on Saturday or Sunday for whatever reason.”

Tide tough

Alabama has a 5-1 SEC road record, best in the conference, and its stake to making a run at the regular-season title was planted early.

The Crimson Tide notched a 71-63 win at preseason SEC favorite Tennessee in their first SEC road game Jan. 2. Alabama also won at Auburn (94-90), then raised eyebrows with an 85-65 victory at Rupp Arena on Jan. 12 to improve to 5-0 in league play.

Alabama turned in perhaps its most stunning performance Jan. 19, crushing LSU 105-75 in Baton Rouge with the help of 23 of 43 (53.5%) three-point shooting. Alabama led 23-4 and 40-16 in the first half after making 10 three-point shots in the first 10:21.

Alabama finally met its match at Missouri on Feb. 6, as the Tigers won 68-65. Missouri built as much as a 22-point lead in the second half and still led 64-44 with 6:13 remaining before having to hold off a furious Alabama rally.

Strangely, Alabama has played only two SEC road games — the loss at Missouri and an 81-78 victory at South Carolina on Feb. 9 — since the shocker at LSU more than a month ago.

Guard time

With freshman guard Davonte Davis’ minutes going up in recent weeks, the playing time and productivity for veterans Desi Sills and JD Notae have dipped.

Notae, the team’s second-leading leading scorer with 12.5 points per game, hit double figures in 11 of the first 12 games, but only three times in the past nine games. In his last four games, Notae is shooting 7 of 25 (28%), including 2 of 9 (22%) from three-point range, while averaging 6 ppg and 17 minutes per game.

Sills is fifth in scoring at 9.6 ppg, but he’s averaging 3 ppg in the past five, including scoreless outings against Mississippi State (when he suffered a shoulder stinger after a fall) and Florida in the Razorbacks’ last game. He’s averaging just over 10 mpg in the past four.

Davis, who is averaging 7.2 ppg, has played 25-plus minutes in five of the past six games and is averaging 11 ppg in that span.

Series update

Alabama snapped a six-game losing streak in the series with its 90-59 rout of the Razorbacks on Jan. 16 in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

Arkansas leads the series by a 35-29 margin and is ahead 28-26 since joining the SEC for the 1991-92 season. The Razorbacks have won four consecutive games vs. Alabama at Walton Arena and are 19-6 at home in the series.

The Razorbacks’ loss to the Crimson Tide was their last SEC setback, and they’ve reeled off seven consecutive games in league play since.

Tide dive

Alabama has lofty national stat rankings in several categories, mostly revolving around three-point shooting, but is also the polar opposite in a few other departments.

The Crimson Tide are No. 3 nationally with 10.9 made three-pointers per game and 694 three-pointers taken. They are fourth with 250 three-pointers made, sixth with 926 rebounds and eighth with 196 steals. All of those statistics lead the SEC. The Tide’s 36% shooting from three-point range also leads the SEC and is 74th in the country.

Alabama also tops the SEC in defensive efficiency with 38.9% field-goal defense and 25.5% three-point defense.

However, Alabama is 324th (out of 340 teams) with 425 fouls committed, 309th with 327 turnovers and 233rd with 14.2 turnovers per game.

Guard John Petty Jr. is 42nd with 146 three-point shots, second only to LSU’s Cameron Thomas (152) in the SEC. Petty is 59th nationally with 38.4% three-point shooting, again second in the SEC behind LSU’s Javonte Smart (45%) among qualifiers.