FAYETTEVILLE — With his hair drenched following Arkansas’ locker room celebration, Eric Musselman stepped away from the laptop on which he conducted his postgame interview Wednesday and relayed one final message to Jaylin Williams.
Williams was next in line to speak to reporters after the No. 20 Razorbacks’ convincing 81-66 victory over No. 6 Alabama in Bud Walton Arena.
“You did a great job,” Musselman said. “Great job.”
In the biggest game of his basketball career, the freshman forward brought his A-game for Arkansas. In his 22 minutes off the bench, Williams finished with a career-high 13 points and eight rebounds.
He had one point and no rebounds at halftime.
“It’s a great feeling knowing that’s how I want to be,” Williams said. “I want to be a guy that comes in and can change the game if we need it. That’s a great feeling.
“I’m happy — happy that we won.”
Given that the Crimson Tide play at one of the fastest paces in the country and often floor position-less lineups, the mobile Williams’ presence and production was critical for the Razorbacks, who have now matched the program’s longest SEC winning streak since 1994.
In his time on the floor, Arkansas outscored Alabama by 30 points, including by 21 in the second half. His hustle plays, toughness on the interior and shot making proved invaluable.
“It probably is unheard of in 22 minutes,” Musselman said of Williams' plus-minus figure. “He’s a great player. He’s not a good player. He keeps getting better. Early in the year he was patient.
“I’m sure internally he was getting anxious to play more, but he kept working on his game.”
The Razorbacks led 39-38 at halftime, but a 7-0 Alabama run in the opening two minutes of the second half quickly shifted momentum in its favor. Out of a Musselman timeout, Williams checked in for 7-3 forward Connor Vanover, and the freshman went to work.
During a decisive 17-2 run that pushed a six-point Arkansas deficit to a nine-point lead, Williams contributed 10 points, which in itself would have been good for a career high. He converted on a pair of post-up chances, a layup assisted by Davonte Davis then knocked down a free throw line jumper.
One post-up score was over 6-5 guard John Petty and the other was against 6-10 forward Jordan Bruner.
“Offensively, we really posted him up,” Musselman said. “I thought us punching it into him when they had a smaller defender on him was really effective for us. Any time you can post up, it slows down an opponent’s transition game as well, because when you take long shots they lead to long rebounds and the other team’s running the other way.”
Williams appears to be coming into his own. Against Florida and Alabama, the Razorbacks have outscored their opponent 93-51 with the forward on the floor.
Five times this season he has finished with seven-plus rebounds in 23 minutes or less.
The numbers in the final box score don’t do his play justice, though, said Moses Moody, who scored a game-high 24 points and 16 of 19 at the line against Alabama.
“He does all the dirty work, all the little things and that show with plus-minus ratios and things like that,” Moody said. “That starts to show how he impacts the game even if it's not always points or assists or rebounds or all that. He's going to do all that, too.
“He's a big difference-maker."
The Crimson Tide could have clinched the SEC regular season title Wednesday with a win over the Razorbacks. Williams said that was discussed in practices leading into the game and before the game.
“We knew what we had to do,” he said. “We knew we had to come in here with some energy, couldn’t get down early because they’re such a streaky team. They can get hot and make a run, and we just didn’t want to give them that.
“We had to show them we’re a different ball team than we were in the (first meeting).”