During his post-game radio show Saturday, Texas A&M coach Buzz Williams looked over a stat sheet that showed numbers indicating his team shouldn’t have won Saturday’s game against visiting Arkansas.
But that is what happened as the Aggies (13-2, 2-0 SEC) rallied from an early 11-point deficit, dominated the middle portion of the game then held for an 86-81 win over the Razorbacks (10-5, 0-3).
It was Texas A&M’s sixth straight win and Arkansas’ fifth loss in six games since a 9-0 start.
“You probably can’t give up 20 offensive rebounds and win another game this whole year,” William said. “You can’t shoot 53% (16 of 30) from the free throw line and expect to win a game. All the numbers say it should have been a loss, but the things that you can’t count is why it was a win and I’m thankful."
Quenton Jackson had 16 points, Henry Coleman III 14, Andre Gordon 13 and Wade Taylor 11 in the game, but Williams pointed to the play of Javonte Brown and Hassan Diarra, who had two free throws that sealed the game.
Brown got several minutes of action in the first half when former Razorbacks forward Ethan Henderson, Coleman and Tyrece Radford all were in foul trouble and the Aggies fell down 20-9.
“JB hasn’t played a minute since Dallas Christian (on Dec. 27), but his attitude over that 10- or 12-day span has been better than it’s ever been,” Williams said. “I thought what he did in the first half completely changed the game. JB, I bet he wasn’t even on the scouting report. I thought he completely changed the game.
“And then Has, he doesn’t play a minute in the second half, but we are not closing the game down properly. I tell Has, 'They are going to foul you. Make both free throws and the game’s over.'”
Williams was also high on the program’s prep for Arkansas, which was led by JD Notae’s season-high 33 points.
“I think our staff has been as good as any staff I have been on in terms of working ahead and being able to instill the lowest common denominator that (we are) going to present to the team,” Williams said. “Not 19,000 things, but just one. Here is the biggest one and here is the second biggest one. I think the preparation going into Thursday and Friday was superb by the players and our staff.”
Williams knew of two main factors his team needed to be ready for from the Razorbacks, but it didn’t help early.
“You know they’re the 17th-fastest team in the country and they get fouled the 10th most in the country and that’s a dangerous combination,” Williams said. “I think the thing that hurt us in the first half, we had zero offensive rebounds. And to start the game, like the first five or six minutes they rebounded every missed shot that they had. We were kind of back on our heels relative to being able to guard the bounce and playing with physicality.
“I think we adjusted and I think our execution in the half court was really good. The guys shared the ball. I don’t know how many turnovers we had, but our turnover rate was just good enough to give us a chance. If we had just scored better from the free throw line that would have helped us.”
Williams felt like his team fought back from Arkansas’ hot start. It led 37-35 at halftime and raced to a 65-48 lead midway through the second half with 11:01 left. The Razorbacks rallied and cut it to 79-78 with 1:08 left on Notae’s mid-range jumper.
“I thought we absorbed their punch the first six minutes,” Williams said. “I thought our guys played with incredible fight to close the half down. I thought we played really well in the second half. We didn’t finish the game the want you want to finish in the right way, but we did do enough to win.
"That’s a huge win for our program.”