Analyzing Arkansas' 78-74 loss at Tennessee

Tennessee guard Santiago Vescovi (25) shoots over Arkansas guard Stanley Umude (0) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game Saturday, March 5, 2022, in Knoxville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Wade Payne)

No. 14 Arkansas’ narrow loss at Tennessee was a tale of two halves in more ways than one.

The No. 13 Vols, who shot a putrid 4 of 24 from three-point range in their 58-48 loss to the Razorbacks in Fayetteville two weeks ago, found great comfort beyond the arc at home Saturday and bombed perimeter jumpers on Arkansas. It was reminiscent of the long-range success several of the Razorbacks’ opponents experienced in the nonconference portion of the schedule.

By halftime, Tennessee was 9 of 12 from three. Additionally, Arkansas coach Eric Musselman played nine different Razorbacks as he searched for an offensive spark and ways to slow down a hyper-efficient Vols offense.

Arkansas (24-7, 13-5 SEC) trailed 50-29 at the break. Its largest deficit was 24 points following a pair of threes from must-cover guards on the Tennessee roster. Musselman was so irritated with the state of things that he picked up his fourth technical foul of the season.

The opening 20 minutes from the Razorbacks were a tough watch, much like a number of their games in late December through the first two in January. With forward Jaylin Williams sitting with foul trouble and star guard JD Notae slightly off his game, Arkansas wandered aimlessly on offense and appeared disjointed and without urgency on the defensive end for stretches of the first half.

After halftime, Arkansas resembled the post-Jan. 8 version of itself. The Razorbacks gave Tennessee — which had previously taken down top-10 teams Arizona, Auburn and Kentucky in Thompson-Boling Arena this season — a legitimate scare in the closing minutes.

Behind second-half runs of 14-2 and 16-2, the Razorbacks had a chance to tie the game with less than 15 seconds remaining, but Notae’s off-balance three from the right wing missed. The Vols hit 1 of 2 free throws on the other end to set the final score.

Neither Musselman nor Notae were interested in accepting a moral victory as they spoke to reporters following the team’s second loss in the last 16 games. But they both touched on the endearing quality that has made the Razorbacks a dangerous team as postseason play approaches.

“We discussed (at halftime) that that's not who we are,” Musselman said. “We're a team that plays really, really hard, plays really good defense and competes at an extremely high level.

“I’m really happy with how hard we played in the second half and the toughness that we had. That’s who we’ve been all year. The biggest thing we’ve got to focus on is how do we get ready for a second season.”

Notae added that he felt belief among his teammates even down 20-plus points. The fight Arkansas displayed with its back against the wall in the most hostile road environment it had played in all season, the guard was proud of that.

The Razorbacks outscored Tennessee 45-28 in the second half, turned the Vols over 10 times and limited them to 3 of 6 three-point attempts. No Tennessee player scored more than seven points after halftime.

Notae also got into something of a groove scoring the ball in that stretch. He scored 15 of his 20 points in the second half and had 3 assists, while Williams also added 9 points and 6 rebounds. Most importantly, perhaps, were the contributions of Chris Lykes and Kamani Johnson off the bench.

Lykes scored 10 of his 15 points in the second half and Johnson was relentless in pursuing extra possessions for the Razorbacks. For the game, the Arkansas-Little Rock transfer finished with 6 points and 8 rebounds, including 5 offensive rebounds.

"I thought that was maybe Chris' best game of the year overall for us,” Musselman said. “He was plus-10 and by far our highest plus-minus guy. Then Kamani did a great job on the glass. Coming into the game, if somebody would've said you're going to have 16 offensive rebounds, you're going out-rebound Tennessee, you're going to have less turnovers than Tennessee, you're going to have more steals than a high, high steals team, I would've thought we were going to win the game.

“Thirty free throws is a lot of free throws for Tennessee. Jaylin Williams has never had so many block calls. He had a lot of charges at our place. We lost the game, but we won the game in a lot of categories, for sure."

Lykes hit three three-pointers in the loss — his most since Arkansas’ loss to Hofstra — and his 15 points went down as an individual high in conference play. 

Together they helped fill the void of 6-6 wing Au’Diese Toney, who did not play because of an ankle injury suffered late in the team’s win over LSU on Wednesday. Musselman said he thought Toney would be able to provide 5 to 7 minutes per half, but that did not come to fruition.

His absence was most felt in the first half as the Vols rained in threes.

“He does such a great job with his length,” Musselman said. “You guys saw it; same thing early in the year. When we slid him to the off-guard spot, he's guarding point guards and off guards. It drastically changes who we are from a rebound perspective and from a defense perspective."

The early perimeter barrage, Musselman noted, turned out to be the difference, and Notae concurred. The Vols scored at a 1.316 point-per-possession clip.

In the final 20 minutes, that figure fell to 0.80 PPP.

“We came out slow, just letting them tee up threes and tee up threes and they got out to a good lead,” Notae said. “The first half we didn’t play any defense.”

On to postseason play.