Tons of stuff - more than 2,600 words - from the Hogs' historic win over No. 1 Auburn...
arkansas.rivals.com
FAYETTEVILLE — Auburn players danced on the Razorback logo during pregame, but Arkansas fans were the ones celebrating on the court after Tuesday’s game.
For just the second time in school history, the Razorbacks beat the No. 1 team in the country, taking down the Tigers 80-76 in overtime in front of a record crowd at Bud Walton Arena.
The result snapped Auburn’s 19-game winning streak - plus was its first SEC loss of the year - and gave Arkansas its ninth straight win.
“We didn’t like that,” Jaylin Williams said about Auburn’s pregame antics. “That was disrespect to us. Before the game, we saw it. They played it in the locker room. Like, not in Bud. We can’t allow that. Just the extra disrespect, they added fuel to the fire and we wanted to get them back.”
Early on, it seemed like the Razorbacks might run away with it. They whipped the crowd into a frenzy by racing out to a 12-point lead in the first half, but Auburn ended the half on a 10-1 run to pull it within three at halftime.
It was a one-possession game for all but 33 seconds in a wild second half that featured 13 ties and 13 lead changes.
Wendell Green Jr. made three straight shots to briefly give the Tigers a 64-59 lead with 2:40 remaining, but Arkansas managed to fight back and tie it up with five free throws - the last two of which were made by JD Notae after he picked Green’s pocket near midcourt and was fouled on a fast-break layup.
“I'd just seen he'd been turning his back the whole game,” Notae said. “And I just waited ’til he just turned his back so he couldn't see me to go rip it from behind.”
After another layup by Green put Auburn back on top, the Razorbacks answered on the other end. Notae drove on Walker Kessler and found Williams on the block. Even though he didn’t catch it cleanly, the big man recovered and finished to tie the game at 66-66 with 22.4 seconds remaining.
“I’m pretty sure he had Kessler on him at that (time) and I thought he was just going to take him to the basket and get a bucket,” Williams said. “I had K.D. (Johnson) on me, so I sealed him and JD got past him and he dropped it off to me and I finished.”
Rather than calling a timeout, the Tigers settled for a deep 3 by Green, who never passed the ball on the final possession of regulation.
Once in overtime, Auburn made a pair of layups sandwiched around a Notae 3-pointer. Arkansas sealed the victory at the charity stripe, scoring its final 11 points on free throws.
When Kessler fouled out going for a rebound Williams had already secured with 1:03 left in overtime, the sellout crowd started to feel it. Williams made both free throws to make it a two-possession game.
Despite a couple of 3-pointers by Jabari Smith in the final 30 seconds, Arkansas made just enough free throws to hold off the Tigers — aided by Williams grabbing an offensive rebound following a miss that otherwise would have given Auburn the ball with 12 seconds and down just three.
“Coach Muss said it earlier when we were in practice when we do our free-throw shooting, he told us this game will come down to free-throws, and that's what happened,” Notae said. “We stepped up to the line and made it.”
Arkansas, which received the second-most votes of any team outside the AP top-25 poll, improved to 19-5 overall and 8-3 in SEC play, while Auburn dropped to 22-2 and 10-1 in SEC play. Both of the Tigers’ losses this season have come in overtime.
“I was proud to be No. 1,” Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl said. “Gosh, we haven’t lost since some time in November. We understand the price is on our head. It’s very difficult on the road. Congratulations to Arkansas.”
Here are several other key takeaways from Tuesday’s game…
Notae’s Performance
Although he led the team in scoring, Notae did not have a particularly good shooting night in Arkansas’ win over Mississippi State on Saturday. He was just 4 of 16 from the floor and missed all six of his 3-point attempts while scoring 14 points.
It was a quiet game for the SEC’s leading scorer, but his teammates knew he’d bounce back in a big way against Auburn.
“I texted him after the last game (and) said, ‘JD, stay confident in yourself. We need you this game. We need you this game coming up. We know what you can do. Stay confident and come out there and play your game,’” Williams said. “We all knew what he was going to do when he came out here.”
Sure enough, Notae dropped 28 points on the Tigers, including a 3-pointer in overtime and several clutch free throws down the stretch. It was the most points an Arkansas player has ever scored against a No. 1 team, surpassing Rickey Medlock’s 27 points against UCLA in 1973.
Considering he’s from Covington, Ga., and seven of Auburn’s players are also from the Peach State, Notae felt comfortable in the big environment.
“Being aggressive, staying true to who I am and just not being afraid to go down there with the big dogs,” Notae said. “I played against them when I was growing up, so it was just like another day to me.”
Notae still wasn’t super efficient, shooting 7 of 20 from the floor and 3 of 9 from deep, but he also drew eight fouls and went 11 of 14 from the free throw line.
The performance increased his scoring average to 19.1 points. He came into the game tied with Vanderbilt’s Scotty Pippen Jr. for the league lead, but Pipped had just 19 points in the Commodores’ win over Missouri and is now averaging 18.7 points.
“He just puts so much pressure on the defense because of his ability to get shots up,” head coach Eric Musselman said. “It's hard to get a shot up against a team that good defensively and that well coached. He was able to do that for us.”
On top of his scoring, Notae had 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 4 blocks and 3 steals. According to Stats by STATS, the only other player to score at least 25 points with 5-plus rebounds and at least 3 assists, blocks and steals against an AP top-10 opponent in the last 25 years was Texas’ Kevin Durant, who did it against No. 6 Texas A&M on Feb. 5, 2007.
Battle on the Boards
Had it not been for Auburn’s rebounding ability, Arkansas might have run away with a win Tuesday night.
Despite trailing by three at the half, the Tigers whipped the Razorbacks on the boards in the first half. They were plus-16 and grabbed 11 offensive rebounds, which they turned into 12 of their 25 total points.
“I just told the guys you’re not playing if you don’t rebound,” Musselman said. “At halftime, that was the only strategic thing. There was nothing else we could talk about. … We were getting stops and then were blowing saves.”
Musselman admitted that Auburn had some size advantages because he wanted to space the floor a little bit by using a smaller lineup than usual. Starter Trey Wade, who stands 6-foot-6, 220 pounds, played just six minutes and 6-foot-7 Kamani Johnson chipped in just 12 minutes.
By contrast, Kessler is 7-foot-1, Smith is 6-foot-10 and Dylan Cardwell is 6-foot-11 for the Tigers.
Even with all of that size, Arkansas limited Auburn to a plus-2 rebounding margin after halftime. The Razorbacks were minus-1 in the second half and minus-1 in overtime, with the Tigers notching just two second-chance points in the extra period.
“We knew we weren’t going to win if they continued to get second and third and fourth opportunities,” Musselman said. “I thought we did a good job scrapping out some rebounds.”
For the game, Arkansas was minus-18. It’s just the fifth time in 12 years the Razorbacks have won a game when finishing minus-18 or worse on the boards. Three of those wins have come under Musselman.
“For us to be down that much on the rebounding count and us still win against a really great team like that, that’s honestly crazy to me,” Williams said. “But of course we’ve got to do better with that next time.”
Double Double-Doubles
Rebounds were tough to come by, but Arkansas still managed to have two player finish with double-doubles Tuesday night.
Williams had 13 points and 11 rebounds to record his sixth double-double in 10 games. He’s averaging 13.4 points and 10.5 rebounds over that span.
The other double-double was a bit more surprising, as Au’Diese Toney notched his first since the opener against Mercer. The Pitt transfer had 14 points and 10 rebounds.
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of Toney’s performance was that half of his rebounds came on the offensive end, grabbing all five in the second half after the Razorbacks had none in the first half.
“Au'Diese has a nose for the ball,” Musselman said. “He's really hard to keep off the offensive glass. I thought he did a great job.”
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HawgBeat - Key takeaways, box score from Arkansas' 80-76 OT win over No. 1 Auburn
HawgBeat brings you several key takeaways from Arkansas' upset win over No. 1 Auburn on Tuesday.
arkansas.rivals.com
FAYETTEVILLE — Auburn players danced on the Razorback logo during pregame, but Arkansas fans were the ones celebrating on the court after Tuesday’s game.
For just the second time in school history, the Razorbacks beat the No. 1 team in the country, taking down the Tigers 80-76 in overtime in front of a record crowd at Bud Walton Arena.
The result snapped Auburn’s 19-game winning streak - plus was its first SEC loss of the year - and gave Arkansas its ninth straight win.
“We didn’t like that,” Jaylin Williams said about Auburn’s pregame antics. “That was disrespect to us. Before the game, we saw it. They played it in the locker room. Like, not in Bud. We can’t allow that. Just the extra disrespect, they added fuel to the fire and we wanted to get them back.”
Early on, it seemed like the Razorbacks might run away with it. They whipped the crowd into a frenzy by racing out to a 12-point lead in the first half, but Auburn ended the half on a 10-1 run to pull it within three at halftime.
It was a one-possession game for all but 33 seconds in a wild second half that featured 13 ties and 13 lead changes.
Wendell Green Jr. made three straight shots to briefly give the Tigers a 64-59 lead with 2:40 remaining, but Arkansas managed to fight back and tie it up with five free throws - the last two of which were made by JD Notae after he picked Green’s pocket near midcourt and was fouled on a fast-break layup.
“I'd just seen he'd been turning his back the whole game,” Notae said. “And I just waited ’til he just turned his back so he couldn't see me to go rip it from behind.”
After another layup by Green put Auburn back on top, the Razorbacks answered on the other end. Notae drove on Walker Kessler and found Williams on the block. Even though he didn’t catch it cleanly, the big man recovered and finished to tie the game at 66-66 with 22.4 seconds remaining.
“I’m pretty sure he had Kessler on him at that (time) and I thought he was just going to take him to the basket and get a bucket,” Williams said. “I had K.D. (Johnson) on me, so I sealed him and JD got past him and he dropped it off to me and I finished.”
Rather than calling a timeout, the Tigers settled for a deep 3 by Green, who never passed the ball on the final possession of regulation.
Once in overtime, Auburn made a pair of layups sandwiched around a Notae 3-pointer. Arkansas sealed the victory at the charity stripe, scoring its final 11 points on free throws.
When Kessler fouled out going for a rebound Williams had already secured with 1:03 left in overtime, the sellout crowd started to feel it. Williams made both free throws to make it a two-possession game.
Despite a couple of 3-pointers by Jabari Smith in the final 30 seconds, Arkansas made just enough free throws to hold off the Tigers — aided by Williams grabbing an offensive rebound following a miss that otherwise would have given Auburn the ball with 12 seconds and down just three.
“Coach Muss said it earlier when we were in practice when we do our free-throw shooting, he told us this game will come down to free-throws, and that's what happened,” Notae said. “We stepped up to the line and made it.”
Arkansas, which received the second-most votes of any team outside the AP top-25 poll, improved to 19-5 overall and 8-3 in SEC play, while Auburn dropped to 22-2 and 10-1 in SEC play. Both of the Tigers’ losses this season have come in overtime.
“I was proud to be No. 1,” Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl said. “Gosh, we haven’t lost since some time in November. We understand the price is on our head. It’s very difficult on the road. Congratulations to Arkansas.”
Here are several other key takeaways from Tuesday’s game…
Notae’s Performance
Although he led the team in scoring, Notae did not have a particularly good shooting night in Arkansas’ win over Mississippi State on Saturday. He was just 4 of 16 from the floor and missed all six of his 3-point attempts while scoring 14 points.
It was a quiet game for the SEC’s leading scorer, but his teammates knew he’d bounce back in a big way against Auburn.
“I texted him after the last game (and) said, ‘JD, stay confident in yourself. We need you this game. We need you this game coming up. We know what you can do. Stay confident and come out there and play your game,’” Williams said. “We all knew what he was going to do when he came out here.”
Sure enough, Notae dropped 28 points on the Tigers, including a 3-pointer in overtime and several clutch free throws down the stretch. It was the most points an Arkansas player has ever scored against a No. 1 team, surpassing Rickey Medlock’s 27 points against UCLA in 1973.
Considering he’s from Covington, Ga., and seven of Auburn’s players are also from the Peach State, Notae felt comfortable in the big environment.
“Being aggressive, staying true to who I am and just not being afraid to go down there with the big dogs,” Notae said. “I played against them when I was growing up, so it was just like another day to me.”
Notae still wasn’t super efficient, shooting 7 of 20 from the floor and 3 of 9 from deep, but he also drew eight fouls and went 11 of 14 from the free throw line.
The performance increased his scoring average to 19.1 points. He came into the game tied with Vanderbilt’s Scotty Pippen Jr. for the league lead, but Pipped had just 19 points in the Commodores’ win over Missouri and is now averaging 18.7 points.
“He just puts so much pressure on the defense because of his ability to get shots up,” head coach Eric Musselman said. “It's hard to get a shot up against a team that good defensively and that well coached. He was able to do that for us.”
On top of his scoring, Notae had 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 4 blocks and 3 steals. According to Stats by STATS, the only other player to score at least 25 points with 5-plus rebounds and at least 3 assists, blocks and steals against an AP top-10 opponent in the last 25 years was Texas’ Kevin Durant, who did it against No. 6 Texas A&M on Feb. 5, 2007.
Battle on the Boards
Had it not been for Auburn’s rebounding ability, Arkansas might have run away with a win Tuesday night.
Despite trailing by three at the half, the Tigers whipped the Razorbacks on the boards in the first half. They were plus-16 and grabbed 11 offensive rebounds, which they turned into 12 of their 25 total points.
“I just told the guys you’re not playing if you don’t rebound,” Musselman said. “At halftime, that was the only strategic thing. There was nothing else we could talk about. … We were getting stops and then were blowing saves.”
Musselman admitted that Auburn had some size advantages because he wanted to space the floor a little bit by using a smaller lineup than usual. Starter Trey Wade, who stands 6-foot-6, 220 pounds, played just six minutes and 6-foot-7 Kamani Johnson chipped in just 12 minutes.
By contrast, Kessler is 7-foot-1, Smith is 6-foot-10 and Dylan Cardwell is 6-foot-11 for the Tigers.
Even with all of that size, Arkansas limited Auburn to a plus-2 rebounding margin after halftime. The Razorbacks were minus-1 in the second half and minus-1 in overtime, with the Tigers notching just two second-chance points in the extra period.
“We knew we weren’t going to win if they continued to get second and third and fourth opportunities,” Musselman said. “I thought we did a good job scrapping out some rebounds.”
For the game, Arkansas was minus-18. It’s just the fifth time in 12 years the Razorbacks have won a game when finishing minus-18 or worse on the boards. Three of those wins have come under Musselman.
“For us to be down that much on the rebounding count and us still win against a really great team like that, that’s honestly crazy to me,” Williams said. “But of course we’ve got to do better with that next time.”
Double Double-Doubles
Rebounds were tough to come by, but Arkansas still managed to have two player finish with double-doubles Tuesday night.
Williams had 13 points and 11 rebounds to record his sixth double-double in 10 games. He’s averaging 13.4 points and 10.5 rebounds over that span.
The other double-double was a bit more surprising, as Au’Diese Toney notched his first since the opener against Mercer. The Pitt transfer had 14 points and 10 rebounds.
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of Toney’s performance was that half of his rebounds came on the offensive end, grabbing all five in the second half after the Razorbacks had none in the first half.
“Au'Diese has a nose for the ball,” Musselman said. “He's really hard to keep off the offensive glass. I thought he did a great job.”
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