Not gonna lie... The final sentence was surreal to type.
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Perhaps it was his dad’s lucky buckeye his mom gave him before the game or maybe his team’s stellar defense had more to do with it, but Eric Musselman and Arkansas are still alive after knocking off yet another No. 1 team Thursday night.
After beating Auburn earlier in the year, the latest upset came on the sport’s biggest stage, as the Razorbacks led for all but 40 seconds in the second half and beat Gonzaga 74-68 at the Chase Center in San Francisco.
The win punched Arkansas’ ticket to a second straight Elite Eight, marking the fourth time in UA history it has reached back-to-back regional finals. It is also the first time in 11 tries that the Razorbacks — who were 9.5-point underdogs — have beaten a 1-seed in the NCAA Tournament since the current seeding format started in 1979.
“I think we're being disrespected the whole year, so it's just another thing for us,” Jaylin Williams said. “We saw that and everything they were saying. We felt like they were dancing before the game.
“That was disrespect to us. We came into the game playing hard and had a chip on our shoulder. Every game we do, and we played hard for 40 minutes, so that's just what we do now.”
Trey Wade made a 3-pointer with about two minutes remaining to put the Razorbacks up by eight, but it seemed like Gonzaga might be able to rally and at least force overtime.
In fact, after cutting their deficit to four and five points on separate occasions in the final 30 seconds, the Bulldogs had two chance to make it a one-possession game, but Au’Diese Toney blocked both of their attempts.
Those proved to be huge plays, as they were sandwiched around a miraculous 3-pointer by Andrew Nembhard that pulled Gonzaga within 68-65 with 16 seconds left.
The Bulldogs couldn’t get over the hump, though, because Arkansas — as it has done so many times this season — hung on down the stretch by finally knocking down its free throws. After starting the game 3 of 8 from the line, the Razorbacks made their final six in the closing seconds to keep the game out of reach.
Toney put the exclamation point on the win by streaking wide open for a dunk just before the buzzer after a long in bounds pass from Williams.
“I saw him the whole time,” Williams said. “I don't think I looked at anybody else. He was wide open. I just waited for a guy to clear, and I threw it to him, and he did his thing.”
Here are several more key takeaways from Arkansas’ upset win over Gonzaga…
Slowing Down Gonzaga
The story of the night was how well the Razorbacks slowed down the Bulldogs’ vaunted offense, which ranked No. 1 in adjusted offensive efficiency on KenPom and near the top of several key statistics.
Gonzaga scored just 68 points on 37.5 percent shooting from the floor and 23.8 percent shooting from beyond the arc. Those were well below its season averages of 87.8 points, 52.6% and 37.4%, respectively.
That was so important that praise for his team’s defense was the first thing out Musselman’s mouth in the postgame press conference.
“I just thought defensively we played so good,” Musselman said. “I thought we did a great job of forcing turnovers — 15 turnovers. Gonzaga is a great passing team. They're extremely unselfish. We held them to nine assists, so that differential of assist to turnovers, we felt like (were) things we wanted to do defensively.”
The Bulldogs actually led by as many as eight points in the first half, but Arkansas used its defense to slowly dig out of that hole. The Razorbacks ended the half on a 13-2 run by holding Gonzaga to 1 of 7 shooting with four turnovers over the final six minutes, taking a 32-29 lead into halftime.
Known for playing at a quick pace, ranking No. 6 in KenPom’s adjusted tempo ratings, Gonzaga still managed to score 17 fast-break points, but Arkansas did limit it some in transition — which was a major goal going into the game.
“We wanted to take away their long outlet passes,” Musselman said. “That was something that we picked up on film when Nembhard would get a head of steam, and Au'Diese met him really, really early away in the back court, and I thought that really helped, and they did a great job of their pitch-ahead sideline and break. We took that away.”
JD Notae said the Razorbacks did a great job of executing that game plan and it had an impact on Gonzaga.
“I fell like Trey Wade did a good job of pressuring that trail man, like Coach said, taking him out of a lot of stuff that they like to do, and then Au'Diese just on Nembhard picking them up early, slowing them down a little bit,” Notae said. “I think they got a little frustrated.”
As he has all year, Toney drew the assignment of guarding Gonzaga’s top guard and that meant defending Nembhard on Thursday.
The Bulldogs’ starting point guard began his career at Florida, where he faced Musselman’s Nevada team in the NCAA Tournament and Musselman’s first Arkansas team. The veteran coach said he referenced clips from those games and opted to put Toney on him instead of Notae.
The result was Nembhard scoring just seven points on 2 of 11 shooting, including 1 of 3 from beyond the arc. It was his second-worst shooting night of the season, but in his worst game (1 of 8 vs. Pepperdine), he had 14 assists with just two turnovers. Against the Razorbacks, he had just three assists with five turnovers.
“I think his length was a factor,” Nembhard said of Toney. “He is athletic. He did a great job just keep pressuring me the whole game.”
Gonzaga’s two big men — Drew Timme and Chet Holmgren — still combined for 36 points on 14 of 28 shooting, but Arkansas made it tough on them all game. Timme, the WCC Player of the Year, had 25 of those points.
“Inside we just wanted to be physical, plain and simple,” Musselman said. “We wanted them to feel bodies. I played in that league. I know what some of the teams are like in that league, and the physicality and the speed that we can play with is just different, and, obviously, they played a really tough schedule early in the season, but it's been a long time in conference play since they faced a team like us.”
Even though Arkansas had the smaller lineup, its athleticism was too much for Gonzaga to handle at times.
“They're very opportunistic, and they're quick-handed, and they're strong,” Gonzaga head coach Mark Few said. “They might not be the tallest, longest team we've played, but they're very strong, so they're able to cover ground. The physicality in the paint I think was a big factor.”
Although he said his team still managed to get some good looks, or shots similar to what it got all year, Few did credit Arkansas’ defense for making it hard on them.
“Their defense was pretty just tough to get any rhythm against,” Few said. “I think we never really got any sort of rhythm in the first or the second half. To me that was the difference in the game, and I felt like we had stretches where we guarded them pretty good. We just couldn't get any rhythm on our offensive end, which is rare for us.”
(Story continues below)
Key takeaways, box score from Arkansas' win over Gonzaga in the Sweet 16
HawgBeat provides all the key takeaways from Arkansas' 74-68 win over Gonzaga in the Sweet 16.
Perhaps it was his dad’s lucky buckeye his mom gave him before the game or maybe his team’s stellar defense had more to do with it, but Eric Musselman and Arkansas are still alive after knocking off yet another No. 1 team Thursday night.
After beating Auburn earlier in the year, the latest upset came on the sport’s biggest stage, as the Razorbacks led for all but 40 seconds in the second half and beat Gonzaga 74-68 at the Chase Center in San Francisco.
The win punched Arkansas’ ticket to a second straight Elite Eight, marking the fourth time in UA history it has reached back-to-back regional finals. It is also the first time in 11 tries that the Razorbacks — who were 9.5-point underdogs — have beaten a 1-seed in the NCAA Tournament since the current seeding format started in 1979.
“I think we're being disrespected the whole year, so it's just another thing for us,” Jaylin Williams said. “We saw that and everything they were saying. We felt like they were dancing before the game.
“That was disrespect to us. We came into the game playing hard and had a chip on our shoulder. Every game we do, and we played hard for 40 minutes, so that's just what we do now.”
Trey Wade made a 3-pointer with about two minutes remaining to put the Razorbacks up by eight, but it seemed like Gonzaga might be able to rally and at least force overtime.
In fact, after cutting their deficit to four and five points on separate occasions in the final 30 seconds, the Bulldogs had two chance to make it a one-possession game, but Au’Diese Toney blocked both of their attempts.
Those proved to be huge plays, as they were sandwiched around a miraculous 3-pointer by Andrew Nembhard that pulled Gonzaga within 68-65 with 16 seconds left.
The Bulldogs couldn’t get over the hump, though, because Arkansas — as it has done so many times this season — hung on down the stretch by finally knocking down its free throws. After starting the game 3 of 8 from the line, the Razorbacks made their final six in the closing seconds to keep the game out of reach.
Toney put the exclamation point on the win by streaking wide open for a dunk just before the buzzer after a long in bounds pass from Williams.
“I saw him the whole time,” Williams said. “I don't think I looked at anybody else. He was wide open. I just waited for a guy to clear, and I threw it to him, and he did his thing.”
Here are several more key takeaways from Arkansas’ upset win over Gonzaga…
Slowing Down Gonzaga
The story of the night was how well the Razorbacks slowed down the Bulldogs’ vaunted offense, which ranked No. 1 in adjusted offensive efficiency on KenPom and near the top of several key statistics.
Gonzaga scored just 68 points on 37.5 percent shooting from the floor and 23.8 percent shooting from beyond the arc. Those were well below its season averages of 87.8 points, 52.6% and 37.4%, respectively.
That was so important that praise for his team’s defense was the first thing out Musselman’s mouth in the postgame press conference.
“I just thought defensively we played so good,” Musselman said. “I thought we did a great job of forcing turnovers — 15 turnovers. Gonzaga is a great passing team. They're extremely unselfish. We held them to nine assists, so that differential of assist to turnovers, we felt like (were) things we wanted to do defensively.”
The Bulldogs actually led by as many as eight points in the first half, but Arkansas used its defense to slowly dig out of that hole. The Razorbacks ended the half on a 13-2 run by holding Gonzaga to 1 of 7 shooting with four turnovers over the final six minutes, taking a 32-29 lead into halftime.
Known for playing at a quick pace, ranking No. 6 in KenPom’s adjusted tempo ratings, Gonzaga still managed to score 17 fast-break points, but Arkansas did limit it some in transition — which was a major goal going into the game.
“We wanted to take away their long outlet passes,” Musselman said. “That was something that we picked up on film when Nembhard would get a head of steam, and Au'Diese met him really, really early away in the back court, and I thought that really helped, and they did a great job of their pitch-ahead sideline and break. We took that away.”
JD Notae said the Razorbacks did a great job of executing that game plan and it had an impact on Gonzaga.
“I fell like Trey Wade did a good job of pressuring that trail man, like Coach said, taking him out of a lot of stuff that they like to do, and then Au'Diese just on Nembhard picking them up early, slowing them down a little bit,” Notae said. “I think they got a little frustrated.”
As he has all year, Toney drew the assignment of guarding Gonzaga’s top guard and that meant defending Nembhard on Thursday.
The Bulldogs’ starting point guard began his career at Florida, where he faced Musselman’s Nevada team in the NCAA Tournament and Musselman’s first Arkansas team. The veteran coach said he referenced clips from those games and opted to put Toney on him instead of Notae.
The result was Nembhard scoring just seven points on 2 of 11 shooting, including 1 of 3 from beyond the arc. It was his second-worst shooting night of the season, but in his worst game (1 of 8 vs. Pepperdine), he had 14 assists with just two turnovers. Against the Razorbacks, he had just three assists with five turnovers.
“I think his length was a factor,” Nembhard said of Toney. “He is athletic. He did a great job just keep pressuring me the whole game.”
Gonzaga’s two big men — Drew Timme and Chet Holmgren — still combined for 36 points on 14 of 28 shooting, but Arkansas made it tough on them all game. Timme, the WCC Player of the Year, had 25 of those points.
“Inside we just wanted to be physical, plain and simple,” Musselman said. “We wanted them to feel bodies. I played in that league. I know what some of the teams are like in that league, and the physicality and the speed that we can play with is just different, and, obviously, they played a really tough schedule early in the season, but it's been a long time in conference play since they faced a team like us.”
Even though Arkansas had the smaller lineup, its athleticism was too much for Gonzaga to handle at times.
“They're very opportunistic, and they're quick-handed, and they're strong,” Gonzaga head coach Mark Few said. “They might not be the tallest, longest team we've played, but they're very strong, so they're able to cover ground. The physicality in the paint I think was a big factor.”
Although he said his team still managed to get some good looks, or shots similar to what it got all year, Few did credit Arkansas’ defense for making it hard on them.
“Their defense was pretty just tough to get any rhythm against,” Few said. “I think we never really got any sort of rhythm in the first or the second half. To me that was the difference in the game, and I felt like we had stretches where we guarded them pretty good. We just couldn't get any rhythm on our offensive end, which is rare for us.”
(Story continues below)
