HawgBeat - Takeaways, notes, stats from Arkansas' 72-71 win over Kansas
HawgBeat provides takeaways, notes, quotes, stats and more from Arkansas' 72-71 win over the Kansas Jayhawks.
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The Arkansas Razorbacks shocked the 1-seed Kansas Jayhawks with a 72-71 second round NCAA Tournament victory on Saturday at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa.
Led by head coach Eric Musselman and junior guard Davonte Davis, the Razorbacks advanced to their third straight Sweet Sixteen for the first time since 1994-96.
Here's HawgBeat's takeaways, notes, quotes, observations, stats and more from the Razorbacks' incredible win over the Jayhawks:
What a game
Saturday's game featured high-level basketball from both teams who wanted it badly until the final buzzer. In the end, it was the clutch play of Arkansas junior guards Davonte Davis and Ricky Council IV that helped propel the Razorbacks to the upset.
Davis scored 21 second half points before fouling out with less than two minutes to play. Without Davis on the floor, Council took initiative and his free throw shooting down the stretch made a difference.
Council went to the line with 23 seconds remaining, hit the first shot and missed the second with Arkansas ahead 68-67. The transfer guard from Wichita State had the ball somehow get back to him and he drove the paint to draw another foul. After hitting both of the ensuing free throws, he put the Hogs up by three to ice the game with 20 seconds to go.
"Yeah, obviously I didn't want to miss, spinned off," Council said. "I think Jordan (Walsh) hustled, got a tip and I remember it tipping off of Jalen Wilson and it coming right to me and I was like, either I can attack this, because I was literally at the free throw line when I got it or I could pull it out. I just decided to attack. I knew worst-case scenario I was probably going to get fouled. I made both of those so I think it was up 3 after that."
Wilson hit a pair of free throws for Kansas to cut the Arkansas lead to one with eight seconds to play, but a quick inbounds pass to Council was followed by a foul and he hit two more freebies to ice the game again.
"The clutch free throw shooting by Ricky, 10 of 11 in the game, the second-chance points was a big part of our win today," Musselman said. "Kamani, six offensive rebounds, 10 rebounds, and then the play of Devo Davis taking the ball to the basket and middle pick-and-roll, his defense all game and then once he fouled out we were able to, you know, win."
Council's free throws were just enough in the end, but they wouldn't have meant as much without the play of Davis, who scored 25 and came up just one point shy of tying a career-high. The leader of this Arkansas team, Davis was emotional in a postgame interview on the CBS broadcast.
"This team has struggled," Davis said. "And we figured it out. And I'm glad we did at the right time. And hopefully we continue to do it."
Also adding eight rebounds in the game, Davis was good driving, shooting off balance and going to the rim from either side.
"Devo with his snake dribble, going right, coming back left, swinging hook shot, off the wrong foot, pretty amazing, but he does it all the time," Musselman said.
The difference
The first half featured about as even of a game as it comes aside from a few things.
Both teams took 28 shots from the field, made just one three, were 6-of-8 from the free throw line and Arkansas held a slight plus-two advantage in the rebounding department.
What allowed Kansas to possess an 8-point lead at halftime was a plus-eight advantage in the paint and six fastbreak points compared to none from Arkansas. Four steals by the Jayhawks helped them get out in transition and fully take advantage of the Razorbacks' mistakes early.
After the Jayhawks grew their lead to as much as 12 early in the second half, something had to change for the Razorbacks.
"Didn't play defense as well as we normally do but we wanted to create more pace in the second half and certainly did that scoring 45 points," Musselman said.
Arkansas consistently battled in the paint and it did something it hasn't done for much of the year: made shots down the stretch. Davis was a big factor in that, as was Council and even Makhi Mitchell added a couple of big layups.
What it seems to have come down to in the end was the want to from this Razorback squad. Musselman said after the game that the team put in extra effort to prepare for Saturday's matchup.
"These guys didn't have hardly anytime off between our last game and I didn't want to come shoot today," Musselman said. "Not many teams shot today, they gave up their practice time. So I told them, hey, guys, let's do a walk-through and film and I can walk you through what we need to and Ricky and Devo stood up and said no, Coach, we want to go to the gym and I said I was worried about legs and they said, nope."
Musselman said the team used all of its allotted time for shootaround Saturday, and that benefited them. Though their field goal shooting percentage of 41.4% in the game was less than Kansas' 48.0%, Arkansas was 21-of-26 from the free throw line and it out-rebounded the Jayhawks by seven.
"We have guys that have insane buy-in, incredible buy-in," Musselman said. "Like I said, we're still practicing today with the short turnaround and an early game and guys have played a lot of minutes but, you know, they felt like going on the floor today would help them or put them in a better position to win.
"I feel fortunate to coach this team, last year's team, high character guys that hate to lose and really compete. Start of conference play didn't look good for us and we kinda hung around and won some big games and lost some really tough games against some really good competition."
Don't listen to the noise
The first half was a struggle and after the first four minutes, it seemed like Arkansas was going to get crushed. Even after going down by 12 to start the second half, it still seemed like Arkansas just couldn't compete with the Jayhawks. Well, don't tell the Razorbacks that.
Arkansas fought and clawed its way back into the game thanks to the likes of Davis, Council, Walsh and others. They didn't get down when questionable calls were made or Kansas hit incredible shots that felt like back-breakers.
"We told everybody, don't listen to the noise," Musselman said. "Worry about what's going on internally in this locker room and let's just keep getting better. Like I said, I thought our Illinois game was as good of a game we played. I thought tonight in the second half we played as good of a game as we have all year."
Given how many close losses the Razorbacks had this year, to win a nail-biter against a 1-seed in the NCAA Tournament was impressive. Though it was surprising to a lot, Musselman continues to push the narrative that his team is still learning and getting better.
"I've continued to tell the guys internally and I've continued to tell the staff that we are a team that continues to get better," Musselman said. "That just doesn't happen this time of year, but because of all the circumstances that have happened, we're still evolving, we're still adding offensive plays, we're still adding defensive coverages. We're an evolving basketball team and I feel fortunate these guys buy into the prep."
The Head Hog said Saturday's win was as good as any he's ever been part of.
"I've been coaching a long time, that's as great of a win as I've ever been a part of," Musselman said. "Again, because of the history of Kansas, because of some of the their veteran players that were part of a championship team last year. A lot of people didn't think we were going to win our first-round game."
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