The Arkansas Razorbacks (19-9, 8-7) controlled the Georgia Bulldogs (16-12, 6-9) from the moment the ball was tipped in the Hogs' 97-65 win inside Bud Walton Arena on Tuesday.
In a game where Nick Smith Jr. made a statement that he has arrived, the Hogs set season-highs in multiple categories and Ricky Council IV provided an incredible spark off the bench.
Here are HawgBeat's takeaways, notes, quotes, observations, efficiency ratings and much more from the Razorbacks' eighth win of conference play.
This Nick Smith Jr. guy is pretty good
Smith earned his second straight start and he looked just fine right from the get-go. The five-star freshman played pesky defense and skied over defenders with his mid-range jumper.
After going 0-of-4 from downtown in Saturday's win over Florida, Smith knocked down his first shot from deep since returning from injury with 9:57 to play in the first half. The bucket put Arkansas ahead by 15 and seemingly gave the highly-touted prospect his mojo back.
"Nick obviously changes who we are with his perimeter shooting," head coach Eric Musselman said. "Tonight his three-balls also opened up other looks for other guys from three range as well."
By halftime, Smith had eight points, which was second to just Ricky Council IV for Arkansas. He played 16 minutes of ball in the first half and the Hogs were plus-15 in his time on the court.
As solid as his first half was, Smith started to feel it even more in the second half. His three ball started to fall and he even went on a quick 8-point run on his own that featured back-to-back deep shots that resulted in an 85-51 Arkansas lead with 4:32 to play.
The McDonald's All-American finished his outing with a career-best 26 points on 9-of-15 shooting from the field and a 5-of-8 performance from three.
"We see him every day from a shooting standpoint," Musselman said. "He’s been coming to Bud Walton on his own at night. I think that’s how you get your rhythm back. You can’t just rely on practice time, because we’ve can’t practice just for Nick when we’ve got guys like AB and Ricky and those guys that have been practicing and grinding."
While the offensive performance from Smith was great, Musselman couldn't help but point out Smith's defense.
"I thought Nick did a phenomenal job in his rearview mirror pick-and-roll coverage and continuing to pursue even when he was behind the ball," Musselman said. "Which our guards get behind the ball with the way that we play it and our bigs do a good job protecting for a second or two, so just really sound, Nick was, defensively for us."
Smith's offensive rating of 142 on KenPom was his best of the season and the five made threes were a career-high.
First half dominance translates to second half
Right from the moment the ball was tipped, Georgia had no shot. Arkansas was faster, stronger, smoother and made less mistakes.
The Hogs got out to an 11-6 lead by the first media timeout, and the next time a break came around, they were up by 10. The lead grew as large as 23 points, and it was up to 20 by halftime.
Arkansas didn't have a turnover until the 2:46 mark in the first half, and it only had two giveaways in the first 20 minutes of play.
The Hogs pushed the ball inside to Jalen Graham, who drew a double team just about every time, and he would find an open man on the wing. Passing was smooth and abundant by the Hogs, who recorded 12 assists in the first half, compared to just three by the Bulldogs.
Defensively, the Razorbacks limited the Bulldogs to just 8-of-22 (36.4%) shooting from the floor. Arkansas recorded three steals and forced eight turnovers by Georgia.
Space was hard to come by and so were good looks for the Bulldogs. Arkansas gave up very little behind the arc (two threes) and it dominated the paint, scoring 24 points compared to the Bulldogs' 10 down low in the first 20 minutes.
Fast forward to the second half, and Arkansas scored 54 points in the final 20 minutes of the game.
The Razorbacks' 26 assists were a season-high and it was the product of a high volume of passes.
"For our team, that’s the most passes of any team I’ve ever had," Musselman said. "Without going back through the film, we had it recorded as 266 passes. I don’t know if we’ve ever had a team over 250."
Arkansas' offensive efficiency rating of 138.3 was its second best of the year and the best in conference play. The Razorbacks also set season-highs with a 73.9 effective field goal percentage, a 7.1% turnover rate and 11 made threes.
Arkansas is the SEC leader in field goal percentage, and it shot 62.8% from the field against Georgia — its best in an SEC game. Earlier this season, Arkansas shot a then program record in an SEC game by making 62.7% of its shots at Kentucky. The Razorbacks have shot at least 44% from the field in 12 straight games and have shot at least 50% from the field in four of the last eight games, according to Arkansas Communications.
Having Smith back clearly helped with the 3-point shooting aspect, but it also helped with limiting turnovers. Arkansas' five turnovers were easily the lowest of the season.
"The one area we've wanted to improve on is our turnovers and our self-inflicted turnovers," Musselman said. "It's not necessarily the opposition turning us over. There's been a good portion of turnovers that is on us. Tonight, was a huge step in the right direction because personnel changes things. Nick being out there changes our spacing offensively, which has an effect on turnovers."
Along with Smith's 26 points, Ricky Council IV added 22 points on 9-of-16 shooting and he made three 3-pointers of his own. His performance came off the bench, which is a familiar spot for the former AAC Sixth Man of the Year.
"The importance of a guy that can come in if you're not scoring the ball," Musselman said. "It changes the way people have to defend us as well because he's such a good isolation player. He's such a good free-throw attempt player. So, it changes who we are when he's making perimeter shots to go along with his transition dunks and transition points and free throws attempted."
Anthony Black is a professional point guard
The freshman point guard and former five-star prospect continues to grow his game and it shows each week. He's recorded eight assists twice in the past three games, and his ability to find cutters and open guys is on a different level."He’s huge," Smith said. "It’s kind of hard to stop that, especially when he gets down in transition. And he also can shoot and score, you know all three levels. So it’s kind of hard to stop that."
A large part of Arkansas' success passing the ball against the Bulldogs can be attributed to Black, who is averaging 5.7 assists per game over the last seven outings.
"He’s got such great court vision, and he’s so unselfish," Musselman said. "The 266 passes, a lot of them are him being the trigger guy, or the initial advance pass guy."
Black also added 10 points, four rebounds and two steals. He said he's been trying to get back to the level of success he had before SEC play started.
"I had a lot of steals before in non-conference and in the tournament we played in," Black said. "I’m just trying to get back to playing good defense, especially with another great scorer coming back like Nick. Now we’ve got scorers everywhere, so now I’m just gonna try to take a little more pride on defense and know that on offense, they’ll take the load off me."
