Arkansas
Shooting concerns reappear for Arkansas basketball after stinging loss to Tennessee
A brilliant stretch of offense to close the nonconference schedule had Arkansas basketball feeling optimistic about the roster’s overall shooting. Entering the SEC opener against No. 1 Tennessee, the Razorbacks ranked fourth nationally in field-goal percentage (50.8%) while hitting 3-pointers at a 36.8% rate.
But preseason concerns appeared to be justified Saturday. The Hogs (11-3, 0-1 SEC) shot a season-low 37.7% from the floor against the Volunteers (14-0, 1-0), going 6 for 29 on 3-pointers and, even worse, 6 for 13 at the free-throw line.
Add it all up, and Arkansas got run out the gym in a 76-52 loss that represented the worst offensive performance of the year.
“Look, you don’t have to make all your 3s, but you can’t miss them all,” Arkansas coach John Calipari said. “You can’t miss 10 in-a-row, or you’re not going to win.”
DJ Wagner and Karter Knox hit on the first two attempts from downtown, but Arkansas then proceeded to miss 19 of its next 21 3-pointers. That drought coincided with a dominant Tennessee run that stretched the lead to double figures, and the Vols led 42-27 at halftime.
The offensive malaise wasn’t a total surprise. Tennessee leads the country in 3-point defense and is second in scoring defense, but it was a giant step back. Arkansas had scored at least 80 points in four straight games.
Boogie Fland and Johnell Davis represented Arkansas’ biggest disappointments from behind the arc. That duo combined to go 2 for 12, with Davis missing all four of his attempts. Davis had missed the Hogs’ previous two games with a wrist injury.
The Razorbacks’ leading 3-point shooter on the season is 7-foot-2 big man Zvonimir Ivisic, who entered Saturday 20 of 44. He went 1 for 2 against Tennessee, but he continues to struggle on the defensive end and has seen his minutes dramatically decrease in recent weeks.
Calipari needs to find a way to keep Ivisic on the floor. His impact stretching opposing defenses is too valuable. The Hogs play most possessions with at least two players who aren’t threats from the outside.
After the game, Calipari said the bad shooting numbers weren’t a product of poor offense. He thought his team generated quality looks, but the shots just would not fall.
However, he didn’t like how the misses negatively affected the Razorbacks in other dimensions.
“If we created a good look, and we miss some of them, I looked at them and said, ‘Guys, you’re not going to make every shot. Just keep playing. Fight.’ You’ve got to learn to fight when you’re not playing well. So this was a great learning experience for this team,” he said.
There are other, more important factors that played into the blowout loss.
Tennessee won the rebounding margin 51-29 and got 29 points from Chaz Lanier. Zakai Zeigler won the battle of New York City point guards against Boogie Fland, and Arkansas couldn’t have asked for a more difficult start to the conference schedule than a road game against the top-ranked team in the country.
Arkansas now has three days to regroup before a home game against No. 23 Ole Miss.
Arkansas
BREAKING: UCLA Lands Transfer OL From Arkansas
UCLA football has landed its fourth offensive lineman from the 2024-25 transfer portal.
According to multiple reports, former Arkansas offensive lineman Ty’Kieast Crawford has committed to the Bruins.
Crawford is a veteran lineman who spent his last four collegiate seasons with the Razorbacks. He appeared in just one game this past season, but the year prior, he made four starts in nine appearances.
The year before that, Crawford made two starts in 10 games, blocking for an offense that finished the year with 6,128 total yards, the second-most in program history.
In his first year with the program, Crawford played in all 13 games, mostly seeing action on special teams.
He had transferred to Arkansas after spending his first collegiate season at Charlotte, where he made three starts in six contests.
Crawford was a highly regarded recruit from Carthage, Texas. A four-star prospect, Crawford was ranked the No. 36 class of 2020 prospect in the state and the No. 19 offensive tackle in his class, per the 247Sports Composite rankings.
Crawford had announced his entering into the transfer portal on the first day of the winter window, posting the following message on social media:
“First and foremost I want to Thank God because without him none of this would be possible. I’d like to thank Sam Pittman and the rest of the coaching staff for all of the support over the years. To my teammates and brothers the memories we share together will forever be with me and apart of my journey. Thank you to the razorback fanbase for an amazing 3 years at this University with that being said with 1 year of eligibility left I will be placing my name within the transfer portal #LastLap”
Crawford’s commitment to UCLA comes after his recent visit to Westwood.
As he said in the aforementioned post, Crawford has just one year of eligibility left. He joins Courtland Ford, Julian Arnell and Eugene Brooks as UCLA’s offensive line transfer commits so far this offseason.
The Bruins are taking the steps to revamp their offensive line, and landing Crawford is a huge step in that process.
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Arkansas
Arkansas basketball drops back out of AP Top 25
The Arkansas Razorbacks (11-3, 0-1 SEC) fell back out of the AP College Basketball Top 25 on Monday.
The drop out of the rankings comes after Arkansas split its games last week. The Hogs took a 92-62 win over Oakland to finish the non-conference slate, but were thrashed 76-52 on the road by No. 1 Tennessee on Saturday to open conference play.
The Razorbacks did, however, receive the second-most votes of unranked teams.
This week isn’t much easier for the Hogs, who will face two teams ranked in the Top 25, though the two games come at home. No. 23 Ole Miss comes to Fayetteville on Wednesday and the Hogs will face No. 8 Florida on Saturday.
All told, there are nine SEC teams in the AP Poll: No. 1 Tennessee, No. 2 Auburn, No. 5 Alabama, No. 6 Kentucky, No. 8 Florida, No. 10 Texas A&M, No. 14 Mississippi State, No. 17 Oklahoma and No. 23 Ole Miss.
According to ESPN’s Basketball Power Index, the Razorbacks rank 40th overall (12.5 BPI, 11th in SEC) with a 5.6 offensive and 7.0 defensive rating. Arkansas is projected to finish with an 18.8-12.2 (7.8-10.2 SEC) overall record and it has a 0.2% chance to win the SEC.
Despite the blowout loss on Saturday, Arkansas’ NET ranking actually improved one spot from last Monday. The Razorbacks sit at No. 40, up from No. 43 last week. The Hogs are 1-3 in Quad 1 games, 1-0 in Quad 2, 2-0 in Quad 3 and 7-0 in Quad 4.
Here is the full AP Top 25 from Monday:
Arkansas
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