The Arkansas basketball team (1-1) was thwarted by a tough Baylor (1-1) zone defense in the Razorbacks' 72-67 loss Saturday at American Airlines Center in Dallas.
For the second straight game, Arkansas missed its first nine three-point attempts before forward Adou Thiero — who led the Hogs with 24 points — cashed a shot from distance with 9:20 minutes to go in the first half.
As a team, the Razorbacks shot 5-of-20 from beyond the arc (25.0%) and 24-of-58 from the field (41.4%) and turned the ball over 11 times against the Bears. Arkansas looked like a team that barely practiced against a zone in offseason drills, which is exactly what head coach John Calipari alluded to after the game.
"I’ve coached against Scott (Drew)," Calipari said. "He’ll go to that 1-1-3. He’ll even go to a 1-3-1. The press they used, we all knew what they were doing. We have our zone stuff in, but we’re trying to get our man stuff in. This is a brand-new team. These guys never played together. But we got organized and they came back and they did their thing."
The bulk of Arkansas' offensive failures came in the first 20 minutes of the contest, especially shooting-wise (11-of-30 FG, 2-of-12 3PT). Some halftime adjustments by the Razorbacks kept them in the matchup and even had the game within three points on three different occasions during the final six minutes of regulation, but it wasn't enough to overcome poor execution.
"The reason Scott stayed in it [the zone] and that he should have, we look so bad against the zone," Calipari said. "Why would you get out of it? So second half, I thought we did it. I thought we fought. We never gave up. We gave ourselves a chance. We took five bad shots at critical times and you're trying to explain to the players, they're not bailing you out, so go in there to make the shot or pass it to somebody."
After the first two games of the season, Arkansas is shooting 9-of-39 from three (23.1%). Yes, it's early, but those numbers are concerning especially when considering that many of the shots have been wide open.
Still, Baylor head coach Scott Drew said he believes that Arkansas will eventually correct its shooting woes and he gave good reasoning as to why.
"No I think they can make threes, we know that. We just wanted to contest those and we really wanted — I know they make dunks and layups easier," Drew said after the game. "So just try to do as good of a job at contesting threes. They’re going to shoot it a lot better than they did in the first two games too.
"Here’s the thing when you have new players, they’re running what you want and how to run stuff so they’re thinking, and if you’re thinking you’re not playing. Returning players already know what you want so they’re able to play. So that’s why these guys who perform better, shoot it better as the season goes on as they’re more comfortable in what they’re looking for rather than trying to figure out where and I supposed to go and what am I supposed to do."
If nothing else, Arkansas should feel good that the players taking shots and running the offense are confident in their ability. Look no further than freshman guard Boogie Fland, who said the team isn't worried about their early-season shooting performances.
"We’re definitely confident," Fland said after the game. "We know we can hit threes. We know we’re a three-point shooting team. It’s going to fall eventually. It’s really early in the season."
Up next, the No. 16 Arkansas Razorbacks will welcome the Troy Trojans to Bud Walton Arena on Nov. 13. That game will tip off at 7 p.m. CT and will stream on SEC Network-Plus.
