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Published Jan 24, 2021
Hoops Notebook: Efficient offense, low attendance, more
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Andrew Hutchinson  •  HawgBeat
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For the fifth time this season, Arkansas eclipsed 90 points Saturday afternoon.

The Razorbacks’ easy 92-71 win at Vanderbilt was actually the third time they’ve hit that mark in SEC play, matching their record for the most such performances in regulation during the post-Nolan Richardson era.

The last time Arkansas had three 90-point efforts within its first eight SEC games was 1995, when it was the defending national champion and went on to finish runner-up in that year’s NCAA Tournament.

Saturday’s performance was one of the Razorbacks’ most efficient of the season. Not only did they shoot a season-high 57.1 percent against the Commodores, but they also averaged an impressive 1.296 points per possession.

That was a stark contrast to their previous three games, in which they shot 37.7 percent from the floor and averaged just 0.897 points per possession.

“I think we were thinking too much and were worried about making a mistake,” senior Justin Smith said. “We kind of got away from that and just said, 'Forget it.' We really just went out there and played our game and played how we know how.

“I think that's made a really big difference with our confidence, because once you kind of make plays, the confidence keeps growing as an individual and as a team.”

One of keys to Arkansas’ success against Vanderbilt was that it shared and protected the ball about as well as it has all year.

As a team, the Razorbacks had 22 assists on 36 field goals, including 14 on 17 in the first half, and committed only 11 turnovers, a total they had reached in the first half of each of the last three games. It was the first time since the Central Arkansas game on Dec. 12 that they had twice as many assists as turnovers.

Freshman Moses Moody revealed during his postgame interview that Arkansas had 218 total passes, easily surpassing head coach Eric Musselman’s goal of 200.

The result was eight players scoring at least five points and Moody’s team-high 26 points accounting for only 28.3 percent of the Razorbacks’ total scoring. Just a week earlier, he was a one-man show at Alabama, scoring 28 of their 59 points (47.5 percent).

“That's what we can do,” Moody said. “We have a lot of scoring, a lot of scoring options. (In) the Alabama game, a lot went wrong, a lot of shots weren't falling. It was just a lot of stuff going bad, but this is what we really do."

Here are a few other notes, tidbits and stats from Arkansas’ blowout win at Vanderbilt…

Shot Selection

Another reason for the Razorbacks’ scoring outburst was their shot selection, according to Musselman.

After making just 25.4 percent (16 of 63) of its three-point attempts the last three games, Arkansas was 8 of 19 (42.1 percent) beyond the arc against the Commodores. The increased efficiency was the direct result of taking good shots and not forcing anything.

“I thought the shot selection from three was probably our best of the season,” Musselman said. “We shot the three when our feet were set. I guess we took one step-back three off the bounce that wasn’t a good shot, but other than that I thought our three-point attempts were really clean and good looks.”

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