With its NCAA Tournament hopes on life support, Arkansas put itself back in the bubble conversations with a road upset at LSU on Saturday.
Following a destruction of Missouri earlier in the week, the Razorbacks found a way to rally late and hang on for 65-58 win over the No. 12 Tigers at Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge, La.
Despite being plagued by foul trouble and playing without head coach Eric Musselman, Arkansas won its second straight game after starting 0-3 in SEC play for the first time in 12 years.
Neither team managed to build a double-digit lead at any point of what proved to be a tight game throughout, but LSU came close midway through the second half.
With JD Notae on the bench with four fouls, the Tigers stretched their lead from two to eight, taking a 56-48 lead with about nine minutes left. However, it was all Arkansas after that.
"I called a timeout and I just told those guys to breath, forget about what just happened, and breath, because I need you to get some clarity in your mind right now, and that really helped," interim coach Keith Smart said. “I shared with them, ‘Hey look guys, as bad as it is, guess what? … We’re down eight points, but...we’ve got a lot of time.
"This is a long game. I said certain guys are going to make a big play, certain guys are going to get a big rebound, and that came to fruition.”
The Razorbacks ended the game on a 17-2 run highlighted by Jaylin Williams knocking down a go-ahead 3-pointer with just 1:12 remaining.
It was just the fourth 3-pointer - in 18 attempts - the big man has made this season, as he's been hesitant to take shots beyond the arc most of the year. However, Smart had told him earlier in the game that it was something he'd have to do.
“Coming out of one of the timeouts, Coach Gus (Argenal) and Coach Smart told me, ‘You’re going to get open on the three-point line. Be confident, shoot the shot. You work on it. Be confident and take that three," Williams said. "I saw my opportunity, took the three and it just felt good. My teammates believed in me to take the shot, so I just took it.”
A wild sequence ensued that eventually ended with the ball in Arkansas' hands and Notae was fouled with 22 seconds left. However, he missed the front end of the one-and-one.
Instead of LSU getting the ball back with a chance to tie, though, Stanley Umude grabbed an offensive rebound and went back up for a layup that effectively ended the game.
Here are a few other key takeaways from the Razorbacks' upset win Saturday afternoon...
Smart Gets the W
With Musselman back in Fayetteville recovering from shoulder surgery, Smart - a first-year assistant with multiple stops as a head coach in the NBA - took on the role as interim coach.
In his first game as a college head coach, he guided the Razorbacks to a road win over a ranked conference opponent in his hometown.
“It wasn’t that much different,” Williams said about Smart. “Coach Muss has a plan for us, and we just stuck with the plan. And of course we had Coach Smart as the head coach tonight. Things were a little bit different, but we stayed on the same plan and just executed.
“Coach Smart was calm throughout the whole game. He just kept telling us like, ‘It’s okay, it's okay. Keep pushing.’ ... He just kept telling us to push. He never got rattled, and we never looked rattled. When we see him not rattled and just with confidence in us, we look at each other and have that confidence too. So, we just kept going, and Coach Smart did a really good job tonight.”
What made the trip to Baton Rouge even sweeter for Smart was the fact that his mother lives just eight minutes away from the arena.
A lot of his family got to watch him play in the national championship game with Indiana back in 1987 because it was in New Orleans, but this was even closer. Because of the pandemic, he hadn't been able to see his mom for quite some time, but had that chance Friday.
