The Arkansas Razorbacks (11-5, 0-3 SEC) floundered again in their 71-63 loss to the No. 8 Florida Gators (15-1, 2-1 SEC) at Bud Walton Arena on Saturday.
Neither team shot the ball well, as the Razorbacks hit just 30% of their field goal attempts and the Gators shot 39.1%, but the inability to control the glass once again proved to be difficult for Arkansas. Florida hauled in 16 offensive rebounds and scored 19 points off them.
"It’s more fight, I feel like I got to start first, playing in the SEC for a while," Arkansas center Jonas Aidoo said after the game. "Just hit first and set the tone, lead by example and everybody will follow with that."
Over the last three games, the Razorbacks have been out-rebounded, 136-95, and the trio of Tennessee, Ole Miss and Florida combined to score 42 second-chance points.
The inability to close out defensive possessions Saturday was more prevalent late in the game. After Arkansas cut the lead to 53-50 following a D.J. Wagner dunk, the Hogs forced a missed three-pointer that was rebounded by Florida, swung around and drilled from distance.
The next time down the floor, Aidoo turned the ball over. The Arkansas defense forced another missed three but failed to secure the rebound, which led to another second-chance three.
"That was definitely a back-breaker," Aidoo said. "I had passed it to Adou (Thiero) and it was a tight pass and I turned the ball over. That was a big play too...we had the momentum going. I kind of rushed my pass a little bit too so I gotta be better on that."
The other area that Arkansas was exceptionally poor in was at the rim. The Hogs had multiple layup opportunities — 16, to be exact — and only converted two of those.
"I’m still trying to tell these guys, you cannot draw fouls when you’re driving for layups," Arkansas head coach John Calipari said after the game. "You have to make the layup, don’t avoid, just go make the layup and hope they call a foul. If you go in there to throw it, you’re not making it, and they’re not calling it."
Physical play in the SEC is to be expected, and it was noticeable how differently the referees called the game in the second half. They called a total of 44 fouls in the game, 27 in the second half. That meant Arkansas got to the free throw line often, but it still shot below average (68.6%).
Aidoo said Florida's length forced the Razorbacks to adjust their shots, and they need to be stronger when they go to the rim.
"I think we were just expecting to get hit on a lot of our layups and we would just adjust our bodies," Aidoo said. "They had seven blocks, but I feel like we just got to go up stronger to the basket, just trying to go up through their chest, put fouls on the bigs like we did, but we got to do that from the jump. Do that early, know that you’re going to make the layup."
Things aren't going to get easier for the Razorbacks, who will go on the road twice next week at LSU and Missouri. Aidoo said he feels like the team has a target on their backs as they move through the conference slate.
"You’re going to have to fight every game, nothing is going to be given to us," Aidoo said. "We’re a new program. People going to come for us. A lot of top-rated players coming in. They’re just going to come for us. What Cal has on his back, all of us have on our back. We all have a target on our back and we just have to fight every single game."
Arkansas and LSU will tip off from Baton Rouge at 8 p.m. on Tuesday. The game will air on the SEC Network.
