The Arkansas Razorbacks (9-2, 0-0 SEC) jumped out to a quick lead over the Central Arkansas Bears (2-7, 0-0 ASUN) and never looked back in their 82-57 win at Simmons Bank Arena on Saturday.
Arkansas' offense was a well-oiled machine, as six Razorbacks scored in double figures and made 23 assists on the night. The team shot a season-high 60% from the field and 45% from three-point land. Freshman guard Boogie Fland led the way with 16 points and nearly had a double-double as he dished out a career-high nine assists on the day.
Defensively, the Hogs held the Bears to just 33.3% shooting from the field and 25% from deep. Bears senior guard Elias Cato led his team with 15 points, and Farmington native Layne Taylor had 13 points of his own and connected three times from deep, but it wasn't enough for it to be a close contest.
Rather than passing out individual player grades for the game as HawgBeat has done in the past, we're going to grade the team's performance overall...
Offense: A+
As mentioned above, Arkansas' offense was effective from more than just one outlet on Saturday. Fland, Karter Knox (14), D.J. Wagner (13), Jonas Aidoo (13), Trevon Brazile (11) and Johnell Davis (11) all had double-figure scoring, and the only players to not see a basket made were Zvonimir Ivisic and the end of the bench (Jaden Karuletwa, Melo Sanchez and Kareem Watkins played less than two minutes a piece).
A big piece of that offensive efficiency was how well the Razorbacks shared the ball. 23 assists on 33 made buckets is evidence that rather than one guy trying to take the game over with the ball in his hands, Arkansas wanted to run a crisp and smooth offense that led to easy buckets and high-percentage shots.
"I’m trying to convince these guys, like Karter (Knox), singles, I don’t need grand slam home runs," Calipari said after the game. "If you don’t have something, let’s just move the ball. I had to do some stuff today to get us to move the ball from one side of the court to the other, structured motion. Just move it. And then we play."
The Razorbacks have been plagued by slow and disconnected starts in recent games this season, but that wasn't the case. They scored nine points in the first three minutes and had a 22-7 lead with 14:43 left in the first half, and by the end of the period had scored 46 points on 67.9% shooting with five makes from deep.
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Things cooled off in the second half, but not by much. Arkansas still scored 36 points in the final 20 minutes and added another four shots from behind the arc.
Arkansas had a clear size advantage, which was prevalent in the paint, where it scored 44 points on Saturday. They out-rebounded the Bears 36-22 and had seven offensive rebounds that led to 11 second-chance points. Trevon Brazile was a big part of that and had three, which was tied with Billy Richmond for the most on the team.
"I'm really proud of him, he's been through a lot," Calipari said. "He wanted to play for me. He came to me and said, 'I want to meet with you.' I'm holding him to a high standard. But you know, I told him he's being treated with respect and that I think again, that's part of the reason it's coming out. Like he is really– there's even more in him than he's shown us."
In regards to the Hogs' three-point shooting, there's a narrative on social media that Arkansas can't shoot the three ball effectively. It likely stems from the Hogs' struggles from deep against Baylor (started 0-for-9) and Illinois (missed their first seven), but that narrative isn't rooted in reality from a statistics perspective.
Arkansas is shooting 37.2% from long range this season and averages eight makes per game, which ranks third in the SEC behind just Auburn (38.2%) and Texas (37.7%). It's worth noting that Texas has taken 48 less threes than Arkansas and Auburn has taken 36 more than the Razorbacks.
On Saturday, Arkansas was highly efficient in connecting from long range and went 9-for-20 in the contest. Davis and Wagner hit three a piece, Fland added two of his own and Karter Knox added one for good measure.
Defense: A-
The Razorbacks had a clear advantage from a size and length perspective, and it caused major problems for the Bears throughout the game. Arkansas blocked nine shots in the game and Brazile finished with five by himself. Aidoo and Ivisic had two a piece.
UCA head coach John Shulman singled out Aidoo and Brazile and said their length specifically gave his team fits.
"They're so long and athletic, you can't see over them," Shulman said after the game. "Their ball screen coverages, you can't see. We’ve got open people, but we can't see it. We can't simulate that in practice."
The defensive presence Arkansas played with made a UCA team that already struggled to connect from deep an even poorer shooting team. The Bears finished the game 25% from deep and connected on just seven of their 28 shots.
ALSO READ: Takeaways from Arkansas' win over Central Arkansas
That was a big key for the Razorbacks coming into the game, because UCA is one of the top teams in the country for three-point attempts. The Bears are one of the worst in terms of actually hitting those shots, but Arkansas is toward the bottom of the SEC (11th) in three-point defense.
There can be room for improvement though. Arkansas fouled four three-point shooters, though it's worth noting UCA took more attempts outside the arc (28 attempts) than they did inside it (26 attempts). That's not a huge issue because this game was relatively uncompetitive, but that won't fly once the Hogs get into conference play.
Interestingly, the Hogs only forced nine turnovers in the game, which was below their average of 14.8 per game. Fland was a defensive menace and had five steals, two of which directly led to layups on the other end in the first half seconds later.
Fland finished the game with the second-best defensive rating behind Ivisic and had a stop percentage of 95.5%, which estimates the rate of defensive possessions where the opposing team did not score while he was on the floor.
Overall grade: A
Though the level of competition wasn't great on Saturday, the Razorbacks were strong on both sides of the ball and that led to a drama-free finish and, coupled with the win over Michigan last Tuesday, showed a lot of good things about this Arkansas team moving forward.
After a shaky start to the season, Arkansas looks like a different team than they did even a week ago when the Hogs needed to turn things on in the second half to beat UTSA. They're a more cohesive unit, seem to be more connected offensively and the effort the team plays with was noticeable.
Asked the difference in his team the last few games, Calipari said they are "more comfortable in their own skin." In a league as tough as the SEC is this season, that comfortability will be put to the test when conference play starts in just a few weeks.
The Razorbacks will have the next few days off and are back in action on Saturday when they host North Carolina A&T at Bud Walton Arena. Tipoff is set for 1:30 p.m. CT and the game will air on the SEC Network.
