Arkansas advanced to 10-1 on Saturday, beating Bradley 76-57. The teams played at Simmons Bank Arena in North Little Rock, where the Razorbacks made up for losing to Hofstra last year. Here are my takeaways from the game:
Jordan Walsh has found his confidence
Walsh built off his strong showing against Oklahoma with another complete performance Saturday. With 5:11 remaining in the first half, the freshman subbed out with 16 points, the same number as the entire Bradley team. He also had three steals and a rebound at that point.
He only scored two points in the second half, but finished with a career-high 18 on a perfect 7-for-7 from the field.
"He's playing with great confidence, No. 1," Arkansas head coach Eric Musselman said. "I think No. 2, he's making threes with his feet set. He's not taking a high volume, but the quality of shot selection Jordan has had has been very, very good. In Europe, he learned going to the basket and finishing with contact and to go strong to the cup. I think he's really improved in that area to in going with some authority to the rim."
Walsh developing as a scorer and building on his confidence is crucial for an Arkansas team that lost one of its leading scorers for the season in Trevon Brazile.
The 6-foot-7-inch wing displayed some moves against Bradley he has not shown yet this season, including some straight-line drives against his defender and finishing through contact.
The highlight of the game came in a sequence of back-to-back fast breaks, in which Walsh soared through the air and finished with a dunk. Walsh forced a steal and tip-passed the ball back and forth with Anthony Black for the first. The ball never touched the floor, and Walsh finished with the ball in his hands and dunked it from a ways away from the rim.
On the second play, it was a trio of Walsh, Black and Davonte Davis, ending with a lob from Black to Walsh for the alley-oop. The crowd exploded, nearly taking the roof off of Simmons Bank Arena.
Backcourt dominates
This Razorback team was built around an incredibly talented backcourt. I even went on record on the Hardwood Hawgs Podcast this past week saying that the trio of Ricky Council IV, Nick Smith Jr. and Anthony Black was the best backcourt group in the country. Smith was limited today with some discomfort with the tape on his knee. Musselman said in his postgame press conference that he would be fine for Wednesday.
"He got taped at halftime, and then the tape felt a little uncomfortable," Musselman said. "I just didn’t really feel the need to put him back in when he got taped up at halftime, and then left to get re-tapped. By that point I just felt like…And I discussed it quite a bit on bench with Coach Smart, because of his experience. Coach Argenal. The three of us talked about it. With the flow and the way the game was going, I just felt like there wasn’t a need to probably put him back in at that juncture."
Black, Council, Walsh and Davis all stepped up and played at a high level, dominating the game.
The four combined for 56 of Arkansas' 76 points. Looking at the box score, each of them contributed in all facets of the game, too.
Davis scored seven points but also registered seven rebounds, five steals and three assists on the game. Black also stuffed the stat sheet, posting a stat line of 15 points, four assists, three rebounds, two blocks and two steals.
"He was everywhere on the floor," Walsh said. "He was being the point guard that we needed in this game, obviously, with the assists, also scoring and getting to the line 11 times. Like, that’s a big deal. That’s a big thing that we need out of our point guard, and we expect him to do that and he did it, and we’re not really surprised."
For the backcourt being so young, the corps plays very mature and largely mistake-free basketball. The four also combined for just five turnovers and shot 18-of-33 from the field (54.5%).
Defense traveled to North Little Rock
As good as this Arkansas team is offensively, its defense has been even better. The Razorbacks forced Bradley to commit 16 turnovers and allowed just 25 points in the first half.
That stifling defense continued in the second half, as the Braves scored just 57 points in the entire game. Arkansas allowed Bradley to shoot just 40.0% from the field, 26.7% from 3-point range and 81.0% from the free throw line. It is the fifth team Arkansas has held under 30% from the 3-point line.
Additionally, the Razorbacks forced 27 turnovers, off of which they scored 37 points
"I feel like the whole thing was possible just because me and Coach Smart would watch film with each other, we’d study the other team and we’d know what their weaknesses are on defense and also on offense," Walsh said. "It was all just a part of his game plan, for real."
No trouble in North Little Rock
Arkansas has struggled in North Little Rock in recent memory. Whether that was a last-second victory over Valparaiso or a loss to Hofstra, Razorback fans get an antsy feeling around games at Simmons Bank Arena.
That was not the case on Saturday. Bradley scored the first basket of the game and led for 2:43, but as soon as the Hogs took the lead, they never gave it up. In fact, they kept building on their lead throughout the game on their way to a 19-point victory.
The Central Arkansas crowd was into the game from the tip. The arena was full with a rowdy capacity crowd. The Braves did their best to minimize the noise, calling quick timeouts every time the crowd tried to get going, but more often than not, it didn't matter.
In one instance, the Arkansas coaching staff took matters into its own hands. Bradley called a time out after Davis made a 3-pointer. The home crowd started to erupt, but started to die down with the timeout. Musselman and his staff starting raising their hands, egging the crowd on to keep going, which it did.
"Our guys were really excited to play here," Musselman said. "I thought the anticipation, the excitement level tonight was different than last year. I think the guys were really excited to play this game. They were talking about it. I think their effort tonight was really good, and the fans deserved it. That's an incredible showing by the fans here."
