Arkansas's 7-foot-3 big man proved once again on Wednesday night that you can't count him out. Eric Musselman gave Connor Vanover some easy minutes in the Hogs' big win versus Vanderbilt last weekend to get him back in the groove but his 29 minutes against Ole Miss were hard earned.

Playing against the Rebels' strict 1-3-1 defense, Vanover showed almost immediately that he'd be an asset, scoring the Hogs' fourth and fifth points of the game on a backdoor dunk.

"I thought he was awesome," Musselman said. "We just threw the ball over the top to him in the corner. Once you get the ball into the corner against a 1-3-1 it flattens that defense out. The stat sheet doesn’t do him justice because I thought his impact on the game was incredible."

The Arkansas native went 4-8 for eight points, making it his highest scoring game since the Tennessee game in early January.

Vanover's perimeter defense has been an issue in the past but with Ole Miss firing at just 6% from beyond the arc, the big man was no major liability defensively on Wednesday night.

His presence inside the paint on both ends was huge for the Hogs. They gave up 24 points inside but Vanover's five shots blocked and several more deflections limited the damage the Rebels could do. He also pulled down five defensive boards and two offensive boards.

"They like to get to the rim a lot, they're very physical, so I think I played a big part in stopping the bigs down low," Vanover said after the game. "When they were trying to drive, making them hesitate on taking shots that would normally be there. On the offensive end, just getting back to how I was earlier, just being a ball mover and not taking shots I shouldn't really take. Just letting the offense flow through me and through everybody else and not really stopping it up - just letting things go. I think that's how I helped on both offense and defense."

Vanover's signature 3-point shot hasn't been firing with consistency in SEC play and he went 0-2 on Wednesday night but he did knock one down that was called off with a whistle.

The big man has kept a consistent positive attitude even as his play and playing time has fluctuated. The confidence he's gained over the past couple games should help him continue earning minutes, but sometimes the matchups won't set him up for 29 minutes like the Ole Miss game did.

"It just shows you that every game is different, every game has its own identity," Vanover said. "Some games are really good matchups, some games are harder matchups for people. It's really good to have a good matchup and do what I can do. I think it was good for my confidence."

Arkansas travels to Stillwater to face Oklahoma State on Saturday as part of the SEC/BIG12 Challenge. Tipoff is slated for 3 p.m. on ESPN2.