Whitt, Chaney throw wrench into Vandy's game plan vs. Arkansas

FAYETTEVILLE — It probably doesn’t take a former NBA All-Star to develop the game plan Jerry Stackhouse had coming into Bud Walton Arena.

His team mostly succeeded in slowing down the dynamic duo of Mason Jones and Isaiah Joe, but unfortunately for Vanderbilt’s first-year coach, a pair of Razorbacks not featured prominently on the Commodores’ scouting report picked up the slack.

Jimmy Whitt Jr. poured in a career-high 30 points, while Reggie Chaney came off the bench and matched his career high of 14 points. Together, they accounted for more than half of Arkansas’ points in a 75-55 win Wednesday night.

““I think we had our focal points on guys (and) kind of the scouting report was let those guys beat us if they can,” Stackhouse said. “They had not played up to that level that they could beat us.

“Our main concerns were obviously Joe shooting the basketball and Mason Jones. But again, they did what they had to do and we didn’t give them the resistance that is necessary.”

If you had told Stackhouse that Jones - the SEC’s second-leading scorer coming into the night - would miss all seven of his shots and score just one point and that they’d hold Joe - the fourth-leading scorer in the SEC - scoreless in the first half, he probably would have taken it in a heartbeat.

Luckily for Arkansas, its first-year coach - Eric Musselman - recognized early on that the Commodores were crowding his top two scorers and made an adjustment that got production elsewhere.

“I think whether it’s Arkansas putting together a game plan or one of our opponents, anytime you try to take something away, you give up something,” Musselman said. “They were switching when we ran double screens and double pin downs for Mason and Isaiah.

“When you overextend on your show or switch out, the slip-guy is there. That’s what happened tonight, which is why Reggie and Jimmy had such good games.”

Another thing Chaney and Whitt benefitted from was something Musselman and his staff noticed on film about the way Ejike Obinna, Vanderbilt’s 6-foot-10 center, played defense.

The strategy was noticeable from the jump, as Arkansas made a concerted effort to get into the lane offensively early on rather than fire up a high volume of three-pointers like it has sometimes done this year.

“Tonight one of the themes to the game was try to get dump-off passes, meaning you get by the initial defender and the guys working the dunker’s spot trying to get to the gap because (Obinna) likes to come over and try to shot-block,” Musselman said. “I thought Reggie did a great job. … Then you add that Jimmy was around that spot, as well.”

The result was Whitt and Chaney combining for five dunks and scoring 27.4 more points than their season averages - more than making up for Jones and Joe scoring 24.6 points below their season averages. (Joe heated up in the second half, knocking down four three-pointers to finish with 12 points.)