FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas needed a win at home following a loss to Tennessee in Knoxville on Saturday, but instead No. 23 Ole Miss handed them a 73-66 loss in Bud Walton Arena.
Ole Miss (13-2, 2-0) and Arkansas (11-4, 0-2) were tied at 33 after the first 20 minutes. But Ole Miss used a strong second half to escape with the road win which are expected to be hard to come by in the SEC this season. John Calipari reacted to the loss.
"Disappointed," Calipari said. "Not discouraged, but I’m disappointed. You know, we had our chances, again. It’s seven, eight. We’re up 10 at one point, we let them back. We foul a 3-point shooter, do another thing, I’m like, ‘what are we doing?’ So, I’ve got to do a better job of teaching these guys how to win. How to finish off games. Historically, but again, you create a culture and they understand it.
"Historically, my teams get up 10 at any point, the numbers are crazy, but they play to win. You’re not just playing to make plays. You’re not playing because you’re not playing well, and now you’re sad and you give up things defensively. And I’ll just say this and then I’ll answer questions… We’re the type of team, we’ve got a good team, but everybody’s got to play well. All nine got to give us something. They don’t have to play out of their minds, but they can’t play poorly. You can’t have three play poorly, or four, or one not give you anything and another… We’re going to have to play better as a group."
Johnell "Nelly" Davis has battled a wrist injury and also been in a slump much of season. He failed to score a point against Tennessee on Saturday. Tonight was a different story. Davis had 15 points and 3 rebounds with a particularly hot first half.
"He’s getting better," Calipari said. "He’s getting better and he’s getting more comfortable. I like the fact that he got to the foul line. He’s a really good foul shooter. Well, you can’t shoot all 3s. After he made some shots, he had some one-handed catches, which took away another opportunity to shoot. Just grab it and shoot. He went (with) one (hand) and kind of fumbled, I think two of them. I said, ‘You can’t do that. You’re took good a scorer for us.’ But no, Nelly, he did what it took to get us up 9. So he did some good stuff."
Davis credited others for his most confident showing thus far in an Arkansas uniform.
"My team and the coaches have been on me this whole time just staying confident," Davis said. "Just trying to find the flow back."
Ole Miss shot the ball well, particularly in the second half. They finished the game shooting 46% (23-50) from the field and 39% (9-23) from deep. That compared to Arkansas shooting 37% (22-59) from the field and only 22% (5-23) from behind the 3-point line. Calipari spoke on what led the hot shooting from Ole Miss in the final 20 minutes.
"We had some mixups defensively," Calipari said. "We left some people open. We didn’t close to their 3-point shooters. There were times where the guy’s by himself, no one on him. So some of it I’m going to have to watch the tape to say, ‘Alright, where did we screw this up?’ But, they also had to make them and they did. We had some and, again, we don’t make them. We’ve been a good shooting team most of the year. Last couple games… And I’m not — most of them weren’t guarded 3s. They were unguarded 3s. So we gotta… Like I said, I have a lot of faith in this group. I’m disappointed. I’m not discouraged. This league is really good. You’re going to take knocks, it’s just how it is.
"I was hoping we could get this game, but we didn’t, so now we move on. Tomorrow will be our day for us. Friday I’ll work on the next opponent. Right now, we have to get better at how we’re trying to play. Some of it’s talking them through, showing them tape. Some of it will be drilling them on what we’re doing and why. But we just have to play winning basketball and that means collectively. They were the better team today. They played and moved it and did their thing. They play like I play up 8 or 9. They grind it. That’s how my teams historically play. That’s what they did. But they kept us where we had our chances. But they’re a good team. 2-0 in this league? You’re a good team. They’re a top-25 team, they should be."
Unlike the Tennessee game, Arkansas held its own on the boards. Ole Miss pulled down 36 rebounds, only six offensive, compared to 35 for the Razorbacks. Adou Thiero topped the Hogs with 17 points, 9 rebounds 2 assists and a pair of steals. Boogie Fland had 14 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists. But Fland was 5 of 20 from the field and 1 of 8 from deep. Is there too much on Fland's shoulders right now?
"He took some shots he didn't need to take," Calipari said. "He just did. Like, why? Why would you take that when you haven't made a shot? Why are you doing that? Create a shot for a teammate that they can make, and I couldn't get them in that mode. And again, he's young. He's trying to figure this out. All of a sudden, you play like that, your life passes before your eyes. It shouldn't be but it does. Now, all of a sudden, just calm down. This is a long season. You didn't play well. You didn't shoot well. So? We move on now we have to— more important than that is, how do we play to win? You do it together. You're not doing this, ‘I'm going mine, and I'll win this game.’ Can't be that, but we got some different things defensively. We'll see. The long pass on it just out of bounds, throw it deep and for a layup? Come on. I mean, the game's in the balance. That's like, ‘What were you doing? Why were you in front of him anyway? Shouldn't have been in front of him. You should have been behind him or beside him, but not in front of him, but he was.
"We got things we’ve got to fix. Hard in this league because you’re going to pay the price. Two minutes of bad play, two minutes of bad play flips from up 10 to they’ve got a 2-point lead. Two minutes. And that’s what I’ve got to convince these players of. You’ve got to go in and every moment matters. Every play down the court is us playing against them, not you playing against your guy. Like I said, we got work to do. I got work to do. I didn’t think this would be easy. Didn’t think it would be this hard, but you know what? It’s hard. This league, this year, it’s hard. You got no breaks. So we’ll see what happens going forward. I knew this would be a tough game, but it was one that I said, ‘Alright, let’s go do this,’ but they were the better team today. They were."
D.J Wagner added 11 points and 2 rebounds. Malik Dia topped Ole Miss with 21 points and 8 rebounds. Sean Pedulla had 16 points and Dre Davis finished with 10 points and 7 boards.
Arkansas will return to Bud Walton Arena on Saturday at 3 p.m. to host No. 8 Florida (14-1, 1-1).
Photo Courtesy of Craven Whitlow CW3 Sports Action
