No. 17 Arkansas overcame a 10-point deficit to take a 93-86 win over No. 16 Texas Tech on Saturday at the American Airlines Arena in Dallas.
The win was sweet revenge for the Razorbacks who were knocked out of the NCAA Tournament last year by the Red Raiders. Arkansas trailed 49-43 at the half on Saturday, but outscored the Red Raiders 50-37 in the second half. John Calipari was pleased to see Arkansas (8-2) get its third win in a row.
"I'm really proud of the guys, and I want you to know, and I may be wrong in how I do this, but really my job is to get individual players to play better," Calipari said. "That's a name on the back. Like all I've done for two weeks is work on Karter Knox. Forget about all these expectations and plans, just play. Now, the players know when he takes a shot and goes like that (gestures), they say expectations. Just play. Forget. Don’t listen."
Knox, who entered the season with high expectations heaped on him, responded in a big way Saturday. Knox scored 20 points and pulled down six rebounds.
"And we worked, and I've been on him about comparing yourself to another player or somebody else," Calipari said. "Steals your joy. Play with joy. It doesn't mean they don't care about the program and Arkansas and the state. They love it. They love being here. They love it. My job is to worry about them. Their job is to worry about each other. So this was a big game for that.'
Another player who has struggled with inconsistency this season is Trevon Brazile. The senior also stepped up big on Saturday leading the Razorbacks with 24 points,10 rebounds and a pair of blocked shots.
"How about Trevon?," Calipari said. "Now, let me tell you why, he's been in practice, and I told the team in front of him, leading. Could you imagine now? Talking, getting guys right. And what does that do to your team? It builds your confidence, and it's not what I'm doing, it's what he's doing. Trying to get him to think different, to approach this different.
"And I called one guy in and I said, ‘listen, when I tell you to run faster or be rougher, you seem to get sad. You get sad instead of running faster or playing tougher’. Now, if you think professionally, that will work. I'm here to tell you, if a coach tells you to run faster and you just don't, you're done, because they're paying you to do what they're asking you to do. So when I tell you to run faster, go do it. I'm not going to look out there and see you go the same."
Texas Tech's last lead of the game came with 5:41 left when Tyeree Bryan scored to put his team up 77-76. However it was Brazile who scored 21 seconds later giving Arkansas a 78-77 lead it never surrendered. It was Brazile who scored six straight points after Tech took its last lead. Brazile and the Hogs led 82-77 with 4:20 remaining on the clock.
Texas Tech's JT Toppin, who topped all players in the game with 30 points, 11 rebounds, two steals and three blocks tried to bring the Red Raiders back. He hit a basket to pull his team to within 82-79. Then after Knox knocked down a 3-point shot for an 85-79 advantage, Toppin completed a conventional 3-point play to get within three points, 85-82, with 2:44 left in the game. But Brazile and Knox weren't going to let the Hogs lose this time.
Darius Acuff Jr. finished with 20 points, four rebounds and eight assists. Malique Ewin added nine points and six rebounds. Meleek Thomas didn't have his usual big scoring game finishing with eight points, two rebounds and a pair of assists.
The Razorbacks shot 52% from the field compared to 51 for the Red Raiders. Arkansas hit 10 of 19 (53%) from behind the 3-point line compared to only 42% for Tech. Arkansas also made 17 of 26 free throws while the Red Raiders only were successful on three of 10 free throws. The Hogs won the rebounding 40-33.
Texas Tech (7-3) also saw Christian Anderson finish with 26 points, four rebounds and 11 assists. The Red Raiders only played six players compared to eight for Arkansas. The Hogs bench outscored that of the Red Raiders 23-8.
Arkansas will host Queens College (5-5) on Tuesday night at 8 p.m. in Bud Walton Arena. The game will be televised on the SEC Network. Queens will be at Wake Forest on Sunday to tip at 4 p.m. before they head to Fayetteville.