Arkansas isn’t one of them. The plenty good nationally No. 23 Razorbacks played even better than good against Mizzou adding Tuesday night’s 76-57 trouncing of the Tigers Tuesday night at Mizzou Arena in Columbia, Mo. to Arkansas’ 87-43 trouncing of the Tigers, Jan. 12 at Walton Arena.
Completing the home and home SEC sweep over Mizzou ups Coach Eric Musselman’s Razorbacks to 20-6 overall/9-4 in the SEC heading into Saturday’s huge 3 p.m. ESPN televised SEC showdown against the nationally No. 16 Tennessee Volunteers, 19-6, 10-3 and dominating fourth-ranked Kentucky, 76-63 Tuesday night in Knoxville, Tenn.
Coming off a tough 68-67 loss last Saturday at Alabama, the Razorbacks obviously did not overlook their rematch with Mizzou before their first of two forthcoming home and home SEC games vs. Coach Rick Barnes’ vaunted Vols.
“We were a little bit disappointed obviously with our loss at Alabama,” Musselman said during his postgame Razorbacks Radio Network interview followed by his Zoom postgame press conference. “Tough one-point loss against a really good team. We just continued to talk about how we couldn’t have a hangover loss, and had to put it aside. We couldn’t let that linger into this game. They were fired up to play.”
Like in Fayetteville when the Razorbacks scorched a 49-15 first half on Mizzou, Arkansas ignited early Tuesday in Columbia.
Other than 2-2 and 4-4, Coach Cuonzo Martin’s Tigers trailed the entire game pounded into submission with a 15-0 Razorbacks first-half run. Arkansas led, 46-27 at intermission.
Fueled by a 10-0 run, Mizzou did lower Arkansas’ advantage to 11 with 5:22 left in the game, but the Hogs would lead by 21 before closing the game up 19 like they led at half.
Four starters, Stanley Umude, Trey Wade, Jaylin Williams and JD Notae and sixth man Devo Davis, playing 34 minutes with starting guard Au’Diese Toney foul troubled and ineffective for his six minutes, provided the Hogs with all they needed to ham it up in Columbia.
Graduate transfer 6-6 forward Umude scored a game-leading 23 points, including 6 of 9 treys, and grabbed five rebounds and blocked two shots.
Other than his 1 of 4 free throws when the rest of the Hogs totaled 12 of 13, Umude seemed to be able to score at will, especially from the left wing.
“Yeah, it’s a sweet spot for me,” Umude said. “I’m feeling hot from the left wing. My team does a good job of finding me there.”
Wade, also a 6-6 grad transfer forward, and 6-10 sophomore center Williams both double-doubled. Williams netted 13 points and 11 rebounds with four assists and two shot blocks and told the SEC Network TV postgame audience of Arkansas’ Alabama induced urgency in Columbia.
“We lost the last game so we knew we had to have this game,” Williams said. “We had to play hard, rebound, do everything to get this game and get back in the win column.”
Musselman said he’d razzed Wade for his consecutive zero points/1 rebound performances in last week’s 80-76 upending of then No. 1 Auburn at Walton Arena and against Alabama in Tuscaloosa.
Wade took Arkansas’ first four shots in Columbia accounting for the Hogs’ first four points.
“We had some fun with Trey Wade telling him he had to enter the box score,” Musselman said. “Because he’s not putting numbers in the box score even though he’s a vital part of what we did. He came out and really performed with 12 points and 11 boards. Tonight we’re plus 27 with Trey Wade in the game.”
Wade enjoyed scoring but said this victory was predicated on team defense.
“Yeah it all started on the defensive end,” Wade said. “We came out tough on the defensive end and it kind of rattled them and we just ran with it.”
And kept Mizzou on the season scoring leader Kobe Brown mostly running into trouble.
Brown, a 6-8 forward had scored 30 on Ole Miss but netted just six points Tuesday guarded mostly by Wade, but variously by Williams and reserve forward Kamani Johnson.
“Our philosophy has always been to try to take the star players out,” Musselman said. “We talk about having an extra defender that we call a spy on him. I thought that all of our guys did good job of covering the boxes and elbow every time that Kobe Brown had the ball. To hold him to 3 of 10, phenomenal. I think the second half of the season we’ve defended as well as anybody in the entire country.
Guards Notae scored 17 with four assists, often to Umude on the wing, while Davis tallied 11 points with two assists and a steal against but one turnover.
“We needed Devo tonight,” Musselman said. “Devo played starter minutes tonight and played like a starter as well. So his minutes off the bench were vital for us. He did a phenomenal job.”
Mizzou in Columbia beat Alabama, nearly beat then No. 1 Auburn in a 1-point loss and last Saturday completing a home and home sweep of Ole Miss, but Arkansas wouldn’t allow his Tigers to get in Tuesday’s game, Cuonzo Martin said.
““They just came out and were tougher and stronger and got into the flow,” Martin said. “They set a great tone from start to finish. We just couldn’t get over the hump.”