Arkansas has won an SEC road game for the second time in a row this time defeating Texas 78-70 in Austin.
Arkansas (14-8, 3-6) ran out to a big lead over Texas (15-8, 4-6) on Wednesday night and then held off a late rally that saw the Longhorns cut the deficit to as much as five points. But just like at Kentucky, Arkansas wasn't going to be denied and handed John Calipari another impressive SEC road win.
"It could’ve been two and I’d been fine," Calipari said of the margin of victory. "Just get out of the gym. So, they were great though. Nelly’s (Johnell Davis) done great stuff, he’s grown up. I sent them all a text that basically talked about, you have to go through failure if you’re ever going to have success. You have to walk through those gates. You got to deal with failure and that’s what we were dealing with. We lost a bunch of games. I was looking like sheesh, has anybody lost all 18? They said, ‘yeah, last year, Missouri.’ Well sheesh, they’re pretty good right now.
"But, you know, proud of the kids. I told the TV at halftime, I love coaching this team now. How ‘bout they struggled like that and stuck together? How ‘bout they struggled and I had somebody ask, ‘Are you afraid they’re going to let go of the rope?’ Were you in the room? You weren’t the one that asked. I said, ‘Well, they would have let go of the rope already.’ So they’re fighting. They know… I still think we got a ways to go to reach where we should be, I do. But I’m just happy we won this, the last game on the road, two road wins. In this league? Two road wins tells you we’re not too bad."
Davis, the FAU transfer, struggled earlier in the season. But once the injury to Boogie Fland happened and the Razorbacks needed someone to step up Davis willingly took the challenge.
"Well, what I’m telling him and all these guys, the fight you have is if you miss two shots, don’t act like you’re going to come out every time you make a mistake," Calipari said. "The battle is within you. That I’m shooting another one and I’m shooting another one. If you make a bad play, you have to have the mental strength to go on to the next play. If you don’t, there are no alibis. Now, what he’s done, he’s busted through all of that. You know what was great today? He’s on the court talking to Karter (Knox) when Karter fouled, like ‘We need this clock to run. You’re fine, keep playing, don’t foul.’
"Wow. D.J. (Wagner, the way he’s playing, wow. Adou (Thiero) made a few plays. He was as sick as a dog, probably shouldn’t have played, but he made a couple plays. TB (Trevon Brazile) played, Z (Zvonimir Ivisic). We have a full roster playing right now. Billy (Richmond), how about that last block out of nowhere? Who can make that play other than him? You have to show me. And again, look, Texas is playing well. They have played well. They have turned it to where — they were like us, their schedule dictated their record. In this league, sometimes it’s not how your team’s playing, it’s who you’re playing. So, now, they got them going."
Davis scored 24 points to lead the Razorbacks and made half his shots from beyond the arc. Davis also had 5 rebounds, 2 assists and 4 steals. Calipari liked the defensive scheme Arkansas had Wednesday night.
"We just wanted to be really aggressive and pressure and spread them out a little bit," Calipari said. "To be honest, guys, they missed a lot of shots that they normally make, but they missed them. I was happy they missed. And then we rebounded pretty good. Then the second half they got nine offensive rebounds. Nine. In the second half. That’s like a 20. That’s like our game at Tennessee, where they had 24 offensive rebounds. So we were, again… Believe me, we were just trying to get out of the gym."
Despite being sick, Thiero had 14 points, 5 rebounds and 2 assists.. Wagner added 13 points, 3 rebounds and 4 assists. Ivisic topped the Hogs in rebounds with 12 and 4 blocks. He and Knox both had nine points.
Texas was led by Tre Johnson with 25 points. Arthur Kaluma added 12 points and 13 rebounds. Julian Larry had 11 points and Kadin Shedrick 10. Former Razorback Tramon Mark was held scoreless.
The Razorbacks will be at home Saturday night when they host No. 3 Alabama at 7:30 p.m. on ESPN. The start time was moved back 30 minutes after originally slated to start at 7 p.m. But ESPN made the change as they opted to show the Los Angeles Lakers and Indiana Pacers at 3 p.m. Saturday.