FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas may have very well punched its ticket to the NCAA Tournament with a thrilling 93-92 win over No. 25 Mississippi State on Saturday in Bud Walton Arena.
The game saw the lead switch back and forth in the first half with the Razorbacks narrowly taking a 45-44 lead into intermission. Arkansas came out with a 10-0 run to start the second half and lead 55-44. The Hogs built the lead to 16, 70-54, with 11:41 remaining in the game. However, Mississippi State wouldn't go away and even led 89-88 with 1:23 remaining in the game. John Calipari was happy his team could hold on for the win.
"Heck of a basketball game," Calipari said. "Glad we won it. Love how we fought. And I told them, I've done this a long time and this may be the most rewarding season for me because they're a bunch of good kids that struggled early and in their own individual way, and then collectively, we struggled early. Yet, because they were good people, they stuck together. Our staff never blamed, just kept working with them.
"The trick when you're going through that is that you must keep picking them up — you ready? — but you’ve still got to be a truth teller and you got to hold them accountable. But pick them up. Say, ‘I love you, but you're not doing the right stuff right now. You're playing really hard, but you're not doing enough for us and playing hard in itself is not good enough. You must. That's a given. Then the rest of the stuff you're going to have to get.’"
Tennessee transfer Jonas Aidoo had by far his best game in an Arkansas uniform. He scored 21 points, had 10 rebounds, four assists and three blocks.
"So happy for Jonas, it's been hard," Calipari said. "He had an operation. He was out four months. He's only now coming back."
With the game tied at 92 and 34 seconds remaining Aidoo stepped up yet again. He rebounded a missed shot and then got fouled with 11 seconds showing on the clock. He hit one of the two free throws and then a Billy Richmond block on the other end handed Arkansas the win.
Trevon Brazile, the lone holdover from last season, picked up two fouls in the first three minutes and was limited in the first half. But he bounced back in the second half. Brazile had 11 points and 11 boards for his second consecutive double-double.
"So happy for TB in the second half, but why was I upset?," Calipari said. "And I kept going down to him. You can't get two fouls reaching in. It's not a touchdown, it's two points. You get two fouls, I can't put you in because we can't win if I can't use you in the second half. Great lesson. Glad we learned it and still won."
D.J. Wagner was outstanding as well with 24 points, two rebounds and five assists. With Mississippi State on top 89-87 with 1:46 remaining in the game, Wagner hit a pair of free throws and then a 3-pointer to put the Hogs back in the lead 92-89 with 44 seconds left in the game.
"DJ made that step back three and free throws," Calipari said. "And I was on him, because he had a couple of bad turnovers. Again, he played great, but you’ve got to hold him accountable. Those could have cost us the game, and they were for no reason. You drive and there’s three guys, you’re passing that. You’re not losing that one. So, yes, he was unavailable. I’m going to tell you, every one of my friends who watches our games says, ’He plays so hard, runs so hard, defends so hard, I can’t believe he can stay in the game.’ Like, I got him out for a minute and I said, ‘That’s it, go back.’"
Johnell "Nelly" Davis had another good game. He finished with 15 points, four rebounds, four assists and two steals. Billy Richmond contributed 10 points, two rebounds, six assists and two blocks.
"I don’t think Nelly came out at all," Calipari said. "Did Nelly come out? Oh no, he got the fouls. He got two fouls at the end of the half. But Billy, again, come on. Making every free throw. Then get fouled. Going to the basket like he does, being able to play point guard. Thought Billy was great. Last block, win a game, made shots."
The one area the Razorbacks weren't good at on Saturday was turnovers. They had 10 to only two for the visitors. The Bulldogs outscored Arkansas 19-4 on turnovers. Arkansas led 83-72 with 5:33 remaining in the game. The Bulldogs then went on a 12-0 run to lead 84-83 with 3:14 remaining in the game.
Mississippi State was led by Claudell Harris Jr. with 18 points. Josh Hubbard added 17 points and four assists. Cameron Matthews finished with 13 points, six rebounds, four assists and three steals. KeShawn Murphy also had 13 points and pulled down six boards. Riley Kugel had 12 points and RJ Melendez 10.
Arkansas (19-12, 8-10) started SEC play 0-5, but rebounded well to finish the season strong despite only having seven healthy rotation players. Calipari was asked if he thinks Arkansas has done enough to be in the NCAA Tournament?
"You never— the committee will make a decision, so you get out ahead of yourself. We’ve just got to keep trying to get better. They told me we have South Carolina, who beat us. They were up [35]. No, literally, they were up [35], and that's who we got to play in the tournament. So let's just worry about that. The other stuff will take care of itself. We talked about it. I'm just— look I said this before, there are going to be stretches in this league where teams are going to lose three, four, five in a row. You're going to lose five of six, you're going to lose four of five. Can you keep your team together? We lost five in a row, and all I talked about, ‘We just got to stick together. We'll be fine.’ And so now we're still standing. We're playing pretty good. We end up shooting, again, over 50% from the two. We did some good stuff."
Arkansas shot 55% (31-56) from the field and 43% (9-21) from beyond the arc. Arkansas won the rebounding battle 41-29.
Mississippi State (20-11, 8-10) and Arkansas will now head to the SEC Tournament this upcoming week.
Photos: Craven Whitlow
