In what many thought would be a promising basketball season is actually looking more like a nightmare with the latest loss 83-65 at Missouri on Saturday evening.
Arkansas (11-7, 0-5) hired John Calipari away from Kentucky following last season and the team is still looking for its first SEC win after five losses. Calipari talked about the one-sided loss to Missouri following the game.
"I was disappointed in our start. Went with the big lineup. We had some bad matchups. I like the fact that we never gave in, we never stopped. Ten-point game, we got the ball, we got fouled, and then all of the sudden it’s an offensive explosion.
"It’s what we’ve done every game. Like every game. There’s a spell of three minutes in the first half, three or four, and then there’s a spell of two or three minutes in the second half. And we’re not able to overcome those things, so we’ve got to keep working. Boogie’s (Fland) hand, he fell in the game at our place against Florida. Billy (Richmond) jumped on him, so his hand is pretty bad. Don’t know what we’ll do going forward, but we’ve got to make sure that we get that thing right."
Jonas Aidoo opened the game with a basket and 2-0 lead for the Razorbacks. As it turned out they would never lead again with the Tigers going on an 18-0 run and never looking back.
"You're calling timeouts, you are doing everything you can to stem the tide and you're, they were playing, we, we again, 50 50 balls, all those things kick out threes, you know, they made those shots and some of them were us, but they had to make them, you got to give Missouri credit, they're a good team," Calipari said. "Shoot the ball. Well, you know, they'll physically fight and like I said, I was disappointed in that span and when you're talking about that span, the rest of the game was kind of (gestures) ... Then you get it to 10 in that span and all of a sudden that's the game. So, you know the importance of those stretches and we've been talking about it, we've been showing it on tape. Again, I say you can't worry about how you're playing so that it affects you on both sides of the ball. Just play. And like I said, we've been positive and trying to get that mentality mindset right. But we'll see. Anything else before I jump on a plane and get home?"
The Hogs were only 4 of 8 at the free throw line. Missouri got there 19 times making 14 of them. Since entering SEC play the Razorbacks have struggled to get to the free throw line.
"Well, my guess is we touched that lane 55 times," Calipari said. "We had 35 touches, lane touches in the first half. And maybe some of these teams are really good at, at guarding the bumps and all the other stuff. But we're driving the ball and the idea is to get fouled. So, we're the only team that does this. Everybody else seems to do that body check and all that stuff. So, we're going to keep driving it, see if they'll call them and we'll see."
Arkansas got a very good game from Zvonimir Ivisic. In 30 minutes, Ivisic scored 14 points, pulled down 10 rebouds, 1 assist, 2 blocks and a steal.
"Z stepped up and did some good things," Calipari said. "I thought Adou (Thiero) fought. We just got to get good play out of a lot of people. You can’t have guys play poorly, turn it over, do those things. And again, we’re not one of those teams. We only had 13 turnovers. But Adou had four, D.J. Wagner had four. So that’s eight of your 13, the rest of the guys weren’t throwing it all over the place. And 13 isn’t a crazy number, you get up to 15, 16 now you got problems.
"I’d like it to be 11 or 12 but 13… The rest of it is, 50/50 balls we don’t come up with. Again, how many offensive rebounds? They only had 11, but again, the last couple games they’ve gotten so many free throws the last couple of games. So many more free throws than us, it’s hard. So, we’ve got to either stop fouling or we got to get some fouls. Make it so obvious that they’ve got to… (makes foul motion). I don’t know, but the last two games, the margin of free throws, like not close. Like I just said, I know it was 35 touches in the first half. My guess is it was at least 20 in the second half, maybe more. And you would have to look at the ones that could have been called fouls on the drive and then was that a foul or not? You look at it."
Thiero chipped in 12 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 blocked shots and 2 steals. Fland had a particularly rough outing from the field hitting on 2 of 13 shots for 4 points. He did chip in 4 rebounds and 6 assists.
Missouri (15-3, 4-1) had five players land in double figures scoring. Caleb Grill and Mark Mitchell each had 17 to lead the Tigers. Tamar Bates added 15, Tony Perkins 11 and Trent Pierce 10.
Arkansas will return to Bud Walton Arena on Wednesday night to host Georgia (14-4, 2-3). The Bulldogs lost to No. 1 Auburn 70-68 on Saturday. The game will be televised on the SEC Network and tips at 8 p.m.