Pick-up game star
Notae switches jerseys at intermission, shines for Red in 2nd half.
FAYETTEVILLE — Junior guard JD Notae proved to be a nice halftime pickup for the Red Team in the University of Arkansas’ intraquad basketball game on Thursday night.
Notae, who redshirted last season after transferring from Jacksonville (Fla.) University, scored 24 of his game-high 30 points in the second half to lead the Red team to a 103-67 victory over the White in Walton Arena before a socially-distanced announced crowd of 2,023 students.
After Notae shot 2 of 8 from the field — including 2 of 7 on three-point attempts — and scored six points for the White Team in the first half, he hit 8 of 12 shots — 7 of 11 three-pointers — for the Red team in 16 minutes in the second half of the 32-minute game.
“Everybody saw the kind of second half he had,” said forward Justin Smith, a senior graduate transfer from Indiana who scored 22 points for the Red Team. “I’m glad it was on our team instead of against us.
“It made our lives easier.
He’s a dynamic scorer and he brings a lot to the table.”
Notae had all five of his assists in the second half, which Arkansas Coach Eric Musselman said was the best part of his game.
“I haven’t played in like a year, so I was nervous a little bit,” Notae said. “I kind of forced it a lot in the first half. The second half, I let it come to me.”
Notae’s second-half surge turned the game into a rout after the Red led 42-31 at halftime.
“I think for sure JD is a guy that can score in bunches,” Musselman said. “I think you saw that. I thought he started the game off way too impatient, 1 of 5 from the field, bad shot selection.”
Musselman said Notae settled down and got in the flow of the game.
“He’s got to get better defensively,” Musselman said. “He’s got to play with more of a sense of urgency at all times.
“But certainly JD is a guy that can go get his own shot whenever he wants. He’s got a really good step-back three. He’s really good going to the basket and drawing free throws. He might be a guy that maybe comes off the bench, I don’t know, and supplies his points that way. We’re still trying to figure that out.”
Freshman guard Moses Moody had 21 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists in 29 minutes for the Red Team. He hit 7 of 14 shots — 2 of 6 three-pointers — and 5 of 5 free throws.
“The really, really positive with Moses Moody was the 29 minutes with zero turnovers,” Musselman said. “Because obviously historically in the past we’ve been a low turnover team, and we feel like that’s a really important stat for us.”
Moody’s clean ball-handling helped the Red Team have 27 assists and six turnovers.
“Playing with Moses is a lot of fun,” Smith said. “He’s able to stretch the defense because of his shooting so that they have to really key in on him. So that gives a lot of driving lanes for everybody else.
“He’s an unselfish player. He makes the right plays. He rebounds and does all the little things as well.”
Point guard Jalen Tate, a senior graduate transfer from Northern Kentucky, had 11 points, 8 assists and 5 rebounds in 27 minutes for the Red Team without a turnover.
“Jalen Tate was phenomenal,” Musselman said. “Just what we want out of play at that position.”
Junior guard Desi Sills, playing for the White Team in the first half and Red Team in the second half, combined to score 24 points. He hit 6 of 7 free throws.
“I thought that Desi did a good job of going to the basket tonight,” Musselman said. “He attacked the rim like we saw last year. He did a good job converting from the foul line.
“We have to continue to work with Desi defensively. Last year, that was a point of emphasis, and we need to see a little more growth from him from a defensive standpoint both as a team defender and as an individual defender.”
Forward Vance Jackson, a senior graduate transfer from New Mexico, played for both teams and had 15 points.
Connor Vanover, a 7-3 sophomore who redshirted last season after transferring from California, had 7 points and 2 rebounds in 17 minutes for the Red Team.
Freshman guard Khalen “KK” Robinson led the White Team with 18 points in 29 minutes and freshman guard Davonte Davis — who won the pregame dunk contest — had 8 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists in 32 minutes.
Junior forward Ethan Henderson scored eight points for the White team and shot 4 of 4 from the field.
Freshman forward Jaylin Williams, who played for both teams, scored four points.
“Jaylin has mostly done a really great job for most of our training camp, maybe didn’t play as well tonight as he has in practice,” Musselman said. “And KK probably played better tonight than he has in practice.”
The Red Team shot 57.4% from the field (39 of 68) and 47.1% on three-pointers. The White Team shot 54.5% (24 of 44) and 35.0% on three-pointer (7 of 20).
“Really good three-point shooting with both teams,” Musselman said. “But on the flip side, and it’s because we’re playing ourselves.
“We led the nation in defending the three last year and with so many new guys, they have not picked up the importance of defending the three with urgency. So that’s going to get cleaned up.
“We broke out bricks the other day where the guys have to close out holding bricks in their hand. And those things are going to become a heck of a lot more prevalent in our next few practices to get hands up in the vision of the shooter.”
Smith hit 9 of 11 shots, including 3 of 3 three-pointers.
“I was just going out there playing free and confident,” Smith said. “I just really wanted to go out there and kind of get my legs underneath me and work toward our games coming up.”
Did you feel bad switching teams and then crush the old squad?
Notae said he didn’t have any guilty feelings helping the Red pound the White Team in the second half after he played on the other side in the first half.
“No, I just wanted to go out there and play hard, no matter which team I was on,” Notae said. “Just try to play hard.”