Hogs shift gears
After blowout of Valley State, defense stops North Texas.
FAYETTEVILLE — After the University of Arkansas men’s basketball team raced past Mississippi Valley State to win its season opener by 80 points, the Razorbacks used their defense to subdue North Texas.
Arkansas beat the Mean Green 69-54 on Saturday at Walton Arena before an announced crowd of 4,400.
The game was in stark contrast to the Razorbacks’ 142-62 victory over the Delta Devils on Wednesday night.
“I think you’ve just got to win different ways,” Arkansas Coach Eric Musselman said. “The bottom line is Mississippi Valley State shoots real quick in the first 12 seconds of the shot clock, and North Texas is one of the slowest teams.”
Musselman said that when Anthony Ruta, the Razorbacks’ director of operations, put together a revamped schedule, it was designed to face teams with contrasting styles.
“So now we’ve played against a deliberate and experienced team, and we’ve played against a team that likes to get up and down,” Musselman said. “It’s important we play our brand of basketball and we figure out — whatever that other team’s tempo is — how we play at our tempo. I thought we did that tonight.
“We didn’t shoot the ball great [41.8% on 23 of 55], but that’s a tribute to their defense.”
The Razorbacks (2-0) improved to 16-0 against North Texas (1-1) and held the Mean Green to 36.2% shooting (21 of 58), including 2 of 13 on three-pointers after they hit a school-record 21 in a 116-62 victory over Mississippi Valley State on Thursday night.
“This game really showed what we can do defensively when we put our minds to it,” said forward Justin Smith, a senior graduate transfer from Indiana who led Arkansas with 18 points. “I also think it showed us how far we have to go to be elite defensively. That’s one of the things Coach Muss has stressed to us for us to be successful.”
Arkansas and North Texas each had 16 turnovers, but the Razorbacks forced more liveball mistakes. Stealing the ball in the open court helped Arkansas outscore the Mean Green 20-11 in points off of turnovers.
“They were more aggressive and maintained a level of energy to the way they played the game,” said North Texas Coach Grant McCasland, who was hit with a technical foul with 2:34 left after an Arkansas defensive stop. “It really disrupted our offense and led to turnovers, which led to easy baskets for them. That was the difference.”
Connor Vanover, a 7-3 sophomore who redshirted last season, was a big difference for Arkansas’ defense, too. He blocked six shots and altered numerous others.
“Their size bothered us,” McCasland said. “Connor was fantastic at the rim.”
Vanover had 6 points on 3-of-4 shooting after leading the Razorbacks with 23 against Mississippi Valley State, but he had a career-high 16 rebounds — 14 on the defensive end.
“Connor contributed in so many ways,” Musselman said. “He only had six points and he only took four shots, but he did a great job impacting the win. So it’s not always about scoring the basketball.”
Musselman credited Jalen Tate — a senior graduate transfer from Northern Kentucky — with his defense on North Texas senior point guard Javion Hamlet, the Conference USA Player of the Year last season when he averaged 14.6 points and 4.7 rebounds.
Hamlet, who had 13 points and 11 assists against Mississippi Valley State, was held to 5 and 4 by the Razorbacks.
“I thought we did a great job of limiting Hamlet’s touches,” Musselman said. “That’s what Jalen Tate does. I thought Tate’s defense on Hamlet was phenomenal.”
Smith said the Razorbacks were able to pressure Hamlet because of Vanover’s defensive presence in the lane.
“That was the game plan. We really wanted to get the ball out of Hamlet’s hands and make the other players make plays,” Smith said. “We were really synced in defensively as a unit.
“Connor, he’s like a safety net down there. He just makes our lives easier to be more aggressive out on the perimeter.”
After Vanover played 18 minutes off the bench against Mississippi Valley State, he started Saturday and played 34 minutes.
“It was really, really hard to take Connor off the floor tonight,” Musselman said. “I thought he was that dominant for us.”
Arkansas junior guard JD Notae, who had 16 points and 6 rebounds in 24 minutes off the bench, said Vanover’s defense is a confidence booster.
“He’s going to be there, so that gives me an extra boost to pressure the ball a little harder,” Notae said. “Get up into it and kind of force it down there into Connor so he can be effective.”
Junior guard Desi Sills added 14 points for the Razorbacks, but he had five turnovers.
“Desi with five turnovers is just way, way too much, and 16 turnovers is a lot [as a team],” Musselman said. “We’re still trying to figure out who we are. Obviously, we’re still a work in progress.”
Arkansas freshman guard Moses Moody had 11 points, 3 steals and 2 rebounds.
Junior forward Terrence Lewis led North Texas with 12 points, and senior forward Zachary Simmons had 10.
Arkansas outscored North Texas 19-7 in the final 6:41 of the first half to take a 38-27 lead after the Mean Green had tied the score 19-19 on two free throws by Hamlet. Moody’s three-point play on a rebound basket started a 10-0 run by the Razorbacks that included seven consecutive points by Notae.
North Texas missed eight consecutive shots and went 4:57 without scoring before Simmons’ layup made it 29-21 with 2:22 left in the half.
Arkansas pushed its lead to 36-23 on Smith’s driving basket after a North Texas turnover. Simmons layup with two seconds left in the half cut the Razorbacks’ lead to 38-27.
The Razorbacks opened the second half on a 9-0 run to take a 47-27 lead with 16:14 left on Tate’s rebound basket. The Mean Green didn’t pull closer than 10 points the rest of the game.
“Coming out of halftime, a big point of emphasis was our defense,” Musselman said. “Trying to pick up our defense. That really changed the complexion of the game, our defensive intensity to start the second half.”