Close calls reveal class of gritty UA,
Once again, in the latest strain of March Madness, the Arkansas Razorbacks took their fans to the rack on Saturday.
And, Eric Musselman’s team, even if it can’t put two good halves together, pulled another great escape. Just when you thought the season was over, Houdini freed himself from the locked trunk and crawled through the ice, just like Tony Curtis in the movie about the famed magician.
All Arkansas fans could say was “whew” after a 72-70 potboiler against Oral Roberts in the NCAA Sweet 16. For the first time since the 1994-95 team, in defense of the national title, reached the championship game against UCLA, the Hogs were among the Elite Eight after Sunday’s round of region semifinals.
Devonte Davis, one of those Arkansas kids (Jacksonville freshman) that Musselman has crafted into a 25-6 squad, made the shot that belonged on “Sports Center.” His 8-foot jumper with 3.1 seconds to play, giving him 14 in the last 20 minutes, goes into Razorback lore. Although not as dramatic, the stakes were just as high as when U.S. Reed went “all net,” teammate Darrell Walker’s words, on a midcourt heave that beat Louisville, the reigning national champion, in the second round in 1981.
One of Eddie Sutton’s typically overachieving teams had the misfortune next to play arguably the best LSU bunch coached by Dale Brown. A 31-5 team with swingman Howard Carter and 6-foot guard Ethan Martin, both from Baton Rouge, crushed the 24-8 Razorbacks 72-56 at the New Orleans Superdome. The Tigers reached the Final Four but, with All-American Rudy Macklin injured, went down to Bob Knight and Indiana, which had Isiah Thomas.
Some Arkansas fans will tell you the Hogs face a similar fate against Baylor tonight in the South Region finals, a matchup of No. 1 and No.3 seeds.
This appears Scott Drew’s best Baylor team, one that can compete on a par nationally with Kim Mulkey’s Baylor women’s squads. Gonzaga and Baylor have stood apart throughout this pandemic season, the Bears losing only late in the season to Kansas on Senior Night at Allen Fieldhouse and to Oklahoma State in the Big 12 tournament, perfunctory efforts in a dazzling year.
Arkansas gave such a performance, it can be contended, in a Southeastern Conference tournament loss to LSU after sailing through February without a league defeat.
Arkansas has walked on the wild side all season, the Oral Roberts game being the 10th time the Razorbacks have overcome a double-digit deficit.
In the NCAAs alone, Arkansas finally took control against Colgate on a 17-0 run to end the first half. The Razorbacks then snuck through against Texas Tech, which could not parlay its rebound advantage into points when up by 10 early.
Now, for the second-straight game, the Hogs cross their fingers when the other team takes the last shot. Max Abmas got too good a look, it seemed, on a three-point attempt from the wing after Oral Roberts took the ball out underneath its basket. taking a second time-out to set up the play.
As the Hogs expected, Abmas, the nation’s leading scorer, ran a “banana cut” from right to left in backcourt. “We just tried to make sure he’d catch the ball in front of us and not behind us,” said Davis, closest to the play. “As you saw, he did that, but we tried not to foul him as well. So we did that, and we hoped that he didn’t make the shot.”
Musselman had been there before, his 2018 team at Nevada losing 69-68 to Loyola-Chicago in the Sweet 16. “We had
defended it perfectly and they made the shot,” the UA coach recalled. “We were probably one shot away from beating Loyola and being in the Elite Eight that year.
“I still think about that shot over and over. I guess tonight the basketball gods were looking over us.”
Had Abmas’ shot gone in, Musselman would have been subject to an immediate second-guess from the media for not guarding the throw-in pass on Oral Roberts’ last possession. I wasn’t the only viewer who wondered, “What in the name of Rick Pitino is going on here?”
He has won two national titles and taken another team dancing in March, yet some will remember Pitino only for the last 2.3 seconds of overtime in Kentucky’s region final against Duke in 1992.
In perhaps the finest college game ever, an unguarded Grant Hill made a 75-foot heave to Christian Laettner, surrounded by two Kentucky players (one of them future Arkansas coach John Pelphrey) on the other free-throw line. Laettner caught Hill’s bullet pass cleanly, dribbled and turned around to make one last shot in a game that the All-American did not miss. Duke 104, Kentucky 103, and as Cawood Ledford, calling his last game on the Kentucky radio network, summed it up, “That’s why they’re No. 1.”
(It should be remembered that Mike Krzyzewski made two observations during Duke’s last timeout. “We’re going to win the game,” Coach K said after Sean Woods banked home an improbable shot in the lane for a one-point Kentucky lead. Then he asked Hill, “Can you make that pass?”)
On such moments, when a team shoots to win or lose the game, do seasons and careers often swing.
“Sometimes,” as Darrell Royal said in the Texas locker room after the 15-14 game with Frank Broyles-coached Arkansas on Dec. 6, 1969, you just have to suck it up and pick a number.”
But if luck is the residue of design, Musselman’s Razorback teams appear coached to the nanosecond.
Arkansas has had, well, prettier teams, one that played in, and won, big games without so much hand-wringing. In a sport that more and more centers on passing and spacing, these Razorbacks find the open man. I can’t recall any team, however, that takes, and makes, more difficult shots than these Hogs.
Moses Moody, the freshman from North Little Rock, may be the Hogs’ only NBA lottery player. Corliss Williamson, a classic 4-spot player (power forward), was the one guy Nolan Richardson’s teams looked to in crunch time, even if Scotty Thurman made the shot heard around the world against Duke on a Monday night in April 1994 in the Charlotte Coliseum.
Davonte Davis is compiling an impressive body of work that he might be the same unflappable player. If Moody is the team’s best player for 35 minutes, Davis comes across as one you want taking the last shot. Arkansas survived against Oral Roberts when Moody went 4-for-20 from the field, though he still made six of seven at the line and finished with 14 points.
Tonight, the star of the game may be J.D. Notae, Desi Sills or Justin Smith. Jaylin Williams got kudos against Texas Tech for scoring only one point, adding a deuce in nine minutes against Oral Roberts. A deluxe big man Williams may never become, but he has improved greatly over the player I watched in person as a Fort Smith Northside senior.
Three Razorbacks played at least 38 minutes Saturday. These guys may be physically and emotionally spent after another Houdini-like escape. Baylor, coming off a 62-51 game against a Villanova team that usually wins such a street fight, may be too good for the Hogs.
But as long as Baylor doesn’t suit out Terry Teagle or Vinnie Johnson, two stars from its Southwest Conference days, give Arkansas a puncher’s chance. If this continues, you may need to stock up on anxiety pills.