When one looks at Arkansas’ SEC record after what they did in non-conference play, a sharp contrast is sure to be noticed. The young Razorbacks exited non-conference play with a 12-1 mark, highlighted by wins over Oklahoma and Texas. SEC play was another story entirely, as they finished with a 2-14 mark.
It happens often that a team scores a big win or two in non-conference play and then doesn’t play as well as that might suggest. Conference play is another beast, as teams are more familiar and by the time those games are played, a team has played about a dozen games and thus plenty of tape is available for scouting a team. The Razorbacks’ case might be a little more interesting considering the two big wins came late in non-conference play.
A key word in describing the team earlier is “young” – the Razorbacks start three freshmen, a sophomore and a junior. They have no seniors, and besides junior guard Stefan Welsh, their key reserves are three freshmen. According to KenPom.com, only six teams in the nation have less experience than the Razorbacks. Young teams can be notoriously feast or famine at times, and this team has been no different.
Of Sunday’s 75-58 loss at Vanderbilt, head coach John Pelphrey said, “Like so many games this year for us in Southeastern Conference play, we struggled sustaining play.” That sounds almost like a brief summary of the season.
Arkansas fought off Southeastern Louisiana in overtime in its opener, and two games later suffered its only non-conference loss at Missouri State in the first game ever played at the John Q. Hammons Arena. They won the Jim Thorpe Classic at home, and they had the aforementioned big wins that seemingly changed a lot.
At that point, there was plenty of buzz about this team. They were clearly playing at a high level as SEC play beckoned. The thought was that they might be more of a contender in the SEC than most thought before the season, especially considering how weak the West Division has been compared to the East.
What those wins apparently did was up the ante.
“I do think winning like we did, being 12-1, certainly with those two wins against those teams, with the respect level that they had across the country, I don’t think anybody was taking us lightly from that point on,” Pelphrey said.
That, along with the rigors of conference play, probably helps explain the big disparity in the results. Just like there was some buzz about the team being better than expected, opponents probably gave them their best shot a little more than they might have Oklahoma and Texas come out of Bud Walton Arena victorious.
Pelphrey said he thinks they over-achieved in their non-conference schedule, and the youth of this team was a bit of a double-edged sword. On one hand, young stars like Courtney Fortson and Rotnei Clarke have a lot to learn, but on the other hand, without them this team probably isn’t nearly as competitive as they were. It’s tough enough for freshmen in college, but sometimes it’s even tougher when game-changing wins up the ante and there’s more to adjust to.
Signs of the youthfulness can be seen on offense, and Sunday’s regular season finale saw it as they shot below 19 percent in the second half. Fortson was 7-27 from the field, with the 27 shots being a season high. He hasn’t been a gunner all season long at all, and he had four assists with one turnover, so this game was a little bit of an aberration. But that was the most notable statistic that could be found to go with something Pelphrey saw with the team.
“One thing is that we could do a better job of reading defense,” Pelphrey said. “Nobody’s without fault, nobody’s solely to blame, but as a group, we’ve got to be able to read defense better.”
There are some issues, to be sure. But all of them are ones that can probably be corrected in time as the players grow. They can learn to read defense, they can learn to deal with getting an opponent’s best shot, and they can make adjustments better as they go along. From an intangible standpoint, there’s a reason Pelphrey is optimistic about this team going forward, including the upcoming SEC Tournament this week.
“The one thing I will say about this basketball team is that even though we don’t play well enough long enough, and we still have youthful mistakes, there’s a toughness level to this team,” said Pelphrey.
That toughness went a long way toward the big wins in non-conference play and probably helped overcome the tendency for youthful mistakes. In non-conference, it might have been enough; in the SEC, with the challenge magnified in part by their non-conference success, it might not have been.
