It was interesting to note that while everyone wanted to talk about Mason Jones’ 41-point day against Tulsa on Saturday one of the things he talked about was defense.
“We started off with defense that let the defense make your offense,” he said later. “We came back with steal after a steal on the defensive end.”
Eric Musselman had the Razorbacks focusing on defense when the media got to watch a few minutes of practice Thursday. He was emphasizing communication, which resulted in a lot of yelling in one of the last drills of practice.
That carried over to the game. The communication on the floor was much louder than it has been in some recent. At times the Hogs were flying around and diving for loose balls all over the floor.
For a coach that looks at analytics and film study that’s gotten a lot of attention it’s really just garbage unless the players practice to those results, then execute it in the game.
Against the Golden Hurricane they did, especially on the defensive side of the ball.
“Defensively, we got back to being who we are,” Musselman said after the win.
Jones missed a 3-pointer at the end of regulation last week against Western Kentucky, then the Hogs collapsed in overtime. Seeing the response was a question some had going into the game.
“We just had to leap out to bounce back from it,” Isaiah Joe said later. “We had a good week of practice and we were all focused. As you can tell, it showed in the game especially Mason’s performance.”
Joe had a game that normally would get headlines, but his 20 points probably won’t get a lot of headlines because of Jones’ big day.
“He did a great job of finding his own shots,” Joe said. “We did a great job of finding him, too.”
The entire team had a solid week of practices that Musselman talked about, but Jones’ big day didn’t appear to be that surprising.
“His practice habits this week were awesome,” Musselman said. “He was locked in.”
Jones was 12-of-18 from the field (5-of-11 on 3-pointers) and hit 12-of-13 free throw. The missed free throw may have bugged him the most.
“I pride myself on not missing free throws, so that hurt,” he said with a chuckle later.
Jones scored 32 in the season opener against Rice. His 41 points against Tulsa tied for the seventh-most points in a game in school history. You have to go back to Joe Kleine back in 1984 for the last time a Razorback hit 41.
Jones’ total was the most by a Razorbacks since Rotnei Clarke hung 51 on Alcorn State back in 2009.
Maybe the single aspect for the Hogs in their 9-1 start to the season was turnovers. We got the indication Saturday they’ve spent some time working on that and the players showed it in the game with just two in the first half, six in the second half.
“Valuing the ball is so important,” Musselman said. “I even talked to the team, and I know my dad would be rolling over thinking about it, but I’d rather take a bad shot rather than turn the ball over.
“We use a soccer term — shots on goal. We have to get shots on goal. They at least have a chance to go in. And your defense can get set up. When you have live-ball turnovers, it’s really difficult to win.”
There’s the analytics talk again that Musselman talks about a lot. There’s a lot of that detail-oriented talk that can gobble up the attention, but you see too often it doesn’t mean much without the players executing to it.
They did Saturday, which we got the idea might happen after watching Thursday’s practice. Musselman coached to the analytics … and the players were able to take it and make it happen on the floor.
Which is what the good coaches do.
