It’s hard to imagine Arkansas able to play a better first half than they had against Kentucky on Tuesday night … or the fourth-ranked Wildcats playing one worse than they did.
After seeing a 14-point lead disappear in the second half, the Razorbacks watched as the Wildcats’ Tyler Herro put up 29 points in a 70-66 win.
Now fans will be shaking their heads. It was closer than most of them expected.
The Hogs actually had a shot to win this one at the end. At crunch time, though, the Hogs’ inexperience was made worse by the disparity in talent with Kentucky, who could end up being a Final Four time before it’s all said and done.
Mired in a losing streak that’s the worst he’s ever had, Mike Anderson got this team to at least take advantage of an apparent lack of interest by the Wildcats to start the game. They committed 12 turnovers in the first half while the Hogs had just one.
In the end, Kentucky had a Herro while the Hogs’ best answer — Isaiah Joe — couldn’t keep his hot first-half pace going.
Joe finished with 19 points, but just three of those coming in the second half … which is where Arkansas needed it, but the Wildcats woke up and followed John Calipari’s pregame plan to shut him down.
Herro’s two 3-point baskets 43 seconds apart keyed an 18-3 Kentucky run over 7:43 of the second half and turned a fairly sleepy Rupp Arena into the accustomed ear-splitting home court advantage.
Arkansas had no answer.
Down the stretch they couldn’t get the ball inside to Daniel Gafford, who finished with 14 points, and Jalen Harris couldn’t even properly miss a free throw that would have at least given the Hogs a chance to tie the game in the closing seconds.
It’s easy to blame Anderson, but he doesn’t teach them to play badly at key times. A lack of getting enough good players is why he’s going to find himself on a hot seat as this team has leveled off at 14-14 on the year and will be below .500 in the league, sitting at 5-10 now.
Anderson is going to point to the youth and inexperience on this team (which is true), but there is a talent gap and a basketball IQ gap between the Hogs and the better teams they’ve faced.
That is on Anderson, which he’s kind of admitted. According to some, he’s over-ruled some recruiting recommendations his assistant coaches have had. Whether the players he chose not to go after would have made a difference or not is sheer speculation.
The bottom line is that Arkansas — almost unbelievably — had a real shot at beating the No. 4 team in the country on the road … and couldn’t close the game.
It was almost as if fate was getting involved with the 1994 national champions being honored Saturday at the game against Ole Miss. The last time the Hogs beat an Associated Press Top 5 team on the road was at Rupp Arena back in that magical season.
But that was a talented team of men.
This is a team of youngsters that seem to be comfortable at times acting like it.
With just three games left on the regular-season schedule we’ll find out how they want to finish things.
It’s going to be big for Anderson, who is starting to face questions from fans and, reportedly, some folks higher up in the pecking order than that.
How these games play out could determine his future with Arkansas.
It will definitely determine the temperature of his increasingly warm seat.
