Hoop Hogs stock-risers: Collaboration fuels comeback, resiliency, three-point shooting, turnovers-to-transition-scoring

By Kevin McPherson

LITTLE ROCK — Already one-quarter through their 2024-25 season, the Arkansas Razorbacks (6-2) may have started slowly but a true road win over a high-major opponent in their last outing, 76-73 at Miami on Tuesday, has produced several Hoop Hog stock-risers worth highlighting.

- Six Razorbacks who connected the backcourt and frontcourt corps stood out. To win its first road game, Arkansas needed it best collaborative efforts to date from its backcourt and frontcourt. Check and check! It started — and ENDED BRILLIANTLY — with freshman guard Boogie Fland, who following an inefficient and sluggish 8-point performance in the team’s 90-77 neutral-site loss to Illinois on Nov. 28 authored a team-high 18 points, including ALL of the Hogs’ scoring in a 7-2 run in the final 2:25 of the game as Arkansas flipped a 71-69 deficit into a 76-73 road win. His right-corner three-point field goal with 1:47 to play gave Arkansas its first lead of the game at 74-71 — make that Arkansas’ first lead in three games against high-major opponents this season (includes the aforementioned loss to Illinois and the Hogs’ 72-67 neutral-site loss to then-No. 8 Baylor on Nov. 9). Miami would pull within a one-point deficit, 74-73, on a second-chance layup at the 1:22 mark, but Fland responded with an 18-foot pull-up jumper with 0:54 showing to extend the Hogs back to a three-pont lead, 76-73, which ultimately proved to be the final margin.

Fland made 4-of-9 from 3 in the game and 2-of-2 at the foul line, the latter of which tied the game at 71-all at the 2:25 mark as the beginning of that 7-2 game-closing run. He also dished out a team-high 6 assists to go with 4 rebounds and a team-best boxscore plus-11 in 32 minutes.

He got plenty of help from his starting backcourt teammates as sophomore guard DJ Wagner matched his season-high with 14 points (mostly on a multitude of deep-paint-drive finishes, plus a made triple) to go with 5 assists, 2 steals, 2 rebounds, and a boxscore plus-6 in 37 minutes while senior guard Johnell “Nelly” Davis had his best game as a Hog with 12 points (4-of-7 field goals, including 3-of-6 from 3, and 1-of-2 free throws), 5 rebounds, 2 steals, 1 assist, and a boxscore plus-7 in 27 minutes. Throw in the fact the trio combined for only 4 turnovers, and it was easily their best game collectively on the season.

The frontcourt trio of Zvonimir Ivisic, Trevon Brazile, and Jonas Aidoo stepped up when junior 3/4-combo forward Adou Thiero — the team’s season leader in scoring, rebounding, and steals — had an off night by his standards. Ivisic, averaging 12.1 points per game as a starter, played off the bench and had 11 points (4-of-5 field goals, including 3-of-4 from 3), 2 rebounds, 2 blocks, 1 assist, 2 turnovers, and a boxscore plus-3 in 13 minutes. All SEC transfer big man Aidoo saw his most-extensive action of the season (12 minutes), and combined with junior forward Brazile (19 minutes in a starting role), they combined for 10 points, 7 rebounds, 2 steals, and only 1 turnover.

Brazile’s and Aidoo’s 10 combined points all came at the rim — two dunks each after hard rolls to the basket were rewarded with laser-precision entry passes from teammates, and a tip-in by Brazile. Those kinds of easy scores by the frontliners had been missing, and they offered a much-needed complement to Ivisic’s three-point shooting.

“All I can do is just try to get the W for my team,” Fland said after the game. “Just keep going. Basketball’s a game of runs, they gonna make runs. They definitely did make runs in the first half, just coming back second half with more intensity, more spirit.”

Arkansas had previously relied so much on Thiero’s downhill bully-ball attacks on the paint, rim, and anyone daring to get in his way, or for Fland to find away to get buckets any way he could, and for Ivisic to shoot the team back into contention. This one felt different, especially in the second half, as it was a more all-hands-on-deck kind of success. Collective team production and impact in a win? Stock: UP

- Resiliency orchestrated by the Head Hog himself, John Calipari. A positive nugget was mired in the Arkansas losses when the team struggled with unforced turnovers, up-and-down three-point shooting, defensive issues defending pick-and-roll, pick-and-pop, and dribble-handoff screen games, and attacking zone defenses or other schemes designed to minimize drives — among other rough edges — and that silver lining was that despite never leading the team stayed connected to the scoreboard with chances to find winning paths against both Baylor and Illinois.

Of course a winning formula never materialized, and it was a similar theme on Tuesday at Miami as the Hogs trailed for the first 38:13 before the persistent “We’re winning” drumbeat from Calipari finally sunk in to fuel the aforementioned 7-2 game-closing run that allowed the Razorbacks to finally take a lead and finally break through the glass ceiling of beating a high-major opponent in three tries so far in 2024-25. True road game, no less.

“For us to come back and grind it a little bit and play the way we had to play to win, because I told them we’re winning this game,” Calipari said on Tuesday after his team’s come-from-behind victory. “I told them at halftime, I told them at every timeout, ‘If you’re not in here to win the game, sit on the bench.’ That means you’re making easy plays. You’re not going nuts. We’re doing this together. It’s the only way we can win. All I told myself throughout the game, even down 8, 10, whatever we were down — some of the time I didn’t even look at the clock — ‘We’re going to have fun.’ It’s my first year, trying to establish a culture, a new team, young kids. I’m going to have fun. I was having fun throughout the whole game. There was never… If we lost, we lost. Next. We won, we go home, we’re a little happier.”

But how did that resiliency manifest in a tangibly measurable way?

Arkansas fell behind by 11 points in the first half, trailed by 8 at halftime (40-32), was down by as many as 9 points early in the second half, and still trailed by 7 at 66-59 with 7:42 to play. That’s when the Hogs dug in on defense to get stops, holding the ‘Canes to 1-of-7 from 3 in the closing minutes, while finding ways to execute offensively. After a 1-of-6 start shooting from 3, Arkansas hung 44 second-half points while shooting 8-of-14 from beyond the arc (57.1%) as part of 17-of-31 overall field goal shooting (54.8%) in the final 20 minutes.

That’s resiliency, from the power of Calipari’s suggestion to the rotation of Hogs who played and delivered. But was it an oulier or the start of a trend that will translate to consistent winning? Stock: Slightly UP

- Believe it or not, Arkansas’ three-point shooting is trending up. And who saw that coming given the team’s collective 9-of-39 shooting from distance (23.1%) in a 1-1 start in the first week of the regular season that was preceded by two sub-30% shooting games from beyond the arc in a 1-1 exhibition season? Make no mistake, the Razorbacks continue to struggle from three in most first halves of games, but spanning the last six outings Arkansas as a team has shot 57-of-142 from 3 (40.1%) which has the team at a respectable 36.5% overall on the season.

Ivisic leads the way at 19-of-33 from 3 (57.6%). Fland has hit 17-of-39 from 3 (43.6%). Davis (12-of-34 for 35.3%) and Wagner (9-of-26 for 34.6%) has each improved from week to week in terms of both increased volume and efficiency.

It’s not a matter of shots starting to fall, it’s more about why and how they’re starting to splash! The aforementioned 8-of-14 second-half three-point shooting (57.1%) against the Hurricanes offered a variety of execution in the halfcourt: Paint-touch-first-before-kickout-pass, reversing one side to the other with minimal passing included skip passes, making the next pass for a cleaner look for a teammate, shooting in rythm off the catch, or using simple unrushed ball fakes or side-steps off the bounce.

Three-point shooting surge? Yup. Stock: UP

- Despite not getting any separation in the turnover battle the last two times out, Arkansas is still one of the best in that department in college basketball. The Razorbacks are now on the other side of back-to-back 11-turnover games in which both Illinois and Miami also each had 11 turnovers.

Still, on the season, Arkansas is collecting 10.0 steals per game (ranks 23rd in Division 1) while forcing 16.0 turnovers per outing (ranks 29th in D1). Generating those live-ball turnovers — jumping passing lanes, clever on-ball thievery, etc. — has been the catalyst to the Hogs’ transition game, which is generating 17.3 points per contest (ranks 18th in D1). The cost for playing so aggressively on defense has not been too steep as the Hogs are committing only 14.9 fouls per game (ranks 42nd in D1).

We see the last two games as uncharacteristic and not a trend, which is to say the turnovers-to-transition-scoring connection should pick back up as an ongoing team strength. Stock: UP