After beating Vandy, Alabama basketball coach Nate Oats predicted what would happen if the Tide matched that performance against Arkansas. He was right.
Give Arkansas credit. The Razorbacks got the best of Alabama basketball in every meaningful component of Wednesday night’s game. The one stat result won by the Crimson Tide was three-point percentage. The Tide shot 33 percent outside the arc, while Arkansas shot 29 percent.
The Crimson Tide needed to hit more threes, making only 11-of-33. The Razorbacks didn’t much need treys and only made four on 14 attempts. The Hogs had little problem making twos and outshot the Crimson Tide overall 46 percent to 38 percent. Arkansas also had fewer turnovers and more rebounds.
Having given Arkansas due credit, another game stat was the big difference in the game. The Razorbacks shot 43 free throws. The Alabama Crimson Tide shot eight. The final score was 81-66 in favor of the Hogs. The difference in free throw production was plus-24 for the Razorbacks.
Alabama Basketball did not play well enough to win. It made too many foolish fouls and took many questionable shots. Arkansas played smarter of defense and rarely took a bad shot. The negative performance by the Tide and the positive performance by the Hogs explains some of the disparity in foul shooting. With few exceptions, the officiating crew called the action tight most of the night. As a result, only two Crimson Tide players logged more than 24 minutes. By comparison, Eric Musselman’s three best players got 39, 39 and 37 minutes of action.
Speaking after the game, Nate Oats said,
"We’ve gotta be able to defend without fouling. We had a season-high in fouls. You can’t put them at the line 43 times and expect them to win the game. We need to do a better job on the defensive end.I thought we had a lot of guys worrying about the officiating. We have no control over the officiating. Have to quit worrying about it. Let’s worry about what we can control."
Frustration over the officiating led to two technical fouls by John Petty Jr. Arkansas was the aggressor in the game and the confident Hogs had the momentum almost all of the game. The Tide led by two, four minutes into the game, but Arkansas responded with an 11-0 run. Trailing by one at the half, Alabama jumped back to a six-point lead in the first two minutes of the second half. Arkansas then went on 15-2 tear, after which the game’s outcome was never much in doubt.
The Crimson Tide must regroup. All goals are still possible. ESPN’ Joe Lunardi said the Crimson Tide loss did not change its 2-seed NCAA Tournament projection.