Defense Coming Together for Hogs' Biggest Improvement

Razorbacks finally "putting it together" during current five-game winning streak

Author:
Andy Hodges
Publish date:
Jan 27, 2022 12:25 AM EST

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Halfway through the league schedule, Arkansas is about where most figured they would be before the season started.

Nobody saw it playing out this way, though.

_{Mississippi Rebels center Nysier Brooks (3) shoots for three during the second half against the Arkansas Razorbacks at The Sandy and John Black Pavilion at Ole Miss.}

"We're just putting it together," Arkansas coach Eric Musselman said after a 64-55 win over Ole Miss on Wednesday night. "We still can get better."

The Razorbacks are 5-3, which isn't bad. It's pretty impressive when you consider they started 0-3 and have won five in a row to get there.

JD Notae is leading the league in scoring and put up 25 points on the Rebels. But Jaylin Williams is playing at an all-league level.

Trey Wade has started to figure it out. He had 12 against Ole Miss. Everybody else has pretty much settled into how their roles have developed.

_{Arkansas Razorbacks forward Trey Wade (3) drives to the basket as Mississippi Rebels forward Jaemyn Brakefield (4) defends during the first half at The Sandy and John Black Pavilion at Ole Miss.}

Everybody apparently started following the game plan from the coaches and actually listened when Musselman told them if that didn't work it was on the coaches, not the players.

"We went off track a little bit too much earlier in the year and some of those games we won," he said Wednesday night. "Sometimes losing can grasp the attention of your players and I think that happened."

The staff also kept moving players around trying to figure things out, too, like the starting lineup of Notae, Wade, Williams, Stanley Umude and Au'Diese Toney.

_{NCAA Basketball: Arkansas at MississippiArkansas Razorbacks guard Au Diese Toney (5) and Mississippi Rebels guard-forward Luis Rodriguez (15) battle for a rebound during the second half at The Sandy and John Black Pavilion at Ole Miss.}

"I don’t think at any point in the offseason we thought that this would be our starting lineup," Musselman said. "It is the best lineup for us and how we want to play and how we have gotten off to fairly good starts, and they complement each other."

A lot of it was experimenting in games. Coaches would have figured it out in practices back in October if they could have.

"We kept tinkering and tinkering," Musselman said.

It has paid off for the last few weeks, which is really the model we've seen from Musselman's teams now for his third team.

They play better as the season progresses which usually is in direct proportion to how the defense has developed.

"We’re playing at an elite level," Musselman said. "We’ve been much more defensive disciplined than we were earlier."

Right now the only teams above the Hogs in the league standings are Auburn and Kentucky.