Arkansas battled on the road against Mississippi State on Saturday, but fell 71-67 to drop to 12-13 overall and 3-9 in SEC play. Next up is a road trip to Texas A&M on Tuesday.
Here are a handful of numbers — good and bad — that tell the story of the Razorbacks’ latest loss:
• 39 — Combined points from Makhi Mitchell and Khalif Battle
The Razorbacks were short-handed in the frontcourt Saturday with Jalen Graham out because of a shoulder injury and Trevon Brazile missing his sixth straight game. Mitchell stepped up in a big way and played his best game of the season.
He finished with a career-best 21 points on 8 of 12 from the field, 9 rebounds, 2 blocks and 2 steals. It was a heck of a bounce-back effort after pitching in 1 point and 1 rebound in the rout vs. Tennessee earlier in the week.
Straight up, he won the big-man battle with Mississippi State’s Tolu Smith, who had 8 points, 8 rebounds and foul trouble after halftime. There was no backing down from Mitchell in his 22:36 in the lineup.
Battle was equally as good at the guard spot before fouling out. He scored 18 points on 7 of 13 shooting in 34:09 on the floor. It was his best scoring effort since adding 18 on Dec. 21 against Abilene Christian.
Entering the game, Battle was 4 of 24 on two-point attempts in SEC play. He was 7 of 9 against the Bulldogs, and 4 of 6 at the line.
Arkansas is a better offensive team and can compete more often when Battle plays with a swagger and is effective inside the arc.
• 19 — Razorbacks free throw attempts
Eric Musselman was frustrated with Arkansas’ lack of free throw attempts Wednesday in the loss to Vols. The Razorbacks had a goal of attempting 30, but they took just 15.
On Saturday, Musselman was again perplexed at Arkansas’ FTAs number. The Razorbacks finished 14 of 19, and 15 attempts came in the second half. The Bulldogs shot 32 free throws.
“It doesn’t matter what we send in [to the league office], what we talk about,” Musselman said. “You can look at the free throws attempted. They’re a very high steal team, and normally high steal teams are high foul teams. … And we have been, historically, through 10 years, a high-volume free throw attempt [team].
“For whatever reason, of late … that’s a part of our offense, quite frankly. We work on it, we talk about it, we drill it. That’s part of our offense. I don’t know what else to say other than numbers don’t lie.”
The 19 free throws attempted are Arkansas’ second fewest in an SEC road game.
• .480 — Arkansas’ win percentage this season
The Razorbacks are under .500 overall for the first time with Musselman in charge. It’s also the first time in nine seasons a Musselman-led college team has had a losing record.
You have to go back to February 2016 to find the last time an Arkansas team was under .500.
Props to the Razorbacks for fighting on the road and giving the effort Musselman has been looking for all season long. But at the end of the day, a loss is a loss.
• -11 — Devo Davis’ plus/minus figure
Arkansas’ veteran guard turned in an interesting — and, for him, rare — final stat line: 8 points on 3 of 6 from the field and 2 of 3 from deep, 0 rebounds, 0 assists, 0 blocks and 0 steals.
What stood out most, though, was him not pulling the trigger on on a wide-open left-wing three with 14.8 seconds left and the Razorbacks down 68-67. El Ellis, who had 8 points and 4 assists, made the right read on the play and kicked it to the perimeter after penetrating.
Davis made two of Arkansas’ 3 threes in the game, and Davis’ defender had a foot on the SEC logo in the lane when the guard caught Ellis’ pass. He is a more-than-capable shooter from the left wing (40% on 50 attempts in 2022-23). Let it fly.
Davis didn’t take the shot. The play ended with a turnover.