Random Notes: Win Over LSU at BWA
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Arkansas and its fans left it all on the floor in Wednesday night's season finale 77-76 win over LSU to potentially set up a de facto SEC championship game against Tennessee in Knoxville.
Unfortunately for both the Hogs and the Volunteers, Mississippi State couldn't knock down one more free throw to pull off the upset over Auburn in regulation to make that happen.
But what did happen was one of the more satisfying wins of the year over a LSU team that receives unwarranted respect in terms of NCAA seeding despite having a horrible two-month span under the leadership of the SEC's most hated coach by many, many miles.
These are the notes that you may have missed during what was one of the wildest, most physical games in the SEC all season long.
THIS GAME HAD ITS SHARE OF HEALTH RISKS FOR EVERYONE
• The LSU had the Razorback's leading scorer, J.D. Notae trapped by three men with a chance to slam the door shut on what had been a frustrating night for the SEC Player of the Year contender. However, Mwani Wilkinson dropped a textbook Batman chop across Notae's neck to bail him out with 8.6 seconds left in the game.
While the foul followed by the free throws were definitely big, Notae's monster play was relieving LSU sophomore guard Eric Gaines of an offensive rebound at the other end despite poor positioning to save the game.
• Blame it on the amount of hatred Will Wade tends to inspire. Arkansas Twitter dropped hard core curse words like everyone was trapped in a Quinten Tarintino movie. We can't show you the vile things said since this is a family site, but just trust us, it was rough all night long.
However, former Razorback Blake Eddins showed that fire isn't a four-letter word when it comes to bringing the pain to Will Wade in writing with just a bit of wit.
• Any Arkansas fan experiencing health problems had to be on high alert all night long.
• Musselman going without the sling during such a high emotion game had fans worried for more reasons other than possibly re-injuring the recently repaired shoulder.
FASHION DEPARTMENT
• Neither coach would be a fit for the coat and tie era. Musselman always wants to go with polo and custom tennis shoes, while Will Wade appears to regularly go for the the rec league dad coaching early Saturday morning basketball games.
Nelson Chenault / USA TODAY Sports
Nelson Chenault / USA TODAY Sports
• While many college teams have strayed away from players all wearing the same shoes as part of the uniform, LSU has strayed from even sticking to the school colors. Darius Days was in the upcoming St. Patrick's Day spirit with his bright green shoes jumping off the screen at all times.
Nelson Chenault / USA TODAY Sports
• Maybe it's the Bobby Ports effect, but the ratio of headbands worn by Razorback players has definitely gone up.
However, that didn't last long. A little over an hour later...
• Best dressed goes to the young man who doesn't look old enough to be drinking the beer he was holding while wearing the sequenced red blazer with what is either an amazing head of jet black hair or a high quality wig that says he has the cash to opt for more than the free corn dogs being handed out at Bud Walton.
ESPN MIND-WIPE FOR ESPN 2?
How is it that the SEC Network announce team that has covered Arkansas numerous times not know about Boo This Guy At Bud the moment they hit The Deuce?
Jimmy Dykes and friends were seemingly surprised the student section had picked out an LSU player to boo every time he got the ball. It's an every game tradition, so how did this slip by until the last game of the season at Bud Walton?
GETTING PHYSICAL
• While watching back video of last year's Kentucky game last week, it was amazing how much more mature Jaylin Willaims's body has become in a year. Against LSU he used his added muscle and quickness to bully LSU regularly as there is no one on LSU sporting the physicality of Kentucky's Oscar Tshiebwe.
• Williams broke out the old Oliver Miller full-court baseball pass to Stanley Umude. When Umude's shot didn't go down, Arkansas did something it has regularly neglected all year, which is crash the boards when a shot goes up.
Not one, but two Hogs followed as Au'Diese Toney went up to keep it alive and Umude followed with another rebound that led to a dunk.
Toney later followed an Umude 3-point shot for an offense rebound over other Hog defenders. If Arkansas is going to finally start following shots to fight for rebounds and 2nd chance points, this might well become a national title contender.
ONE OF US NO MATTER HOW FAR
During the game Tennessee freshman Zakai Ziegler's mom's home in Queens caught fire that was mentioned last night during Tennessee-Georgia game. Fans wanted to help, so today put up a fundraiser with a goal of $50,000. Hours later, SEC fans came together to top $300,000.
I guess this is related?
COLLOQUIALISM FOR ONE
Greased watermelon in the deep end of the pool? Fourth of July you ever try to pull a greased watermelon out of the deep end of the pool? What are they talking about on this broadcast?
PLAYS THAT MATTERED
We went into the half on will that shot come back to haunt LSU alert as Umude sinks a shot on the one second inbounds play to tie it at 35-35 at the half.
• Davonte Davis gets fouled by three Tigers, recovers the ball, throws it up aimlessly over his head and knocks it down to go down. Announcers: That's the type of play that could determine a game like this.
It did.
• On LSU's 19th offensive rebound, Williams sprung out of nowhere to reject a wide open shot into the 2nd row.
LSU scored on the ensuing possession, but pushing back that two points meant several extra seconds taken away from the end of the game to give the Tigers a chance. It would also be Williams's last chance to make a big play before fouling out about a minute later.
LUNARDI MAKES AS MUCH SENSE AS THE NET RANKINGS
Joe Lunardi dropped by the ESPN 2 set at halftime to let everyone know it doesn't matter if Arkansas wins because he doesn't think they deserve to move up and be part of the group in front of them.
Lundardi then showed up on SEC Network afterward and tells us that once again a LSU loss doesn't matter. They will stay a 6-seed because they're just that good regardless of their record.
LSU is 1-3 in past four games. The Tigers are 5-9 since originally losing to Arkansas. All those losses don't seem to matter, so why would another loss count again the Tigers?
.SUPERSTITIONS ARE REAL?
At some point in the game apparently someone should have run out for salt and pepper to give the Hogs some breathing room.
IF THEY DON'T CALL IT, IT DIDN'T HAPPEN...BUT IT DID
With 17 minutes left and the bodies falling in a mad scramble Efton Reid III was partially on top of Stanley Umude. Shortly after the ref tried to help Umude up while Reid rolled over and intentionally held Umude down to keep him from getting up to play defense.
YOU JUST CAN'T BE SURE WHEN WILL WADE'S INVOLVED
"What a play by Will Wade" one of the announcers called out with 7 minutes left.
Normally if you glanced away from the screen and heard that, you would think Will Wade must have just drawn up a play, but as much as Wade was out on the court, it was possible he did actually pull off a play.
