Razorbacks Have Too Many Misses Causing Biggest One at Texas A&M

Lack of offense proves costly again as Arkansas can't take advantage of chances in College Station

Arkansas Razorbacks forward Billy Richmond III (24) drives to the basket against Texas A&M Aggies forward Solomon Washington (9) during the second half at Reed Arena. | Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images

COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Arkansas coach John Calipari didn't have a lot of answers after a 69-61 loss to Texas A&M on Saturday afternoon. He knew what went wrong with the Razorbacks, though.

Turning the ball over 17 times played a big part of it. Especially when the offense was struggling to get the ball in the basket.

"We haven’t done that all year," Calipari said after the game. "Just give credit to A&M, they played and pressured and did stuff to make us turn it over. We had one rule going into this game. If you drive baseline, shoot the ball. Shoot it. What we’d do? Turn it over. Didn’t shoot it."

It's enough to drive a coach absolutely crazy. They shot 41.7 percent from the field, but it probably had to do with timing and the fact a lot of the misses were just flat wide open looks.

"We had one rule," he said again. "You go baseline, I’d rather you shoot it because three things can happen. One (make it). Two, you miss it, because they’re running, you rebound it. Three, they rebound it. Fine. A breakout turnover, they score on.

"I don’t know if guys were timid, didn’t want to shoot it, missed every shot so stopped shooting it, I don’t know."

At some places it can be fear of losing minutes, but that's probably not going to happen with the Razorbacks who are only playing an eight-man rotation. There's not much danger of that changing, either, because Calipari doesn't have anybody else to put in.

"Can they put it on minutes?" Calipari asked about the players. "I’m afraid I’m going to come out, can they say that? (Gestures to crowd). Come on, say no. Because you’re playing them 35 minutes. Can you say, well I’m afraid I’m going to come out if I make a mistake? Not if you’re playing 35 minutes. That one is off the table."

He was at a loss in the eight-plus minutes with the media trying to come up with some explanation even he could accept. Calipari was never successful figuring it out.

"Why are you tentative?" Calipari asked. "Why do we have guys that — like again, we miss a couple layups again, which we didn’t miss 10 like we have other games. But we missed a couple that were kind of costly. But, you don’t have to make every open shot."

That was even true for Kater Knox, who led the Hogs in scoring with 17 points. Considering he only missed two shots (7-of-9) from the field, we can only assume Calipari was talking more about looks he had and didn't take.

"Karter played good, but you can’t miss every open shot," Cal said. "Karter played well."

Just not well enough to get a win they had chances to make. Now they have another one of those several days for the next chance, waiting until Wednesday for another road trip and yet another 8 p.m. game at Auburn.

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