Baton Rouge has been a tough place for the Hogs to play basketball in recent years. UA won by 29 on Tuesday, a sign of progress.
Arkansas so often plays poorly when it travels to Baton Rouge to face LSU in men's basketball. This has been a thorny, difficult road assignment for the Razorbacks in SEC basketball over the years. It's true that LSU is bad this season, but LSU almost beat UA in Bud Walton Arena in January. It was a real test for this team to make the trip to the Bayou. The betting markets had Arkansas as a modest 5.5-point favorite for this game. Could Arkansas put the hammer down and stack SEC road wins? Could this team not let up after the solid road victory at Mississippi State over the previous weekend?
The questions were answered properly.
To be absolutely clear, Arkansas did not deliver a flawless performance. The Hogs allowed 21 offensive rebounds to LSU and were outrebounded 43-35. That needs work -- a lot of work. No team can get crushed on the glass like that and feel that everything is lining up properly for a big March run.
Arkansas also shot very poorly from 3-point range. That needs real improvement, too.
Other than those two areas, however, the Razorbacks were strong. They hit 70 percent of their 2-point shots and got to the basket at will. They attacked the rim and displayed smart shot selection.
Arkansas also played great initial halfcourt defense. The rebounding was deficient, but the way Arkansas guarded LSU was superb. The Hogs held the Tigers to 31-percent shooting and locked down the 3-point line as part of that. The end result was a 91-62 win which followed the Mississippi State blowout.
Very clearly and tangibly, Arkansas looks like a different -- and much improved -- team coming out of the week off which enabled this group to hit the reset button. John Calipari made great use of that week off and got through to his guys.
As always, Darius Acuff playing at his best makes Arkansas really good. It was another stellar night for the freshman superstar, who scored 28 points on efficient 13-of-22 shooting with 5 assists. His 4 turnovers merit some mention, but not much. When an aircraft carrier-level player is throwing down a lot of points efficiently -- not with a 7-of-24 shooting line and 10 free throws -- he and his team will be very hard to beat. All other Arkansas starters shot at or near 50 percent, the "worst" line being Meleek Thomas going 6 of 13.
Notably, Acuff and three other Arkansas starters -- Nick Pringle being the exception -- played at least 34 minutes. Why would that be the case in a 29-point game? Because this was a Tuesday game and not a Wednesday game, Calipari clearly felt he could extend his starters without worrying about them having adequate rest for Saturday's upcoming contest. If this was a Wednesday game, you can be sure the minute distribution would have been different.
Arkansas is making progress. Let's see if this continues into the middle of February.