- Joe catches fire at the right time
- Gafford on a roll of late
- Embery-Simpson gives Arkansas another lift
- Escaping disaster
This was the second consecutive game where the Hogs were ahead considerably and allowed the opponent to roar back and overtake the lead, yet the Hogs pulled it out for the win during the last minute on a fine shot. Nice finishes, I guess.
Why this team can’t continue to pour it on is an amazing thing to me?
Or, maybe Gafford needs to play the whole 40 minutes.
IMO, we are limited at the 3 and the 4 and it kills us in the half court… their length on the outside really effected our shooters… we need a scorer on the inside (besides Gafford) and could really use a SF that can slash and shoot the pull up… still missing pieces but hanging in there…
Good points, Dominican. We can survive with poor front line play against Vandy, but we are gonna have to bring it with Chaney leading the way if we are gonna make any noise trying to make a postseason of some sort. After Gafford leaves, who is going to fill some of the void? We don’t have a big guy for next year.
Reason for Vandy comeback is simple. Everything was working fine, Vandy had trouble scoring. And them Mike went to a zone and doubled up on that mistake by pulling most of the starters out. It may still have been okay, but Sills missed a driving left handed layup and they lost all momentum on the offensive end and Toye’s guy kept doubling up when the ball went inside. That is all it takes in the era of three pointers and every team has three point shooters.
I just wondered if Mike went to a zone because the team was tired or he just outsmarted himself. Bottom line it was a mistake, which he quickly fixed but not quick enough,
I am not sure we have discussed this but I think being down on the roster by four players really hurts. I know we are really just down two; Phillips and Garland who could have been scoring options (the two bigs who are not really in the rotation are my other two). Not having either really shows up when we rest Joe and Jones, thankfully Embrey-Simpson has stepped up some. Hopefully we will be back closer to full strength roster wise next year.
It would help down the stretch if Chaney would score a bit more consistently. A second scorer inside would really help.
On the plus side our young guards continue to get better. Add Justice Hill to the mix next year and we are going to have one of the better groups of guards in the SEC.
IMO had we went to a straight Man to man defense when we were up by 10 and abandoned all the trapping we would have won by 15-20 pts b/c Toy wouldn’t have had all those wide open shots.trapping wan’t working yet we just suck with it and let them right back in the game,have never understood that but happens all the time.
It will help when Chaney stops missing lay-ups. He seems
to have the size and physicality to be a difference maker,
but he needs to consistently deliver around the basket.