|
|
| |
| Sat, May. 17, 2008 |  |
 |
|
||
| |
Arkansas gets production from many Saturday, Mar 15, 2008 By Harry King ATLANTA - There are a couple of ways to explain Arkansas' victory over Vanderbilt in the Southeastern Conference tournament. One is concise, but vague - Arkansas simply has Vanderbilt's number. Those who subscribe to that theory will cite five straight Ws by the Razorbacks, including the one earlier this year when the Commodores were No. 18, just as they were on Friday. Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings alluded to that supposition when he said, "They seem to play with a confidence against us that they don't ... when they play some other teams." The other explanation is more specific and involves a bunch of Razorbacks who normally play second fiddle to Patrick Beverley and-or Sonny Weems. Stefan Welsh and Darian Townes did the heavy lifting in the first half. During the final 20 minutes, Townes did some important things, but so did Gary Ervin, Charles Thomas, and Steven Hill. Some of the contributions were minute - like the impressive rebound by Weems after Vanderbilt missed a shot with the score tied at 58, Hill's blocked shot at 67-64, and Ervin's decision not to throw the ball to a pleading Townes on a two-on-one late in the game. All of them made mistakes, but they persevered - no head-down disappearing act down the stretch. Ervin touched on that when he said, "This is just something we wish we could have done throughout the whole year, to play smart basketball and play with that intensity and urgency ..." The Razorbacks also made 11 straight free throws from 2:41 to :24. If you had said beforehand that Weems and Beverley would be 4-of-20 from the floor, I would have paid a fee and switched to the 6:50 a.m. flight home on Saturday. But, those were the numbers on Arkansas' best. Vanderbilt's only first-half lead was 5-4 and, at halftime, I wondered what would happen if Weems and Beverley continued to miss and the Commodores caught up. The answer was more impressive in person than in print: Moving left toward the baseline, Shan Foster made one over Welsh for 48-48. Beverley handled the ball until the shot clock dipped below 10 and then Townes slipped down the lane for a pass. He made one free throw. At the other end, Darshawn McClellan was reluctant to shoot from 8 feet, a malady that afflicted several of his teammates, and Foster fouled after Weems contested his shot. Townes scored again for 51-48. Arkansas' defense did a Red Sea thing and Jermaine Beal took it at Hill with his left hand for 56-54. Weems reprimanded Thomas for getting tied up and Alex Gordon's long 3 tied it at 58. What followed Weems' rebound was a big slice of determination. Beverley's shot rimmed out, Weems' fallaway was short, Townes missed, Beverley missed, Townes missed and Ervin finally got one down after one of those jump-through-hoops moves down the lane. That was not an isolated incident. Arkansas accumulated 22 offensive rebounds, part of the reason that the Razorbacks attempted 15 more shots than the Commodores in the first half. At times, Arkansas was also reluctant to shoot, but Ervin is immune to that. His three-point play was good for 56-51 and his 3-pointer with a nice bounce produced 63-58. The 81-75 final was icing for the Razorbacks. While Arkansas was practicing at Morehouse University, watching film, and killing time on Thursday, Richard Hendrix of Alabama and Dave Bliss of Georgia eliminated the Razorbacks' competition for the fifth bid for an SEC team, beating Florida and Ole Miss. The only way Arkansas could miss out on an at-large bid was by stinking it up against Vanderbilt while the Gators or the Rebels won a couple of games in Atlanta. Since 1997, the SEC has had at least five teams per year in the NCAA and the Razorbacks are no worse than No. 5 in the pecking order. In fact, the Razorbacks might just play their way past Kentucky and into a No. 8 or 9 seed. ---- Harry King is sports columnist for Stephens Media's Arkansas News Bureau. His e-mail address is hking@arkansasnews.com. |
