FAYETTEVILLE - It was almost predictable.
After jumping up by 20 points early in Saturday’s game against Michigan, Arkansas slowly let the lead slip away.
The Wolverines used runs of 10-0 and 12-1 in the second half to chip away at the deficit, showing why they were ranked No. 20 nationally entering the contest. Like so many young teams before it, Arkansas looked as if it would squander a big lead against a more talented foe.
But that’s where the predictability ended. Instead, Arkansas’ young team grew up in the final minutes and held on for a 66-64 upset win with 19,050 fans and a national TV audience watching.
Hunter Mickelson’s block with 1:17 remaining denied a Michigan lay-up that would have tied the game. Then the 6-foot-10 freshman capitalized on a well-executed pick-and-roll with classmate BJ Young as the shot clock expired on the other end, extending the Razorbacks’ lead to four points.
It was the deciding points in Bud Walton Arena’s first sellout in nearly three years.
“It was a big play,” Mickelson said. “I don’t know if it quite pushed us over, but it gave us a lot of confidence going into the last stretch.”
Arkansas (14-5) was already a confident team before the sequence, at least in Fayetteville. The Razorbacks improved to 14-0 in its home arena with its second win over a top 25 team in two weeks.
Like they have throughout the season, the underclassmen led the way.
Young scored a team-high 15 points and Mickelson added 11, while sophomores Mardracus Wade and Rickey Scott combined for 23 points.
Arkansas won with senior starter Marvell Waithe watching from the sideline. The forward suffered a strained calf muscle in the game’s first two minutes.
“Right there at the end, you saw three freshmen a sophomore and a junior,” Arkansas coach Mike Anderson said. “To me, they’re all like freshmen, really. So to weather the storm and play to the last possession, it just tells you about the make-up of our guys. They wouldn’t go away and wouldn’t stop playing.
“My kids, they played their hearts out.”
VIDEO: Mike Anderson – Michigan Postgame
Arkansas was energized by the large crowd. The Razorbacks hit their first 11 shots, building a 34-14 first half lead.
“They made some tough shots, but we also gave them some easy shots,” said Michigan forward Jordan Morgan, who finished with 16 points and 6 rebounds. “When you give a good team with a great crowd momentum, it’s hard to stop them.”
The Razorbacks led 46-33 at halftime and looked to be just as hot after the intermission when Wade buried a 3-pointer on the first possession of the second half.
But Michigan (15-5) was able to slow Arkansas from that point forward. The Wolverines held the Razorbacks to just 20 points in the second half on 31.8 percent shooting.
“We went to a little bit of zone to reduce the one-on-one opportunities they had,” Morgan said. “It made a big difference.”
But as Michigan held Arkansas without a basket, it struggled on the offensive end, too. The Wolverines went 5 minutes, 22 seconds without a made field goal during one pivotal stretch in the second half.
Arkansas had failed to score for nearly four minutes during the same stretch.
“It seemed like they just made a lot of big plays when we were on the verge of taking the game over,” said Michigan guard Zack Novak, who scored a game-high 17 points. ”We’d get back within six and they would push it out a little bit. We just weren’t quite able to get over that hump.”
Michigan still gave itself a chance to win late. Young and Julysses Nobles each missed the front end of one-and-one free throw attempts for Arkansas, giving the Wolverines the chance to tie or take the lead in the final seconds.
Trey Burke had to settle for a long 3-pointer at the buzzer, which nearly dropped before rimming out.
“We missed a couple of free throws, but we couldn’t dwell on that because we still had defense to play,” Mickelson said. “We played very good defense those last couple of seconds. He didn’t get very open, but he got off a good shot.”
The win was an important bounceback for the Razorbacks, which had been on the receiving end of a 86-63 loss at No. 2 Kentucky just four days earlier.
Like other points throughout the year, Arkansas didn’t look like the same team as the one on the road the game before.
“We were ready to show everybody that wasn’t really our team,” Young said. “It was a bad game and we wanted to move on to the next game. We came out with high intensity and high energy.”
In the postgame, Anderson continued to stress the importance of finding the same type of play away from Bud Walton Arena.
Arkansas is off to its best home start since finishing the 1997-98 campaign undefeated at home. If it can continue to hold serve in Fayetteville and find a win or two on the road, its postseason resume will get a look thanks to the wins against Mississippi State and Michigan.
On Saturday, though, no one was looking forward to the postseason. Instead, Arkansas’ young team celebrated a feel-good stepping stone win.
“It was a great atmosphere, great fan support, great effort and a great team win,” Young said.
“It gives us a lot of confidence that we can win against ranked teams and good teams.”
You can follow Matt Jones on Twitter @NWAMatt.
It’s not by coincidence that Mike Anderson and “his guys” of today are on a similar path to Bobby Petrino and “his guys” of yesterday. Both Anderson and Petrino are top shelf, as coaches go – and their players seem to reflect or exhibit the same effort that each coach puts into the game.
As with eras gone past, the basketball and football programs can not only co-exist, but excel and thrive in helping one another.
Anderson had some stud basketball recruits at football games during the fall, as was the case with Petrino and football recruits, today. Each coach has an opportunity to lean on the other and showcase the tremendous facilities, NW Arkansas area and rabid Razorback fans.
The game today was an excellent win and with a little more [added] experience and depth, will make for a solid foundation in the not too distant future.
As with Petrino, Mike Anderson has the Razorbacks on the right path.
That was almost a classic freshman collapse, but they did a good job of pulling through. I would have liked to see us make those free throws down the stretch so we don’t have to sweat out a last second three pointer.
Skezell,
That is the beauty. It was an epic collapse!!!, but we still won, against #19 Michigan.
Don’t you like how easier it is for CMA to pull them in the meeting room and talk about all of the things that went wrong and how they can improve. When they learned that, a year or so; we can look for brighter days.
I still say that Novak kid could have seriously hurt Young. I didn’t like his attitude right after the hit or his post game comments. His hit was more vicious than Wades’s to me.
Nice win Coach A and Basketball Team.
i think noivak on that play against bj young should have got called and in techinal foul my mistake an inteal foul.and that was a great win for the hogs basbetball team today.go hogs go.and we should beat auburn wednesday night and be 3and have three wins in sec play at home.
I thought the refs did a good job with the Novac play. I don’t think it was blatantly dirty, but it was excessive. Flagrant was the right call.
I can’t recall the game I saw but earlier, I saw a Bball game where a player committing flagrant foul was tossed. It was deemed excessive.
Not enough; let me reference Wade hit in football, it was flagrant but not deliberate but he was tossed. It was a flagrant play and that is the only call you make so that part was correct, but he ejection should be based on unsportsmanlike conduct that could have injured a player.
I can’t go with accidentally being excessive but not intentional. He didn’t apologize afterwards, he said you can’t expect to make a play like that without getting a hard foul.
CBS did an excellent job in the replay of Novak and Young. And, I’m convinced ejection and technical foul would have been the appropriate call.
Nevertheless, it is very clear that Anderson, like his mentor, knows EXACTLY when to call timeouts, make adjustments and get his players straight when the game’s on the line. I’m beginning to believe that proper game coaching is back, alive and well with the Hogs.
CBS Sports in justifying why Michigan is still #19.
“In fairness to Michigan, Mississippi State also lost at Arkansas. So that wasn’t really a “bad” loss for the Wolverines on Saturday.”
So if it is not a bad lost, and Hogs also beat #18 and all three have the same number of losses, why are Hogs ranked 65th or worse to be out of NCAA?
Is it time to just say win game by game and let the polls take acre of themselves; like we did in football to see where we end up? Or do we think this team will just quit flop and tank it in like last year?
From what I have seen of others; We have NCAA team folks, right now.