Over the last two games there have been countless plays and big moments that helped put Arkansas into the Sweet Sixteen.
What won’t show up in the highlight reels or box scores is the impact that freshman forward [autotag]Jordan Walsh[/autotag] has had in the first two games of the NCAA Tournament.
He doesn’t have the flashy point totals, he’s not the team’s leading rebounder or shot blocker, but he’s been making a difference on the floor in ways that aren’t quantified by the box score.
The only stat that does somewhat depict his importance is the plus/minus, which basically states how much better a team is when a certain player is on the floor vs. when they’re on the bench. Positive plus/minus is usually good, negative plus/minus is usually not so good.
In Walsh’s 50 minutes of action over the first two tournament games he was +22 in the win over Illinois and +12 in the win over Kansas. That means that the Hogs are 34 points better with Walsh on the floor than they are with him on the bench in the first two rounds of the [autotag]NCAA Tournament[/autotag].
“Coming into college as a McDonald’s All-American, most people think you want to go out and score 20 points and get 10 assists and 12 rebounds. But that wasn’t really my mentality coming in,” said Walsh earlier this week.
“My role has kind of fallen into being that glue guy. We have a lot of older guys who are better at scoring and better at reading plays than I am, like Devo and Ricky,” continued Walsh. “They’re bred for these types of scenarios. You could say I have the easy job, just picking up the gap that’s left, and that’s kind of what I’ve done.”
At times this season, Walsh has struggled to find that right fit with this team. He has the size and athleticism to be able to change games, but lacked confidence in offense and was over-aggressive on the defensive end – usually leading to foul trouble. As we’ve gotten later in the year, Walsh has been much better about keeping his aggressive style of defending without fouling.
Over the last two games, though, it’s clear that Walsh is playing the best basketball of his young Razorback career. That trend will need to continue on Thursday against UConn if Arkansas wants to advance to a third consecutive Elite Eight.
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