Au’Diese Toney – Page 2 – Syndication Server

Beyond the Box: Jaylin Williams is elite.

The Muss Buss has a full tank of gas, fresh tires, and an elite combo forward onboard. Arkansas picked up its sixth consecutive win at home by beating West Virginia 77-68 on Saturday, and Jaylin Williams showed yet again just how special he has become.

Beyond that, though, Williams has become the floor leader this team has needed.

After J.D. Notae picked up his second personal foul after just 3:26, Williams anchored the team on both ends of the floor. He scored a bucket while drawing a foul, sank the free throw, and had a steal all in the next 45 seconds. Thanks to Williams the Hogs kept their early rhythm and built a double-digit lead.

Au’Diese Toney and Stanley Umude picked up the scoring slack as Notae sat for most of the first half. The two combined to score 17 to go along with JayWill’s 6 points and 9 rebounds.

Once again we will go beyond the standard box score and take a look at the numbers in this impressive Arkansas win.

Arkansas wins sixth straight, dispatches fellow NCAA Tournament bubble team West Virginia

Balance led Arkansas to resume-boosting win over West Virginia in the Big 12/SEC Challenge on Saturday.

Au’Diese Toney scored 19 points and Jaylin Williams picked up his fifth double-double of the season to lead Arkansas to a 77-68 win over West Virginia on Saturday afternoon.

The win was Arkansas’ sixth straight and moved the Razorbacks to 3-3 all time in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge. West Virginia’s loss was its fifth straight.

But the two conferences are largely considered the best two in the country this year. The Mountaineers, like Arkansas, entered the game on the edge of the NCAA Tournament per various bracket projections.

Arkansas opened an 19-point lead early in the second half, but West Virginia countered with a 12-0 run to make a single-digit game for a bulk of the final 20 minutes.

It was the Hogs’ aggression that led to the win. They outrebounded West Virginia by 18 and scored 18 second-chance points. The Mountaineers were whistled for 29 fouls and Arkansas took advantage there, making 28 of 34 free throws to West Virginia’s 15 of 21.

Williams finished with 12 points and 15 rebounds. He and Toney were joined in double figures scoring by Stanley Umude, who had 12, and JD Notae, who added 15.

Kedrian Johnson led West Virginia with 18 points.

Arkansas next plays Wednesday on the road at Georgia. The Bulldogs are last in the SEC at 1-6 in conference play.

Why Arkansas basketball can still make the NCAA Tournament

Arkansas basketball has the talent and the coaching to turn its season around and make the Big Dance.

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December was a cruel, cold month for the Arkansas basketball team. Spring, however, to steal and modify a phrase, is coming.

ESPN’s Bracketology dropped the Razorbacks from the predicted teams to make the NCAA Tournament with its latest update on Friday. And per the network’s Basketball Power Index, Arkansas faces long odds to return. Of 18 games the Hogs have remaining, 10 come against teams ranked inside the Top 30. Seven are against teams inside the Top 20.

By no means, though, is Arkansas out of it.

Coach Eric Musselman is known for taking lemons and turning them into lemonade. And it’s not as though Arkansas’ team in 2021-22 is actually that much of a lemon. They started the year 9-0 and were ranked inside the Top 10. Weaknesses were evident through those nine victories and Musselman even said as much. But what allowed nine straight wins was talent.

Arkansas has the talent. Even if it has yet to gel, more than half the season remains.

Guard JD Notae is still the second leading scorer in the SEC. Stanley Umude, Au’Diese Toney and Chris Lykes are still players who averaged double figures at their previous schools of South Dakota, Pittsburgh and Miami (FL). Devo Davis is still the player who broke out in last year’s NCAA Tournament. Jaylin Williams is still one of the best point-forwards in the sport.

And Musselman is still a coach who led a mish-mash collection of Razorbacks to the Elite Eight in 2020-21.

The margin for error is slim. Arkansas cannot afford to drop games against teams it is better than. Starting Tuesday when Vanderbilt visits Bud Walton Arena, the Razorbacks have to win. They don’t have to make a statement in that win, necessarily, but they must come out on top. The road is too tough to hoe going forward.

Follow that with a road victory at Texas A&M, an Aggies team, by the way, nipping at the heels of the Hogs in the power index. Beat a bad Missouri team back in Fayetteville after that and suddenly the Razorbacks are 3-1 in the SEC with a chance to visit Baton Rouge and knock off an LSU team that’s all but a lock for the Dance.

That sort of stretch is all that’s required to get the Hogs back into the hunt. Sure, it ignores the last month of the season and all the difficulty it will bring. But winning begets winning and if Arkansas can string together some in the early weeks of the new year, then things are far from over.

Behind the box score: Hogs’ two best players lead the charge against Little Rock

Arkansas had a number of impressive ways to get past Little Rock on Saturday.

Arkansas dismantled Little Rock on Saturday, 93-78, with a number of Razorbacks players contributing.

The visiting Trojans were making their first-ever trip to Bud Walton Arena and were clearly the inferior of the two teams. Arkansas coach Eric Musselman mixed up his usual rotations in favor of some new looks and the Hogs made it work.

Little Rock, which was picked to finished middle of the Sun Belt pack, simply had no answer for Arkansas’ size and speed. Five Hogs players scored in double figures led by Au’Diese Toney, who had 16 of his 18 in the first half, and JD Notae, who had 16 of his 18 in the second half.

Stanley Umude, Devo Davis and Chris Lykes also scored in double figures for the Razorbacks.

Central Arkansas zero match for the Razorbacks in Arkansas’ blowout win

Arkansas had its biggest blowout win over the year Wednesday night, beating Central Arkansas 97-60.

Finally.

After a few easy-but-not-too-easy wins at Bud Walton Arena this season, No. 9 Arkansas achieved its first true blowout of the season, beating Central Arkansas 97-60 on Wednesday night.

Stanley Umude scored 17 points off the bench to lead four Razorbacks in double figures. Devo Davis netted a season-high 16 points, Au’Diese Toney scored 14 of his 16 in the second half and JD Notae had 10 points, giving him double-figures scoring in each of Arkansas’ first seven games.

UCA troubled the Razorbacks a bit for a half behind the strength of 7-of-10 shooting from 3-point range. But 14 second-half turnovers, and 25 in the game, led to 29 Arkansas points off those miscues and an 11-3 run to start the second and a 13-0 run later in the half all but finished things.

Fayetteville High graduate Collin Cooper led the Bears with 13 points and former Razorbacks forward Darious Hall added another 12.

Arkansas next plays at home on Saturday against another team from the Natural State: Little Rock. Tip is set for 3 p.m.

Arkansas dispatches Cincinnati to win Hall of Fame Classic on Tuesday night

Arkansas basketball holds off Cincinnati to stay undefeated, 73-67.

Entering Tuesday night’s game against Cincinnati, it was expected the Bearcats would provide Arkansas with its hardest challenge of the early season.

Expectations were correct.

Neither team led by more than six in the game and the teams exchanged the lead nine times in the second half. With Arkansas ahead by a point with 21.8 seconds left, Cincinnati was forced to foul after the Razorbacks collected two offensive rebounds on their possession, draining 50 seconds off the clock. Guard Chris Lykes canned both free throws to make it a three-point game and Cincinnati was called for a charge on its ensuing possession, sealing Arkansas’ 5-0 start, 73-67.

The No. 12 Razorbacks shot just 35% on the night and didn’t make their first 3-pointer until the second half, ultimately going 3 for 17 from deep. But offensive rebounding – Arkansas grabbed 18 of its own misses – led to 14 second-chance points and proved the edge.

Pittsburgh transfer Au’Diese Toney turned in his best game of the season, scoring a team-high 19 points and grabbing nine rebounds. Lykes and JD Notae joined him in double figures with 15 and 13 points, but combined to shoot just 7 of 29 from the field.

Au’Diese Toney put Arkansas ahead by a point, 66-65, on a putback with 2:52 left. David DeJulius, who finished with a game-high 24 points, put Cincinnati (4-1) back ahead with a pair of free throws on the Bearcats’ next possession. But after Arkansas missed on its next trip, DeJulius had his pocket picked by JD Notae and Toney, on the run, was fouled at the rim with 1:37 left and he made both free throws, leading to the final frantic minute-and-a-half.

The win gave Arkansas the tournament title at the Hall of Fame Classic in Kansas City. The Hogs return to Bud Walton Arena on Sunday to face Pennsylvania.

Hogs stave off Kansas State rally to head to Hall of Fame Classic title game

Arkansas never trailed in Monday night’s win over Kansas State.

For the first time this season, Arkansas didn’t need a run to put away its opponent.

The 12th-ranked Razorbacks led Kansas State from wire to wire, picking up their fourth straight win to start the year Monday night in Kansas City, 72-64 Arkansas next gets Cincinnati after the Bearcats blasted No. 14 Illinois in the night’s opener, 71-51.

Despite never trailing, Arkansas didn’t exactly end on the highest of notes. The Hogs led by as many as 18 points against the Wildcats (2-1), but Kansas State forced Arkansas to play in the halfcourt out of their preferred fast-break to chip away and pull within six points with 54.8 seconds left on Nijel Pack’s 3-pointer.

Arkansas’ big first-half lead proved to be too much, though. Chris Lykes made a pair of free throws after Pack’s trey and then the Kansas State guard dribbled it off his foot on the next possession.

Neither team was good offensively. Kansas State missed its first 13 3-pointer and shot just 3 of 22 from deep on the night. The Razorbacks were little better. The team shot 36% from the field and were also just 3 of 22 from 3-point range.

Five Razorbacks players scored in double figures, led by Connor Vanover’s and Chris Lykes’ 14 points apiece. Au’Diese Toney had the best game for Arkansas, scoring 13 points and grabbing nine rebounds. Pack and Selton Miguel lead the Wildcats with 14 points apiece, as well.

Arkansas’ tip Tuesday against Cincinnati is at 8:30 p.m. and the game can be seen on ESPN2.

Arkansas hoops ready for Gardner-Webb in second game of season

Gardner-Webb put a scare into UNLV in its opener. Arkansas survived one in its, too.

With first-game nerves out of the way, the Arkansas men’s basketball team can now aim forward through the rest of its nonconference slate.

Next up: Gardner-Webb.

Arkansas had to rally in the second half to beat Mercer in both teams’ season opener on Tuesday night at Bud Walton Arena, 74-61. The Razorbacks, the No. 15 team in the nation in the coaches poll, will host Gardner-Webb on Saturday afternoon in Fayetteville.

The Runnin’ Bulldogs, from Boiling Springs, North Carolina, were picked to finish third in the Big South’s South Division in the preseason. They lost their opener to Nevada-Las Vegas on Wednesday, 64-58. UNLV needed run in the final minutes to escape.

Gardner-Webb is led by guards D’Maurian Williams and Lance Terry, two of the three players who averaged in double figures for the team last year. Williams was the game’s leading scorer against UNLV, dropping 21 points.

Arkansas was led in its opener by JD Notae. He scored 30 points, the most he has in a Razorbacks uniform since joining the team as a transfer from Jacksonville last year. Pittsburgh transfer Au’Diese Toney and Miami (FL) Chris Lykes joined him in double figures with 18 points and 16 points, as well.

Tipoff from Bud Walton Arena is at 2 p.m. on Saturday and will air on SEC Network+. The tip time gives Hogs fans plenty of time to get back home in time to watch the football team play LSU (6:30 p.m. kickoff).

Arkansas comes from behind to dispatch Mercer in season opener

Arkansas guard JD Notae scored 30 points and the No. 15 Razorbacks rallied to beat Mercer, 74-61.

It wasn’t pretty, but it was a victory.

No. 15 Arkansas rallied from an eight-point halftime deficit in Tuesday’s season-opener and beat Mercer,74-61, in Bud Walton Arena.

Preseason All-SEC guard JD Notae led all scorers with 30 points. He shot 11 of 26 from the field and 5 of 14 from 3-point range. Pittsburgh transfer Au’Diese Toney added a double-double with 18 points and 11 rebounds and Miami (FL) transfer Chris Lykes chipped in 16 points, all but two of which came in the second half.

Arkansas started the final 20 minutes on a 14-2 run and used 13 Mercer turnovers in the half to score XX points.

James Glisson III and Kamar Robertson led the Bears with 12 points and Mercer made 13 of 31 from downtown to keep things interesting.

Arkansas hosts Gardner-Webb on Saturday at 2 p.m. in its next game.