John Calipari finally has an SEC win at Arkansas.
Adou Thiero, who followed Calipari from Kentucky to Arkansas, scored five points in the final minute to end a five-game losing streak for the Razorbacks with a 68-65 win over Georgia.
This one wasn’t pretty, but Calipari coached with a hint of desperation as he tried to find anything that would work. Arkansas trailed by 15 early in the second half, and the Razorbacks got back in the game by trying to attack the rim, hit the offensive glass hard and get to the free-throw line.
It was an offensive rebound from Thiero on a D.J. Wagner miss in the final seconds that won Arkansas the game, with Thiero getting fouled on the putback to send him to the line with 1.8 seconds left. He made the first free throw, then missed the second, but Georgia failed to box out the shooter and Thiero grabbed his own miss and put it in at the buzzer.
In Adou we trust pic.twitter.com/Nzmn0F851Y
— Arkansas Razorbacks Men’s Basketball 🐗 (@RazorbackMBB) January 23, 2025
The junior wing led the Razorbacks with 17 points and 11 rebounds, including five offensive boards. Arkansas also got a breakout game from freshman Karter Knox, who scored 13 points, with 11 of those coming at the free-throw line. Arkansas made 29 of 34 free throws and had 18 offensive rebounds.
That made up for poor shooting nights from both Johnell Davis and Wagner, who both went 3-of-14 from the field. Arkansas also made just 3 of 23 3s.
It was the first game for Arkansas without Boogie Fland, who had surgery on his ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) on his right thumb on Wednesday. Without Fland, Calipari leaned on both Wagner and Davis. He put Wagner in middle ball screens and ran Davis off floppy action, and the message to both in the second half was clearly just to put their heads down and get to the paint, then everyone else crash.
Arkansas also turned up the pressure defensively, pressing and applying maximum ball pressure. Calipari was trying to tell everyone where to go from the sideline offensively, and this team still has a long way to go on that end. But maybe roles will be more defined now with Fland out.
This is a team that’s going to have to lean on its defense, and the Razorbacks deserve credit for continuing to battle and play hard despite their poor start. Is this a turning point? We’ll see. The schedule at least gives the Razorbacks an opportunity to make it two in a row with another one-win SEC team (Oklahoma) coming to Fayetteville on Saturday. Then Arkansas has one week off until Calipari’s much-anticipated return to Rupp Arena on Jan. 25.
Georgia (14-5, 2-4 SEC) has now lost three straight after making its way into the top 25. This has somewhat been scheduled-induced with the first two coming against Tennessee (on the road) and against Auburn. Next up is at Florida, which made the Arkansas game arguably a must-win for the Bulldogs. They look headed toward the bubble. Arkansas (12-7, 1-5 SEC) still has a way to go to say it is on the bubble, but in a loaded SEC, there are plenty of opportunities left to improve the resume.
(Photo: Wesley Hitt / Getty Images)
