FAYETTEVILLE -- University of Arkansas senior forward Adrio Bailey hit as many three-point baskets at Tennessee on Tuesday as he did in 92 games and 1,273 minutes during his first three seasons with the Razorbacks.
Bailey, who was 2 of 3 from beyond the arc against the Vols, didn't attempt a three-pointer until last season when he was 2 of 12.
This season, Bailey has hit 10 of 23 three-pointers for 43.5% to lead Arkansas going into today's game against Mississippi State.
"We're shocked that he's one of our best perimeter shooters," Razorbacks Coach Eric Musselman said. "If you look at the percentages, it's a really good thing for him from an individual player development standpoint that he's improved that much.
"Having said that, we should have some other guys that have percentages that are better than what we have. But Adrio has been a guy that's made perimeter shots at a shockingly good [rate]."
Sophomore guard Isaiah Joe, who will miss his fourth consecutive game today while recovering from knee surgery, shot 41.3% last season when he set an Arkansas record with 113 three-point baskets in 273 attempts, but he's at 34% this season (72 of 212).
Junior guard Mason Jones is at 32.9% (47 of 143) after shooting 36.5% (76 of 208) last season. Sophomore guard Desi Sills, who started 2 of 32 on three-pointers this season, has raised his shooting to 26.7% (28 of 105) after shooting 46.0% (29 of 63) last season.
Bailey has been at his best shooting three-pointers in SEC games, hitting 46.2% (6 of 13) after going 1 of 1 at Missouri and 2 of 3 at Tennessee in the past two games.
Despite Bailey's percentage, Musselman said he does't want him shooting more three-pointers.
"I do think he's shooting the right amount," Musselman said. "I don't think that we want to encourage him to shoot more than what he's doing.
"I think he's taking good, high quality shots. He doesn't have a high volume of three-point attempts, but I also think that's why he's got a really effective percentage -- because he's taking them with his feet set. So we're not going to try to change that, although we do recognize that he has made more perimeter shots than we thought he would coming into the season. That's due to his work ethic.
"But really right now what we need from Adrio is defensive rebounding. That's what we need. Plain and simple."
Bailey is averaging 4.5 rebounds in 23.5 minutes. He has 108 rebounds, with 27 on the offensive end.
Joe update
Arkansas sophomore guard Isaiah Joe will miss his fourth consecutive game as he continues to recover from arthroscopic knee surgery Feb. 1.
Razorbacks Coach Eric Musselman said Joe remains out indefinitely.
"He's not practicing, he's not jogged with us, he hasn't done a walk-through with us," Musselman said before Thursday's practice. "We don't even see him, to be honest. He's been doing rehab.
"Even [Wednesday] in study hall, he got all his academic stuff done and was with [trainer] Mark [O'Neal] again doing something. As far as I'm concerned, I can't imagine we have anything changing over the next four days or five days."
Lopsided loss
Arkansas hadn't lost by more than seven points in any of its first seven defeats before Tennessee beat the Razorbacks 82-61 on Tuesday night.
The Razorbacks are among 12 SEC teams to have at least one loss by 14 points. Kentucky and LSU don't have any such losses, and Mississippi State has one after an 83-58 loss at Ole Miss on Tuesday night.
The loss at Tennessee marked the Razorbacks' second road game in four days after Missouri beat them 83-79 in overtime last Saturday in Mizzou Arena.
"I do think with these games coming at you, travel can affect you," Musselman said. "It's going to happen with 30 games.
"In the NBA, out of the 82 games a lot of people thought that from seven to 10 games your team just wasn't going to have it. In college, I've found great teams don't have it one out of 30 nights. Teams that are pretty good usually have it happen two or three times, and then average teams have it four times.
"So look, we did not play well at Tennessee at all. I didn't think we played well at Missouri at times, but we're still right there where we could win the game even though we didn't play very well."
Georgia, Ole Miss, Tennessee and Texas A&M all have four losses of 14 or more points. There are a total of 31 games in which an SEC team has lost by at least 14 points.
"We haven't won a lot of games of late, but we sure competed," Musselman said. "We haven't played very good these last two games."
Lots of cons
Coach Eric Musselman was asked about the pros and cons for the Razorbacks in their first game against Mississippi State this season when the Bulldogs won 77-70 on Jan. 22 in Humphrey Coliseum.
"Oh boy," Musselman said. "I have a bunch of cons that I can certainly list for you. I mean, I don't know how much time you have.
"Reggie Perry, we can start with Perry's 15 free throws attempted [and 14 makes]. His 26 points and 13 rebounds is a concern.
"Mississippi State taking 31 free throws [and making 27] is a concern. Mississippi State being plus-10 on the glass [41 to 31] is a concern.
"Mississippi State having 11 offensive rebounds is a concern. Mississippi State having four players in double digits is a concern. Was that enough?"
Musselman didn't mention any pros for the Razorbacks, but there were some. Arkansas had a 46-24 edge in points in the paint, turned the ball over just seven times, and Mason Jones and Jimmy Whitt each scored 20 points.
Sports on 02/15/2020