Matt Weiner (@mattweiner20) – Basketball Beat Reporter
So about the Spartans Saturday afternoon in Arkansas …
Bad news: SJSU men’s basketball lost 99-58 in what (one would hope) should be the most lopsided loss this season and ever of the Tim Miles era.
Good news: The Spartans went into halftime trailing 40-35 despite not playing their best basketball.
For those doing the math, they were outscored 59-23 in the half. Not great!
Miles labeled the Razorbacks as an “immensely talented team,” which feels like the understatement of a lifetime.
Ripping the band-aid off
Time to face the music and come face-to-face with stats that illustrate how lopsided this defeat was.
- Arkansas outshout SJSU from the field 60% to 43% and from three 62% to 32%
- The Razorbacks scored 20 more points off turnovers than the Spartans
Now come the doozies.
- SJSU had four points off the bench to Arkansas’ 44
- SJSU was outscored 52-30 in the paint and 23-2 in fastbreak
Worst of all, the Razorbacks got threes from their de facto bench hypeman Cade Arbogast.
Arbogast entered Saturday afternoon with a whopping seven minutes played and zero points in two seasons at Arkansas.
Credit to me for not hyperlinking a dunk from Ricky Council IV (one of eight from the Hogs on the day).
Arkansas’ procession of sick throwdowns pinpointed how non-communicative and dismal SJSU’s defense became at the end.
SJSU men’s basketball also made history along the way, but fell on the wrong side of it.
Down five at half … not down five at the end
When Miles spoke after the game, he didn’t care so much about the score. After all, when you get blown out by 41, how much is there to say about the end result?
Instead, he was frustrated with something else.
“I was just disappointed we didn’t have a lead at halftime. I thought that we had done enough to be up four, five, six points and to be down five points I knew would be bad news for us,” Miles said.
‘Tale of two halves’ is a trope so old it predates Moses, but that’s exactly what this game was.
Might sound shocking for SJSU fans used to subpar showings from their team, but it was a neck-and-neck battle in the first half.
There were 12 lead changes and a 3-pointer from fourth-year guard Omari Moore, who finished with a season-high 21 points, put SJSU up 31-29 with 3:05 left.
Moore had 16 points and the Spartans held themselves to seven turnovers while only getting outscored 20-16 in the paint.
There was success inside and outside as they went 3 for 6 from three. Moore had two deep shots and Sage Tolbert III and Alvaro Cardenas each had one.
A 1-3-1 zone called by Miles around the 13-minute mark bottled up the Razorbacks who began 7-11, but only 2-10 after it was enforced.
The zone allowed the SJSU men’s basketball to control the pace, get stops and turn the momentum into scores at the other end. Diallo had two blocks and Moore stole the ball on three occasions.
In the second half, Arkansas got off to a quick lead double-digit lead and in the final 14 minutes they exploded for a 44-13 run. They led by at least 20 from the 10:20 mark to the final buzzer.
Four players from Arkansas finished with double digits – Trevon Brazile led with 23, Council IV had 17, Nick Smith Jr. had 16 and Jalen Graham scored 11.
Where does SJSU men’s basketball go from here?
To tell the truth, this should be water off a duck’s back.
No team on SJSU’s schedule will match the talent they just bore witness to. Zero chance. Especially not in its final four out of conference game slate – CSU Bakersfield, Santa Clara, Pacific and Cal Poly.
None of those teams have Final Four contender written on them like Arkansas does.
These are the teams SJSU should be judged off. If they lose by 41 to any of these squads, then it’s time to freak out.
Yes, Spartan fans should be frustrated getting blown out by 41 points. That’s the equivalent of an atomic wedgie and then getting hung on their school’s flagpole after.
However, SJSU and Arkansas are at very different stages.
The Hogs have made Elite Eight appearances in back-to-back NCAA tournaments and their fans would be irate if they don’t make it again this season.
They just reeled in the second-best recruiting class in the nation according to 247Sports.
True freshman Smith Jr., who dazzled in his first full game this season, was the No. 3 overall prospect in the 2022 high scool class.
He’s flanked by Brazile, who Miles said is “going to be an NBA player for a long time.”
The Baha Mar Hoops tournament was a reminder of how far SJSU men’s basketball has come. Saturday’s blowout against Arkansas was a reminder for how much farther they need to go.
