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Vanderbilt 97, Arkansas 84: That was fun, wasn’t it?

Vanderbilt ran away from a top-15 team in the second half. Wait, what?

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NCAA Basketball: Arkansas at Vanderbilt George Walker IV-USA TODAY Sports

Four Factors

Four Factors Vanderbilt Arkansas
Four Factors Vanderbilt Arkansas
eFG% 60.71% 54.76%
OR% 48.39% 39.47%
TO% 13.04% 15.94%
FT Rate 64.29% 38.10%

Tennessean: Vanderbilt basketball beats Arkansas in chippy game for first ranked win of season

Sports Illustrated: Razorbacks losing games is one thing, but being classless while doing it is another

The Vanderbilt Hustler: Vanderbilt earns come-from-behind victory to knock off Arkansas 97-84, beat top-15 team for first time since 2017

The Vanderbilt Hustler: “It rallied us”: Manjon’s ejection sparks in-game, potentially season-saving turnaround

The wildest number from Vanderbilt’s win over Arkansas on Saturday: Vanderbilt attempted 36 free throws to Arkansas’s 24.

Yes, even with Arkansas being awarded seven free throws by the referees late in the first half after Arkansas’s Anthony Black got an and-1, stood over Quentin Millora-Brown appearing to be raedy to Laettner him, then gotten shoved in the back by Ezra Manjon (who was ejected from the game) and Jerry Stackhouse picked up a technical foul for good measure when he learned that no Arkansas player would be assessed any penalty.

Then, Black decided to taunt the Vanderbilt bench afterward. The referees swallowed their whistles.

At that point, it looked like the referees were in the tank for Arkansas — but then a funny thing happened. Early in the second half, Black drove to the basket, missed a layup, and Vanderbilt’s Liam Robbins grabbed the rebound — and then shoved Black to the deck when he went for the ball, and no foul was called, while Robbins drew what sounded like the loudest cheer that’s been heard in Memorial Gym since the Kevin Stallings era. (The referees did review this play at the monitor a couple of plays later, but assessed no penalty.) Black may not have been assessed a technical for taunting the Vanderbilt bench — but it seems that he forfeited the protection of the officials at that point.

Black shot 1-of-7 from the floor, 0-for-2 from the foul line, and committed four turnovers in the second half. Karma is fun.

Individual Stats

Player MIN FG FGA 3FG 3FGA FT FTA ORB DRB REB PTS PF AST TO BLK STL GmSc AdjGS GS/Min
Player MIN FG FGA 3FG 3FGA FT FTA ORB DRB REB PTS PF AST TO BLK STL GmSc AdjGS GS/Min
Tyrin Lawrence 30 7 14 2 2 6 8 2 3 5 22 1 2 1 0 1 17.5 20.91 0.70
Myles Stute 32 3 8 1 4 8 8 2 5 7 15 2 3 1 1 2 16.5 19.71 0.62
Liam Robbins 18 4 5 1 2 5 5 1 2 3 14 5 1 1 3 0 13.2 15.77 0.88
Jordan Wright 23 5 9 1 2 6 7 0 2 2 17 2 1 1 0 1 12.8 15.29 0.66
Trey Thomas 32 4 7 3 4 2 2 0 2 2 13 3 1 2 0 1 8.8 10.51 0.33
Lee Dort 8 2 2 0 0 0 1 3 2 5 4 1 0 0 1 0 6 7.17 0.90
Colin Smith 16 2 3 2 2 0 1 1 0 1 6 1 0 1 0 0 3.6 4.30 0.27
Ezra Manjon 11 1 3 0 0 1 2 1 0 1 3 2 2 1 0 1 2.2 2.63 0.24
Quentin Millora-Brown 12 0 2 0 0 1 2 2 3 5 1 2 0 0 0 0 0.7 0.84 0.07
Noah Shelby 13 1 3 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 -0.1 -0.12 -0.01
  • Nobody had a bad game, which is how you score 97 points on Arkansas.
  • This might have been Tyrin Lawrence’s best game in a Vanderbilt uniform; it legitimately appeared that Arkansas’s players did not realize he was left-handed.
  • Myles Stute’s jump shot still isn’t falling, but he did a lot of other things well on Saturday.
  • Liam Robbins was limited to 18 minutes (and just one minute in the first half) thanks to foul trouble, but he was extremely effective while on the floor. What I’m not sure about is why Jordan Wright played just 23 minutes.
  • Trey Thomas finally got jump shots to fall! (The one miss from three was clearly a heat check.)

What’s Next

Vanderbilt hosts Alabama at 7:30 PM on Tuesday night. Now that would be a season-changing win if it happened. On the other hand, Alabama just beat LSU by 40...