FTs, TOs and OR difference in the game. FTs usually a strong suite and our best players missed too many. TOs were made by some of our best players. Only could watch on the stats page but Hogs must have pressured well.
They didn't really pressure us. As a matter of fact, we really pushed tempo whenever we had the chance. We had 4 straight possessions in the 1st half where the ball handler dribbled into traffic in the lane and basically handed the ball to Arkansas but AR didn't really employ a press on us at all.
As for the referees and Arkansas treatment...I didn't see it but maybe on a couple of no calls they could have saddled Ark with a couple more fouls but nothing super egregious IMO. We play hard, we contest a lot of passes and we are really handsy when the ball gets low. It's a recipe for foul calls to be made against you.
This team is going to finish in the top 2-3 of the AAC. We are pretty damn good and finally have some comparable size to teams. Arkansas made more plays last night but I didn't feel they had an athlete advantage over us at all or that they had one player we couldn't play with. The fact there were stretches that Ark appeared gassed and winded and not able to keep pace with our fast break is encouraging that we will be able to force some things on a lot of teams. If teams try to press and we break it, we should get some easy baskets and we shoot the 3 extremely well from all spots.
Maddie Bittle may be my new favorite player. In Tark's words, we can bake a cake with her. She does so many things well and is one of those gritty in your face players.