It was a back-and-forth affair in Providence, but Arkansas beat Kansas in the postseason yet again, 79-72. Kansas’s disappointing season comes to an end, as does the two-year Hunter Dickinson era. Dickinson had zero points in the second half of his final college game, as he was completely overshadowed by Jonas Aidoo, who scored a season-high 22 points.

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Forced to take their time on offense – especially in the second half – the Hogs turned in an excellent 109.7 efficiency, scoring on 51% of possessions. The average Razorback lead throughout the course of the game was 2.3 points, with the lead maxing out at 11 points early in the second half.

Normally reliant on winning the transition battle, the Hogs were shockingly bad in this department, scoring just 15 points on 15 transition possessions.

The halfcourt stats show how good of a defensive performance this was by the Hogs. The Jayhawks wanted to work through Hunter Dickinson in their halfcourt offense, and it just didn’t work at all. Dickinson wasn’t great on offense, but he was such a liability that Kansas had to pull him from the game, hurting their offense even more.

Points in the paint was the biggest theme of the preview, as both teams rely on scoring in and defending the paint to win. End result: Hog win. A six-point margin in points in the paint led to a seven-point win.

Arkansas shot a lower percentage than Kansas but created a lot more shot chances thanks to a +6 turnover margin. Both teams crashed the offensive glass despite being strong defensive rebounding teams.

The Hogs overcame some hot Kansas 3-point shooting (71% eFG% on 3s) by finishing well in the paint (59%) and preventing Kansas from doing the same (40%). Again, this one came down to paint points. The Jayhawks had slightly more opportunities, but the Hogs had more points.

Up next

Arkansas faces 2-seed St. John’s in the second round on Saturday. Keep an eye out for a preview soon.