Rewriting history books

BOB HOLT
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas became LSU's latest roadkill Saturday on the Tigers' ride back to the national elite.
The No. 16 Tigers came into Walton Arena and beat Arkansas 78-67 before a crowd of 19,994 for their third consecutive SEC road victory.
It is the longest road winning streak for LSU (21-4, 8-4) since the 1991-92 season, and the Tigers won the three games by a combined 88 points -- defeating Alabama by 33 and Ole Miss by 44 before traveling to Arkansas.
"They're peaking," Arkansas freshman forward Carl Baker said. "They're probably playing some of the best basketball that's ever been played at LSU.
"Their confidence is up, and they probably don't think they can be beaten right now, no matter where they're playing."
While the Tigers are peaking, the Razorbacks (13-12, 5-7) are reeling.
Arkansas had hoped its three-game homestand would be the start of a run for an NCAA Tournament at-large bid. Instead the Razorbacks, who lost to No. 11 Florida 80-71 on Tuesday night, have lost back-to-back games in Fayetteville for the first time since the 1985-86 season, when they lost to TCU and Texas.
That was Nolan Richardson's first season as Arkansas' coach.
"A lot of things are hard to believe," Richardson said of the consecutive Fayetteville losses. "But the reality is that it's happening."
Some other things that happened Saturday:

Arkansas fell to 7-5 at Walton Arena, including 3-3 in SEC games. It is the most overall and conference losses the Razorbacks have suffered in Walton Arena since it opened seven years ago.

LSU won at Fayetteville for the first time after being 0-8 since Arkansas joined the SEC.

The Tigers swept Arkansas for the first time and doubled their SEC victory total against the Razorbacks this season after being 1-15 in the series the previous eight years.

Arkansas' 12 losses surpass its total for last season, when the Razorbacks finished 23-11, and matches the most in a regular-season for a Richardson-coached team -- excluding a 12-16 finish in 1985-86.
"I'm from here, and I know the program pretty well, and it's like we're making history in every bad way possible," said Baker, who is from Palestine-Wheatley. "It hurts a lot."
Surprisingly, it wasn't LSU's talented front line of 6-9 sophomore forward Stromile Swift, 6-11 senior center Jabari Smith and 6-8 junior forward Brian Beshara that hurt the Razorbacks most on Saturday.
Those three, who combined for 48 points in the Tigers' 96-75 victory over the Razorbacks on Jan. 26, were held to 25 points Saturday, with Swift limited to 7 points in 22 minutes because of foul trouble.
"We were able to win that game really without Stromile getting involved," LSU Coach John Brady said. "For our team to be able to win in this building when LSU has never won here, without maybe our best player, it shows that we've got a couple of other guys that can play quality minutes at critical times."
Those players Saturday were junior guard Lamont Roland, who had 23 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists; freshman forward Ronald Dupree, who had 13 points off the bench; and freshman point guard Torris Bright, who ran the Tigers well against Arkansas' pressure defense and had 8 points, 3 assists, 2 steals and 3 turnovers in a game-high 38 minutes.
"Their guard play was real big today, I thought was the biggest difference in the game," Richardson said.
The Razorbacks got little inside presence from 6-7 freshman forward Alonzo Lane -- the only reliable low-post scorer -- as he struggled against the bigger Tigers. Lane hit 3 of 4 free throws but was 0 of 3 from the field.
"He's giving up 3 and 4 inches, but he was trying, and sometimes he was there, but he just couldn't finish," Richardson said. "And when he can't finish, that puts a real damper on us because then we're really relying on jump shots."
Arkansas, which shot 37.9 percent from the field, including 11 of 32 on three-pointers, hung close until the final 10 minutes.
After LSU jumped to a 23-11 lead and was ahead 34-30 at halftime, the Razorbacks tied it at 35 on freshman guard Joe Johnson's three-pointer with 17:55 left.
Beshara's 15-foot jumper put the Tigers ahead to stay at 37-35, but the Razorbacks pulled within a point three more times, the last at 52-51 with 9:43 left on two free throws by Johnson.
LSU then outscored Arkansas 10-0 over a 2:57 span -- started by Dupree's dunk on an alley-oop pass from Bright -- to take a 63-52 lead at the 6:22 mark. Arkansas didn't pull closer than 10 points the rest of the game.
"I thought from a composure standpoint, our team was very good when it needed to be," Brady said. "We made some timely baskets. We made some big free throws, and I thought when we went to the zone ... we covered well. I thought it really changed the game for us."
The Tigers went to a zone the last nine minutes, and the Razorbacks struggled to get good shots.
"They put a zone on us, and we went dead," said Johnson, who led the Razorbacks with 18 points and six rebounds. "We couldn't do anything."
Arkansas got a lift off its bench from senior guard Chris Walker (11 points, five rebounds), freshman guard Blake Eddins (career-high 10 points) and Baker (seven points), but it wasn't enough to overcome the Tigers.
In the last couple of days leading up to the game, Richardson had expressed displeasure with Brady's comments after LSU's first victory over Arkansas -- when Brady talked about the Razorbacks holding the ball to keep the Tigers from scoring 100 points.
But before Saturday's tipoff, Richardson went to the LSU bench to shake Brady's hand, and they also shook hands after the game.
"I don't ever remember not going to shake a coach's hand at my house," Richardson said. "This is where I welcome you and say, 'Good luck, and the best team wins.'
"LSU was the best team today, no question."

This article was published on Sunday, February 20, 2000

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