Only five games into his first Arkansas basketball season, Adou Thiero has already put together quite the highlight reel.
The Kentucky transfer added to it in the No. 20 Razorbacks’ 79-67 win over Little Rock on Friday night by continuing the scorching-hot start to his junior season.
He poured in 23 points on an efficient 7-of-9 shooting, plus added 8 rebounds, 6 steals and 2 blocks in just 29 minutes against the Trojans. While Thiero also had five turnovers, it was the kind of thing Arkansas will live with because he has been its most consistent player.
After averaging just 7.2 points last year at Kentucky, the former three-star recruit is the Razorbacks’ leading scorer at 19.4 points per game. It’s been a stunning improvement — albeit not to those inside the program — and one that’s fueled by those who considered him arguably the least-heralded of Arkansas’ five transfers.
“Between my shift (from Kentucky to Arkansas), I heard a lot of stuff,” Thiero said. “I kept a good amount of receipts. There’s just a lot of built up fire.”
Given their apparent obsession with the Razorbacks, it’s probably a fair assumption that much of that criticism came from Kentucky fans who watched him the past two years and may not have been sad to see him go.
In Friday’s game, though, Thiero continued to show what they’re missing out on. After a solid first half, he took his game to another level after halftime. While his teammates struggled, he was the only one putting the ball in the basket — and doing so in impressive fashion.
He scored the Razorbacks’ first seven second-half points, with five of them coming in a 15-second span. It started with a three-point play on driving baby hook over a defender that he had been working on in practice with Tyler Ulis and was punctuated by a fast break windmill dunk after a steal.
“My teammates get mad at me whenever I don’t do a trick or something,” Thiero said nonchalantly. “I was like, you know what, I might as well do a trick this time. I didn’t know the dude actually kept running behind me. I just jumped man, I got it still so it don’t matter.”
Midway through the second half, Thiero made what Arkansas basketball coach John Calipari said was his best play of the game.
With the Razorbacks leaking oil and trying to stave off a comeback attempt, he used his incredible athleticism to rebound a missed free throw by Karter Knox and lay it back in. Instead of Little Rock getting the ball with a chance to cut the deficit to 5, Arkansas extended its lead to double-digits.
“I saw it was a miss and I was just like, ‘Oh, I can get that,’” Thiero said. “I just got it.”
Four of Thiero’s baskets were fast-break dunks, including two that started with steals of his own. That’s where he did his best work — on the defensive end of the floor.
According to Stathead, the only other Razorbacks with at least six steals and multiple blocks in the same game were Jaylin Williams (against Texas A&M in 2022), Marshawn Powell (against Vanderbilt in 2013) and Alvin Robertson (against Virginia in the 1984 NCAA Tournament).
“The biggest plays were effort plays,” Calipari said. “Those were the biggest plays he made. He had six steals — all effort steals. Just he out-worked the other guy to get the ball.”
It wasn’t some fluke outing, either. In addition to his vastly improved scoring, Thiero is quickly developing a reputation as an elite defender and he credits it to not only a natural nose for the ball, but also the scouting done by the coaches.
While still a very small sample size, he has 15 steals through five games — an average of 3 per game. Only three Razorbacks have ever done that for an entire season and one of them was on the opposing sideline Friday night.
“He has a chance to play at the next level if he can become a consistent shooter,” said Little Rock basketball coach Darrell Walker, who was also an All-American for the Razorbacks before a 10-year NBA career. “He has an NBA body already. He’s athletic enough to play at the next level.”
Even before his latest performance, Thiero was already starting to garner some national recognition as one of the most improved players in the country and potential first-round pick. Earlier in the week, teammate Boogie Fland said he could be a lottery pick. Before that, Calipari said he was one of the 10 best players in the country and described him as a “unicorn.”
It he keeps this up, Thiero could win even more hardware as potentially the UA’s second SEC Defensive Player of the Year in the award’s 21-year history (Steven Hill in 2006-07).
Here are a few other key takeaways from the Arkansas vs Little Rock game…
Tale of Two Halves
In the game’s opening minutes, it looked like the Razorbacks were going to run away with things in a rout.
They opened the game with four straight steals and raced out to an 11-0 lead before Mwani Wilkinson finally knocked down a 3 to give Little Rock its first points nearly four minutes in.
“I knew we could compete better,” Darrell Walker said. “That first five or six minutes of the game we were a deer in headlights. We were terrified for no reason.”
Arkansas led by as many as 22 during the first half and took a 42-24 lead into halftime. It managed only three points over the final 3:46 before the break, but was still firmly in control thanks to 11 Little Rock turnovers — 10 of which were steals — and the Trojans shooting just 29.6% from the floor, including 1 of 11 (9.1%) from deep.
That changed in the second half. Little Rock clawed back within eight just 6.5 minutes into the final period and actually got within seven a couple of times midway through the half. It was aided by Arkansas going 6 minutes and 24 seconds without a field goal.
“The first five minutes of the half set the tone for the rest of the game,” Calipari said. “First play, what did we do? We gave them a layup under the basket. You know how we guarded in the first half. What just happened?”
However, the Trojans ran out of gas and Arkansas regained control with a quick 7-0 spurt that included Adou Thiero’s aforementioned offensive rebound off a missed free throw and put-back. Boogie Fland knocked down a 3 to cap the run and — at the 8:19 mark — became the first Arkansas player not named Thiero to make a shot in the second half.
Ultimately, 19 turnovers that led to 28 points for the Razorbacks — and a 22-9 edge in fast break points — were too much for Little Rock to overcome.
“I said for the last two or three days, if you don’t have a high number of turnovers, you don’t put them at the free throw line a lot, you will be in the basketball game, I promise you guys,” Walker said. “And we got it down to seven. But the problem is, you give them a 20-point lead and now you’ve got to do all that energy to get back in the game and we’re short-handed with players.”
This has been a trend for Arkansas.
Lipscomb trailed by 15 about midway through the second half of the opener, but pulled within four with 7:47 remaining before the Razorbacks won by 16.
Troy actually had a one-point lead at halftime and was within one possession with 12 minutes left before Arkansas pulled away to win by 16 again.
The Razorbacks built a quick 16-point lead against Pacific, only for it to dwindle to 2 with 12:57 remaining before eventually winning by 19.
“There are times I look at us and say, ‘Wow. We’re as good as anybody.’ Then there’s other times I look at us and I say, ‘Wow, we’re as bad as anybody.’ So it just tells you we can be something.”
Another Strong Game from Boogie
Only one Arkansas basketball player has scored in double figures all five games this season and that’s Boogie Fland.
The heralded freshman has lived up to the hype so far and notched a career-high 21 points against Little Rock, eclipsing his previous high of 20 set earlier in the week against Pacific.
On Friday, he also added 7 assists, 4 rebounds and 3 steals in 38 minutes. It was the third time in five games Fland has dished exactly seven assists.
“He’s been playing great,” Thiero said. “He’s just that energetic kid who is going to get all your emotion out of you.”
By averaging 20.5 points, 5.0 assists, 3.5 rebounds and 3.5 steals across the wins over Pacific and Little Rock, Fland has positioned himself nicely to earn SEC Freshman of the Week accolades.
He did that by shooting 57.1% (12 of 21) from the floor and 5 of 9 (55.6%) from beyond the arc, prompting Darrell Walker to describe his upside as “tremendous.”
“He’s getting a chance to play a lot of minutes,” Walker said. “He’s also getting a chance — and this is big — to play through mistakes and stay in the game. That’s when you get more confident as a basketball player is when you can play through mistakes.”
The Streakiness of Wagner
We could be in for a rollercoaster of a season when it comes to D.J. Wagner’s shooting.
The Kentucky transfer burst onto the scene by knocking down a couple of 3s within the first two minutes of the Kansas exhibition, but he proceeded to miss his next 11 attempts from beyond the arc — including an official 0-for-6 start to the season in the first three games.
Over the last two games, though, he’s gone 5 of 10 from deep. That includes 3 of 6 in his 11-point outing against Little Rock.
“I’ve been getting a lot of shots up in the gym, so during the game it’s just like I’m working out,” Wagner said on the UA’s postgame radio show “I try to get shots up before practice. I try get 300 or 400.”
While it’d be great if the Razorbacks could just chalk that up as a slow start and now he’s turning a corner, it’s important to remember Wagner’s freshman campaign was also streaky.
He had a seven-game stretch in which he was 0 of 15 from beyond the arc, but followed it up by going 9 of 14 (64.3%) over the next three games. Then he ended the season by making just 1 of 12 in the final three games.
The result was Wagner finishing the season with an abysmal 29.2% three-point percentage.
Tough Day for Karter Knox
As good as Friday was for several Razorbacks, it was probably a day Karter Knox would like to forget.
Another heralded freshman, he scored just six points on a very inefficient 2-of-11 shooting percentage. He took the same number of shots as Boogie Fland despite playing 20 fewer minutes and missed all six of his 3-pointers in Arkansas vs Little Rock.
He is now 1 of 15 from beyond the arc this season, and that doesn’t include him going 1 of 5 across the two exhibitions games. While Calipari never mentioned him by name during his postgame press conference, it was hard not to think about Knox when he went out of his way to talk broadly about guys who are struggling.
“We got a couple other guys, we gotta get ‘em going and I’m trying to do what I can do, but the team knows — I’ve said it — I can’t do this for somebody. I can give you opportunities, we can create some things, but at the end of the day, you’ve got to win that battle. The one you’re having with yourself.”
Up Next for Arkansas Basketball
The Razorbacks have one more tune-up game before their next non-conference showdown. They’ll welcome Maryland-Eastern Shore to Bud Walton Arena for a 7 p.m. CT tipoff Monday.
According to KenPom, the MEAC program is the seventh-worst team out of 364 in Division I. The Hawks are 2-5 with a pair of wins over non-DI schools.
That will conclude a four-game homestand, as Arkansas hits the road for its Thanksgiving Day game against Illinois in Kansas City.
Other Arkansas Basketball Tidbits
- Arkansas big men Jonas Aidoo and Trevon Brazile missed their second straight games with injuries. They haven’t played since the first half of the Troy game last Wednesday.
- Little Rock basketball coach Darrell Walker actually received quite a few cheers when announced during pregame introductions. That’s a rarity for visiting coaches, but understandable considering he was an All-American for the Razorbacks under Eddie Sutton.
- Arkansas signee Isaiah Sealy — a four-star forward from Springdale — was introduced on the court during the under-8 media timeout of the first half and got a resounding standing ovation from the crowd.
- Arkansas legend Corliss Williamson — now an assistant coach for the Minnesota Timberwolves in the NBA — was among those in attendance Friday night, flying in for the game from Toronto. He sat near the Little Rock bench because his son plays for the Trojans. Unfortunately, Creed Williamson missed his second straight game with an injury. He was spotted wearing a boot on his right foot. Corliss was shown on the video board at the start of the second half and got a standing ovation.
- Less than an hour after punching its ticket to the Sweet 16 with a 1-0 win over California, the Arkansas soccer team was inside Bud Walton Arena and recognized during a second-half timeout. The players were still in their uniforms. The Razorbacks face Stanford at 6 p.m. CT Sunday at Razorback Field.
Arkansas vs Little Rock Highlights
Postgame Interviews from Arkansas vs Little Rock
Arkansas vs Little Rock Box Score
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