Arkansas Got the Gonzaga Win. Should the Paint Be the Concern?

Arkansas beat Gonzaga 76-72 in front of 16,436 at Bud Walton Arena and erased a 10-point hole with an 18-0 run bridging halftime. The Hogs also got out-rebounded 52-48 by a Gonzaga frontcourt that did whatever it wanted for long stretches, which is why the celebration came with a question attached: who owns the paint, and who steadies the ball long enough to get it there.

Those were the threads that dominated the 4th & Five fan line this week, raised by a caller named Austin, an Arkansas fan living in New York who is already buying tickets to road dates.

He did not call to complain. He called excited. Then he got asked to play devil's advocate, and the answer was not what he expected.

Fifty-Two to Forty-Eight on the Glass

The concern down low is older than this roster. Gonzaga out-rebounded Arkansas 52-48, with Braden Huff going for 19 points and 11 boards.

DJ Williams framed it as the recurring problem with young, athletic John Calipari teams: the freshmen can fly, but somewhere deep in the SEC schedule, or deeper in March, a team with real size in the paint shows up.

A viewer in the chat, John Matthews, put it less diplomatically, and the hosts read it on air.

"It pisses me off that we have a Space Jam squad of seven-foot players that only want to shoot threes," Matthews wrote.

"We've got to have a presence in the paint," Williams said. "We have to."

Austin offered a counterpoint he had picked up before the game, saying Calipari and Gonzaga's Mark Few, who are friends, agreed neither side would play zone in the exhibition.

"That is going to lend itself more to them breaking open on the corners and shooting those threes," Austin said. "As we transition into the season and teams are playing more zone, you're going to see a lot more of that, like Billy Richmond cutting."

Then he conceded the point anyway: "I would like to see more physicality in the middle."

Watch: the full 4th & Five breakdown.

Miikka Muurinen Clapped, and Arkansas Found an Edge

If there was an answer on the toughness question, it came from the 7-foot freshman.

Miikka Muurinen finished with 10 points, six rebounds and two blocks on 4-of-11 shooting with three early turnovers. The box score is not the story. The story is what happened at the 2:51 mark of the first half, when Muurinen and Gonzaga's Massamba Diop drew double technicals after Muurinen stared him down and clapped while walking away.

Arkansas' run started not long after.

"You could tell by the way he handled himself in the paint," Williams said. "Physical, not going to be punked."

Cooper Bowser, the 6-11 Furman transfer, grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds with nine points and just missed a double-double. So did JJ Andrews, the Little Rock freshman and McDonald's All-American, with 10 points and nine boards.

The Backcourt Question Behind It

Austin said the big men actually looked better than he anticipated. What nagged at him was the backcourt getting them the ball.

"It didn't look like we had a true ball handler on the team," he said, adding that his worry was less about scoring and more about whether Arkansas can get up and down the floor "in a controlled manner."

The numbers back the instinct, at least for twenty minutes. Arkansas had 10 turnovers and just seven assists on 12 made baskets in the first half. After the break, the Hogs flipped it: eight assists, two turnovers.

That is the swing that decided the game, and it is also the exact inconsistency a roster rebuilding its guard play should expect. Darius Acuff Jr. went No. 7 overall to Sacramento in the 2026 NBA Draft. Meleek Thomas went No. 34 to Cleveland, Trevon Brazile No. 35 to Denver.

Williams pointed out that Calipari, now in his third season in Fayetteville, has made a career out of losing lead guards and rebuilding the position from scratch.

"Coach Calipari is very used to losing dynamic point guards," Williams said, naming John Wall and Derrick Rose. "He'll rebuild that by committee."

Committee was the word. Billy Richmond III posted 17 points, seven rebounds and five assists, hit 3 of 5 from deep and scored 12 of his 17 after halftime. Davion Thompson added 12, including the step-back 3 with about a minute left that pushed it to 73-68. Abdou Toure had nine, eight of them in the first half.

Jordan Smith Jr., the consensus five-star freshman, finished 0-of-9 from the field with three assists, four rebounds and two steals.

"He'll get his," Austin said of Smith. "It's just early, finding the groove."

The Whiteboard Opens for Business

Josh Throne, back on the show after a trip to France and admittedly still needing to watch the game back, was not interested in measured.

"You're not going to take me from football season, where I've got to go into every game wondering if we can win, to basketball season and tell me to pump the brakes," Throne said. "I'm selling out this year for basketball."

Then he put a Final Four on the whiteboard, the show's home for hot takes.

Williams was not buying it as a hot take at all. "I don't know if saying this basketball team making it to the Final Four is necessarily a hot take," he said, calling it closer to warm.

"Well, you ain't said it," Throne shot back. "I said it. I was the first guy to say it."

Williams offered his version instead: "I think a hot take is saying this still isn't a Sweet 16 team. That's a hot take." Arkansas has reached the Sweet 16 in each of Calipari's first two seasons and won the 2026 SEC Tournament.

Throne's verdict on his co-host: "You could be a politician. You are the master at basically discussing a topic."

What to Watch Next

• Memphis, second exhibition, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 7 p.m., Bud Walton Arena
• Virginia, Nov. 8, Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., noon CT on ESPN, Arkansas' first game in the nation's capital
• Indiana, Nov. 17, Madison Square Garden, 6:30 p.m. CT on Peacock
• Michigan State, Nov. 26, Detroit, 3:30 p.m. CT on CBS
• LSU in Fayetteville, Tuesday, Jan. 26, 8 p.m. CT on SECN

One note for Austin and anyone else booking travel: the Madison Square Garden opponent is Indiana, and the LSU trip is a January home date, not a November one.

Memphis comes to Bud Walton on Wednesday, and the checklist is short. Win the glass, make somebody pay for guarding the rim one-on-one, and cut the first-half turnovers. Get those right and the questions about the paint start to quiet down on their own.