Thompson, JJ Andrews didn’t blink when Razorbacks fell behind

Robert Morris showed up at Bud Walton Arena on Wednesday and made Arkansas look like a team that hadn’t gotten over Sunday’s Virginia game.

It worked for a little bit. The Hogs went more than four minutes without a point. Billy Richmond III finally broke the drought with a layup, and the Razorbacks didn’t take the lead until 11:20 was left in the half.

John Calipari didn’t schedule the Colonials so he could sweat through his jacket. A few fans in the stands were likely counting the days until Indiana, and not necessarily because they were excited.

Davion Thompson and JJ Andrews didn’t look worried, though. Neither freshman played like a kid whose team had just taken a punch to the mouth.

By the end of the night, they’d helped turn an ugly opening into a 76-53 Arkansas win.

Thompson didn’t start. He got the call with his team down 11-6, and the Hogs scored the next six points. He threw the passes on the first two of those baskets. Most kids his age are worried more about prom.

He wasn’t only passing, either. Thompson knocked down two 3-pointers later in the half while the offense was still trying to find its legs. He had eight points, four assists and two boards at the break and hadn’t missed from outside.

Andrews handled the grunt work.

The Little Rock native had been easy to overlook in the season’s first two games. This time he went hard after rebounds and hit the deck more than once chasing the ball. At one point kneepads needed flashed in my mind.

Wilkinson answers back

Robert Morris was still up 25-22 after KJ Garris Jr. buried a 3 with 6:51 left in the half. Jeremiah Wilkinson fixed that in a hurry.

He went right back the other way, hit from deep and got Arkansas going on a 17-5 finish to the half. The Colonials never led again.

Thompson stayed busy during that stretch. He fed teammates for two more buckets and grabbed two rebounds. He also made two free throws. Arkansas carried a 39-30 lead into the locker room.

REMINDER THAT DAVION THOMPSON IS 17 YEARS OLD!

14 points on 5-6 shooting. 🔥 https://t.co/Oo6lNOFfdL

— Arkansas Men’s Basketball 🐗 (@RazorbackMBB) November 12, 2026

According to Cooper Bowser, Calipari’s halftime speech wasn’t rocket science.

“He just wanted us to, you know, just play harder, be more disciplined out there,” Bowser said. The goal, he said, was to “refocus us and make sure our minds were right.”

Robert Morris trimmed it to five not long after halftime. That’s when Richmond decided it was dunk night. Later, Bowser caught a lob from Wilkinson and hammered it down to make it 68-48 with 6:41 left, and that ended any drama.

The oddest number of the night belonged to the fast break. The Razorbacks didn’t have one fast-break point before halftime. They had 18 by the end, and most of them came during that second-half push.

Arkansas hit half its shots and a third of its 3s. It also beat up Robert Morris on the offensive glass 14-3.

The Colonials got zero second-chance points, while the Hogs got 16.

Thompson keeps it simple

Thompson’s final numbers were 15 points on 5-of-8 shooting, 2-of-3 from deep, seven assists, five rebounds and two steals in 26 minutes.

He didn’t turn it over once. He finished plus-25, and KenPom named him the team MVP with an offensive rating of 173.

Only one 17-year-old has ever scored more in a game for the Razorbacks. That’s Byron Irvin, who put up 16 against Central Florida in 1984.

Thompson had been one of the few things worth watching in the Virginia mess before he spent most of that second half on the bench. He gave Calipari a lot fewer reasons to sit him Wednesday.

Andrews has seen how fast his teammate has grown up since he got to campus.

“Davion, man, he’s special,” Andrews said. “17 years old, going against grown men, 24-year-olds, 25, however old they are.”

Calipari wants Thompson to keep his scoring in his back pocket. He’s looking for a point guard first.

“Don’t act like this is eighth grade and you’re trying to score,” Calipari said. “We need a guy that’s delivering balls and getting us into offense.”

Arkansas assisted on 80.6% of its baskets, which tied for the ninth-best single-game mark since 1991-92, per HogStats. A freshman actually listening to his coach had something to do with that.

Earned, not given. 😤

Go inside the locker room with exclusive access, available now on Hogs+. 📱📺 https://t.co/b4z7bpFORJ

— Arkansas Men’s Basketball 🐗 (@RazorbackMBB) November 12, 2026

Andrews takes notes from Billy

Andrews finished with 11 points and eight boards in 21 minutes, plus an assist and a steal. Two of those rebounds were offensive.

Two more and he’d have had a double-double, though the stuff he did best doesn’t show up in a box score.

“I just want to impact winning,” Andrews said. He said playing with energy is how he’s always done it, going back to when he was little.

Calipari has a ready-made example for that. Richmond led the Hogs with 16 points on 8-of-14 shooting and doesn’t take a play off.

“Coach Cal, he tells us all the time, like, you want to play like Billy,” Andrews said.

Spotting Indiana an early lead next week isn’t part of the plan. A better team won’t let the Razorbacks off the hook the way Robert Morris did.

What Calipari did find out is that a bad start doesn’t rattle Thompson or Andrews.

That probably will come in useful information to have before March.