Makhi Mitchell is prett-ay, prett-ay, prett-aaay good
Virtually every metric says Mitchell has been Eric Musselman's best player this season for the Razorbacks
Curb Your Enthusiasm is one of my favorite shows of all time. There are a million reasons to love it, from the perfect tragi-comic plots to the improvised style of the dialogue. The real reason I love it, though? Whether confronting a chat-and-cutter or keeping people honest with their free sample dalliances, Larry David is right…like…99 percent of the time.
This article is my Larry David opinion for the 2024 Arkansas Razorbacks basketball season. An opinion that denies conventional wisdom. An opinion that flies in the face of societal norms. An opinion that seemingly isn’t shared by fans or the coaching staff.
Makhi Mitchell has been Arkansas’s best player this season, and he is being underutilized.
Basketball is in a big man Renaissance
Steph Curry showed over the last decade that a little guy could dominate the sport, but across all levels of basketball, there is a big-man renaissance happening. At the professional level, Giannis Antetunkoumpo, Joel Embiid, and Nikola Jokic have won the last five MVP awards. Had Embiid not gotten hurt, all three would be candidates again this season.
The same individual dominance is happening at the college level. The last three Naismith Award Winners were (in order) Zach Edey, Oscar Tshiebwe, and Luka Garza. Edey is the odds-on (or Odds Are) favorite to win again.
And while no one is arguing that Mitchell can hit that level of dominance for the Razorbacks, he can be a decent facsimile on an Arkansas team that desperately needs any consistent offensive weapon. Before Wednesday night’s loss to Tennessee in Bud Walton Arena, Mitchell was in the midst of a four-game span averaging 13.8 points, 8.8 rebounds, 2 assists, and 1.8 blocks per game. The Razorbacks also got two of their three conference wins in that span.
Makhi Mitchell uses his strength to establish post-position against Missouri
Eric Musselman then played him just 11:20 against the Volunteers. He got up one shot attempt and scored just a single point. As part of the long conversation that will need to be had to evaluate this season, Musselman will need to reflect on what Mitchell did to be so efficient and how not to misuse a player like him in the future.
Mitchell is the most efficient Razorback
When you look at Arkansas this year—complicated basketball concepts like scoring, rebounding, and passing—it’s hard to deny how Mitchell’s stats necessitate more playing time. Not only is Mitchell first on the team in field goal percentage and rebounds per 40 minutes (among players with at least 45 minutes of playing time this season), but he is also top five in both assists and points.
Yet it feels like we need a Larry David-level Social Assassin to confront Musselman about Mitchell’s minutes.
It’s clearer when you factor in advanced stats. Here’s a compilation of some different advanced statistics and Mitchell’s rank on the team:
ShotQuality Points Per Possession: 1st on team (95th percentile in college basketball)
College Basketball Reference Offensive Rating: 1st on team among players who have played at least three minutes
College Basketball Reference Defensive Rating: 1st on team among players who have played at least 43 minutes
Mitchell is tied for having the most efficient play type per ShotQuality when considering play types with at least 12 occurrences this season. They labeled the play “Mitchell cut drop off pass at basket for layup” as scoring 1.46 points per possession. That’s first on the team and in the 98th percentile in all of college basketball.
Keyon Menifield dribble penetration leads to Mitchell cutting for a drop off pass
Mitchell is not being maximized by the Razorback coaching staff
Max is getting upset. (I know that’s and not Larry David, but I’m counting it.)
That Mitchell play type that’s one of the most effective in college basketball? It’s one of the lowest in frequency. Arkansas has a play that is one of the most efficient in college basketball, and we’ve seen it happen just 16 times this season.
For context, that’s one more attempt than “Joseph Pinion guarded catch and shoot 3 point shot” even though Mitchell has logged 285 more minutes played than Pinion has this season. For even more context, Tramon Mark has taken over three times that many “off the dribble short midrange jumpers” despite that play type only scoring 0.75 points per possession (27th percentile).
Mitchell gets other people into their efficient shots
While no one is arguing that Musselman should be fired, it is getting harder and harder to absolve him of criticism for his coaching job this season. College basketball coaches have access to the exact same data I’m sharing and have access to much smarter basketball minds than mine. Yet gameplan after gameplan continues to misallocate minutes, usage, and shot attempts.
Despite leading the team in field goal percentage, Mitchell is just ninth on the team in shot attempts per 100 possessions. Despite scoring the most points per possession on the team, he also only appears once on ShotQuality’s list of shot types with at least 12 occurrences. Mark is on there eight times. Khalif Battle, Devo Davis, and Jalen Graham are listed four times each.
If I got a chance to ask Musselman one question this season, I know exactly what I’d ask. I have one question that is simple in nature but profound in its ability to cut to the core of Arkansas’s on-court issues. A question that would make Larry David proud:
“Do you respect data?”
Full disclosure, I wrote everything above the line prior to Arkansas’s game against Mississippi State yesterday afternoon. In that game (in case you didn’t watch, and, hey, no one would blame you), Mitchell had a career-high 21 points on just 12 shots. He also added five rebounds, two steals, two blocks, and an assist in almost 22 minutes of play.
He was also still sixth on the team in minutes in that game. Jeremiah Davenport played more than him, for example. Davenport was 1-6 from the field and a -4.
I hate how the internet has turned sports fandom into an endless cycle of defending takes rather than rooting for a team. Still, I’m adding an addendum to the article and taking a victory lap for my take because that’s exactly what Larry David would do.