Arkansas was in its last timeout.
The coaches were conferring away from the players, trying to come up with some way to pry a Razorbacks victory out of the jaws of a defeat at Ole Miss.
The score was 70-69 in favor of Ole Miss, and the crowd, while not large, was loud.
The camera showed Hogs Coach Mike Anderson a second time and then panned the bench, and that's when you saw one player on his feet, shouting encouragement to his teammates.
One guy yelling, "We can do this."
One guy breathing confidence into a team that often has found a way to lose road games in the closing seconds.
The guy, a former walk-on, had played his role Saturday night in Oxford, Miss. In 14 minutes, he was 3 of 3 from the field and had a steal. He leads the team with 31 steals, while averaging a little over 15 minutes per game.
Solid. Steady. Supportive.
Manuale Watkins, son of top assistant Melvin Watkins, was excited during that final timeout. He believed in his coaches and teammates.
The camera didn't show the end result of the debate, but when the Hogs inbounded the ball, Watkins was on the floor.
It was a brilliant call because the one guy who believed the most needed to be on the court.
The ball was inbounded to Ky Madden, as it has been so many times, and as the seconds ticked off the clock, it seemed obvious Madden -- who has proven over and over he is not afraid to take a last-second shot -- was looking for his shot. He dribbled left, then right, then to the top of the key and as many expected, he drove inside looking for the final shot.
Ole Miss drowned him in coverage.
Madden didn't panic, he saw Watkins streak in from the unprotected weak side and just passed around the defenders and Watkins hit the short baseline shot for a 71-70 lead with 6.4 seconds to play.
Watkins didn't celebrate his shot. He and the whole team rapidly dropped back on defense and manned up on the Rebels, and when the clock finally hit zero, the Razorbacks were 20-5 on the season and 9-3 in SEC play.
The victory left them in sole possession of second place in the SEC.
The SEC awards double-byes in the postseason tournament to the first-and second-place regular-season finishers, meaning the top two don't play until Friday. Six teams have been eliminated by then and eight are left standing, and six of those could seemingly have trouble with the fresh legs of the Razorbacks.
Watkins' heroics were practically forgotten by the time the sun rose Sunday, and most likely that was fine with him. He's a team player. He was raised that way and he plays that way.
Which is the only way this Razorbacks team can be successful.
They must be unselfish and totally team-oriented. They must relish the roles of defensive specialists.
Yes, sophomore Bobby Portis is most likely an NBA lottery pick some day, but even the 6-10 sophomore has 26 assists and that doesn't count the number of times he's passed the ball out because he didn't have a high-percentage shot.
Arkansas has won four consecutive games, including its past two road games, and it has done it by forcing tempo, hitting key shots and playing under control.
Four of the Hogs' nine SEC victories have come on the road, so the onus that weighed heavily all the way back to Stan Heath and John Pelphrey is gone.
Missouri is coming to Fayetteville on Wednesday, and these Razorbacks deserve a big home celebration after back-to-back road victories.
These Razorbacks can win anywhere, anytime and that's because they are playing like a team. Manuale Watkins hit the game-winner and immediately fell back on defense. That's the winning formula for these Razorbacks.
Sports on 02/17/2015