What Arkansas coach Eric Musselman, Razorback basketball players said about Elite 8 vs. Duke

SAN FRANCISCO — Arkansas basketball is fresh off an emotional, statement-making win over No. 1 overall seed Gonzaga in the Sweet 16. But if it wants to go further, Arkansas still has to get past No. 2 Duke on Saturday (7:49 p.m. CT, TBS).

The Blue Devils are coming off a win over No. 3 Texas Tech, the nation's leading defense. Duke shot over 51% against that lauded Red Raider defense, and Arkansas will need a performance like it had against Gonzaga to contain five players who average double-digits.

Here's what Arkansas coach Eric Musselman and players Au'Diese Toney, Jaylin Williams, Stanley Umude and Davonte Davis said about their matchup with Duke.

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On Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski

Musselman: "As far as relationship, I joined him on his radio broadcast a year ago, so I don't really have any personal connection other than the fact that one of my best friends, Tom Thibodeau, worked with him with Team USA, and Tom speaks so highly of Coach K.

"We're only concerned with how do we play up to our potential, maybe play beyond our potential, bring our "A" game, and then try to focus on game schemes that can help us offensively and help us defensively. I don't think I've ever talked to a basketball team about another coach just because we have a very limited amount of time. We just have to focus on who they might be guarding and what are their themes on both sides of the ball."

Umude: "We haven't really been thinking too much into that. I think we're just focused on how we're going to attack them offensively and how we're going to guard them defensively. And obviously he has had a great career, Coach K. Right now we're just focused on how we're going to try to beat them."

Williams: "He is one of the greatest coaches ever. That's not on us. We're going to go out there and play the game, and it's just another game for us."

On Arkansas' preparation for Saturday's game

Musselman: "There's not a lot of prep time. Last night when I got back and we had dinner, we talked about Duke. We went through some themes on both sides of the ball. We went through personnel. We did it again this morning. Obviously, we just had a light practice. We went through it. We'll do it before dinner tonight. We'll do it after dinner, and then tomorrow we'll probably have two film sessions, and we are going to come and shoot. Our shoot-around time tomorrow is 8:55, which is early, extremely early, but I asked the guys. I put it to a vote, and they didn't flinch, man. They want to come shoot and go through shoot-around. Same drills. They want to be put into station work.

"I don't want to say I was blown away, but I've been around teams that would say they want to sleep in. We haven't missed a shoot-around day at all this year, and might be the first time ever that we've had a shoot-around on every single game day."

On Duke's personnel vs. Gonzaga's

Williams: "It's going to be another hard rebounding night for sure. Their whole lineup is pretty big, but we just have to play strong. It's a whole different game for real. Their bigs are different bigs. They've got a selfless center. They throw a lot of lobs to him, and they have Paolo (Banchero). He is one of the best players in the country, and he can play from anywhere on the court. Its a whole new game, and we have to be ready from the start."

Umude: "I would say (Duke has) a lot more guys that like to dribble drive and can shoot. I think they've got five guys averaging double figures, so I think knowing our personnel is going to be big because they've got different guys that like to do a lot of different things. I think just really locking in our personnel is going to be huge."

Christina Long covers the Arkansas Razorbacks. You can email her at clong@swtimes.com or follow her on Twitter @christinalong00.

This article originally appeared on Fort Smith Times Record: What Arkansas coach Eric Musselman, players said about Elite 8 vs. Duke