Arkansas, Duke set to continue short, storied history on the court
Already reeling with three losses in its last four games, things don’t get any easier for the Arkansas basketball team Wednesday night, as No. 7 Duke visits Bud Walton Arena in the inaugural SEC/ACC Challenge.
After falling at home to UNC Greensboro on Nov. 17, the Razorbacks (4-3) went 1-2 over the Thanksgiving holiday in the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament in the Bahamas. After a double-overtime victory over Stanford in the opener, the Hogs dropped a pair to Memphis and No. 14 North Carolina.
Duke comes in with a 5-1 record, suffering its lone loss at home to No. 12 Arizona, 78-73, on Nov. 10. The Blue Devils are currently on a four-game win streak.
This is the first time in more than a decade that Arkansas has lost three of four games in the non-conference, when Coach Mike Anderson’s Razorbacks dropped three straight – to Arizona State, Wisconsin and Syracuse – in November 2012.
It will also mark the first time that Arkansas and Duke will meet outside of a tournament setting. The schools have spilt their first four meetings, each on a neutral court, with the Blue Devils winning the first clash, 97-83, in the 1990 Final Four.
Nolan Richardson’s Razorbacks evened the series up the following season, defeating Duke 98-88, in the Preseason NIT Tournament semifinals in Madison Square Garden. Of course, Arkansas then won the teams’ most memorable showdown, knocking off the Blue Devils, 76-72, in the 1994 National Championship game in Charlotte.
Then two years ago, it was Duke ending the Hogs’ season with a 78-69 win in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament in San Francisco.
Arkansas is now unranked in the AP Top 25 for the first time this season, and Eric Musselman is urgently seeking ways to help his team improve.
“We just need to play better basketball than we have three of the last four games,” he said Monday.
Known as one of the most detail-oriented coaches in the country, from a preparation standpoint, Musselman decided to personally break down all of the game film from the last three games, by himself, instead of having his staff do it. He spared no detail in sending each of his players a personalized cut-up of their performances, with directions on how to improve in each area.
“I’ve never watched more film over a 24-hour period, in my entire coaching career, than I did in the last 24 hours,” he said on his weekly radio show Monday night at Sassy’s BBQ & Grille.
“It’s the first time I’ve done all the individual cut-ups for players, labeling the tape myself. Normally coaches in their pods do it, so, it’s pretty clear where we have to get better at with each individual player.
“I went through every single play, so whoever was in the game basically got every single play for the last three games. Luckily, I got a real good staff that told me to stop, instead of going back to the UNCG game.”
In the previous nine years, Arkansas has participated in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge, going 4-5 in that series, with all four wins coming inside Bud Walton.
The Razorbacks also utilized the home court advantage on Oct. 28, when they beat current No. 1 team Purdue in overtime, 81-77, in a preseason exhibition game. But Musselman admitted that this recent stretch of games is the ‘most brutal’ the program has had since he arrived in 2019.
“All of us have got to get better,” he said. “What you have to try to do is identify where a player needs to get better, you try to point that out, then you see if you can improve in that area.
“I wanted to break down every single little tiny detail that needs to get cleaned up, and I wanted the responsibility, or the voice, to come from the head coach on exactly what areas we want each guy to get better at.”
The Blue Devils will have two potential NBA lottery picks on the court in 7-foot sophomore center Kyle Filipowski and 6-foot-5 sophomore wing Tyrese Proctor, in addition to 6-foot-5 freshman guard Caleb Foster, who is also projected as a first-round pick.
“Obviously, Duke is one of the best teams in the country,” Musselman said. “So we are playing against three high draft picks. They’ve got some guys on their team that would have been first-round picks last year, but they decided to come back to get better.”
Two of the main areas of improvement that Musselman is seeking from his team is fewer fouls and more steals, which he said, go hand-in hand with each other.
“We just need some better performances, individually, on both sides of the basketball,” he said. “We are fouling way too much, off the ball. We are not creating near the amount of steals we need. So we are fouling a lot without getting many steals, which is probably a recipe for being where we are.
“And we have to find ways to create more offense with our defense.”
Arkansas will likely be without their leading scorer, 6-foot-6 junior guard Tramon Mark, who is still nursing a sore back from a nasty fall he took during the North Carolina game. Averaging 18.4 points per game, the Houston transfer was taken off the court by stretcher Friday, after netting a career-high 34 points against the Tar Heels. MRIs have found no structural damage.
“It’s not ideal to be without a guy that, in my opinion, is one of the toughest competitors that I’ve ever coached,” Musselman said. “That’s where you start with T-Mark, is his toughness, his competitive nature, and his will to win. But he’s still being evaluated by a spine specialist, right now.”
“He is anxious to play, so I have no doubt that when his body will allow him to play, he will play.”
After the Duke matchup, the Razorbacks will host Furman on Monday night, before their annual Crimson & Cardinal Classic showdown with Oklahoma in Tulsa on Dec. 9.
“I want to get a lot better than we are,” Musselman said. “When that happens, how that happens, we’re still trying to work through all that.”
Wednesday night’s game will tip off at 8:15 p.m. and will be broadcast nationally on ESPN.
