Everything Eric Musselman said after Arkansas fell to Kentucky
Arkansas coach Eric Musselman knows he’s in a tight spot.
But Arkansas was also better than usual against the sixth-ranked Wildcats. Musselman, who has regularly bemoaned his players’ lack of effort since December, found no ill words in that regard after the game. His team played hard. They just didn’t play well enough.
News came minutes before tip that heart-and-soul leader of the team Devo Davis was stepping away from the club. No other words were given in the press release or by Musselman after the game, but Davis’ teammates appeared galvanized by his absence.
Arkansas outrebounded Kentucky, the Hogs scored more points in the paint and they had more blocked shots. They also had nearly 200 passes, a statistic Musselman points out after most games and a number that was a marked improvement over the last few weeks, as well.
But offensively, the Razorbacks can’t get anything going. Kentucky may have struggled offensively, too, but the Wildcats have weapons that the Hogs simply do not right now.
Here’s what Musselman had to say after the game.
Overall assessment
I thought we had three great practices leading up to tonight’s game. I thought it was the most connected our team has been all season. That’s one of the best teams we’ve played, for sure. I think they’re extremely well-coached. They know their roles. We changed a lot of things over the last three days. We tried to really control tempo. Tried to really run some of our sets that, you know, that we ran at Nevada that we hadn’t run much here just to control tempo. But the turnovers. I mean, we need better point guard play straight up. I thought our bigs were phenomenal. I thought that was the best game Makhi Mitchell has played for us since he’s been here. I thought Graham and Lawson battled and did all they could do against a super talented front line. We’re short-handed. I thought the effort. Had not been happy with the effort over the course of the last couple weeks. Tonight, I had to go in that locker room and tell them we’ve got to get ready for Missouri and I can’t fault their effort. We’re not a good offensive team. All you gotta do is watch the game. We struggle at taking care of the ball. But because of effort and defense tonight, we were in the game. There have been a lot of games we haven’t had a lead at all. I don’t fault the connectitivity the team had and I do not fault their effort one bit tonight. I thought they played as hard as they could play. I thought the first half it was flawless how they executed on both sides of the ball. We might not have made shots. Mitchell hit some 3s. He hit three tonight. So.
When it was 53-52
We didn’t take care of the ball. I don’t know. Obviously haven’t watched the film. There’s a lot going on in the head coach’s mind in the flow. Do I remember that stretch? Yes. I thought we turned it over during that stretch and maybe one ill-advised shot. The shot selection was much improved tonight from where it has been. We were way more organized. I thought we controlled the pace of the game. That’s the No. 1 scoring team in the nation. I haven’t had an opportunity, I don’t know what the lowest-scoring night that they’ve had but I’m assuming that’s fairly close and that’s with them going on that 8-0 run and busting us with some 3s really late in the game.
Physicality
We tried to throw it inside more than we have, for sure, based on some of our sets that we ran tonight. I thought we did it in the first half. I thought, from a phyiscality standpoint tonight against a really good front line, I thought our bigs were great. I really did. I thought Battle, his defense was by far the best defense that we’ve seen from him all year. There were timeouts he wanted to guard Reeves. The bigs and Battle’s defense, super happy with.
Antonio Reeves
Reeves, look at his average. … He had 24, so he had five over his average. They run that floppy action for him. I thought there were some screens that we were chasing and I’m not sure they were all set. … They did a great job screening. They got him open. Credit to a great player and credit to a great team.
Foul trouble in first half hurt
Two of them had fouls. We went to the bench and the bench didn’t get us any rebounds when those two guys got foul trouble. Those two guys, Graham was scoring for us and commanding a double-team, but that’s where you miss Brazile. Preseason all-league player and he’s not playing tonight and he’s 6-11. As a coach, as a leader of the program, like effort, enthusiasm, energy, connectivity. Our roster is what it is right now. All those things are what you want. I know people are walking out of the building and we don’t have a good SEC record, but if you’re walking out of the building and thinking we didn’t play hard, then you’re wrong because we did play hard. Did we turn the ball over too much? Absolutely. Did one position really hurt us tonight? Absolutely. Having said that, we were close to 200 passes. I thought we shared the ball. I thought we executed. We out-rebounded them which has not been the case in a lot of our recent games. I think we inched a little bit closer to where we want to get to. On to Missouri.
Key to improved defense
I hope so (build on it). Following the gameplan tonight. I didn’t think we had guys just going off and doing what they wanted to defensively. I thought we were extremely disciplined. I thought there was two plays late in the second half where we got undisciplined and they hit two 3s. But for sure, I’m going to assume it’s our best defensive game of the year. We lost the game, but I think they started off 1 of 14. Our bigs were challenging everything. We were running them off the 3-point line. It was a good defensive performance and not a good offensive performance.
Leave some points out there in the first half
All year long, finishing at the rim has been a problem. When you get to this point of the season, if a team or player struggles at the rim, it’s probably going to be the same thing at Missouri. You’ve got to figure out your shortcomings. Figure out what you do well and try to guide in those directions. If you’re struggling at the rim, you should probably come to practice early and two-foot jump-stop and get a manager or GA to hold the pad and finish through it. We do it during our extended time of practices. We’re a struggling offensive team, but we competed defensively tonight.
Devo Davis
Did Mike (Cawood, basketball sports information director) give a release? Whatever Mike said. Thank you.
Tramon Mark's cramps
Cramps can happen if you play beach volleyball you can get a cramp five seconds into the first two minutes of the match. I don’t know if he was dehydrated or if it was fatigue. I’ll probably go home and somebody else will have a cramp. I’ve had a cramp, too, for the last three weeks.
Devo Davis again
I’m just going to stick with Mike’s thing. I’m going to stick with Mike’s thing. I appreciate the job you’ve got. That’s what it is.
Tramon Mark's return
He practiced with us, which, I mean, he practiced the next time we hit the floor. I think any time you’re away from the practice floor you can lose a little rhythm or whatever. We tried to put new sets in to get him involved in different areas of the floor. I thought Kentucky did a phenomenal job shading an extra defender at him. They made his looks really difficult tonight.
Eleven games left
Both games are going to be really, I mean, I watched missouri today. They played great against South Carolina. They’re going to hungry for the game on Wednesday and our guys have to realize how hungry they will be. If you look at Missouri’s games, a lot of close scores. … It’s unbelievable how close they are and how hard they play and LSU is playing great. Both those teams, I think, LSU has been one of the surprise teams and Missouri at their place is a place that’ll probably have a great crowd.
Musselman's status
We’re in the business, unfortunately or fortunately however you want to word it on certain nights, of, you win or you lose. It’s on display. There’s a scoreboard. There’s not many professions that players or coaches go through where everyone knows what goes on. I don’t know what some doctor did in surgery today. In our sport, you win or lose. We lost. I’m not happy. I’m proud of the effort. I will say that. I’m a competitor. I walked in the building not trying to be close. I walked in here confident we were going to win the game and we didn’t win the game.
Point guard options
Great question. We’ll just keep searching. We changed our style of play today and I thought it helped our defense. We changed some of our defensive schemes. I thought it really helped us. As the leader of the program, my job is to continue to tinker. I don’t have answer for you right now on that or I would tell you. We put T-Mark there for a while. That makes it difficult for him. He’s wired to score. We had turnovers from other guys. Fouls from other guys. We’ve just got to continue to search and, you know, find something.
Trevon Brazile's status
He was not close tonight. I don’t mean to be a smart aleck when I say I’m not a doctor. He did not do anything practice-wise. I will tell you that. When he comes back, I don’t know. Knee soreness, so, I doubt you’re going to wake up tomorrow’s what Sunday, I doubt you’re going to wake up Sunday or Monday if you were unable to practice.
