Everything Eric Musselman said after Arkansas basketball beat Missouri
Khalif Battle made a lot of Arkansas basketball fans happy on Saturday. More importantly, he made his coach happy.
Battle scored 42 points – the second most ever by an Arkansas player in an SEC game (Todd Day vs LSU, 1992) – and led the Razorbacks to an 88-73 win over Missouri on Saturday. The win provided Arkansas a season sweep of their Battle Line rivals, back-to-back victories for the first time since late December and an above-.500 record for the first time in a couple weeks.
Razorbacks head man Eric Musselman had praised Battle’s play in recent weeks, probably not coincidentally about the time Arkansas picked up its play. On Saturday after the game, Musselman was especially glowing.
“That’s about as a great an offensive performance as a guy can have,” Musselman said.
Arkansas is 4-3 in its last seven games – a record that should be 5-2, Musselman pointed out – and the coach is not about to give up on what the rest of the season, and even the postseason, may hold.
Here’s what Musselman had to say about all of it after Saturday’s record game.
On Khalif Battle
That’s about as great an offensive performances as a player can have. You look at the efficiency, 15 field goals and 42 points. That’s insane. He’s done a great job all year of drawing free throws. The six defensive rebounds, that’s probably as good a night as he’s had from a defensive standpoint. … He did a great job. Played 37 minutes, 34 seconds and didn’t have a turnover while he scored 42 points. Kind of unheard of, to be honest.
More on Battle
We ran a couple things for him early then we really started really running stuff for him late. The ball has to have eyes against missouri. You’re not going to beat them off the dribble. KB had a lot of feet-set 3s as well. Once he got cooking, it was just a matter of kind of spacing the floor and let him go to work.
Countering Missouri's run
I don’t know if I called a timeout at that point it was ‘wake up.’ I think we subbed, as well. Maybe went a little smaller. Ki came in and he’s played so well for us. At some point we got Davenport in there as well, have JD be a floor stretcher. We got to guard better. We’ve got to share the ball more. I thought played really good in the second half after those first four minutes of the second half were disasterous.
Where does this stand this season?
The season is not over so I don’t know how I’ll look back on it. I think this is a basketball team that has relaly, really improved. It’s a fact that we’re playing the best basketball of the year right now. I don’t know how I’ll feel. We still got basketball to play. So we’ll see where we end up.
Getting to the free-throw line
I don’t know if Mike Cawood has it, but I think we’ve been in the top 10 in the nation in free throws all year. The nights we don’t get FTAs, we struggle. … If you look at the four years at Nevada, at the almost five years here, we are a high free-throw attempt team. We want to put pressure on the defense. We want to put pressure on the rim. Tonight, Battle was doing that. Makhi Mitchell has done a great job of drawing fouls. They might not always equate to free-throws attempted, but he’s been a high foul-drawn player.
I think Missouri kept the lane a little bit more clogged. They were helping off the corners a little bit more. Once we saw that adjustment, we are a team that tonight shot the 3 well. Look, if our team makes 10 3s and we get to the foul line, that’s a really good formula for us. They did a good job of taking away what was our strength in Columbia, which was paint points and zone 1 scoring. We did a good job tonight of getting into the teeth of the defense and finding the extra guy. It was a good adjustment by the players understanding, recognizing that the extra pass was going to equate to feet-set 3s.
Trevon Brazile's return
Good to get him back. He’s worked extremely hard on his rehab. But the group that’s been playing well for us, that’s the group we kind of rolled with. This late in the year, to work people back in becomes problematic, quite honest. We all know how talented T-Brazile is. He’s one of the most talnted players in our league. We’ve got a good flow right now. How long that lasts, I don’t know. … We’re playing really good. Keep rolling. Try to have a good practice Monday and get ready for Tuesday’s game because we are playing better than we have most of the season
Devo Davis, stat-stuffer
If I’m going to play a point guard at power forward, he’s got to rebound and he’s did that. The good thing about Davonte is you tell him a role, lay out expeectations and he plays as hard as he can and does it. I’m not so sure he thinks he’s a pwoer forward, but he is with us right now.
Good to be at home a while
I wouldn’t have minded being on the road because my daughter’s got dance at Branson. I’m kind of alone at home. It’ll give me a good time to watch Vanderbilt tonight. … I do think it’s really good. To be honest with you, I was concerned going into that two-game road trip with Mississippi State and A&M because they’re super physical teams, both teams are really well coached. We were kind of limping in there with three guys not availble. I thought our team was really resilient. … Staying at home, not having to get on a plane. I think we’ve got some guys that are a little bit sick, too. Hopefully they get a Z-pack and feel a little bit better.
Mizzou's fight
Missouri is a tough team. They’re a veteran team. You look at their lineup, Noah Carter a starter back from last year. Nick Honor. East. Shaw was a really good freshman last year. You add a fifth-year player in Connor Vanover who has a lot of experience. Bates is as good a transfer in our league. A talented team and a team that continues to play well. … A team that’s fighting, playing hard and they can beat anybody on any given night. There’s no question at all.
Preparing for Vanderbilt
Vanderbilt, two guards. Manjon is really good. T-Lawrence is a guy that can really score the ball. He’s got good length. … I’ll really dive into – I watched the end of the Florida game just now – but I’ve got a lot of time with no distractions. Zero distractions for me not to be ready to rock and roll Tuesday.
