Everything Eric Musselman said after Arkansas lost to South Carolina
Eric Musselman has been angry many times in his Arkansas basketball coaching career. That emotion wasn’t a rare one to see on Saturday.
What was rare was the hint of disappointment with disgust he carried into the post-game press conference following his team’s loss to South Carolina on Saturday, 77-64.
That loss is Arkansas’ fourth in five SEC games to start conference play and creates a hole that is improbable the Razorbacks can overcome. Only once in the last five NCAA Tournaments that featured Arkansas have the Hogs rallied after a 1-4 SEC start. And the 2023-24 team doesn’t look much at all like that 2017-18 team.
Musselman normally makes little asides, win or lose, to the media in his pressers. None occurred Saturday. His posture, even, was that of a coach exhausted and dejected by his team’s poor play.
As for answers as to how to fix it, he didn’t have any. Until his team starts communicating better and wanting to play for each other, Arkansas will continue to struggle. Musselman said it’s on him and coaching staff to fix it.
Check out the rest of what the Arkansas head man had to say below.
So much for the swagger returning
I mean it was obviously disappointing. We played, I thought we battled against Texas A&M. We’ve now had two home games where we’re not exhibiting the energy that we need to. Obviously toughness, rebounding, offensively sharing the ball, there’s a whole bunch of stuff. We played against a good team that played with more energy and more connectedness and more toughness than what we played with.
The two quick timeouts in first half
We got to play hard. That was a pretty simple message. I mean, the team has got to play harder, tougher. We all see it. Ultimately, it always falls on coaches. So we have to do our part, as well.
Looking for anyone who wants to play
I think both (looking for people and schemes). Can’t go into the game and give up an easy basket cut. Got to share the ball. There’s a whole bunch of stuff. And above all us, just playing hard.
Rotation inconsistencies
I mean, at some point what do you want us to do, not try different players?
Ta'lon Cooper's defense
I think 55 is a really good defender. I really do. I think he’s got good size. He has good spacing. He probably defended individually as well anyone we have faced. Super smart. High basketball IQ. I think he’s one of the better guards in our league and not nearly talked enough about.
On Tramon Mark
Just trying to run some more pick and rolls with him in the middle of the floor. Try to put their 5-man involved where he could beat somebody off the bounce and get to his mid-range.
Arkansas struggled in transition
I think since i’ve been here, pushing the ball, if you guys ever see me tell the team to hold up, walk it up, it’d be the first time I’ve ever done it in the 10 years I’ve coached college. … They do a pretty good job of transition defense, too. South Carolina is a really, really good defensive team.
Hogs didn't stop 3-pointers
We haven’t guarded the 3 all year. Again, it’s our issue to fix as a staff. We’re doing the same drills we did when we led the nation in defending the 3. I don’t like to talk about the past, but I have found myself doing that a lot this year. We know who their shooters are. … You’ve got to be able to guard. We played zone. We switched pick-and-roll. We tried everything tonight. None of it was successful. It’s not going to be successful unless everybody is connected, communicating on the floor. Doesn’t matter if you play zone, trap. Again, it’s the toughness, effort, all that stuff has got to improve.
Shooting struggles continued
I think when you can beat your man off the dribble and find a teammate, that’s a start. We have al ot of guys right now that don’t know how to set their man up off the ball. … We’ve got to continue to try to talk to the team, show them. We’ve got to have guard play to beat people off the bounce. They had 1-on-1 situations on their end, BJ Mack backed us down. I don’t see us do that enough 1 through 5 position.
Trevon Brazile not getting it going
You’ve got to run the floor. You’ve got, you know, you’ve got to get open. I’m not pointing to one guy. You’ve got to curl. You’ve got to slash from the weak side and we’ve got to see guys when that happens.
How is Musselman handling things?
I just, I’m used to having really competitive groups that are super connected. We’ve got to try to help this group as much as we can moving forward.
