Everything Eric Musselman said after Arkansas lost to Kentucky
Arkansas basketball coach Eric Musselman has been frustrated all year long. Saturday’s game against Kentucky was a perfect example.
The Razorbacks, who started the year ranked inside the Top 25, are in danger of their first losing season in more than a decade. But against the 15th-ranked Wildcats, Arkansas looked like the team many thought the Hogs would have at the beginning of the year.
That’s just the way things have gone.
Arkansas was excellent offensively, but Kentucky could be barely be stopped in the Wildcats’ 111-102 win. The Wildcats had seven players score in double figures as Arkansas countered by going 27 of 28 at the free-throw line and with 34 points from Khalif Battle.
Musselman stressed the pride he had in his team in fighting against a potential national-championship-winning team in the Wildcats. But his voice also held the frustration of a coach who believes his team should be – and should have been – playing that kind of basketball all year.
Here’s what Musselman had to say after the game.
Kentucky's late run
I thought our team played extrmely hard. We had a couple costly turnovers that I thought changed the complexion of the game because they were live-ball turnovers. The two crucial turnovers and the effort was phenomenal today by us and by Kentucky. Kentucky paleyd as hard as I’ve seen a team play. Our team played as hard as we could play, as well. We made the decision we were going to run today. The couple turnovers and baseline out-of-bounds defense, those were two areas I thought changed the complexion of the game. The 42 free-throws attempted are hard to overcome. … You’re talking about a Kentucky team that can win a national championship.
Dillingham
He’s an NBA draft pick. he’s fast. He makes really difficult shots. He’s 5 of 13, 0 for 3 from 3-point line, so i thought we did a good job taking away his 3-point shot. He made five field goals. Coming into the game, an NBA first-roudn pick, you hold him to five field goals, we’d probably be fairly happy.
Offensive performance
It was by far our best offensive game, not even close. Thought we played as hard as we played all year. The effort, the focus, the belief, all those thigns were as good as they’ve been. It was a lcoker room that pre-game thought they were going to win, halftime thought they were going win. … I thought we showed great toughness, got on the floor for loose balls. Look at the field goals made, the 3-point shots, rebounding, close enough for us. Twenty-eight to 42, that’s the number that sticks out to me.
Finding best frontcourt
Problematic. I mean, both our bigs foul out. Not easy, but I thought guys stepped up. I thought Davenport had his best rebounding game of the year. We needed him to rebound the ball today out of necessity.
Khalif Battle
The 18 FTAs, did a great job attacking the rim. We also missed I think three lay-ups the last six minutes of the game or there was contact and we missed it. That was an issue, as well, from an offensive standpoint. Other than that, offensively, we played as good as we could other than some live-ball turnovers.
No field goals late
Live-ball turnovers. Left lay-ups. I have not have a chance to watch the film, but that would be the answer. We scored enough points to win today. That would be, that’s how I would answer now.
Arkansas sticking with it
Every coach that I’ve worked for, your job is to try to continue to improve throughout the year. We did not play very well at all against Vanderbilt … We showed some life toward the ends of the game. Again, yeah, are we making progress? Today we made progress. We played our best offense. Did a great job focusing on the foul line in a tough environment. Defensively we weren’t that good, but this team has done that to other teams, especially in their own building. We had a chance to beat a team that has a chance to win the national championship. … In that locker room that we represent, I’m extremely proud to be associated with their effort and the way they battled tonight.
