Musselman Hinted Saturday Might Be Rough

Odd decision by Razorbacks' coach earlier in week raised red flag things might be off

Author:
Kent Smith
Publish date:
Jan 6, 2024 5:50 PM EST

In this story:

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – It started out with a comment that raised a red flag during the week leading up to the Razorbacks' SEC opener against Auburn. Then, midway through the worst loss in Bud Walton Arena history, that flag burst into flames.

And that was before head coach Eric Musselman walked into the postgame press conference following an 83-51 loss and dropped a nuclear bomb where the flag once was.

"We could go all the way around the room, and each of you could pick a different area, and you would all be right," Musselman said. "We stunk at all areas. I mean, I don't mean transition defense or what about Johni Broome and the second [half]. I mean, I can go on and on. Yeah, we stunk.

"What I mean is we got to get a lot better to even survive in this league. We got to get a lot better. We got to be a lot more competitive. So with that, I will say you guys all saw how poorly we played and there's a million things we could discuss, but we stunk in all those areas."

Fans shouldn't have been surprised. Musselman did his best to let them know something is off with this team when he threw out his plan to take his team on a road trip for the next two games and not bring them back to Fayetteville in between.

Coaches don't do things like that purely out of convenience. It's a red flag either for distractions or or chemistry issues within the team. It's a rare approach in the middle of the season, but Musselman somewhat confirmed the first possibility.

"I mean, was it addressed that on the right wing, they run a pick and roll for [Auburn center Johni Broome] to go get to the middle and shoot his pull up jump shot?" Musselman rhetorically asked. "Yeah, it was addressed about 100 times, but he still got to a sweet spot."

It was easy to tell Musselman is tired of addressing things over and over with it going in one ear and out the other. As for the chemistry issues, it was easy to tell Arkansas has problems. For 24 minutes, it looked as if the Razorbacks had never met each other.

"I'll go all the way back to Year 1 here," Musselman said. "I mean, that group understood that we had to guard the three. We go to LSU and lose 28-1 on the glass or whatever, and we still give ourselves a chance to win because they understood. This group does not understand one identity on either side of the ball."

The good news is, although perhaps it won't be so much for the players, Musselman will have plenty of time away from distractions over the next week to figure out a way to bring the Razorbacks together and pound his expectations and plans into their heads. However, in his exasperated tone, he made it unclear whether that's possible.

"We got to try to just figure it out," Musselman said. "Keep talking about it. Whether it gets solved or not, I don't know."