Weather May Make Being at Bud Walton a Little Adventurous
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Whatever crowd shows up tonight at Bud Walton Arena for Arkansas' game against Texas A&M will be a hardy bunch. Temperatures will be around 9 degrees by tip-off, dropping to 7 around the end of the game. Make your own choices about any of that.
The SEC Network may see some decent ratings, though, for a game that might be a blowout by halftime. The way this Razorbacks' team plays, there is little evidence to suggest this one will even be close by then considering the hot streak the Aggies are on lately.
Buzz Williams has A&M hitting on all cylinders. Eric Musselman probably holds his breath like someone hoping the battery didn't die overnight in the cold weather. We'll see which team shows up tonight for a game that starts at 8 p.m. The rest will be watching the SEC Network or fuboTV. You can also stream the game at HitThatLine.com or listen online at ESPN Arkansas 99.5 in Fayetteville, 95.3 in the River Valley, 96.3 in Hot Springs and 104.3 in Harrison-Mountain Home.
"This group does not have the characteristics of our past four years," Musselman said after getting kicked sideways at Florida on Saturday. "You can see that. We have a lot of holes in a lot of different areas. Our job as a staff will be continue to do what we can, try to provide teaching points, to try to continue to give scouting reports that are effective. That’s what we’re supposed to do, continue to try to get guys better and get the collective whole better."
Now the question is how he translates to a bunch of guys that appears to want to be individuals and do their own thing. That's not going to work for Musselman teams. It's never happened in the decade he's been coaching at the college level, but with the number of new faces these days, occasionally he was due to miss on some guys.
This is one of those situations where the transfer portal and eligibility could thin the roster dramatically. At this point, it would take a miracle to get to 20 wins. This team is going to have to win the SEC Tournament to make it to the NCAA.
Maybe the worst news of all is this team may get uglier before it gets any better. They are still looking for a league win and sitting at 0-3 on the season. Teams know all they have to do is get the ball inside and there's nobody with either the guts or interest to try and do anything about it.
They also can't shoot in SEC games. The Hogs have only hit 36.3% of their field goals and can only throw 25% of their 3-points in the hole. It's not hard to believe both of those numbers are a half-step from closing your eyes and throwing it at the basket. Arkansas can't even make a layup consistently.
Arkansas Razorbacks forward Trevon Brazile gets contact driving to the basket against Auburn on Jan. 6 at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville, Ark.
Andy Hodges / allHOGS Images
"I don’t know if I can improve it," Musselman said Saturday. "I can’t teach making dunks and layups. "At some point you’ve got to finish in there, as well. So we’ll continue to try to drill it, we’ll continue to show it on film, we’ll continue to try to talk about it. Then we’ll just continue to try to develop some of our younger guys, as well."
That last part is the key. Sooner or later, Musselman is going to have to start thinking about next year. The Razorbacks haven't shown a lot of interest in being tough inside. They almost look like they came to the Hogs expecting Musselman to get them to the next level. Maybe they didn't think he can make it almost impossible to do.
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CAN HOGS GIVE HIGHLY TOUTED QUARTERBACK WHAT HE NEEDS TO JOIN TEAM?
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