Players Quick to Identify What's Broken with Hogs
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – It didn't take long for the division among the Arkansas basketball team to rear its head.
Within minutes of the season ending the finger pointing began, none of which were players pointing at themselves. Complaints of players not buying into the team concept, instead only playing for themselves, began to openly circulate.
"I know coach gets a lot of negative attention, but the whole coaching staff works really hard," guard Khalif Battle said. "At the end of the day it's on the players. These guys they spend overtime working on the game plan, watching film, getting detailed oriented stuff. It's on the players this season."
With Musselman sitting quietly beside him, Battle painted a picture of a collection of players who weren't willing to play for each other. It was a flaw he identified as being the root cause of blowout losses.
"They played together," Battle said when asked about why South Carolina was able to pull away for the win. "That was the difference in the game. I think we were just as talented as anybody in the country, but it's just they played together. They were a team out there. They were a team."
In a moment of raw emotion following what may be an abrupt ending to his career, Arkansas guard Davonte Davis also keyed in on team chemistry as the poison in the Razorbacks' water.
"Just difficult knowing that whatever is next, hopefully everyone takes this and knows that, like, when things are on the line, you shouldn’t just put yourself first, you know what I mean?" Davis said to NattyStateSports.com. “You should do it for the team. And not everybody did that.”
In that same interview, he talked about putting things "under the cover" and changing his role for the best of the team. Davis came off as frustrated that the sacrifice he felt he made didn't result in success for the Razorbacks.
"I guess, if everyone put both feet forward and tried, if they did, good," Davis said. "But if they didn’t, waste of time."
There was hardly a player on the team fans didn't point out on social media as being selfish at times during the season. While they couldn't agree who all caused the issues within the team, the one place where they found common ground was in giving up on this broken iteration of the Razorbacks weeks ago.
There's not a lot from this group fans seem interested in salvaging. Battle and freshman Layden Blocker appear to be the only two players drawing consistent consensus as far as Arkansas fans being solidly behind in who they want to convince to return for next year.
Makhi Mitchell, El Ellis, Chandler Lawson, Jeremiah Davenport and Denijay Harris will for sure no longer be on the team as they have used up all of their eligibility. There are several others expected to enter the transfer portal once it opens on Monday.
The one thing that will be unique is Musselman getting a full offseason to focus strictly on the portal and luring the players he wants to Arkansas to form the foundation for the rebuild. Whether it's an advantage versus another run to the NCAA Tournament remains to be seen, but not for long.
Monday comes soon, and along with it the chaos of trying to keep up with the endless list of players Musselman will contact. It won't be the NCAA Tournament, but it will certainly be Madness.
HOG FEED:
• Van Horn looking to go all-in with weekend starters now that SEC play has arrived
• Razorbacks SEC Tournament comes to end
• Quarterback room taking different form than anticipated
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