Fans May Have Given Up on Razorbacks, but Musselman Hasn't

Schedule in last 10 games, getting to 20 wins doesn't leave room for mistake today

Author:
Andy Hodges
Publish date:
Feb 3, 2024 7:59 AM EST

In this story:

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Right now, most folks think Arkansas is just playing games to finish out the regular season. Eric Musselman doesn't see it that way. His only focus is the next game, which is LSU on Saturday morning at 11 a.m. on ESPN2 and fuboTV.

The standard used to be 20 wins. Now that will just get in you in a position to not be a team in the 16th-seed position in the NCAA Tournament if you can win the SEC Tournament. It may not get you into one of the participation tournaments.

Musselman doesn't talk about it. He's only looking at the next game and trying to win as many as possible. No one wants to take a big sigh of relief at the success lately. Most view it as simply an improvement on losing.

A lot of the fair-weather fan base is sees salvation a deep baseball run in Omaha. Even getting into the NCAA Tournament doesn't reach the level of a dream for most. But, tha's not the case for Musselman.

He's looking to win games. Nothing about that changes. He's got 10 games left on the schedule with an 11-10 record. You can do that math. Looking at those games doesn't exactly show a lot of favorable match-ups for the Razorbacks and they are running out of chances.

After the LSU, road trips to Mississippi State, Texas A&M, Kentucky and Alabama are wrapped around home games with Tennessee, Georgia, Vanderbilt, LSU, Missouri and Vanderbilt. It will be difficult to must the wins running that gauntlet to keep Musselman's streak of 20-win seasons alive.

While he would like to win games, Musselman will let the chips fall where they may. He's going to have a near-total turnover in the players. Replacing that number of players will put him back to another hit-and-miss recruiting cycle. This team has shown he missed on too many players this time around. It happens.

The close scrutiny will come next season. There's no guarantee how many sub-par seasons the Arkansas can take. After everything fans have had to endure, they will simply throw up their hands in frustration and walk away. Musselman would rather do it with wins.