Is This the Switch Razorback Fans Have Been Waiting for Musselman's Team to Turn On?

Resurgence appears legit, but it could also just be the Florida Gators, Georgia Bulldogs

Author:
Andy Hodges
Publish date:
Feb 22, 2023 10:54 PM EST

In this story:

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. —Following a pair of high-margin wins over Florida and Georgia, Arkansas is finally starting to look like everybody expected.

"We played really, really hard," Razorbacks coach Eric Musselman said later after an 84-65 win over Florida. "We played very connected."

The assumption is that last part means they played like they looked like an organized team. For at least a pair of games, that is.

The Hogs have looked "connected" at times this season. That was with Trevon Brazile and Nick Smith Jr. both on the court and clicking. After injuries put both of them out for awhile, they looked like me trying to navigate across the house in the dark.

"Our team has done a really good job of understanding our strengths and our weaknesses, especially offensively," Musselman said following a 97-65 blasting of a solid Georgia team that has multiple big wins under its belt. "We have been a team that hasn't many threes this year.

"But the team that we’ve had for much of the season, that’s not exactly the team that we’ve built. You can see the impact that Nick had and obviously, TB [injured forward Trevon Brazile]. The guys who have played, I give them a ton of credit because they kept hanging around and they competed every night. Then you add Nick, and now we’re a much better, and way more rounded offensive team.

The hope had been that this group would start coming together like this at the end of January. It took a couple of weeks longer.

Arkansas went into Saturday's game projected to go careening into the NCAA Tournament, which affects every decision Musselman makes all year long.

The Florida game came with a strong finish to the first half and domination of the Gators coming out of the locker room with a 17-2 run that put the Hogs in control mode.

There were questions. The Razorbacks have managed to blow leads in the second half this season, but then again that wasn't this year.

"We've talked a lot about how historically we've been so good in the second half," Musselman said. "For whatever reason this year, in the games we've lost, we have not been good in the second half."

As for the Georgia game, The Razorbacks put pressure on the Bulldogs early by getting everyone involved on the offensive end. On the first six baskets of the game, the entire starting five knocked down a basket.

There was no way for the Bulldogs to focus on one or two players to keep the waves of points from coming.

"That’s the most passes of any team I’ve ever had," Musselman said. "Without going back through the film, we had it recorded as 266 passes and I don’t know if we’ve ever had a team go over 250."

Whatever the reason for this sudden outburst of distributed offense, the strategizing, part appears to have been crystalized by Musselman during halftime of that Florida game.

"What's the reason for that? Because we're talking about the same things that we have for seven years," Musselman said, without giving any specifics. "Today was a step in the right direction, playing better in the second half coming out on that 17-2 run.

"That's a hard thing to do out of halftime, to come out and defend at the level we did."

The simple solution is they needed a couple of games with Smith back on the floor to get re-acquainted with timing and stuff, to see it actually work on the court, then have success.

For all of that, it was being able to execute Musselman's sometimes matchless game planning.

"We wanted to get to the basket and get points in the paint," he said, taking advantage of Florida's key man in the middle out with a hand injury. "Fifty-two points in the paint is a large number. We did a really good job rebounding the basketball and those were two points of emphasis coming into the game.

The Mitchell twins did their part. Makhi started, had 10 points, 10 rebounds and 2 blocked shots. Brother Makhel scored just 4, but also had 2 blocks and pulled down 4 rebounds.

Then Jalen Graham showed up, well, big time, scoring 26 points (a career high), getting 7 rebounds with 2 assists.

"Jalen Graham had great matchups tonight," Musselman said, "and he certainly capitalized big time from an offensive standpoint."

Smith followed with his first truly big game of the season by pouring in 26 points, including 5-of-8 from three. Council also had a big night, shooting 56% from the floor, including 3-of-6 from three, for 22 points.

In a two game span, the Razorbacks have scored the following:

Ricky Council – 37

Nick Smith, Jr. – 36

Jalen Graham – 34

Anthony Black – 24

Makhi Mitchell – 17

Jordan Walsh –14

Makhel Mitchell – 6

Joseph Pinion – 6

Davonte Davis – 4

Lawson Blake – 3

That's 107 points from the Top 3 scorers over the past two games.

To put that in perspective, in the previous two games against Mississippi State and Texas A&M, Arkansas only put up 120 points total as a team.

Of course, the big test will be over the next pair of games. Will the Hogs be able to replicate this production against No. 2 Alabama and No. 11 Tennessee, or will this team revert back to what it produced the two weeks prior?

That's a question fans will know the answer to soon enough.

(allHogs.com associate editor Kent Smith contributed to this story)