Musselman Says Arkansas Has to Learn to Play in Front of Large Crowds

Limping and searching for identity, Tigers offer challenge to ailing Razorbacks

Author:
Andy Hodges
Updated:
Jan 17, 2023 5:33 PM EST
Original:
Jan 17, 2023

In this story:

Arkansas Razorbacks

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Considering this is getting close to the time when Eric Musselman usually turns things around, we might not want to get too gloomy.

But that's what a lot of Arkansas fans are feeling right now.

Going to Missouri for a Wednesday night late game isn't necessarily the crossroads, but the Razorbacks might be getting close.

The Razorbacks have fallen all the way to No. 25 in this week's rankings after developing a streak of not being able to finish games in the second half lately.

Ricky Council-Vanderbilt — Arkansas Razorbacks guard Ricky Council IV (1) reacts after a play during the second half against the Vanderbilt Commodores at Memorial Gymnasium. (Christopher Hanewinckel / USA TODAY Sports)

Musselman is invoking the inexperience argument.

"We’re going through a lot of new experiences, meaning sold-out buildings," Musselman said Monday morning. "We have six freshman that obviously have not experienced college basketball and some other guys that probably haven’t played in these type of atmospheres."

All of that may be valid and the reason, but they better figure it out quickly. They've already figured out slow starts aren't good and managed to turn a double-digit lead into a double-digit loss over the span of less than a half.

With 13 league games left on the schedule (seven at home), they better figure it out pretty fast if they want any shot at all of having much post-season success.

"You gain confidence by playing good for 40 minutes," Musselman said. "You gain confidence by winning a game. Our mindset going into the game has to be that we’re going to play in front of a crowd, we’re going to play against a really well-coached team and we’re going to play against a team that’s very confident in their own building. So you’ve got to match all of those areas in order to give yourself a chance to win on the road."

Still, there's not a single specific area Musselman can put his finger on to fix.

"It's a lot of things," he said. "There’s a lot of areas that we have to continue to improve and grow in, both on the road and at home."

Musselman hasn't forgotten how to coach. You wonder if it's all something to write off as young and inexperienced as this team because the talent is there.

Not being an expert on these things, I don't know that there is a magic answer.

Which, naturally, is going to lead to other questions ... sooner or later.