Razorbacks Will Need More Against Tennessee on Wednesday
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The hope is Arkansas has things figured out after a 78-75 win over Georgia on Saturday. You might want to check any high hopes after realizing No. 6 Tennessee is coming to town Wednesday night. Don't expect them to be happy, either.
The Vols were knocked by Texas A&M on Saturday, 85-69, and coach Rick Barnes wasn't looking for sympathy. Coaches use those things for motivation. Arkansas coach Eric Musselman knows what he's facing and that he's still got a few things to fix.
"It’s great right now, but as soon as I leave you guys we’ve got to get ready for Tennessee," he said after the win over the Bulldogs. "I don’t know how great my Saturday night and Sunday will be knowing that we have the sixth-ranked team in the country. What a great environment I hope it is here playing the sixth-ranked team. They’re a team that can play for a national championship and it’ll be a great challenge coming up on Wednesday."
That was before hearing they had fallen to an Aggies' team. Musselman knows that win over the Bulldogs, coming in with five straight SEC losses, wasn't exactly the most impressive thing they could have done. Losing to Georgia is simply a step toward fixing the myriad of problems this team has. The defense improved ... a little.
"We created more steals than we have," Musselman said. "There’s been a lot of nights where, you know, you pick up the stat sheet and our defensive activity is missing. Not as many deflections. Nine steals is a lot of steals, so if we’re able to keep that defensive intensity, create some offense through our defense, take away the three like we did tonight, you know there were some things we can build on. We out-rebounded our opponent. We kept our opponent under 10 offensive rebounds, so some things that are positive, and some things that obviously we’ve got to work on as well."
They even improved defending three-point shots, especially in the first half. The Bulldogs got things sorted out a little bit at halftime.
"We worked on (defending three-point shots), we added a bunch of drills that were new," Musselman said. "Obviously what we’ve done the last four years, those drills haven’t really worked. I don’t know if there’s already been a player in here or not, but we did 4-round-1 closing out to 3's and a two-man communication drill guarding four people. I thought it really helped us. It’s not an easy drill at all, where two guys have to guard four and not allow a 3-pointer. We worked this week, we really did. And I thought what they did, what our players did in practice, helped us tonight. They only got 18 attempts. I think that’s the big thing. That’s what we talked about, is it’s hard to make 3s if you’re so close that you’re run off the 3-point line and you have no air space. That’s he best 3-point defense — I don’t have the whole year’s stats, but that’s as good as we’ve done against a quality team guarding the 3, without a question."
They have a few days to get ready for the game. Musselman wasn't expecting the break to last very long or how it will affect his watching very much of Sunday's Super Bowl in Las Vegans between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco.
"It’s great right now, but as soon as I leave you guys we’ve got to get ready for Tennessee," Musselman said. I don’t know how great my Saturday night and Sunday will be knowing that we have the sixth-ranked team in the country… But what a great environment I hope it is here playing the sixth-ranked team. They’re a team that can play for a national championship and it’ll be a great challenge coming up on Wednesday. As much as I would like to watch the Super Bowl, I have a feeling I’ll be watching Tennessee most of Sunday."
HOGS FEED:
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NO. 16 ARKANSAS FOUND ITSELF IN TUSSLE WITH PAIR OF BIG TEN TEAMS SATURDAY
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