Path to NCAA Tournament Possibly Begins, Ends with Two Coaches Musselman Can't Beat
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. –While the Razorbacks have shown an ability at times to beat literally any team in the country regardless of ranking while simultaneously having the ability to be soundly beaten by any team also, there is one other potential barrier to a magical SEC Tournament run that needs to be considered.
If the Hogs are to travel their lone path to the NCAA Touranment, Arkansas coach Eric Musselman is going to have to exorcise a few demons. The journey begins and quite possibly ends with two men who have out-coached him at every turn regardless of record or circumstance the past three seasons.
Vanderbilt coach Jerry Stackhouse, whose team the Razorbacks face in tonight's first round game, and Alabama coach Nate Oats, whose team the Hogs have good odds of facing if they make the finals, have thwarted Musselman at every turn, including the Elite 8 team of three years ago and the NBA laden team of last year.
A lot of the games have been close, many coming down to a single shot. Arkansas lost to Vanderbilt by three at Bud Walton Arena back in late February and fell in overtime to No. 19 Alabama after a dunk by Makhi Mitchell went down and popped back out. That Commodores team only had seven total wins and was expected to be the easy victory that got the Hogs over the NIT hump.
It's almost as if Musselman is destined to lose to these coaches over and over. How else do you explain not only the bad luck that has plagued Arkansas against these teams, but also the fact the SEC has assigned the Razorbacks to play in Alabama three straight years while the Tide have only visited Bud Walton once in that span.
To even get out of the opening round of the SEC Tournament, Musselman is going to have to end a seven-game losing streak to Stackhouse and Oats. Despite the Commodores' 9-22 record, that's going to be harder than one might think.
Since knocking off the Razorbacks in Bud Walton, Stackhouse has his team playing .500 ball and Vanderbilt comes into the tournament on a high after taking down Florida in the regular season finale. The Commodores' coach may be the only man in the SEC who can compete with Musselman for chippiness on the sideline.
This bleeds out onto his players, who in turn, use a lot of chatter and subtle physicality to get under the skin of Arkansas players. It doesn't matter how fully Musselman overturns the roster, Vanderbilt still finds a way to talk its way onto the nerves of the Razorbacks.
This takes the Hogs out of their mental focus and always leads to huge mental mistakes that turn the game. For instance, last season, freshman Anthony Black lost his composure and chose to taunt the Vanderbilt bench, stand over Quentin Millora-Brown and talk trash, then go after a Commodores coach.
This took what should have been a high moment where Arkansas buried Vanderbilt for good and turned it into emotional chaos followed by a spark that guaranteed there was no way the Hogs were leaving the building without a loss. Even this season, a Commodores team that in no way should have been able to get under the Razorbacks' skin since the easy response is "they've won seven games, so that crosses out anything they say" managed to fluster Arkansas.
This Hogs team is good enough to blow Vandy off the floor. Then again, so were Musselman's two previous teams. It's also mentally strong enough to shrug off all the chatter and let the Commodores talk themselves into technicals and mistakes. Once again, the previous two teams were supposed to be able to do that also.
The one thing the Razorbacks have going is this is essentially the NCAA Tournament for them. Instead of needing to fight their way through six rounds to win a national championship, Arkansas finds itself needing to plow through 11 rounds.
If there's one area in which Musselman exceeds expectations it's at tournament time. If he can get his team's mentality to truly see this as one big, long March Madness where it's win or go home, he's got a shot.
All those losses to Stackhouse and Oats were regular season. Musselman is a different animal in the postseason.
If he can slip into full NCAA Tournament mode on a Wednesday night in Nashville, there's a chance he casts his demons out. He may not get his shot at Oats this season, but he's definitely got a shot at Stackhouse.
If Musselman wants a shot to continue to prove he's the master of March, it begins by ending his losing streak to his arch nemesis at Vanderbilt. Either the streak against Stackhouse ends or Musselman's NCAA Tournament streak ends.
One can't exist while the other still survives.
HOG FEED:
• Mateos raising bar for Arkansas offensive line
• Razorbacks take advantage of free passes in final SEC tune-up
• Razorbacks learn more about quarterbacks as spring practice moves outside
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