Arkansas coach Eric Musselman’s post-game press conferences are predictable at this point.
His Razorbacks fell Saturday at Mississippi State, 71-67, in game in which Arkansas was outshot at the free-throw line 32-19. Musselman has not been a fan lately of the discrepancy between his team’s number of shots from the line compared to their opponents, especially as that style of offense is Arkansas’ bread-and-butter.
Musselman has said time and again he hesitates in being too critical of officiating because he prefers not to have to pay a fine to the Southeastern Conference for getting on the officials too much. Such was the case again Wednesday.
The reality is Arkansas played a solid game for what it had. Neither Jalen Graham or Trevon Brazile were available, which meant the Hogs had zero power forwards on the roster. Guards had to defend MSU bigs most of the game leading to a 42-27 rebounding advantage for the Bulldogs.
The good news is some of Arkansas’ players who had been struggling stepped up, giving hope to Hogs faithful and Musselman himself that the team can finish the year strong.
Here’s what Musselman had to say after the game.
Petre Thomas-USA TODAY Sports
I think super proud of the effort. When you’re without a preseason all-league player that’s 6-foot-11, any team in the league would go through some struggles. … I thought tonight we played 40 minutes. Mississippi State’s an extremely physical team. Coach Jans is a great defensive coach. Anybody who has played against coach Jans’ teams, whether it’s New Mexico State…how the free throws are 32-19, I have no idea. We can have a limited roster and we have three players foul out, so, super proud of our team. I know the fans, I know our locker room, I know our coaching staff, our players, super frustrated without coming away with a win. But with any ball club, it’s can you improve and do you give it your all and all you playing with effort, energy and enthusiasm. We played as hard as we could tonight.
Petre Thomas-USA TODAY Sports
We were trying to run what we ran most of the second half when we scored 38 points and scored nine more points than we did in the first half. We made an adjustment with how we were running our middle pick-and-roll. We had a guard down-pin for Ki Mitchell to come up to the top of the circle and set a screen for El Ellis. … But obviously when you have 3-point threats like Battle and Mark not out…
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