Physically, emotionally and on the scoreboard, Arkansas men’s basketball is hurting in every sense of the word following Wednesday’s 77-51 blowout loss to Ole Miss in Oxford.
Arkansas (10-9, 1-5 SEC) trailed for all but 46 seconds, never led and never threatened as the Rebels cruised at home in the latest installment of a string of troubling performances from the Razorbacks.
Eric Musselman’s squad has now lost five of its first six games to open league play for the second straight season. All five losses have come by double-figures with the average margin of defeat sitting at 20.6 points per game. Simply put, Arkansas has not been competitive, and it is painfully obvious to anyone who has watched.
“Point guard play, turnovers, shooters are struggling shooting the ball, at the center spot we had zero defensive rebounds,” Musselman said. “There’s a lot of areas. It’s not one particular player. It’s not one particular position. It’s across the board we’re getting outplayed at every position right now.”
The Razorbacks were admittedly short-handed without leading-scorer Tramon Mark (migraines) and lost Trevon Brazile late in the first half to knee soreness. Several other Hogs — Makhi Mitchell, Khalif Battle and Layden Blocker — found themselves banged up as well.
Still, Musselman made it clear there are no excuses for what transpired in Oxford as Arkansas’ defensive struggles continued and the team only finished with three more made field goals (17) than turnovers committed (14) on the other end.
“Injuries allow people to step up and try to garner more minutes,” Musselman said. “Other guys got opportunities tonight. Every team goes through injuries and players in and out of the lineup. It allowed other people opportunities to play, then you go back and watch film and dissect the minutes.
“But we’re not shooting the ball well. We’re not defending well. We turned the ball over to start the game way too much. Got the turnovers a little bit under control. Thought we moved the ball better with 13 assists on 17 made field goals. But go up and down — 2 for 9, 3 for 10, 0 for 5. Gotta make shots and certainly defending becomes a problem.”
While entering a league game without Mark is certainly a daunting task, it is worth noting Arkansas picked up its biggest win of the season against Duke in the ACC/SEC Challenge with the junior guard sidelined following his scary fall at the Battle 4 Atlantis.
The Razorbacks stepped up on that night, and have done so in past seasons when injuries have crept into the equation, but nobody was able to level up when the opportunity presented itself at Ole Miss on Wednesday.
“It’s got to be the next-man mentality,” Musselman said. “Injuries are part of what happens. Justin Smith was injured for a five-game stretch and other guys got an opportunity. We struggled when Justin was out.
“We struggled when Isaiah Joe was out, but we were able to win a big game against TCU and some guys stepped up when Isaiah was out. That’s part of it. Last year, TB was out for an entire season. We had other guys get the minutes TB would have played last year.”
How can Muss and the Hogs turn it around? The logical thought process suggests it starts at practice. From the sounds of it, however, Arkansas has been more competitive against each other behind closed doors than it has against outside competition under the lights.
“Right now teams are just outplaying us,” Musselman said. “You can have great practices, but teams have size on us at certain positions. I’ll say it once and I’ll say it 100 times, I’d rather have a team play good in a game and not practice well. We’ve had some guys that have not practiced well over the last three years but certainly really produced in a game.”
Things don’t get any easier for Arkansas moving forward as No. 6 Kentucky comes to Fayetteville for a 5 p.m. (CT) tip on Saturday with College GameDay in the house at Bud Walton Arena.
Regardless of who is available or who is on the floor, Arkansas at the bare minimum needs to reveal a pulse and play with effort, energy, enthusiasm and a renewed sense of pride on its home floor.
“You want senior leadership. You want guys to embrace. But we want all our guys,” Musselman said. “I want our freshmen excited. We want our seniors excited. We want everybody excited. We don’t have that many games left, although we still have a lot left in conference play. We have to try to find a way to get better.”
It’s really hard to believe what has become of this team. I have to ask, is it the money taking away the pride? They are playing like an inept NBA team collecting their checks.