The No. 10 Arkansas Razorbacks fell to the No. 12 Texas Longhorns in a charity exhibition basketball game on Saturday, 90-60, inside the Moody Center in Austin.
The Razorbacks’ youth was on display as the Hogs turned the ball over 23 times and struggled to get any sort of consistent scoring.
"I did say that we were in for an eye-opening experience based on how we've been practicing and understanding the veteran essence of their roster and understanding how hard they play," Razorback head coach Eric Musselman said. "But the turnovers, you have 23 turnovers in a college basketball game and it's really going to be hard (to compete). We have 11 news guys, so obviously we're going to be a work in progress, and how far that work in progress gets, I don't know."
The biggest takeaway could be the shooting percentage. Arkansas finished the game shooting 40.0% from the field and 33.3% from behind the arc, but those numbers were lifted by some shots hit after the game was beyond out of hand. Still, even those percentages won’t win many games, especially paired with the turnover numbers and bad defense.
The game started promising, with the Razorbacks and Longhorns going toe-to-toe for much of the first half. Texas maintained the lead for the entirety of the game, but Arkansas was within striking distance all the way through halftime, when they trailed 40-30.
The Longhorns started hot with a 4-0 run out the gate in the second half, leading to an Arkansas timeout, but it didn’t stop the Texas momentum. Eventually the Longhorns led by as many as 34 points with just over 12 minutes to go in the game.
Arkansas finished the game allowing the Longhorns to shoot 54.1% from the field and 10-of-16 from three (62.5%). Down the stretch, the energy seemed to be completely zapped from the Razorbacks.
“That's really uncharacteristic of how we've been,” Musselman said. "Not to have competitive stamina when somebody comes at you and goes on a scoring run."
Despite the immense talent present on the Arkansas roster, not quite everything is clicking. Some offensive sets looked a little cluttered like players weren’t in the right spot, the effort for 50-50 balls was missing, defensive rotations had plenty of miscues.
The good news for the Razorbacks is that this game doesn’t count, but it is a good litmus test for where the young roster stands compared to another top program. This loss should function as an eye-opening experience and a feeling the players work not to sense again.
"This is a great game for us," Musselman said. "Not that we played great. We played as bad as any 40 minutes of basketball since I've been involved in college basketball. The 11 first-half offensive rebounds, not defending the three-ball, 23 turnovers, 26 points off off turnovers. It's a lot to overcome."
From here, the Razorbacks await their regular season debut against North Dakota State on Nov. 7th at 7:00 p.m. CT inside Bud Walton Arena.
