Head coach Eric Musselman and his Arkansas Razorbacks entered Saturday's matchup against Ole Miss on a four-game losing streak and they were desperately searching for a win. Less than a week later, the Hogs have won two straight and they seem to be finding a groove.
Four of Arkansas' first six conference games were on the road, and it lost all of those, two by double-digits. The Hogs returned home for a two-game homestand, starting against the Rebels with a 67-57 win Saturday and then dominated LSU in a 60-40 beat down Wednesday.
Though the Tigers and Ole Miss both sit near the bottom of the SEC standings, getting a win in conference play is important for a team like Arkansas that was searching for any kind of identity this time last week.
"Certainly when the schedule came out and we had four of our first six on the road," Musselman said. "A couple of those road games we would love to play them again now just because we're gaining a little bit of rhythm maybe. We’re a more confident team.
"I don’t think that our younger guys and maybe some of our newer guys really knew what to expect in the SEC going on the road — not that it’s going to change the results when we go the next time on the road in the SEC or Baylor, but I do think there’s an, ‘Okay, now we kinda know what the expectations can be,’ whereas I think there was a lot of unknown in those first few road games."
Arkansas' defense was incredible over the past two games, specifically in Tuesday's win over LSU, when it held the Tigers to just 40 points, the second fewest by an SEC opponent in Arkansas program history. LSU became just the sixth team to score 40 or fewer points in a game against the Razorbacks in the shot clock and 3-point era.
In the win over Ole Miss, the Hogs racked up double-digit steals (12) for the first time since Dec. 21 against UNC Asheville. It also marked Arkansas' most steals in an SEC matchup since Jan. 22, 2022, against Texas A&M.
Musselman said after that game that the defensive game plan hadn't changed, it was just executed well. The defense performed even better against LSU on Tuesday.
"On defense, we were just locking up," Anthony Black said. "They just couldn’t do nothing. They couldn’t get anything. Like I don’t think they even know what to do because they just couldn’t get nothing."
Another encouraging development has been the emergence of a vocal leader in Davonte Davis, who is also playing at a very high level. Musselman said he's been waiting on internal leadership and it's finally starting to show from Davis.
"One of the themes is it’s a group that does a great job listening and trying do the right things," Musselman said. "But at times a little bit quiet, unlike some of our other teams that we kind of knew Jaylin Williams was going to be really, really vocal; Mason Jones really, really vocal; JD Notae knew exactly what we wanted. We’ve had some — Jimmy Whitt, Jalen Tate — real vocal guys, and we need Devo to continue to evolve into that guy for us."
Davis is leading by example by getting in the gym often. Musselman even mentioned that Davis was almost done, if not done with his shootaround by the time Musselman got into the facility Saturday morning ahead of the Ole Miss game.
Following his 16-point, 7-rebound outing against LSU on Tuesday, Davis said the team is trending in the right direction.
"I’m just going to continue to work hard and continue to put my work in and make sure these guys are all doing the same thing," Davis said. "We’re going to continue to get better as a team and continue to win. We dug ourselves a hole and so we’ve got to bounce back from those few losses we had and get ready for Baylor Saturday. Hope y’all ready."
Arkansas will travel to Waco, Texas, for a matchup with the No. 17 Baylor Bears on Saturday in the SEC/Big-12 challenge. The game will tipoff at 3 p.m. CT and it will be broadcast on ESPN.
