Arkansas looking to avoid second loss to SoCon opponent
The Arkansas Razorbacks basketball (5-3) team picked up a massive win against No. 7 Duke last week, as the Hogs defeated the Blue Devils 80-75 in front of a sellout-crowd inside Bud Walton Arena.
Getting a win against a high-caliber opponent led to a court-storm, a $100,000 fine and put the Razorbacks back in the victory column after losing three of their last four games, including two straight.
The next matchup for the Razorbacks is Furman, the team picked to win the Southern Conference (SoCon). The Paladins currently sit at 4-3, but have close losses to the likes of UAB and Wyoming.
For context, UNC Greensboro — which defeated Arkansas 78-72 in Bud Walton Arena on Nov. 17 — was picked to finish second in the SoCon.
"I think you can look at what Furman did last year, playing Virginia," Musselman said on Saturday. "They played an SEC school in South Carolina. You can look at that score. We’ve talked to our team about that.
"This is a team that’s got some returning players that have won a lot of games. Furman is one of the best-coached teams in the entire country. They do a great job playing off their elbows with their big men. And then they do a great job of back cutting, backdoor cutting. They have great shooting at the 1, 2, 3 and 4 spots. Their big guy, 13, does a great job rim running.
"That’s it in a nutshell. Furman is a team that’s projected to win their league in same league as UNCG. And as we’ve talked about over and over, we try to schedule teams we think can win their league to better position ourself, if we win games. If we don’t win games, it doesn’t help at all."
While upsets do happen in college basketball and have happened to Arkansas already this season, Musselman is trying his best to avoid that from happening again by making his players aware of the situation and making sure they're ready to play.
"We've pointed it out for sure. We've still got 48 hours, and we're going to continue to point that out. I think scheduling-wise, you have to think about how you schedule moving forward. I watched last night, University of California at San Diego (UCSD), which was a Division 2 school not that long ago, play a team that was in the national championship last year. They were up 14 with six and a half minutes to go, and San Diego State basically gets an offensive rebound (and putback) to win that game.
"The night before it was UCLA hosting another UC school in UC Riverside, and that went to a one-point win for UCLA. These happen every single night. I think by the end of non-conference time, I think you’re going to see as many upsets or whatever word you want to use…we talk every day about how it’s happening across college basketball, so you’ve got to really, really be ready to play every single night."
Even if UNC Greensboro ends up being a solid team, it'll still likely end up being a quadrant three loss in the NET rankings by season's end. To avoid another blemish like that one on the resume going forward, Musselman believes the best thing to do is prepare.
"Practice and demand and have accountability and demand a little bit more and try to demand a little bit more after that," Musselman said. "I mean, I don’t know what else to do after that other than prepare the same way we prepared for Duke. That’s the recipe that you want to try to have."
Up next, Arkansas will take on the Furman Paladins inside Bud Walton Arena on Monday. The game is set to tip off at 7:00 p.m. CT and will stream on the SEC Network Plus.