The Arkansas Razorbacks basketball team (5-3) picked up a momentous season-altering 80-75 victory over the No. 7 Duke Blue Devils (5-2) on Wednesday night in front of a Bud Walton Arena-record 20,344 fans.
It was a must-win game for the Hogs, who entered Wednesday as losers in three of their last four games — including a backbreaking 78-72 home defeat to UNC Greensboro on Nov. 17.
Redshirt sophomore forward Trevon Brazile — Arkansas' second-leading scorer with 19 points — spoke highly of the prep that the Razorbacks' coaching staff employed leading into tonight's highly-anticipated matchup.
"I feel like every game, our coaching staff, they give us everything we need to be successful," Brazile said after the game. "This is just another one of those games. It was just a matter of us going out and executing the game plan, and we did that tonight."
El Ellis — a guard that is very familiar with the Blue Devils after his time spent at Lousiville — struggled in the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament last week. The script flipped for him tonight, as he dropped a solid nine points with six assists and zero turnovers.
"Man, I was in my head in the Bahamas," Ellis said after the game. "Not really playing my game, being indecisive. Coach (Keith) Smart sent me clips of me from last year when I played against Duke and he just told me to play my game, go out there and play confident and really just look for my teammates and that’s what I did. Started the game off looking for my teammates, getting my guys shots. When I needed to score, I scored. So it felt good."
The victory came without star guard Tramon Mark (hip/groin), so one can only imagine what the Hogs will be playing like when they're fully healthy. Beating Duke — along with getting those two guys back into the rotation — will help kickstart this Arkansas team as it gets ready to take on the rest of it's early-season non-conference schedule.
"I feel like it was big for us to get this win," Ellis said. "As a group, we really knew that we needed this win tonight after coming off that loss to UNCG and then the two games in the Bahamas. But tonight we just decided we needed to lock in, get this win and get some momentum going in."
Brazile didn't shy away from calling this matchup what it was for the Razorbacks: a must-win.
"Going in off them two losses in the Bahamas, we knew we had to win today," Brazile said. "There was no option, we had to win this game. That was kind of the vibe in the locker room before the game, was everybody was just locked in and everybody was excited to play. I mean, how can you not get excited? It’s a sold-out crowd. So it was a great bounce-back game and it was one we had to have."
Arkansas wanted this win. It needed this win. With an excellent and energetic performance from just about everyone on the team, it earned the win. However, that doesn't mean it's okay to start over-celebrating. Musselman made that clear following the game.
"I know a lot of film, a lot of areas to get better," Musselman said. "I mean, we’ll probably send our guys stuff tomorrow, and we had some guys play heavy minutes in a physical game, so probably get back at it Friday, I guess."
One thing Musselman did make it clear that he felt like his team was going to win Wednesday when he entered Bud Walton Arena.
"I walked into the building thinking that we were going to win tonight," Musselman said. "No one feels sorry for you. I started laughing, I go after the game no one is even going to know that our leading scorer did not play."
Up next, Arkansas will face Furman inside Bud Walton Arena on Dec. 4. The game is set to tip off at 7:00 p.m. CT and will stream on the SEC Network Plus.
