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FAYETTEVILLE — Much like last season, Arkansas’ new-look roster went through a tough start to SEC play only to right the ship and surge to a top-four seed in the Big Dance.
Instead of merging veteran transfers with a core of freshmen, though, Eric Musselman’s current squad is a mix of returners from last year’s Elite Eight run and portal additions.
JD Notae, Jaylin Williams and Devo Davis were vital pieces to the team that fell to eventual national champion Baylor, while a few others will either be making their NCAA Tournament debuts or going for their first wins in the event when the Razorbacks take on 13-seed Vermont on Thursday.
No one is more experienced with the Big Dance than Musselman. He made the NCAA Tournament twice as a player at San Diego in the mid-80s and is now taking a fifth different team as a head coach.
“Hopefully I’ll be able to shed light on what you have to do from a ticket standpoint, because there are distractions and you’ve got to have great maturity and understand focused teams advance,” Musselman said. “Non-focused teams come home early, and there’s a real abrupt ending to this whole thing from here on out.”
Although it was a one-and-done trip, Trey Wade and Chris Lykes each made — and started in — the NCAA Tourney while playing at Wichita State and Miami (Fla.), respectively.
