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Since the NCAA Tournament expanded to its current format in 1985, no 15 seed has ever made it past the Sweet 16. But don’t tell that to Eric Musselman.
The second-year coach is preparing for Saturday’s matchup with Oral Roberts as if it was 2 seed Ohio State and believes his team isn’t looking over this year’s Cinderella either.
“If you’re playing in a Sweet 16 game, I mean, you better be ready to play,” Musselman said. “I shouldn’t have to grab their attention and put that score up from halftime of that Oral Roberts game. I shouldn’t have to grab their attention.”
The fact that they had to rally back from a 10-point halftime deficit when they hosted the Golden Eagles at Bud Walton Arena back in December certainly helps the respect factor, but Musselman also said that both teams are completely different than they were three months ago.
Oral Roberts’ two star players - guard Max Abmas and forward Kevin Obanor - have put the team on their backs in the NCAA Tournament and willed the Golden Eagles to victory, senior Jalen Tate said.
That has led to a first-round upset of Ohio State that required overtime and a second-round upset of Florida. Those results have certainly caught Arkansas’ attention.
“I think we’re actually a little more locked in just because of what they’ve been able to do so far,” Tate said. “When a 15-seed beats a 2-seed, you don’t hear about that too often. And to go on to beat…a 7-seed, when teams do that twice in a row, they feel like they have the utmost confidence to beat anybody in the country let alone a 3-seed.”
The first time around, Oral Roberts put up 76 points on 39.1 percent shooting against the Razorbacks, even though it made only 8 of 29 (27.6 percent) three-pointers.
The Golden Eagles haven’t shot that poorly from deep in very many games since then, with a worse percentage in just two of their last 20 games. Tate said they look like a completely different offensive team on film, too.
“They have a different type of confidence to them,” Tate said. “When you’re winning the games at the rate they are and beating the teams they’ve beaten on paper, the Ohio States and the Floridas, those are household names in college basketball. So it comes with a certain confidence when you can put up those numbers against those teams and perform well.”
Despite facing a heavy underdog, with oddsmakers and computer projections giving Oral Roberts very little chance of moving on, Musselman said the Razorbacks are doing everything they can to ensure the clock strikes midnight on Cinderella when they take the floor Saturday because they know it won’t be easy.
“The way we’re preparing and watching film and hitting the practice floor, we’re not going to win the game unless we bring our A-plus game,” Musselman said. “I mean it’s not going to happen. If we play our B game or C game, we will be in our beds in Northwest Arkansas by early Sunday morning.
“We have to play great basketball in order to win, just as any team. Any team from here on out, if you’re going to get to the Elite 8, you better play really well.”
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