• last year
Arkansas Razorbacks coach Eric Musselman on problems squeaking out 69-66 win over the Lipscomb Bulldogs after blowing a 20-point lead.
Transcript
00:00 you guys have a comfortable 20-point lead and then they I think they had a 21
00:03 to 1 run to get make it a one-point game. What happened there where you
00:07 seemingly were in control and then all of a sudden it's a one-point game? Well
00:10 first of all in the past we've done a really good job of milking shot clock
00:16 when we get up like that. A lot of people don't understand it. Tonight's a great
00:20 example of why you do it. I let them play. Should a clock manage better? Again you
00:29 know you think with the veteran team you'll be able to get good shots on goal.
00:32 That wasn't the case tonight. Got to get a lot better in so many areas.
00:39 How big a relief? I mean I know you're not happy with the way your team played
00:42 but it could have been lost and it was a win. Just how big a relief do you feel?
00:45 I just know we got a lot of work so I don't I mean I would I would be you
00:51 know not not telling the truth if I said I was relieved. I'm disappointed.
00:57 It seemed like 50/50 balls all year have been a little bit of a problem and in that run it
01:03 seemed like it was a big problem. What's not working there? I mean is it
01:07 just... Well I mean 50/50 balls Kevin I don't I don't know if it's anything
01:11 other than just reaction. Alertness and reaction and it's been going on all
01:15 year. So you know keeping the ball in front not having straight line drives
01:21 reaction to loose balls. I mean it's you know you're not going to do loose ball
01:25 drills and all of a sudden become better at it. I mean there was a baseline out of
01:30 bounds play and we weren't even matched up. So we got to become way more alert. We
01:34 have to have way more sense of urgency. You know all things that we'll continue
01:40 to discuss and talk about. Quick follow-up Keon Minifield Jr. making his
01:45 debut tonight. What did you think about his minutes or just at least get him on
01:49 the court and get him in there? Yeah I thought it was important to get him in
01:51 the game. I mean that was the plan was to play him somewhere between you know 15
01:56 and 20 minutes and he got 18. Thought he's active, he's bouncy, he's
02:02 he is a reactor to loose balls. You know thought he you know it's hard to be
02:08 thrown into a game 10 games in but you know I think his quickness, his
02:13 willingness to be a ball distributor can help us. Eric, when Devo's going to
02:18 the rim under a minute left and he scores but he's going to the rim,
02:22 what's kind of going through your mind at that point? Well you know I probably
02:26 would have wanted to milk the clock a little. You know he made the shot so it
02:31 turns out great for us. You know he's an aggressive downhill guy and he's done
02:37 that in the past for us in late games. So you know it was a big basket. You know we
02:46 should have gone to the rim a lot more during the course of the game than
02:50 what we did to be honest with you. I mean for Lipscomb to have 10 more shots
02:54 than us is you know it's a concern. Another thing I had, a game like this
03:01 you got a guy like TB, do you want him to be more assertive? I mean I think he took
03:07 seven total shots. Yeah I mean we'd like you know we'd like to be more assertive all the
03:11 way around with a bunch of guys to be honest with you Scotty.
03:16 Coach, this is usually a time of the year where you start to trim the rotation down.
03:20 Looks like you played 12 or 13 guys today. I guess what's the level of
03:24 concern of being at this point and still trying to figure out what lineups work,
03:28 what buttons push? Well normally people are telling us we need to play more. Now
03:32 we're playing more and we you know we're getting asked questions should we play
03:35 less. So I mean we're trying to figure out who we are you know plain and simple.
03:42 I mean we're trying to figure out who we can rely on on a nightly basis, who plays
03:47 with consistency, who can react to loose balls, who can defensive rebound, so who
03:53 can keep the ball in front of them. So there's a lot of things that we're
03:56 searching for. Getting to the point where you had a 20-point lead, you had a couple
04:03 of them actually. What were you feeling good about or what had you seen up to
04:06 that point that you thought okay we've figured some things out or this is
04:10 what's working now? Yeah I thought the ball was moving. I thought we were
04:12 playing with good pace. You know and you have to respect a scrappy team like
04:17 Lipscomb. I mean you have to you know you have to respect them every possession. I
04:22 thought we got careless with the ball. Shot selection, you know got a look at
04:30 that plus/minuses tonight. Got to go back and evaluate the film when they made
04:35 their run. So there's a lot of things we got to do. Your bigs Mitchell and Graham
04:40 were 11 of 12 from the field. They were dominating inside. Was it the zone that
04:44 took that away and then kind of led to the problems? No I don't think I don't
04:47 think their zone took it away at all. I mean Kai Mitchell scored two baskets
04:51 late when we had to have him. So he scored what six and two of them were
04:57 literally we had to have baskets against their zone. And he got wide open looks.
05:02 One thrown over the top by Devo when he was in the middle of the zone and then
05:06 another one on the baseline. So not really. I thought Graham was pretty good
05:12 and then we had a couple turnovers with Graham in the middle of the zone and
05:15 that's why we went to Kai to try to get our center out of the middle of the zone
05:19 and get our center back down to the dunker spot. You know and Jalen Graham
05:25 he's such a gifted skilled offensive player but we need him to
05:29 defensive rebound. I mean you know he had one rebound tonight and we feel
05:33 like he can rebound more per minute than what we're getting
05:37 because offensively you know he's super super gifted. Coach Bo Wilcox with
05:44 the Arkansas Times. Can you talk about the the performance that you saw from
05:48 Minifield tonight? I know I may have missed that already but it seemed like
05:52 he really gave you a big spark in the minutes he had. Yeah I mean he's you know
05:55 conditioning you know it's hard to throw a guy in there ten games in. I mean he's
06:01 you know how assertive can he be? You know he's probably trying to fit in and
06:05 but I am really happy that that we won a game and we got him minutes. You know in
06:13 a close game which it ended up being a close game sometimes it's hard to
06:17 throw a guy in like that and you know but we're I mean I do feel like tonight
06:25 was another learning experience for us on you know some some guys got to play
06:30 tonight and you know we they got to play better you know what I mean. Eric you had
06:37 a week to get ready for this and now you got even longer. What's next week
06:40 look like? Is it a lot of the same in terms of working on yourself? I don't
06:43 think it's longer we play Thursday. Okay well today's Saturday. Okay I'm sorry I
06:48 messed up I was thinking from the 21st to the 30th. I'm sorry but you do have a few days
06:52 to get ready. What's next week look like leading into it? Yeah I mean we'll practice Monday
06:57 and practice Tuesday and practice Wednesday and practice Thursday and try
07:00 to get better. I mean that's that's all you can do. And then how weird was it the
07:05 dim light situation you had to I don't think they were fully on when you
07:09 started and but you had to delay I mean how weird was that whole deal? I don't I
07:14 mean kind of whatever I mean. Okay. The only thing I can compare it to is when
07:25 we were in Turtle Bay in Hawaii and the lights went off because of a
07:29 thunderstorm and we pulled all the cars up because the underneath one of the
07:34 baskets it was all glass and we put it all the headlights on and we had a
07:37 practice with the Warriors first week on the job and I mean that's the only thing
07:44 I can compare it to. I didn't get in trouble tonight like I did then because
07:47 you got a bunch of millionaires practicing in the dark with headlights
07:51 so I got in trouble for that one but but tonight it was a joint decision to play
07:56 the game between you know their staff and our staff and the refs. Was that in training camp?
08:02 Yeah that was training camp. Yeah. And then just I mean you you've got a track record of
08:07 getting things figured out turn it around I mean just how do you feel this
08:11 yeah I don't I don't think we can you know every every team's different every
08:17 team's got its own personality you know I'm not I'm not I'm not gonna have
08:25 dinner with with Mariah and and Danielle and say hey we got we'll be all right
08:29 we're gonna figure it out I'm not I'm not under that mindset just because it's
08:33 happened in the past you know we got to play better in so many areas we'll keep
08:42 coaching and then hope you hopefully you get some execution on the floor but yeah
08:48 I don't I don't think the narrative of you know it's happened in the past I mean
08:53 we play really good basketball against Purdue in an exhibition game we played
08:56 really good basketball against you know Duke and and then we got to get better
09:01 in all all the other games. You mentioned that you with the playing as many guys
09:06 as you are do you take anything away from this game before watching film or
09:10 do you still need to do that obviously where you maybe have a better idea of
09:14 where it might be. Oh yeah we I mean I have a better idea yep you know you can
09:20 play really hard but if you're not productive probably can't you know so
09:23 yeah we yes we do yep we I have you know some a better feel now than I did and so
09:35 you know that's what you roll with you roll with what you see and what you feel
09:38 and and what personalities fit that's that's how we'll go. Like any of your
09:46 previous teams that you had to kind of get turned around or there may be more
09:49 questions? No completely different yeah completely different yep there's there's
09:53 no traits that our past teams had.