Arkansas Razorbacks coach Eric Musselman's complete press conference after 92-63 loss to the Tennessee Volunteers on Wednesday night at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville, Ark.
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00:00 where you guys hung with the team and then second half was a different story.
00:03 What was working first half that you thought kept in it?
00:06 And then maybe what went wrong second?
00:09 Yeah, Kevin, I thought the second I mean, first and second half,
00:13 we gave up 46 points.
00:14 So defensively, not much different, not good either half defensively.
00:19 Tennessee more physical than us
00:22 created more turnovers.
00:25 The points off turnovers was a killer.
00:27 We've talked about our inability at times to take care of the basketball.
00:31 Live ball turnovers was it was a huge, huge problem tonight.
00:35 Tennessee had a better competitive spirit that was playing to see.
00:40 And, you know, now the schedule hadn't done us any favors.
00:45 I mean, now we're the last SEC game on a Wednesday night.
00:48 Mississippi State has off and we go there.
00:51 So it's the second time it's happened to us in the last couple of weeks.
00:56 No excuses. It's a schedule we have, but
00:58 not easy knowing again why we couldn't play on a Tuesday.
01:03 Not sure why we're the last game on Wednesday and then have a
01:07 another early game, not a late game on Saturday.
01:09 So a very, very quick turnaround for our team.
01:14 And we got to we got to we got to draw free throws attempted.
01:16 That's our game is getting to the foul line.
01:19 Tennessee's a very, very physical team.
01:21 Tennessee opponents, I think, in SEC play average over
01:25 22 free throws attempted tonight, we get 15.
01:28 We had a goal of trying to get there to 30.
01:30 We thought that was a realistic goal. We got half of those.
01:32 So either we got it, we got to do a better job, I guess, playing through contact
01:37 or initiating contact,
01:39 because that was a big part of the game plan.
01:42 And we were unable to get free throws attempted.
01:46 Yeah, Eric, he's a big dude,
01:51 but I think he had double his average since he's phenomenal.
01:53 He's he keeps getting better.
01:54 You know what you want to see out of players is his player player improvement.
01:59 And you can tell he gets in the gym.
02:01 His mid-range shot from where it was 24, so much improved.
02:07 Like he can he can make that shot.
02:09 He's big. He's physical.
02:11 He ducks in.
02:14 I think he's again, like I said, I think he's one of the most improved players
02:18 that our league has.
02:22 He's a big who rebounds the ball, plays really, really, really hard.
02:26 I thought that really a do and and Ganey
02:31 were the two differences in the game and Ganey had 17 points
02:35 in 16 minutes off the bench and,
02:38 you know, hit hit two of their five threes.
02:41 I thought we I thought we actually guarded
02:44 a lot of their really, really good shooters from deep.
02:46 I mean, Ziegler's a guy that can make threes.
02:49 Vescovi and Ziegler were one of six.
02:51 That was a big part of the game plan.
02:53 We did a good job defending those guys.
02:55 Dalton Connect is a guy that I think had seven or six or seven threes
03:00 in his last game that he made between Ziegler and Vescovi and Dalton Connect.
03:05 If you would have told me that they would only make two threes
03:08 and we would lose by this much, I would have said there's no possible way.
03:11 But there is a possible way.
03:13 And do help help them really dominate the paint.
03:17 How you guys have been pretty good in the paint these last few games.
03:20 How tough was that?
03:22 And McKay didn't seem to play as well as he has.
03:24 What was the difference in their paint points and McKay?
03:27 Maybe it's an off night.
03:28 I mean, I thought they got whatever they wanted in the paint tonight.
03:32 I thought that.
03:33 You know, hard post ups and physical post ups, and they established
03:39 post position, and when you catch the ball that deep, it's
03:43 pretty hard to stop somebody.
03:47 Yeah, it's just I mean, it seemed like they were open to letting you guys
03:51 shoot threes, you think maybe you settled and the shot selection was it was good?
03:55 Or was it something that maybe you guys
03:58 didn't quite pound the paint as much as you have in previous games?
04:01 I mean, we were at, you know, I mean, first half we were six to 13.
04:04 So I thought we did a good job, obviously, in the second half,
04:07 you know, two of 10.
04:09 Yeah, maybe if we would have gone two for six, you know, so, you know,
04:14 yeah, maybe we took four too many threes, you know, but I mean,
04:17 when you're down by that much, you're going to shoot three.
04:20 So, I mean, I don't, you know, I don't think that that was again.
04:24 Yeah, I would I would have liked to have taken four less threes maybe.
04:27 But I mean, if you look at the percentages, it's
04:31 you know, that's not really what lost the game.
04:33 And they had you mentioned their live ball turnovers.
04:37 Is there like the turnovers that you guys that didn't you guys force
04:41 that didn't turn into live ball turnovers and easy points?
04:44 I mean, is that just rotten luck or is there something maybe there that,
04:47 you know, steals said you guys can maybe do a better job
04:51 of capitalizing on their turnovers?
04:53 Yeah, I mean, I think we need to do a better job in a lot of areas.
04:56 But certainly if you have 12 steals, that's a.
04:59 You know, it's a that's a pretty good number, it's more steals than they had.
05:03 And yeah, we need to convert those for sure.
05:10 Eric, I don't have the stats in front of me, but I know you guys shot like 52
05:14 in the first half, they shot 54 in the second half, obviously, years went down.
05:17 I think Tennessee was right at that or I mean, what was the key to them
05:20 shooting 50 plus in both halves, at least when their starters were in?
05:24 I think they're ranked eighth in the country.
05:26 They can do that to a lot of people, and they they have done that to a lot of people
05:32 and we didn't we didn't play hard enough in the second half
05:37 defensively, plain and simple.
05:39 And in the first half, I thought we worked.
05:42 I just they just got really good players and and
05:45 it was a six point game at halftime.
05:48 Tim, if that's OK, I think Jimmy Dykes in the game, he said something like
05:52 that that version, Tennessee's final four.
05:54 And you played a bunch of ranked teams this year.
05:56 How how good is Tennessee?
05:58 I mean, how do they stack up? How good do you think they are?
06:00 Well, on a night like tonight, I you know, you think they're
06:04 as good as anybody in the country.
06:05 I mean, this league is loaded.
06:09 That team's really well coached.
06:12 And, you know, their their competitive spirits
06:15 is as good as any team that we played and they were coming off a loss.
06:20 And, you know, we tried to tell our guys what what they would be like
06:24 when you're when you're ranked eighth in the country and you come off a loss.
06:27 They're really good.
06:31 I mean, I don't know what else to tell you, Bob.
06:32 They just beat us by twenty nine points.
06:34 They're pretty damn good basketball team.
06:36 And then Bruce Pearl, I came or somebody beat Auburn pretty bad
06:39 the other day when they'd had a buy in Auburn was playing two games.
06:43 And I think Bruce Pearl said something the effect of if
06:45 if you're playing a team that has a buy and you've played twice,
06:48 that second game, you should get it home.
06:51 In other words, you should get to play at home.
06:53 I don't want to get fined.
06:55 I don't want to like I just said, like it's like to turn around
06:58 when you had the last game twice.
07:01 It's happened to us.
07:02 And then you play at 11 a.m. in Baton Rouge and then you play a game
07:06 at, well, I don't know what it is, one o'clock.
07:08 It were not like unless you play the game or coach the game.
07:11 An extra four hours does matter when you have a short turnaround.
07:15 And so, you know, I wish we would have played Tuesday night knowing.
07:20 But, you know, you get the schedule that people give you.
07:22 You don't make it's not an excuse.
07:24 We got to go play the game.
07:25 But look at the numbers on what's happened on, you know, around the league.
07:29 It's it's a it's a hard game.
07:30 And we got to go get ready for a team that's been prepping for us for a week.
07:34 And so it is what it is.
07:36 We had it with Georgia.
07:37 And now, you know, this will be our second time doing it.
07:40 Maybe it should come up at the at the coaches meeting.
07:43 Yeah, I got bigger things to worry about than playing the late game
07:47 and then an early game.
07:48 I know with the pay difference being what it was, but still second
07:51 consecutive game, a good three point defense overall.
07:53 And all 12 their turnovers were steals.
07:55 Another area where you guys have struggled most of the season
07:58 where there are some positives to build on from this game, despite the margin.
08:01 Yeah, Kevin, it's like you plug this hole.
08:03 And then I mean, that's that's what I'm doing.
08:04 That's what we are doing is, you know, like, yes, we recognized
08:09 three point defense was killing us.
08:12 So we hunker down.
08:14 We work on it.
08:15 And that's a really like that's a team that that I said, don't connect
08:19 made six or seven threes last game alone.
08:22 We did a pretty good job on a guy averaging twenty five or twenty six points
08:28 a game, we didn't do a good job on Justin Ganey.
08:33 When you play Tennessee and they score
08:35 92 points and they only make five threes, you know,
08:40 and that's a team that's experienced old 12 steals.
08:45 I don't know.
08:46 I don't have the CUME stats in front of me, but I'm not sure
08:49 they probably have 12 steals very often.
08:51 And so those are two areas that we really focused on.
08:55 And then then, you know, slip in another area.
08:58 I mean, that's that's where we're at, you know.
09:00 But yeah, it's been a point of emphasis for the last week.
09:03 We corrected those, but. You know.
09:06 Thanks.