Arkansas Razorbacks coach Eric Musselman's complete press conference following a 71-67 loss to Mississippi State at Humphrey Coliseum in Starkville, Miss.
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00:00 You know, ideally, I mean, all that time out with 23 seconds left,
00:04 I'm sure you would love to put the ball in Battles' hands or Mark's hands or
00:08 Mennefield's hands, but you know, they either fouled out or were hurt,
00:11 we found out and he couldn't go to Graham, obviously. How tough was that?
00:15 And what was the plan coming out of that timeout and how tough was it not to
00:18 have, you know, some of your best playmakers?
00:20 I think first of all, Bob, super proud of, of, uh, of the effort. Um,
00:27 when you're, when you're without a preseason all league player, that's six foot,
00:31 11, any team in the league, uh, would go through some, some struggles.
00:35 Um, thought we played really good against Tennessee in the first half.
00:40 We played very poorly in the second half against Tennessee,
00:43 but I thought tonight we played 40 minutes. Look, there,
00:46 Mississippi State's an extremely physical team. Um,
00:51 Coach Janz is a great defensive coach.
00:55 Anybody that's played against Coach Janz's team, whether it's New Mexico State,
00:59 whether, how, how the free throws are 32 to 19,
01:03 I have no idea. We got a limited roster and we have three players foul out.
01:07 So super proud of, of our team. I know the fans, uh, I know our locker room.
01:14 I know our coaching staff, um, our players,
01:16 super frustrated, uh, without coming away with the win. Um,
01:22 you know, but with any ball club, it's, can you improve? Um,
01:27 and, and do you give it, you know,
01:29 you're all and are you playing with effort, energy, and enthusiasm?
01:33 We played as hard as we possibly could tonight.
01:35 But not getting back to the question, not to have, you know,
01:39 the guys you'd love to have on the floor because they'd fouled out or they were
01:44 hurt. How tough was that? And what, what,
01:46 what were you looking to get out of that timeout?
01:48 The one with 23 seconds left when you were down one?
01:50 Yeah, we were trying to run what we ran, you know,
01:53 most of the second half when we scored 38 points and scored, uh, you know,
01:57 nine more points than we did in the first half.
01:59 We made an adjustment with how we were running our middle pick and roll. And, uh,
02:03 we had a guard down pin for Kai Mitchell to come up to the,
02:07 to the top of the circle and set a screen for L Ellis to make a decision,
02:10 whether we want to go left or right.
02:12 But obviously when you have three point threats like battle and,
02:15 and Mark not out there, um, or many, it's, you know,
02:20 we had, we had a,
02:22 we had a ball club today where we did not have a power forward on the roster.
02:27 And we had three guys foul out, um, and their power forward, uh,
02:31 that position got dominated today because we had guards playing it,
02:36 or we had two centers playing it. So, um,
02:39 much credit to Cam Matthews and his performance,
02:42 but a game plan was to try to do what we could with Tulu Smith. And,
02:47 and I thought we did that by going at him and getting him in foul trouble. Um,
02:52 you know, lost the game though.
02:54 And then when you're down by three with seven seconds,
02:58 were you looking to maybe get a quick two or what were you looking to get there?
03:01 Oh, we were looking to get a three. Um, you know,
03:04 we felt that with seven seconds full court, you know, it's going to take,
03:08 you know,
03:09 you're going to take at least three seconds off the clock and then you're putting
03:12 yourself in a really, I mean,
03:13 if we were in the NBA and you could advance the ball certainly would have gone
03:16 for two, but there's no advancing the ball in men's college basketball.
03:20 There isn't women's college basketball. There isn't the NBA.
03:22 There isn't the G league, but there's not here.
03:25 So seven seconds down three, uh,
03:27 we thought the best decision of being on the road was to try to get a three.
03:31 And then Caleb obviously played, Caleb obviously played really well.
03:35 What'd you think of his game? And his, his minutes have fluctuated,
03:38 but he really seems like he's hung in there for you.
03:40 Yep. I thought battle was really, really good offensively.
03:43 I thought Kai Mitchell was outstanding. Uh, you know,
03:47 I thought Davenport's, uh, uh,
03:50 three offensive rebounds were huge for us.
03:52 I thought Chandler Lawson did an incredible job defensively along with
03:57 Makai Mitchell. Makai's offense, plus his, his defense was, was off the charts,
04:02 but T-Mark helped us, uh, in the stretches when he wasn't in foul trouble.
04:06 I thought L Ellis played his best floor game.
04:09 And I thought Bay fall came in and very, very limited minutes.
04:12 He altered two shots, had a shot blocked. Um,
04:16 so a lot of really good performance for performances tonight by a lot of guys on
04:21 our team that were in uniform.
04:22 Trey.
04:24 Yeah, coach, just a little bit more on Makai. I mean,
04:27 what does that say about the performance he had coming off the Tennessee game to
04:30 go for 21 and nine? And as you mentioned, a very physical game.
04:33 We, you know, we needed his physicality.
04:36 I thought he did a great job in picking roles,
04:38 both as a short roller making plays, which we, uh,
04:42 utilized him in spots, uh,
04:44 depending on how the opponent plays pick and roll coverage is.
04:48 It was a really good game for, for him to step up.
04:51 We knew that Tulu Smith is a, is a,
04:54 is an incredibly offensive talented player.
04:56 We wanted to make Smith defend a little bit.
04:58 And I thought that that Kai did that by aggressively going to the basket.
05:03 I don't know if we'll talk to you before Texas A&M is wondering if you could give
05:07 some, some thoughts on staying on the road and going to college station.
05:11 Yeah, I think when we, when the schedule came out,
05:14 we knew we played the last game on a Wednesday and played a fairly early game on
05:18 a Saturday. And then we're not playing on Wednesday again, we're playing on Tuesday,
05:22 three games in that amount of time with two travels. Uh, you know,
05:27 the scheduling didn't do us any favor and, and, um, you know,
05:32 we got to get ready for a,
05:34 a very good team with a lot of experience that plays extremely well at home.
05:37 And, and, um,
05:39 I think Buzz Williams does a great job and I have incredible respect for their
05:42 backcourt. Um, you know,
05:45 Radford and Taylor, both those guys really talented. Anderson Garcia,
05:50 as good a rebounder as there is in the country. Um,
05:54 so it's a more than challenging game for sure.
05:57 And do you think you'll have a Keon and Jalen back for that one?
06:02 Would be wait, you know, I mean, I'm, uh,
06:05 I haven't checked on that, Trey. I'm a competitor, uh,
06:10 that every fiber in my body right now is thinking about, uh, this game.
06:15 So I don't mean to be rude, but I,
06:16 I really have not checked with the trainer and I'll get right back on the plane
06:20 and, and dive into this game and dive into A&M. And I,
06:23 I'm probably won't ask the trainer until, you know, Monday. Uh, it's,
06:27 it's irrelevant right now. I mean, you know, uh,
06:31 probably none of them will practice tomorrow, uh, if we practice at all.
06:35 Yep.
06:37 Yeah. Eric, you guys, obviously the rebounding margin, I believe it was, uh,
06:43 they had more rebounds than you guys. Can you just talk about,
06:47 and obviously they're a good rebounding team, but can you talk about,
06:49 was that just kind of, I guess, managing that or,
06:53 and I'm not making sense.
06:55 Was it just kind of kind of making sure that you guys manage that or is it,
07:00 how do you kind of deal with, with the team that rebounds like that?
07:02 Well, they're, they're a great offensive rebounding team.
07:06 They're super physical. Um, you know, as, as stated earlier,
07:10 um, we did not have a power forward even available tonight.
07:15 So, um, we're playing Davenport there. Um, you know,
07:21 and he's played the small forward his whole life. So, uh,
07:24 that particular matchup at the four spot,
07:28 Cam Matthews went six of seven, uh, and he,
07:31 and he took 10 free throws attempted,
07:33 which is almost more than our whole team, by the way. Uh,
07:36 and he had 10 rebounds, four of those being offensively.
07:39 So we knew Tulu Smith would rebound. And then I thought Keyshawn Murphy,
07:44 number 12, did a good job scrapping out three offensive boards as well. So, uh,
07:48 certainly the 17 offensive rebounds is, is a problematic, but,
07:54 but we also knew that from a size standpoint without Graham and without
07:59 Brazil, that's, that's, that's going to be an area of concern,
08:02 just as there'll be an area of concern when we go to A&M.
08:06 Final question.
08:08 Eric, I think it was the first A&M game that, that, uh, the battle didn't play.
08:14 I might be wrong, but you know,
08:16 he's had game where he didn't play a few minutes. How's,
08:20 he's an older guy that's used to playing a lot.
08:22 And how do you think he's dealt with that?
08:23 And I assume he'll be a big part of the rematch with A&M.
08:27 Yeah. I mean, I think with all, I mean, uh, when we're,
08:31 when we're not playing as well as we would like to, as, as a coach,
08:35 I have a decision to make.
08:37 And the decision has been to continue to try to find combinations that put us in
08:42 the best position to win. Um, KB has been a worker, uh,
08:47 tonight offensively. I thought he had a good, a good matchup. Um,
08:51 certainly when he's scoring the ball and drawing free throws, um,
08:56 we're a much better offensive team.
08:59 And I think his defensive principles have also improved as well.
09:03 And certainly him fouling out tonight, um,
09:06 hurt us offensively in the late stages of the game.
09:09 Can I squeeze in one more? I don't know if you're going to answer this,
09:13 but like you say, you know, Mississippi State's very physical and you guys draw a
09:17 lot of free throw, generally speaking,
09:20 why do you think there was such a big free throw discrepancy?
09:23 Bob, I can't answer that. Uh, this, this is, uh, you know,
09:28 it doesn't matter what we, what we send in, what we talk about.
09:31 Um, you can look at the free throws attempted. Uh,
09:38 there are very high steel team, normally high steel teams are high foul teams.
09:42 I have the utmost respect, uh,
09:45 for coach Jans and the physicality that his teams have played with.
09:50 And we have been historically through 10 years,
09:53 a high volume free throw attempt player for whatever reason of late.
09:56 That's a part of our offense. Quite frankly, we work on it. We talk about it.
10:02 We drill it. Um,
10:04 just as if a three point shooting team doesn't get any three point. I mean,
10:09 that's part of our offense. And so, um,
10:12 we got 19 free throws attempted and you can look at how many we took the first
10:18 half. So, I mean, they took 32.
10:23 So I don't know. I don't know what else to say other than numbers. Don't lie.