Eric Musselman critical of Arkansas' defensive effort against Duke

The No. 4-seeded Arkansas Razorbacks are playing the No. 2-seeded Duke Blue Devils close in the first half of their Elite Eight matchup, but Eric Musselman isn’t happy with how his team has defended so far.

At the time of publication, Arkansas trails 40-33, which is in large part a result of Duke’s incredible shooting performance. Duke is currently shooting 51.9 percent from the field, and that’s despite not making a three-point attempt, which helped the Blue Devils amass a lead even with Arkansas shooting an efficient 46.4 percent. Musselman is happy with how his team has created turnovers, as they’ve forced Duke into six turnovers so far, but he’s less pleased with how they’ve contested Duke’s shots.

“We’re creating turnovers, we’re just not contesting shots enough, especially inside the three-point line,” Musselman said on the broadcast. “They haven’t made a three, so we’ve done a good job of running them off the three-point line, but we certainly have to defensive rebound much better.”

Musselman’s Arkansas Razorbacks are being paced so far by JD Notae and Jaylin Williams, as Notae has eight points on 3-of-6 from the field, while Williams has seven points on 3-of-8 from the field.

Eric Musselman on low expectations for Arkansas against Duke

Ahead of their Elite Eight matchup with Duke on Saturday, Arkansas Eric Musselman commented on nobody believing in his team to advance to the Final Four. His message to his team before their victory over Gonzaga in the Sweet 16 was “nobody believes in us,” making their shocking victory over Gonzaga much sweeter for them. According to Musselman, that hasn’t changed as they prepare to face Duke and coach Mike Krzyzewski.

Musselman was asked ahead of their game about a previous comment he had made regarding preparations for NCAA Tournament opponents. The Razorbacks coach claimed before that preparing for an opponent with multiple offensive weapons was difficult on short notice.

“We started with just some individual film, trying to learn their personnel as quick as possible,” answered Musselman. “And then we moved into their sets, half-court sets — obviously we had to talk about transition defense. And then the third stage of all that was going into their baseline out of bounds, side out of bounds and any late game situations.”

The interview then drifted to Duke star Paolo Banchero and what Arkansas would try to do in order to stop him on defense.

“Well everybody’s gotta spy if you’re not on him,” said Musselman. “So the other four players — it’s not just one man’s responsibility to try to defend a great player, a guy that’s gonna be a lottery pick. So we need the whole team to be alert, not focused because we don’t want the other guys to hurt us as well. But certainly when he goes into his spin dribble we’ve gotta have an extra body there.”

Before closing the segment, Musselman was asked about his message to his team before their Gonzaga matchup — where he told his team that “nobody believed” in them. When asked what message he had for his team this time, he kept it simple.

“Nothing’s changed. Same thing,” laughed Musselman.