Eric Musselman expresses frustrations with officiating after Tennessee loss

Arkansas and head coach Eric Musselman traveled to Knoxville for a vital game in the SEC regular-season finale, facing off against the Tennessee Volunteers. Mounting a second-half comeback, the Razorbacks came up just short and dropped their first game after a five-game winning streak.

During his post-game press conference, Musselman was clearly frustrated with the way the game was officiated. He laid out all of the ways Arkansas was better than Tennessee and pointed out more times than not, that will win you basketball games. However, Musselman cited the number of free throws the Volunteers attempted and how the usual block/charge calls were not going their way.

“Coming into the game if somebody would have said ‘you’re going to have 16 offensive rebounds, you’re going to outrebound Tennessee, you’re going to have less turnovers than Tennessee, you’re going to have more steals than a high, high steal team,’ I would have thought ‘alright, well we’re going we win the game,'” Musselman said. “Thirty free throws is a lot of free throws for Tennessee. Jaylin Williams has never had so many block calls. Had a lot of charges at our place. Lost the game but we won the game in a lot of categories for sure.”

Musselman was then asked about a specific scenario involving J.D. Notae when the referees could have called a foul on a three-point attempt late in the game. The head coach kept his answer short and simple, saying he had “no comment” while visible holding in some frustration with the scenario.

When he was asked one more question about the officiating, Musselman had to refrain from making any more comments, saying he was only going to comment about his team.

“I’m just going to stick to talking about the Razorbacks,” Musselman said. “You know, stick to talking about the Razorbacks… I’m just going to talk about our team and leave it at that.”

Tennessee may have gotten the win on Saturday but Arkansas will still enter the postseason as one of the most dangerous teams in the country. Big wins against Kentucky, LSU, and Tennessee came at home in previous games, while they beat Florida on the road. Nobody will want to face Musselman’s squad over the next month.

With the loss, Arkansas fell to the No. 4 seed in the upcoming SEC Tournament. They have three potential opponents, with LSU playing the winner of Ole Miss and Missouri. Whoever wins that matchup will have the pleasure of facing off against Musselman and the Razorbacks.