Eric Musselman assesses his team's response after SEC-opening loss

Arkansas had the luxury of a week off after picking up their second loss of the season. The young Razorbacks had plenty to clean up after opening SEC play with a close 60-57 road loss to LSU. Now, as they prepare for their return to the court on Wednesday, Eric Musselman says they got a lot done with that week.

Musselman shared how his team maximized their last week during his Missouri preview press conference on Monday. He said their practices have been unlike anything he has ever done as a college coach. That has allowed the Razorbacks to work on a lot of things in a short period of time.

“I think it’s unique to have a full week off when you’re used to two games a week,” said Musselman. “We’ve gotten a couple days off…We’ve been able to have some good practices as well. And now we’ll need two good practices today and tomorrow to get ready for a 12-1 Missouri team. But practice has been good.”

“We’ve cleaned up some things, both offensively and defensively. And we’ve gone more live than we probably ever have in the seven and a half years I’ve been a college coach to try to clean up some areas we want to improve,” Musselman said. “We have been going live a lot more than what we normally would do.”

There’s not much to complain about with a Top-15 team in the nation that now sits at 11-2. However, with so many things changing already for Arkansas, they’re having to learn and improve on the fly.

As for their preparation for Mizzou, Musselman noted three-point defense as one thing for his team to continue to lock in on. On top of that, he wants his staff and roster to start to pay attention to themselves and take note of things that they can continue to build on over the course of conference play.

“I think there’s a lot of areas (we need to improve). We need to continue to do a good job of defending the three. Especially knowing the three-point shooting ability that (Mizzou) has,” Musselman said. “We’ve also got to continue, just like every team, right around January 1st and the second half of the season, (to) self-scout. Not only do you prep for your next opponent. But you’ve got to kind of self-scout areas to get better. And certainly our rotations have changed with the injuries.”

Missouri made themselves known last week with a double-digit opening win in the SEC against Kentucky. In order to avoid being the Tiger’s second victim and start their conference season 0-2, Musselman is hoping everything they worked on over the last seven days will make a difference early in Wednesday’s Top-25 matchup in Bud Walton Arena.