Eric Musselman attempts to process Arkansas loss to Mississippi State

Eric Musselman was visibly disappointed after Arkansas fell to Mississippi State by a score of 70-64 on Saturday.

A rough first half doomed the Razorbacks, even with a ferocious comeback attempt during the second half of the game. Afterwards, the Arkansas leader attempted to process Arkansas’ loss.

“I give Mississippi State a ton of credit. I thought they were really physical,” started Musselman. “Proud of the second half effort. Scoring 41 points. Defensively, first half, not who we are at all. First half, offensively, not who we are. … Tough to overcome when their guards are so efficient from three, and then add in the fact that their team went 6-of-10 from three.”

Prior to the loss to the Bulldogs, Arkansas had been on a hot streak, capturing three consecutive victories and getting back into the NCAA Tournament conversation. With every game meaning so much for Musselman’s squad, it’s easy to see why he was dejected after Saturday’s loss.

Still, there’s plenty of time for the Razorbacks to make their case, and nobody should count out Arkansas moving forward.

Davonte Davis believes Arkansas hasn’t reached its peak yet

Continuing, prior to their loss to Mississippi State on Saturday, Arkansas walked into Rupp Arena on Tuesday night and emerged as comfortable winners. And veteran Davonte Davis feels like the Razorbacks haven’t reached its peak yet.

The team is just starting to get healthy and is beginning to fire on all cylinders.

“I feel like we haven’t even reached our peak, we’re just now getting better,” Davis said. “We’re just now getting to the level that y’all as the outsiders and our fans and everyone that expected us to be good, I think we’re reaching that now.”

Arkansas still has plenty of work to do as it looks to lock up decent NCAA Tournament seeing, but things are trending in the right direction. Until about a week ago, Arkansas hadn’t even won a road game.

The Hogs snatched two road wins in the last week.

“We’ve still got a lot of things to work on for sure, but this is huge,” Davis said. “It starts right here, especially with the young guys making a huge contribution in this game. Loud atmosphere, coming to Rupp first time. It’s hard. I remember my first time, it was COVID and I didn’t get this experience. So I know it was hard for them and I think they handled it really well.”