Eric Musselman considers whether Arkansas can bounce back from slow start

After a so-so start in the nonconference, the open of the season in the Southeastern Conference has caused Arkansas to spiral. Now, with three defeats in the league already, Eric Musselman knows exactly where his team finds itself in mid-January.

Musselman assessed the chances of his team being able to recover from this stretch during his postgame press conference following their latest loss, a 90-86 defeat at Florida, on Saturday. There was some uncertainty in his response just because these Razorbacks are still not showing similarities to their successful teams so far in his tenure.

“Well, this group does not have the characteristics of our past four years. I mean you can see that,” said Musselman. “We have a lot of holes in a lot of different areas.”

The 22-point loss to the Gators was the third straight for Arkansas. In total, it was the seventh of their season to bring their record down to 9-7.

Their start in the SEC has been especially rough on them with defeats to Auburn, at Georgia, and at Florida. Against the Tigers, the ‘Hogs suffered the worst home loss in the history of the program by 32. Then, in their next game in Athens, they never led against the Bulldogs. Finally, in Gainesville, they never led again after the first two and a half minutes against the Gators.

That means, through an 0-3 start in the SEC, Arkansas is losing by an average of 21.3 points. They’re doing so by allowing opponents to shoot 46.5% from the field. The opponents have also outrebounded them by 34 boards and had fewer total turnovers.

After a competitive first half against Auburn, the Razorbacks have spent most of their past five halves of basketball down by double digits

Even so, Musselman isn’t bowing out on this team or their season yet.

Arkansas clearly isn’t in a favorable standing at the moment, whether in the conference or the NCAA Tournament. Still, with over a month and a half left in the regular season, Musselman says he and his staff are going to continue to be an aid to their players in the ways that they can.

“Our job as a staff will be to continue to do what we can to try to provide teaching points. To try to continue to give scouting reports that are effective,” said Musselman. “That’s what we’re supposed to do is continue to try to get guys better and get the collective whole better