Eric Musselman on December NET Rankings: ‘Something for me to be in a bad mood about’

Looking at the NET rankings early in the season, Arkansas is not in a good spot. Eric Musselman currently finds his team sitting at No. 112 heading into Saturday’s game against Oklahoma. Only three SEC teams — Georgia, LSU, and Vanderbilt — are ranked below the Razorbacks. This is significantly lower than where they rank on KenPom, coming in at No. 43 there.

Musselman was asked about his team’s low placement, saying it’s way too early to be thinking about the NET rankings. However, to close out his thoughts, he did admit it could put him in a bad mood.

But as some would tell you, this is only December. Arkansas still has some quality nonconference games to play and the SEC seems as loaded as ever. If Musselman is going to lose sleep over the NET rankings, he can do so in May when the 2024 NCAA Tournament is over.

“It’s way too early,” Musselman said. “So, it’s irrelevant. We have a whole SEC schedule that’s going to determine a lot for us. It is what it is. We have a game Saturday. That’s really all we should focus on. People start talking about March Madness and it’s… I don’t know what it is today. Dec. 5? There’s a lot of stuff that’s going to happen.

“Gives something for y’all to talk about and something for me to be in a bad mood about.”

Musselman is right, the poor NET ranking is something for us to talk about. And yes, we are thinking about March Madness.

In the latest ESPN Bracketology from Joe Lunardi, updated on Tuesday, Arkansas is in the field of 68 as a nine-seed. They moved up as well, likely due to the huge win against Duke at Bud Walton Arena. A poor resume at the moment leads for the Razorbacks hoping to be a whole lot higher.

Chances to stack up nice wins will be there, though. The SEC has seven projected teams in Lunardi’s field, the second most of any conference in college basketball. Taking away itself, that leaves Arkansas with six other teams to beat up on and improve the NET ranking.

First up — Saturday against Oklahoma will technically be a neutral site game, taking place in Tulsa. The Sooners have been playing good basketball as of late and find themselves inside the top 15 of the NET rankings. Opportunity is immediately there for Musselman to prove the rankings wrong.