Eric Musselman declares Duke game was a must-win for Arkansas

After a 4-3 start, Arkansas was staring a potential .500 record in the face with a home date with Duke on deck. However, the ‘Hogs secured a Top-10 win over the Blue Devils because they approached the game with the must-win mindset that Eric Musselman and the program deemed was necessary.

Musselman spoke about the pressure on the Razorbacks last night during his postgame press conference after their 80-75 win over Duke. With how they’ve opened the season, he said they made their position very clear to one another and, as such, treated last night’s contest in the ACC/SEC Challenge as one that was necessary for their season-long hopes.

“Look, we don’t have the record that we were hopeful to have. You lose tonight’s game? Now, all of a sudden, you’re .500. Then you’re wondering that you’ve got to get some signature wins,” explained Musselman. “There was a lot of pressure on tonight’s game – a lot. I thought our guys responded.”

“We let them know where we were. I mean we didn’t act like, ‘Hey, it’s early in the season’, ‘We got time’. It was discussed as a must-win for us,” said Musselman.

Arkansas battled with Duke throughout the first half in a raucous environment inside Bud Walton Arena. Then, in the second half, they picked a great time to play some of their season’s best ball. The ‘Hogs shot 60.9% from the field while holding the Blue Devils to 36.8%. That helped them create a 14-point lead that they wouldn’t relinquish for the entire second half.

Trevon Brazile put up 19 points, 11 rebounds, and two blocks in the win. Meanwhile, as the key to their 27-point advantage off the bench, Khalif Battle put up 21 points, five rebounds, and five assists.

There was no denying the weight on Arkansas on Wednesday night. That’s why, after the victory, Musselman couldn’t have been happier to see his team’s work pay off in a way that they very much needed.

“Tonight, the locker room? One of the coolest things ever is to see student-athletes celebrate,” said Musselman. “I mean they put so much work into it.”

It’s likely that the Razorbacks would have figured out their early-season struggles as the season went on. They threw their improvement into overdrive, though, with the massive victory that they secured over one of the sport’s blue bloods brands.

“For them to have internal pressure, external pressure, crowd pressure? And then to be able to get a win? It was huge,” said Musselman. “It meant something nationally as well.”