Eric Musselman discusses back-to-back road wins after tough start

Rupp Arena is not an easy place to win, but Arkansas conquered it convincingly on Tuesday night with an 88-73 win over Kentucky. The back-to-back road wins for the Razorbacks further prove Eric Musselman‘s squad is beginning to fix things that cost it games on the road earlier in the season.

Arkansas has battled through injuries and lineups in flux as a result for most of the year.

“Yeah I mean we’ve talked about it since the summer began, that with all the new faces and then obviously with two major pieces not having played in a long time that we knew we were going to continue to evolve,” Musselman said. “We’re not the same team that we were in Hawaii. We’re not the same team that we were when we played at Oklahoma, just based on personnel and availability of players.”

Arkansas has now won five of its last six games after a stretch of four losses in a row.

Injuries have been a sore spot for Arkansas all year long, with Nick Smith Jr. only just beginning to return to practice and Trevon Brazile suffering a season-ending injury.

“There’s not many teams in the country that could play with these type of injuries that we’ve dealt with and the quality of the players that have not been able to participate with us and find a way,” Musselman said. “It’s a resilient group. Again, I’m really proud of them. The huddles were great tonight. There was great communication amongst all five guys that were sitting in the chair. There was good communication by our bench, trying to help the guys that were on the floor.

“A really great win, and a team that had struggled, losing three games by… I mean this team’s a basket or two away from really having a great record.”

Arkansas learning to win on the road

Just how much Arkansas has learned about winning on the road will be put to the test sooner than later. While the team gets Mississippi State up next at home, there are three remaining road games left on the schedule.

All will be very difficult; at Texas A&M (Feb. 15), at No. 3 Alabama (Feb. 25) and at No. 6 Tennessee (Feb. 28).

So Musselman is celebrating the current wins, hoping to roll the lessons over to the future.

“We’re ecstatic. We’re really happy,” Musselman said. “Obviously we needed a first one to get to a second one. But I hope that everybody recognizes that we were a possession away at Baylor and a possession away at LSU, a possession away at Missouri. It’s hard to win on the road.

“But a ballclub that has dealt with injuries and was within one possession of three other road games. It’s a team that, like I keep saying, keeps getting better.”