Eric Musselman explains consistency in Arkansas' starting lineup

Consistency has been the name of the game for Arkansas this season. Four Razorbacks have started at least 10 of the 11 games this year, and head coach Eric Musselman said that consistency has been essential to his team’s 10-1 start to the year.

Arkansas’ most notable loss from the starting five is Trevon Brazile, who’s out for the year with a torn ACL. But the other Razorbacks starters have held strong in their roles, and that stability is important as the season goes on.

However, he noted those roles could change, and he pointed to some examples he’s seen already.

“With consistency, roles can play out,” Musselman said. “If you look at our record, we lost by three points in the middle of a three games in three nights [stretch]. A lot of national publications have called that the best college game of the year, our loss against Creighton. We scored at high level, we didn’t defend like I thought we could. When you play with great consistency, your lineup’s going to stay consistent. Again, we lost that game and Creighton’s been without their big center. When he plays, they’re a different team. We lost to a really good team that was highly ranked at the time, and we didn’t feel the need to panic and change things up. But we have no idea how the season plays out.

“Obviously, Trevon Brazile’s not going to play this year. he was an integral part of what we did that first collection of games. … Last year at this time, I had no idea that Trey Wade was going to end up guarding Drew Timme and we were going to ask him to front him and do it for 30-plus minutes, and that’s what ended up happening. Roles, we want to keep an open mind in practice. Guys that are working, guys that are getting shots up on their own, you want to reward stuff like that as much as possible. How it unfolds? I have no idea. But through this sample size, the group that’s been playing a lot has done a good job.”

Arkansas is now gearing up for one last non-conference tuneup Wednesday against UNC Asheville before starting SEC play Dec. 28 against LSU.