Eric Musselman explains what went wrong in the second half against Tennessee

After playing a tight first half in Bud Walton Arena, Tennessee blew Arkansas out in Fayetteville by 29 after winning the second half by 23. It was the latest poor outing for the ‘Hogs and one that was caused by several things as the back half of the game went on.

Eric Musselman assessed where his team went wrong over the final 20 minutes versus the Volunteers to start his postgame press conference following the 92-63 defeat. He began by suggesting that the defense isn’t why the game got that far away from them because that aspect of their performance wasn’t great in either of the halves.

“I mean, in the first and second half, we gave up 46 points. So, defensively, not much different,” said Musselman. “Not good, either half, defensively.”

That then places the attention on the offensive side. Shooting under 38% from the field and under 35% from three wasn’t good to begin with. However, with 15 turnovers leading to 28 points as well as only 15 attempted free throws, Arkansas didn’t do enough on that end to keep up with the pace that they were allowing Tennessee’s offense to play to.

“Tennessee? More physical than us. Created more turnovers. The points off of turnovers was a killer,” said Musselman. “We’ve talked about our inability, at times, to take care of the basketball. Live-ball turnovers was a huge, huge problem tonight.”

“We’ve got to draw free-throws attempted. That’s our game. Tennessee is a very, very physical team. Tennessee opponents, I think in SEC play, average over 22 free throws attempted. Tonight? We get 15,” Musselman noted. “We had a goal of trying to get there to 30. Thought that was a realistic goal and we got half of those. So we’ve got to do a better job of playing through contact or initiating contact. That was a big part of the game plan and we were unable to get free-throws attempts.

If all that wasn’t rough enough, Musselman also pointed out how the Vols looked clearly more invested into the game then the Razorbacks.

“Tennessee had a better competitive spirit. That was plain to see,” stated Musselman.

Now, after falling back to .500 and to just 3-8 in conference play, Arkansas once again has no time to pick themselves up. They’ll have just over two days to get themselves right before they have to take the floor again in Starkville this weekend.

“Now the schedule hasn’t done us any favors. I mean now we’re the last SEC game on a Wednesday night. Mississippi State has off and we go there. It’s the second time that has happened to us in the last couple of weeks,” Musselman pointed out. “No excuses. It’s the schedule we have but not easy.”

“Why we couldn’t play on a Tuesday? Not sure,” said Musselman. “Why we’re the last game on Wednesday and then have another early game, not a late game, on Saturday? A very, very quick turnaround for our team.