Eric Musselman identifies what goes wrong for Arkansas late in first halfves

Closing halves hasn’t been Arkansas’ strong suit this season, especially heading into halftime. After it got them again against Auburn this past weekend, Eric Musselman is now left questioning some of the competitive aspects of his team.

Musselman spoke about the Razorbacks’ poor closes to halves during his postgame press conference after their 83-51 loss to the Tigers on Saturday. As he put it, the ‘Hogs need to better understand how crucial those minutes are and show it in how they play.

“Understanding the importance. It has been addressed not a little bit but a lot,” said Musselman. “It’s winning. Are you used to winning? Is winning a part of your DNA? Do you understand getting on the floor for a loose ball the last two minutes of a half becomes really important?”

Auburn has closed seven of their first halves poorly in their 14 games this season. They corrected four of those with answers in the second half against Old Dominion, Furman, Lipscomb, and Abilene Christian.

However, the other three may have directly led to losses. Against UNC Greenboro, Arkansas gave up a 23-9 run over the final ten minutes of the half against the Spartans, including a 14-2 stretch over the final 2:05. Then, versus Oklahoma, the Sooners closed on an 18-4 run to take a double-digit lead that they’d barely give back the rest of the game.

Finally, on Saturday, Auburn finished on an 11-3 run over the final five minutes in Fayetteville. That momentum turned a back and forth game into a seven-point deficit and, eventually, the largest home loss in the history of Bud Walton Arena by the end of the game.

People say that the last four minutes of the first half and the final four minutes of the second half is the most important stretch of the game. That’s why, with this as a problem for Arkansas, Musselman needs them to show a little more effort in those minutes.

“As a competitor? Disappointed,” said Musselman. “I really don’t know what else to say. Other than the fact that to practice competitive nature and games become two different things.”

Musselman calls out effort: ‘This group of guys has not carried on the tradition’

Eric Musselman was completely fed up with his team’s performance after the Tigers made a mockery of Bud Walton Arena — something that should never ever happen in the fashion it did on Saturday.

He left no player off the list when critiquing the pitiful performance.

“We’re pretty disappointing 1-14 tonight,” explained Musselman. “Had a great crowd. Understanding how hard the SEC is, understanding the competitive nature? Understanding the size, understanding the physicality, understanding the will to win? Give Auburn a ton of credit. They came in here. They kicked our butts. That’s quite obvious.”

He went on to say that this group just isn’t comparable to the other excellent Arkansas squads of the decade.

“This team has not resembled what we built the last four years from a competitive standpoint. From a defensive standpoint, from a loose-ball-getting standpoint,” said Musselman. “So, what are we going to do? We’ve got to try to figure it out as much as we can. Guys got opportunities and didn’t seize the opportunities.”

“Again, we built something that I thought was really special. This group of guys has not carried on the tradition. So we’ve got to try to continue to get as best we can with the group we have right now,” Musselman said. “This group does not understand what identity on either side of the ball. We have to try to just figure it out and keep talking about it. Whether it gets solved or not? I don’t know.”