Eric Musselman makes bold claim about team following win over Tennessee

Sitting 21-6 overall (10-4, SEC) and only two games back from the SEC’s top spot, the No. 23-ranked Arkansas Razorbacks control their destiny heading into postseason play. Head coach Eric Musselman believes his team is ready to tackle the rest of the regular season and has full confidence in his team as March approaches.

“Nobody in the country plays harder than this team does right now,” Musselman said.

Arkansas is coming off a 58-48 victory over a 16th-ranked Tennessee Volunteer squad had just dished out a 76-63 romping to a white-hot Kentucky team. While Musselman’s go-to scorers in Jaylin Williams and J.D. Notae combined for 26 with 13 points a piece, the Razorbacks head coach was impressed the most with Davonte Davis coming off the bench with a strong second half showing. He scored just seven points and hauled in four rebounds, but it was the hustle that impressed his coach the most.

“We felt [Davis] would be a big factor in today’s game, unfortunately got a couple fouls in the first half, but we thought his size was going to help us in the in the back court battle, and he rose up on those two threes and shot them with great confidence when we really needed to try to get some type of separation, because it was just like a boxing match where, you know, it’s jab for jab and nobody could throw a knockout punch. There was just no separation for about 37 minutes,” Musselman said. “I mean, it felt like it was gonna come down to the last possession to be honest.”

The Razorbacks are 11-3 since the start of the calendar year including wins over then-top-ranked Auburn in overtime, a No. 12 LSU squad and now No. 16 Tennessee. “We’re not always cosmetically pleasing offensively,” he said. “But, man, do we play hard. When I say we play hard I’m talking about the last month and a half.”

Life won’t get any easier for Musselman’s squad as they travel to Gainesville to take on the upset-minded Florida Gators, who just stunned Auburn 63-62 on their home floor. They follow that up with a matchup at home against No. 4 Kentucky to round out February, and will go on to close the season out against LSU and at Tennessee — all right before the SEC Tournament.

“Qe have four really difficult games,” Musselman said. “I think the biggest thing is keeping our composure every night, and whether we win, whether we have a setback, is to come back the next day and just try to get better for the stretch run in the SEC tournament, then, hopefully, postseason play after that.”