Eric Musselman on Arkansas' success in paint against Missouri: 'It was a mandate'

There was no way around it: Arkansas absolutely had to beat Missouri on the road Wednesday night, and they achieved that goal with a very direct plan of attack.

Eric Musselman said after the high-scoring 91-84 victory that the Razorbacks had one major focus on the offensive side, and that was to pound the basketball into the paint to take advantage of Mizzou’s much smaller front-court. After averaging 20 3-point attempts over the last three games, the Hogs changed gears completely and hammered the Tigers in the paint, and Musselman was thrilled afterwards.

“More than a point of emphasis. It was a mandate to score in what we call zone one. If you settled for 3s tonight you were probably going to come out and go not go back in,” he commented when asked about the change in offensive philosophy after the game.

That threat certainly resonated with Arkansas, as they only got up six threes the entire night, making four of them. Even with such a high percentage, the Razorbacks didn’t fall in love with their jumper and shot 55 times inside the arc, converting 29 for 52.7% shooting.

With this momentous win plus a competitive outing vs. a top-10 Kentucky team last Saturday, Eric Musselman is proud of his group’s last two performances.

“This Razorbacks basketball team, for the last 80 minutes of play, has played good basketball. Tonight, to go on the road and lead for 37 minutes is really, really hard to do.”

What Muss saw was a reversion to the level of play and intensity Arkansas has had on both sides of the ball in the more successful seasons of recent years.

“Really proud of us offensively scoring 47 and 44 in the two halves. Defensive activity is where it needs to be with 10 steals,” he added. “This group tonight played like teams of the past: creating steals, jumping in passing lanes, sharing the basketball. Super proud of the 40-minute effort tonight.”

Now, the Hogs just need to start stacking those type of games (and wins) to get back into NCAA Tournament contention.