Eric Musselman reveals how he's handling recent Arkansas struggles

Arkansas is now 12-5 on the season but just 1-4 in SEC play, having lost three games in a row. These are struggles that every team goes through at one point or another. Still, they’re frustrating and head coach Eric Musselman needs to find a way to lead Arkansas through those troubles.

While speaking to the media ahead of the Missouri game, Musselman explained how he’s been handling these recent struggles.

“You just got to try to coach your team every possession and practice and every minute,” Eric Musselman said. “You know, you got to continue to tinker. I mean, you can’t just, you can’t keep doing the same thing as a player or as a coaching staff.”

Eric Musselman came to Arkansas in 2019. Since then, he’s led Arkansas to the Elite Eight twice. It’s been a great run and most people expect that run to continue. Prior to coming to Arkansas, he led Nevada to three NCAA Tournament appearances in four seasons and was briefly the Golden State Warriors and Sacramento Kings head coach.

“You know, I think that’s been something that’s been very successful in the past is continuing to try to figure out who we are.”

One of the issues that Arkansas has had this season is injuries. Trevon Brazile tore his ACL. Then, it was announced that freshman phenom Nick Smith is likely going to miss the rest of the season with his own injury.

“But, again, we spent a whole summer going in one direction, and then, unfortunately for everybody, is the injuries and so we’re an offseason and first eight-ten games, we’ve lost all that for what this roster is right now,” Musselman continued.

“So, we’re still trying to figure all that out. We’re a sport where we have five players on the floor and not having two dominant players that we spent a lot of time on has affected the team, but our job as players and coaching staff is continue to try and figure out what puts us in the best position to win a game.”

In SEC play this season, Arkansas has allowed an average of 76.2 points per game, while the Razorbacks are only averaging 68.6 points per game. Arkansas is looking to bounce back against Missouri on Wednesday, the only SEC team that the Razorbacks have defeated this season.

Eric Musselman is frustrated with Arkansas’ defensive intensity

One of the key reasons Arkansas has struggled recently is its poor defensive performances. These performances and the Razorback’s defensive intensity are frustrating Eric Musselman.

“We didn’t play with defensive intensity at all. I mean to have a team go 18-26 in the second half from the field? It’s a lot of firsts that I’m experiencing as well,” Musselman said.

“You’ve got to play harder. You’ve got to keep a guy in front of you, you’ve got to defend at a high level. The staff has to do a better job as well across the board.”