Eric Musselman says Arkansas is not a three-point shooting team

Arkansas‘ 62-56 loss to Texas A&M Wednesday night marked the third SEC road game this season where the Razorbacks lead by double-digits and still lost.

Head coach Eric Musselman was critical of his team’s shooting performance against the Aggies, pointing out the 31.3 percent (5-16) shooting mark from behind the arc. Living and dying by the trey can’t be this Arkansas team’s MO, Musselman said.

“I don’t think we’re a 3-point shooting team. We went 1 of 10 from 3 in the second half. Paint points are what we live on. Free throws-attempted are what we live on. That was an issue,” Musselman said after the loss. “Sharing the ball wasn’t an issue. It’s frustrating.

“I thought we had a really good game plan. I thought we followed it perfectly in the first half. The game gets close and we have to be able to counter whenever a team makes a run. We led the game for 31 minutes on the road and we’re unable to close the game out.”

Four of the five Arkansas 3-pointers were made by Davonte Davis, who finished with 14 points and three assists in the loss. Three of those were made in the first half as the Hogs took a nine-point lead into halftime before TAMU ended up outscoring Arkansas 38-23 in the game’s final 20 minutes.

The loss drops the Razorbacks to 6-7 in conference play, good for ninth overall in the SEC while the Aggies stand just one game back from Alabama for the top spot in the conference standings. Despite their poor conference record, Arkansas is currently a nine-seed in the NCAA Tournament at No. 36 overall, according to ESPN Bracketology expert Joe Lunardi.

Arkansas will be back in action Saturday afternoon inside Bud Walton Arena when the Hogs take on Florida at 2 p.m. ET live on ESPN2.