Eric Musselman shares importance of building leads, getting swagger back

Arkansas got back on the right track with a vital, 78-77 win over Texas A&M on Tuesday. Eric Musselman knew how badly they needed it for their record but, also, how much his team needed it for their own confidence.

Musselman spoke about the feeling of his team’s first victory in conference play during his postgame press conference. Firstly, he joked about how well his team played by getting a 20-point lead in the first half. Secondly, though, he was glad to see the ‘Hogs finally play up to their potential by earning a significant lead.

“Where has this been?” laughed Musselman. “I mean, look, we led the whole game. Again, give them credit. They led for six seconds. But, for us? Forget Texas A&M. We needed to lead from start to finish in a game.

“I thought that we played great in the first half. I really did,” Musselman continued. “We came out of the jump ball with a team that looked like we had to win the game – which we had to win this game.”

Musselman thought Arkansas played better than they had for two reasons. For one, a return to Bud Walton Arena was much needed, especially after how their last game there went followed by two games on the road. However, for two, he thought a change in the lineup from their last loss to Florida got the attention of his roster.

“Different lineup? I thought that Joseph (Pinion) and Layden (Blocker) played really well last game,” explained Musselman. “I think that kind of put everybody on alert, so to speak, that you’ve got to play super, super hard. You’ve got to follow the game plan.

“I think those two guys playing well kind of helped some of the other guys, maybe, understand that I better play or I’m not going to get my minutes back,” Musselman added. “When you have guys that come off the bench that do that the prior game? I think it carried over tonight. I really did – guys understanding the urgency of them performing at a high level from an effort standpoint.”

The Razorbacks had been playing basketball that was around .500 since their first loss of the season. They’d take one step forward and two steps back with a 6-7 record from November 17th to January 13th.

However, the victory over the Aggies was more of what many expected from Arkansas this year. While the second half got dicey, they did enough, especially in the first half, to earn their first win of the new year that Tramon Mark put an exclamation point on with his game-winning jumper in the final moments.

Arkansas needed to feel like their old selves again after two months of so-so results. Now, with this win, they have rediscovered some of that identity by getting some of the strut back in their step as they move further into their league.

“When you lose like we have of late? Your confidence can get shaken. I mean, all over the locker room, there’s probably 40 signs in there that say ‘Bring Your Swagger Back'” said Musselman. “When we played Duke? We had swagger. We thought we were going to win the game. I know it’s an exhibition game, I know nobody wants to hear it. I’m going to say it even though nobody wants to hear it – we had swagger when we played Purdue.

“We need that back and the only way to truly, truly get it back is to play well.”