Eric Musselman: There's going to be changes for Arkansas amid struggles

Arkansas seemed to be figuring some things out following their rough, 1-3 stretch around the end of November. They had won two games in a row entering the weekend, including one in a Top-10 matchup with Duke. However, they followed that short-lived streak with a nine-point loss to Oklahoma in Tulsa on Saturday.

After the 79-70 defeat, Eric Musselman says the ‘Hogs are going to go back to the drawing board again. In a few different aspects, they aren’t playing up to the level of his other teams over his five years in Fayetteville. That means, with three games to go before conference play starts, he is willing to make any adjustments, as a team or individually, if he deems them as necessary to their success.

“The team, right now, is not playing with the same personality as our past teams the last four years,” said Musselman in his postgame press conference. “We’ve got to get a lot better.”

“I think we play three games in the next 20 days,” Musselman continued. “Rotations, roles, all of those things? There’s going to be some changes.”

Arkansas and Oklahoma went back and forth for the opening 16 minutes of the game. Then, from there, it was all Sooners inside the BOK Center. They would go on to take as much as a 19-point lead with a 14-2 run to end the first half and 12-1 run in the second half. That second burst put the game at a double-digit margin until the very final seconds of the game.

The Razorbacks did enough to get some stops in the game. They forced 15 turnovers, with 10 coming from steals, and blocking six shots. Even so, OU edged them out on the glass by eight rebounds and across the board in the scoring department both in the paint and from three.

It got so frustrating for Arkansas that Musselman himself watched most of the second half from the locker room after an ejection. Now, at 6-4, all he can do is take note of what didn’t work again and make whatever changes that he needs to ahead of their next game against Lipscomb next weekend.

“We’ll go back, we’ll watch the film,” said Musselman. “There’s a lot of things we have to clean up.”

Musselman goes off on officials, gets ejected vs. Oklahoma

Eric Musselman was ejected from Saturday’s loss against Oklahoma after an altercation with the officials.

Just as the game was about to go to the under-16 media timeout in the second half, the Razorbacks coach became irate on the sidelines. Musselman attempted to go after officials as players and other members of the coaching staff had to hold him back. The crew also assessed a technical foul to Sooners G Rivaldo Soares as a result.

Eric Musselman was NOT happy. pic.twitter.com/xPje91HIfg

— Mason Choate (@ChoateMason) December 9, 2023

This wasn’t the first time that Musselman took an ejection while facing Oklahoma. The officials also tossed him out of a 2021 matchup against the Sooners. Oklahoma woukd go on to win that game as well by 22.

Keith Smart went on to take over as the acting head coach.