What Arkansas coach Eric Musselman said about No. 9 Tennessee after 92-63 loss to the Vols

What Arkansas head coach Eric Musselman said about No. 9 Tennessee after his team’s 92-63 loss to the Vols Wednesday night Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville:

What went wrong in the second half

“We gave up 46 points. So defensively, not much different. Not good either half defensively. Tennessee, more physical than us, created more turnovers. The points off turnovers was a killer. We’ve talked about our inability at times to take care of the basketball. Live-ball turnovers was a huge, huge problem tonight. Tennessee had a better competitive spirit that was plain to see. 

“And now the schedule hasn’t done us any favors. I mean, now we’re the last SEC game on a Wednesday night, Mississippi State has off and we go there (on Saturday). So it’s the second time it’s happened to us in the last couple weeks. No excuses. It’s a schedule we have. But not easy knowing again, why we couldn’t play on a Tuesday. Not sure why we’re the last game on Wednesday and then have another early game, not a late game on Saturday. So a very, very quick turnaround for our team. 

“And we got to draw free throws attempted. That’s our game is getting to the foul line. Tennessee’s a very physical team. Tennessee opponents, I think in SEC play average over 22 free throws attempted tonight. We get 15. We had a goal of trying to get there to 30. We thought that was a realistic goal. We got half of those. So either we got to do a better job, I guess, playing through contact or initiating contact. Because that was a big part of the game plan and we were unable, uh, to get free throws attempted.”

Jonas Aidoo scoring 23 points and grabbing 12 rebounds for Tennessee

“He’s phenomenal. He keeps getting better, you know, like what, what you want to see out of players is his player improvement. And you can tell he gets in the gym, his midrange shot (is) so much improved. He can make that shot. He’s big, he’s physical. He ducks in. I think he’s, again, like I said, I think he’s one of the most improved players, um, that our league has. Uh, He’s a big who rebounds the ball plays really, really, really hard. 

“I thought that really Aidoo and (Jordan) Gainey were the two differences in the game. And Gainey had 17 points in 16 minutes off the bench and hit two of their five threes. I thought we actually guarded a lot of their really, really good shooters from deep well. I mean, Zeigler is a guy that can make threes. Vescovi and Zeigler were 1 of 6. That was a big part of the game plan. We did a good job defending those guys. Dalton Knecht is a guy that I think had seven or six or seven threes in his last game that he made between Zeigler and, and Vescovi and Dolton Knecht. If you would’ve told me that they would only make two threes and we would lose by this many, I would’ve said there’s no possible way, but there is a possible way.” 

Tennessee scoring 48 points in the paint

“I thought they got whatever they wanted in the paint tonight. I thought that hard post up and physical post up and they established post position. And when you catch the ball that deep, it’s pretty hard to stop somebody.” 

Tennessee shooting it so well as a team against Arkansas

“I think they’re ranked eighth in the country. They can do that to a lot of people. And they have done that to a lot of people. And we didn’t play hard enough in the second half defensively, plain and simple. And in the first half I thought we worked, they just got really good players and it was a six-point game at halftime.”

How good he thinks this Tennessee team is and can be, if the Vols have Final Four potential

“Well, on a night like tonight, you’d think they’re as good as anybody in the country. I mean, this league is loaded. That team’s really well coached. A their competitive spirits is as good as any team that we’ve played. And they were coming off a loss. And we tried to tell our guys what they would be like when you’re ranked eighth in the country and you come off a loss. They’re really good. I don’t know what else to tell you.They just beat us by 29 points. They’re pretty damn good basketball team.” 

Arkansas guard El Ellis

What happened in the second half

“I would just say we just got to play a lot harder. We had it at six at half. We just let it go. And frustrating. Had a well played performance last game and come out and play the way we did tonight. So I would just say like in the second half stretches like that, man, we just really got play harder.” 

Tennessee scoring 48 points in the paint

“Their bigs are really good at sealing the drive and ducking in hard. And they just get easy points based off of that. So I would just say just got to try to front, get around and do the best we can. But they’re a really good team when it comes to front and seal the drive getting low, post position.”

Facing Tennessee’s Dalton Knecht

“He’s a good player, scores at three levels, three balls, midrange, get to the rim. But I would say, we just got to be tougher with him. Got to be more physical. But he played really well. He’s a really good player.”

How Tennessee compares to other ranked teams Arkansas has faced 

“I would say they’re one of the best teams that we played, as a ranked team. They’re physical, they play together, they move the ball, they’re well-coached, they have a really good surrounding guys, players. So I feel like that’s one of the best teams that we’re played this season.”