Razorbacks report
Muss says scheduling validated
FAYETTEVILLE — Four of the University of Arkansas basketball team’s nine nonconference opponents are joining the Razorbacks in the NCAA Tournament field.
Oklahoma State (20-8) is a No. 4 seed and will play Liberty. The Cowboys beat Arkansas 81-77 in Stillwater, Okla., in the Big 12/SEC Challenge for the Razorbacks’ only nonconference loss.
Three teams the Razorbacks beat at home — North Texas, Oral Roberts and Abilene Christian — won the Conference USA, Summit League and Southland Conference tournaments, respectively, to earn automatic NCAA Tournament bids.
“The people that had negative thoughts on the nonconference schedule, I know exactly who they are,” Arkansas Coach Eric Musselman said. “Obviously they didn’t do their homework — at all.”
Colgate (14-1), which plays Arkansas at 11:45 a.m. Friday in Indianapolis, also qualified for the NCAA Tournament automatically by winning the Patriot League Tournament.
“I think the bottom line is when your staff has got a spreadsheet that’s got 100 teams, what you’re trying to do is find teams that can win their conference tournament,” Musselman said of how the nonconference schedule was put together. “When you’re at a place like Nevada, that’s the way to get an at-large bid.”
Musselman coached at Nevada for four seasons and took the Wolf Pack to three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances from 2017-19 — including two at-large bids — before coming to Arkansas last season.
“I think the natural thing at a Power 5 is to just schedule other Power 5 teams and get two or three of those [guarantee] games,” Musselman said. “To think that we had nine nonconference games, and four of those teams are in this tournament … then you add in the fact that we wanted to play some instate schools and we were able to [against the University of Central Arkansas].”
Anthony Ruta, Arkansas’ director of basketball operations, leads the nonconference scheduling efforts.
“We had a really good nonconference schedule,” Musselman said. “I thought the crew that does all that really spent a long time and did a great job on it.”
Arkansas beat North Texas 69-54, Oral Roberts 87-76 and Abilene Christian 85-72.
North Texas (17-9) is a No. 13 seed and plays Purdue; Oral Roberts (16-10) is a No. 15 seed and plays Ohio State; and Abilene Christian (23-4) is a No. 14 seed and plays Texas.
Still top 10
Arkansas (22-6) dropped two spots to No. 10 in the final Associated Press poll of the season released Monday.
The Razorbacks were No. 8 last week before going 1-1 in the SEC Tournament, where they beat Missouri 70-64 and lost to LSU 78-71.
Arkansas is ranked in the top 10 going into the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1995 when the defending champion Razorbacks were No. 6. They got back to the title game before losing to No. 1 UCLA 89-78.
Short-term memory
The Razorbacks were down Saturday after LSU ended their SEC winning streak at 12 games, but seeing themselves on the NCAA Tournament selection show Sunday helped them quickly flush their first conference loss in two months.
“We’ve got to have shortterm memory,” Arkansas freshman guard Moses Moody said. “We’re forward-thinking and getting ready for the next opponent.
“We’re going to learn from that loss, not completely forget about it. We’ve got to know what we did wrong in that loss, critique it and be ready for the next competition.”
In-room biking
Eric Musselman loves to work out, but because of NCAA Tournament safety protocols for covid-19, a team’s coaching staff, players and support staff are supposed to stay sequestered in their hotel rooms this week.
To make sure Musselman can maintain his morning workout regime, he said he’ll ride a stationary bike brought on the trip by Dave Richardson, the Razorbacks’ strength and conditioning coach.
“I’m fortunate that Coach Richardson brought a bike here that I can put in my room and just pedal away,” Musselman said. “I’m pedaling and watching some game tape because I can’t leave my room. What better way than to burn calories and watch Colgate.”