Hogs at a crossroads after huge home loss

Eric Musselman was the first man in line to shake hands with the Auburn coaches and players.

If anyone could appreciate the way the Tigers had just played it would be Musselman, who saw a team attack the basket, make cuts and back cuts to get open and allow the isolation offense run to a 83-51 win in the famed Walton Arena, one of the toughest arenas in the country for an opposing team to get a win.

A record win, and it was the team wearing blue that played defense that challenged every shot, every dribble and every drop of sweat.

Auburn played Hogball on Saturday and they did it by playing what Musselman preaches every day: If the opponent is playing hard, you play harder.

Arkansas went the last 4:07 without a field goal, and it was just one of several scoring droughts.

Musselman, who primarily runs an eight-man rotation, played 13 guys Saturday trying to find a spark, a rebound or a loose ball.

Losing by 32 at home should be the hardest lesson this team of Razorbacks learns.

They are better than that. They did manage some pretty decent punches but Auburn answered every one of them.

In the second half, when it should have been the Razorbacks’ shining moments, the Tigers hit 19-31 from the field, including 5 of 8 three pointers, and outscored the home team 46-21.

Key stats were Auburn’s 46-32 rebounding edge, and 11 of those were offensive boards.

The Tigers had 7 turnovers and 16 assists where as the Razorbacks had 13 turnovers and 8 assists.

Auburn got 46 points from its bench and 48 in the paint, while Arkansas got 9 and 18 in those areas, respectively.

The biggest difference was the Tigers played defense like the game depended on it, and it usually does.

Arkansas is not a team that needs to shoot 24 three-pointers (they made seven, 29.2%) but that was what kept them in the game in the first half and for a little while in the second half.

The Razorbacks closed the deficit to 53-41 with 12:19 to play on three consecutive three-pointers, their last threes of the game as they were outscored 30-10 in the last 12 minutes.

The Hogs are better than that and Saturday should have been reinforcement of what Musselman and his staff have been teaching and preaching for long weeks.

Good defense makes your offense better.

There was an early indication of how this SEC opener was going to go when Arkansas scored 11 of its first-half points in less than 2 minutes on an 11-2 run, its first points of the game, to take a short lived lead, but for the most part Auburn dominated the pace, the paint and the backboards and led 37-30 at intermission.

The Tigers starters had only nine points at the break as Coach Bruce Pearl went to his bench early and often. Those guys responded with 28 first-half points while Arkansas got just five from its reserves which included Davonte Davis, who lost his start after being late for a function.

The senior still logged 15 minutes in the opening half, a 20-minute span that saw the Hogs trying to regain their three-point stroke when they hit 3 of 3, plus a dunk, in the 11-2 run.

Arkansas even struggled from the free-throw line in the early going, making just 8 of 15 from the line.

In the second half Auburn flexed its muscle so often that uncharacteristic of Davis he shoved a mouthy Auburn player to the floor.

That exemplified the frustration for the Razorbacks, who have a lot of basketball left but less time to learn how to play Hogball.

The better team won easily and handily Saturday, and it is now up to the Razorbacks to decide where they are going from here.