Arkansas taking aim at winning second SEC tourney crown
FAYETTEVILLE — University of Arkansas coach Eric Musselman said his team is still motivated to beat SEC opponents.
An 11-game winning streak in SEC play — the longest for the Razorbacks since they also won 11 in a row in 1994 en route to claiming the national championship — isn't enough.
“We want more with this team,” Musselman said. “We want more time with them, we want more games. We want more of everything.
“One of our themes is, ‘How do we come up with more?'”
Musselman and his coaching staff will have at least one more conference game with the No. 8 Razorbacks (21-5, 13-4) when Arkansas plays its SEC Tournament opener at 6 p.m. Friday in Nashville, Tenn., with a quarterfinal matchup against the winner of tonight's Missouri-Georgia game.
The Razorbacks are the No. 2 seed behind regular-season champion Alabama and are looking to win Arkansas' second SEC Tournament title.
“I think we're in a good spot,” Razorbacks senior guard Jalen Tate said. “We know we're trending in the right direction.
“You want to be playing your best basketball around this time of the year. I think we've been doing pretty good. Eleven straight isn't too bad.”
Arkansas has won 11 consecutive SEC games since losing at No. 6 Alabama 90-59 on Jan. 16, and eight in a row since losing at No. 12 Oklahoma State 81-77 on Jan. 30.
The Razorbacks beat Alabama 81-66 in a rematch in Walton Arena on Feb. 24, and also have beaten three other SEC teams projected to be in the NCAA Tournament field — Missouri, Florida and LSU — in their last seven games.
“You definitely want to keep this momentum going,” Tate said. “We want to play for championships. Now we have to go out here and do it in these next couple of tournaments, starting with this week.
“Take every single day as we have this entire season as its own day. Put in your own work. We're going to be in the gym every day leading up to it, and once we leave and we get there we're going to put all we have on the court and leave all we have on the court.”
Tate is the only member of the team who has won a conference tournament. He was MVP of the Horizon League Tournament last year when he led the Norse to the title.
“We're on a winning streak, so we wouldn't want to end that any time soon,” said Arkansas freshman guard Moses Moody, a first-team All-SEC pick. “We're competitors, so every time we step on the floor we're trying to win.”
The Razorbacks' lone SEC Tournament title came in 2000 when they beat Georgia, Kentucky, LSU and Auburn on four consecutive days. This season's team needs three victories to win the title.
“It would be huge,” Arkansas senior forward Justin Smith said of the possibility of winning the SEC Tournament.
“It would be a point of validation for our hard work over the season.
“It would show how far we've come as a group, and it would show the kind of damage we can do going forward. We're all working towards winning championships. To have the opportunity to do that is big time.”
The Razorbacks have been working on themselves this week along with prepping for Missouri (15-8, 8-8) and Georgia (14-11, 7-11) this week.
“This is like a self-scouting week, especially [Monday and Tuesday],” Musselman said. “It's a get-better week. How do we get better?”
Good question considering the Razorbacks haven't lost a game in February or March.
“I feel like I'm overly up front and honest with you guys, but that's one I'd like to withhold because I don't know who might watch this thing later on,” Musselman said on his Zoom conference with the media Tuesday. “So I don't want [Georgia] Coach [Tom] Crean or [Missouri] Coach [Cuonzo] Martin to watch it and for them to know what we think our holes are.
“We've got some holes, I can tell you that. But I'll probably just keep those between me and the guys.”
Missouri won 81-68 at Arkansas on Jan. 2 in the first of four games Smith missed after undergoing ankle surgery, and Tigers forward Jeremiah Tilmon had 25 points and 11 rebounds. It's the only home game the Razorbacks lost while going 16-1 in Walton Arena.
Smith had 19 points and six rebounds when Arkansas won 86-81 in overtime at Missouri on Feb. 13. Tilmon didn't play because of a death in the family.
Arkansas beat Georgia 99-69 on Jan. 9 in Walton Arena in the teams' only meeting this season.
“It's like we're rewiring the switchboard right now because we don't really know who we're playing, so how do get ready for both teams?” Musselman said. “We're not focused on one team.
“We took the top three players from each team [Monday]. We're looking at the top three sets from both teams, the top two baseline out-of-bounds plays, and then we're trying to mix in how we would look to attack offensively.”
Moody said playing in AAU tournaments in recent years prepared him for the uncertainty of opponents in the SEC Tournament.
“We played two, three games in a day,” Moody said. “You might not know who you were going to play in the next game. You might not even know until you came into the gym.
“So I just have that mentality still right now because I haven't really transitioned into being a vet in college this year. Me personally, it doesn't make any difference to me who we play. I'm just ready to play whoever steps out on the floor.”