Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Men top Texas Southern, 82-51, on coach’s birthday.
Hogs gift coach with 31-point win
FAYETTEVILLE — Official Chris Ford gave University of Arkansas Coach Eric Musselman something for his 55th birthday Tuesday night.
Musselman was presented his first technical foul at Arkansas.
The Razorbacks gave Musselman a present, too, as they beat Texas Southern 82-51 in Walton Arena before an announced crowd of 11,182.
Fans sang “Happy Birthday” to Musselman after the game. The players sang it as well to him in the locker room then ate cupcakes with the coaching staff.
“With a guy like Coach Muss, I wouldn’t want to lose on his birthday,” said Arkansas senior guard Jimmy Whitt, who had 17 points and a team-high 10 rebounds. “I don’t want to be in that practice that next day with a loss on his birthday. I think that gave us a little extra motivation.”
Musselman was called for a technical with 8:32 left — and Arkansas leading 67-37 — when he argued a foul call against Desi Sills.
“I didn’t think so,” Musselman said when asked whether he deserved a technical foul. “I’ve said a lot worse, but it is what it is. They got two free throws.”
Texas Southern Coach Johnny Jones — who as LSU’s coach hired Musselman as an assistant then was Musselman’s assistant at Nevada — joked about the technical foul.
“I’m sure I brought that out of him,” Jones said. “I wasn’t down there to grab him like normal to stop him from getting it.
“But he coaches with an edge. He loves his team, and he’s certainly going to work for them. Unfortunately
for him, the official probably thought he was working a little bit too hard. But he coaches with a great deal of passion.”
Whitt said Musselman’s technical didn’t faze the players.
“He’s just an intense guy,” Whitt said. “When you see a coach with that much passion, you’re just going to be more intense on the court.”
Sophomore guard Isaiah Joe led the Razorbacks (4-0) with 33 points — one less than his career-high 34 against Florida International last season.
After Joe went 2 of 13 from the field in Saturday’s 64-46 victory over Montana and was 1 of 7 in the first half on Tuesday night, he scored 29 points in the second half and shot 8 of 13 — including 6 of 9 on three-pointers and 7 of 9 on free throws.
It was the 123rd game in which a Razorback has scored 30 or more points.
“As well as [Joe] can shoot, you know it’s going to come on the back end,” Whitt said. “We all know he’s going to knock down threes. It’s sort of scary when a guy that good goes 0 for 5 [to start] because on the back end he might bust out for 29 points in the second half.
“It’s fun to play with him. It’s great to see him go out and do things like that. He’s a big-time scorer, big-time player, and moving forward that’s what we need from him.”
Joe finished 9 of 20 from the field, 6 of 14 on three-pointers and 9 of 11 on free throws. He was the only Razorback to hit a three-pointer — extending Arkansas’ streak of games with at least one from beyond the arc to 1,015 — with the rest of the team going 0 of 13.
Arkansas shot 0 of 13 on three-pointers in first half.
“That first half we were just so bad shooting the three ball,” Musselman said. “It’s like there was a lid on the basket.
“[Joe’s] the only one that hit [a three-pointer] for us, but it opened up the floor for everybody else.”
Jones credited the Razorbacks with continuing to find Joe in the second half.
“A lot of times you have a team with the lead and the other guys will get out of character and start getting shots, but they did a great job of going to him, getting the ball to him and he got some good looks,” Jones said. “He knocked down six there in the second half. Some of them were contested. But he’s an excellent shooter and can really create his shots as well. You have to give him credit for what he did.”
Whitt hit 8 of 13 shots — all of his attempts were inside the arc — and 1 of 2 free throws.
“I thought Jimmy’s midrange game was phenomenal,” Musselman said. “We don’t really run plays for Jimmy. We’ll run some post-up plays, two or three a game, but he’s just kind of backing his man down and elevating and shooting over the guy in that 8 to 12, 13-foot range.
“We need him to score easy baskets for us, because he shoots such a high percentage. Especially when we’re not making threes we need some mid-range stuff.”
Sills, a sophomore guard, scored 10 points. Razorbacks sophomore forward Reggie Chaney, making his season debut after serving a threegame suspension, had 6 points, 4 steals and 2 rebounds in 19 minutes off the bench.
“I thought for the first game back everybody has to find their groove and get into to it,” Whitt said Chaney’s game. “He played great minutes while he was out there.
“He helped us with a lot of size issues that we’ve had.
Down there he’s strong and can guard and can finish. He’s doing exactly what we need him to do and bringing that presence that we are going to need.”
Senior guard Tyrik Armstrong led Texas Southern (0-4) with 15 points. Senior forward Eden Ewing had nine points and six rebounds.
The Razorbacks outscored the Tigers 28-6 in points off of turnovers thanks to forcing 24 turnovers by Texas Southern while Arkansas had 10. The Razorbacks had 13 steals, including five by Joe.
“I just think having our hands active, not having our hands down, jabbing at the ball, anticipating and trying to beat the offense to its spots is a big key,” Musselman said of the turnover advantage. “I think we have some really good anticipation. Then when teams try to throw the ball into the paint, we do a great job of swarming and digging the ball out before a big can try to kick it out.”
Texas Southern became the first Arkansas opponent to score more than 50 points, but Musselman wasn’t complaining about allowing 51.
“Walking out the door my wife said, ‘Don’t let them score more than 55,’” Musselman said with a smile. “‘Or if they do, don’t come home.’ So we kept them under 55.”