Musselman concerned Arkansas will be rusty after weeklong break

(Photo by Wesley Hitt/Getty Images)

Arkansas’ game vs. Texas A&M on Saturday was postponed due to positive tests in the Aggies’ program, leaving Eric Musselman’s squad with nothing to do but practice. In a Zoom call with reporters Saturday, Musselman expressed concern that his team will be rusty vs. Kentucky on Tuesday due to the weeklong break between games.

“A thousand percent [I’m worried about rust]. We’re healthy in the pandemic sense, so when you are, you want to play. We did everything we could from our end to play a game today, even with all the injuries. It would have been a great time for someone to play us today. It would have been great because I don’t know who we’ve got available today in practice but unfortunately it didn’t happen. So yeah, I am concerned because we’re a little bit out of rhythm, not playing a game.”

Several Razorbacks are battling injuries, including Justin Smith (ankle), Jaylin Williams (knee), Desi Sills (stinger), and leading scorer Moses Moody (ankle). If Arkansas had played Saturday, Musselman believes Sills and Williams would have been out, while Smith and Moody would have been able to play. The game cancellation means a few extra days to heal up, but Musselman is still worried about preparation.

“I’m a little concerned just with our rhythm of not playing today. We’re not able to scrimmage with all of the bang-ups that we have and injuries, so I can’t go simulate a game today with our players because we just don’t have enough able bodies, so guys that are sitting out when we do our drills and our Kentucky specialty stations, yeah, I’m concerned that they’re not getting live action against that stuff.”

When it comes to Kentucky, Musselman had plenty of praise for the Cats’ defense, particularly at the rim.

“I think Kentucky’s capable of beating any team in the country. They’re long. They’re athletic. They’re excellent shot blockers. They play hard. They’re really hard to score on. Their defense is really, really good. They do a great job of protecting the rim.”

“The post-ups are always a concern because they’ve got really good length around the rim,” Musselman added. “Transition defense. You want to get back and limit their transition baskets. BJ Boston does a great job of kind of bending screens. They run a lot of down pins to try to get their shooters. He does a good job of semi-curling for his mid-range jump shot, so I guess those are some of the things. Askew they’ll put in some pick and rolls. Olivier Sarr is a pretty good passer when you do come down there and double team. Those are some of the things we’ve discussed.”

As we’re all too aware, Kentucky has lost more than its fair share of close games this year. The Cats are 351st out of the 357 teams in college basketball in “luck,” per KenPom.com, which is defined as the deviation in winning percentage between a team’s actual record and their expected record. Musselman said that’s proof the Cats have the talent to win on any given night.

“I have great respect for Kentucky. They’ve had a lot of close games that could have gone either way. They’re a young and with young teams, sometimes that happens. But they’re overly, overly talented. They’re very well coached. Like I said, defensively, how do you score against them is something you’ve got to talk about. They’ve got some really gifted individual offensive players and again, when you watch them every night, they’re in every game.”

Even though the Cats are struggling, Musselman said the name of the front of the jersey still trumps the 5-12 record.

“When you say the word ‘Kentucky’ I don’t have to oversell their talent. I don’t have to oversell how hard it is to go in their building and win. Our players are smart; they understand that. They understand the level of McDonald’s All-Americans or the level of their talent so I think from that aspect it may be different but as far as the number of baseline out-of-bounds plays that we’re defending, the number of halfcourt plays that we’re defending and the themes that we’re trying to come up with with their top three or four players, I think all of those things remain very very consistent in our approach.”

[ArkansasRazorbacks.com]