A Hogs win over Bama should silence Eric Musselman critics

If Arkansas were to walk into Tuscaloosa and beat Alabama, Eric Musselman’s critics would have to shut it.

On Friday, there was a measure of panic through the Arkansas fan base. Mostly toward Razorbacks Wire.

In our update of SEC basketball coaches on the hot seat, we ranked Musselman as eighth in the league when it comes to the league’s head men and their job security. The note being it was nonsensical of the fans – and you know them, you’ve seen them – who were calling for Eric Musselman’s job two weeks ago.

It was silly then. It’s silly now, especially with the Hogs on the verge of an NCAA Tournament berth, one they could all-but clinch with a win over Alabama on Saturday.

The Hogs are 19-9 and 8-7 in SEC play. Arkansas was set as a projected No. 8 seed in Joe Lunardi’s Bracketology at ESPN on Friday. A win over projected No. 1 overall seed Alabama would certainly boost that slotting and should be enough to clinch a berth.

There’s also a small chance Arkansas doesn’t make the NCAAs at all. A loss to Alabama, another at Tennessee next week and a finale loss to Kentucky at home might be enough to put the Hogs on the bubble. They’d be just 8-10 in league play and those teams have always found themselves on the NCAA Tournament bubble. The SEC Tournament would come into major play then.

But that’s the future. It might not even come to fruition. Not if Arkansas can beat the Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa. And Alabama is beatable. South Carolina, which is in 12th in the 14-team league, fell by just two earlier in the week.

And for 30 minutes against the Crimson Tide – sans Nick Smith Jr., who is now back – Arkansas went toe-to-toe with the top team in the country.

Musselman has gone to back-to-back Elite Eights. He knows how to finish. And doing it again should be enough to silence the crazies.

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