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Peaks and valleys. All teams go through them. It just so happens that Arkansas basketball is having the nadir of its season right now, just ahead of SEC play.
The Razorbacks badly need a victory over visiting Elon on Tuesday night at Bud Walton Arena. They’re reeling after two straight losses to Oklahoma and Hofstra on consecutive Saturdays. The most recent one against the Pride was especially discouraging given Hofstra’s below-.500 record against Division I opponents entering the game.
Elon plays in the CAA, the same conference in which Hofstra plays, and was, in fact, picked just one spot behind the Pride. But Elon’s season has gone even worse. The Phoenix have lost eight of their last nine games and have just one win over a DI opponent this year.
Arkansas coach Eric Musselman, usually upbeat in his press conferences, were more down-tempo on Monday as he previewed the Elon game. He made a point to note that both of Arkansas’ last two games were on the road and perhaps over-panicking at this juncture is just that: over-panicking.
“We were not in our home building and we lost those games and now we’ve got to figure out a way to get back on track,” he said. “Do we have a lot of work to do? Yes”
Musselman is still tinkering with his rotations. As he mentioned in the presser, neither guard Devo Davis or forward Jaylin Williams were significant contributors at this point last year, either. Now they’re two staples. Guard KK Robinson, a 3-point specialist, started and center Connor Vanover, who plays an average of 11 minutes a game, didn’t play.
“I think it’s easy to kind of ‘what about this, what about that,'” Musselman said. “The rotations and stuff, I have a pretty good staff with a lot of experience. I think its just continuing to try to tinker and toy.”
Expect that to continue Tuesday night and even into next week after Christmas as Arkansas prepares for Mississippi State to open SEC play
“I think (the Elon) game is a little bit more about us and us becoming better at what our core principles are on both sides of the ball,” Musselman said.