Tag: Arkansas Texas A&M

Everything Eric Musselman said after Arkansas beat Texas A&M

Arkansas was without three key rotation players and beat Texas A&M on the road, showing what the Hogs are capable of.

The Arkansas basketball team’s turn toward decency appears to have come too late in the season to save Eric Musselman’s NCAA Tournament streak.

But at least it has come.

The Razorbacks beat Texas A&M, 78-71, on Tuesday to take both games in the season series against the Aggies. Arkansas’ win was only its fourth in SEC play this season, though three have have come in the last handful of games.

Musselman is as happy with his team right now as he has been all season. After Tuesday’s win, he said the last 100 minutes or so of basketball – not counting the second half against Tennessee – have been the sharpest his team has looked since Christmas.

Arkansas’ win put the Hogs back at .500 on the season, which is hardly where the team expected to be when the year began. But Musselman said he feels that with the way his players have been treating practices lately combined with largely improved results in games, the Razorbacks can bring legitimacy back to the program in the final few weeks.

Here’s what Musselman had to say Tuesday.

Mitchell & Mark lead Arkansas to inexplicable sweep of Texas A&M

Makhi Mitchell scored a career high and Tramon Mark joined him in the over-20 club as Arkansas swept Texas A&M.

Makhi Mitchell has never played college basketball as well as he’s played college basketball over the last three weeks.

The Arkansas basketball team’s graduate senior scored a career-high 22 points to lead the Razorbacks to a 78-71 win over Texas A&M on Tuesday. Mitchell has scored in double figures in six of his last seven games as Arkansas has gone 3-3 in its last six.

Tuesday’s win over the Aggies also provided the Razorbacks (13-13, 4-9 SEC) with a season sweep over A&M. The result is unusual considering the Aggies entered the game as a projected No. 10-seed in the NCAA Tournament. Both teams were projected to finish in the top five in the SEC before the season.

Texas A&M (15-11, 6-7) didn’t lead in the second half, but pulled as close as three at the final media timeout. Straight back from commercial, Tramon Mark buried a 3-pointer with 2:18 left and made the ensuing free throw to build Arkansas’ lead back to two possessions. The Aggies wouldn’t come within one possession again.

Mitchell scored 10 points by halftime as he and Khalif Battle (10 points) helped the Hogs to a four-point lead at the break. The margin was hardly enough to put Texas A&M away, though.

Arkansas took the game’s first double-digit lead with less than six minutes to play as the Aggies went cold. Texas A&M was in the midst of a stretch in which it shot 1 of 9 from the floor as the Hogs upped the pressure on a home team that could ill-afford a loss.

The key for the Razorbacks was defense. Texas A&M’s guard duo of Tyrese Radford and Wade Taylor combined for 23 points but on 8 of 28 shooting. As a team, the Aggies shot just 33% from the floor.

Mitchell finished with a double-double, chipping in 13 rebounds. He was joined in double figures scoring by Tramon Mark (28), who scored 22 in the second half, and Battle, who finished with 13.

Arkansas is back at Bud Walton Arena on Saturday to host Missouri, a team the Razorbacks beat in Columbia on January 31.

Hogs given less than 10% chance to beat Texas A&M

Arkansas has been dreadful on the road this year. ESPN’s BPI doesn’t see that changing Tuesday.

The Arkansas basketball team can still finish its SEC season without a losing record in conference.

The Razorbacks just can’t lose again.

With six games left, the task is tall, nigh impossible. If the Hogs fall to Texas A&M on Tuesday down in College Station, Arkansas will have clinched a second straight losing season in SEC play for the first time since 2018-19 and 2019-20. Those seasons correspond to Mike Anderson’s last year as head coach and Eric Musselman’s first year.

ESPN’s Basketball Power Index isn’t giving Arkansas much of a shot to avoid such a fate. The BPI provides Texas A&M with a 90% chance of victory when the two teams meet Tuesday. Arkansas did win the first meeting between the two by a point back on January 16. The Hogs have won just two games since.

Arkansas went 8-10 in SEC play last year but made the NCAA Tournament by virtue of a strong results in nonconference play. The only Dance-building win this year came against Duke, which while a high-quality win, is not bolstered by anything else of note.

If Arkansas were to fail to win any of its final six SEC games, the Razorbacks would finish with their worst league record since 2008-09 when they went 2-14.

Behind the box: Arkansas’ luck holds as ref show overshadows

Tramon Mark and Wade Taylor did something no other two players have combined to do this year. And it was overshadowed by officiating.

Doug Shows is not a popular name in the state of Arkansas. And even after his officiating crew provided a big reason for the Razorbacks’ win Wednesday, no one who cheers for the Hogs will see it that way.

The truth is Arkansas needed the officials – and a lot more – to celebrate after the game against Texas A&M. Tramon Mark’s buzzer-beating fadeaway provided the game-winner in a 77-76 victory.

From tip to jubilation lasted about 2 hours, 40 minutes. Fifty foul calls will do that. Not that they were all in Arkansas’ favor. The ejection of guard Devo Davis in the second half was understandable, but a bit iffy.

Still, little of it matters except that ‘W.’ Let’s take a closer look at how it happened as we go Behind the Box.

Everything Eric Musselman said after Arkansas beat Texas A&M at buzzer

Tramon Mark finally let Arkansas coach Eric Musselman smile in his post-game press conference.

Arkansas coach Eric Musselman wanted to see heart. He wanted to see fire.

He might have preferred more attractiveness, too, but that old phrase about beggars and chooses is apt.

His Razorbacks weren’t pretty Wednesday, but they didn’t have to be. They snapped a three-game losing streak to start SEC play by beating Texas A&M, one of the league favorites at the beginning of the season to revive hopes in Fayetteville.

Arkansas’ defense was especially good. Or maybe the Aggies were suffering the effects of the wind chilld. Texas A&M shot just 32% from the floor, a statistic Musselman attributed to changing approaches on the Aggies’ two stars.

But it was Tramon Mark who was the real reason Arkansas picked up its first SEC win. He scored 35 points, including a fadeaway from the game-winner at the buzzer, to keep Arkansas’ hopes alive.

Here’s everything Musselman had to say after the game.

Hideous and long, but a win: Hogs back from the dead against Texas A&M

Tramon Mark buried a fadeaway at the buzzer to lift Arkansas over Texas A&M in a hideous game.

Wade Taylor’s career night ended Arkansas’ season.

Basically.

Tramon Mark saved the day.

Seconds after Wade Taylor  buried a 3-pointer while falling with 7.6 seconds left to give the Aggies their first lead of the night, 77-76, Mark responded with a fadeaway in the lane give Arkansas a 78-77 win.

It capped an otherwise hideous night inside Bud Walton Arena in which eight official reviews took place. Officials called 50 fouls. Arkansas needed nearly 10 minutes to make their first field goal of the second half. Texas A&M shot 32%. An 8 p.m. tip ended at 10:43 p.m.

Mark was the whole reason Arkansas won. He scored 35 points on 8 of 15 shooting and a 17-of-22 mark from the free-throw line.

Arkansas needed every bit of it as the Aggies, one of the best rebounding teams in the nation, almost had as many offensive boards as the Hogs had total. A&M turned those second-chances into 25 points to stick around despite that 32%.

Taylor was the only Aggies player who could get going. He scored a career-high 41 points, including a 3-pointer with about 1:30 left that pulled Texas A&M back within three points. About 40 seconds later, he tied the game at the rim to cap an 11-1 run.

The Razorbacks are back at home Saturday against South Carolina. Arkansas owns a three-game winning streak against the Gamecocks.

Arkansas vs. Texas A&M: How to watch, stream, listen, key players

Arkansas basketball is back at home to face Texas A&M on Tuesday night. Here’s how you can watch, listen and stream all of the action.

[autotag]Arkansas basketball[/autotag] (9-7, 0-3 SEC) is in desperation mode as they welcome a tough Texas A&M (10-6, 1-2 SEC) team to Bud Walton Arena.

Neither team is exactly setting the world on fire to begin conference play, but the Aggies are fresh off an impressive upset over Kentucky this past weekend. It’s a far cry from where [autotag]Eric Musselman[/autotag]’s Hogs are at, limping into this one as losers of their first three SEC games in disappointing fashion.

Concerns are mounting for the Razorbacks, who have yet to develop an identity of any kind, and whose NCAA Tournament hopes are nothing more than a pipe dream as of now. Sure, Arkansas has started out slow in conference play before under Musselman. However, this time feels different.

This team has yet to look competent or competitive in two of these first three SEC contests, and their effort in the loss to Georgia wasn’t exactly inspiring. In years past, the Razorbacks have at least shown flashes of being capable of something special. This team has yet to do that.

If they’re going to prove everyone wrong and begin another impressive run into March, it needs to start tonight at home against Texas A&M.

Here’s how you can catch all of the action between the Hogs and Aggies from Fayetteville.

Even at home, Arkansas has less than 35% chance to beat Texas A&M

Arkansas doesn’t need to worry about the NCAA Tournament. The Hogs need to worry about the cellar of the SEC.

Eric Musselman has had skids like this before. Arkansas has had plenty of losing streaks similar to the one its dealing with now even before Musselman became coach.

But a loss Tuesday against Texas A&M, which would be the team’s fourth straight, would all but serve as the nadir of the season. Arkansas would be all but officially eliminated from NCAA Tournament possibilities if it were to lose to the Aggies.

And, according to ESPN, the Hogs have just a 34% chance of coming up with the win.

Arkansas started SEC play last year with a record of 1-5 and ended up in the Sweet 16. But that team had lost just one nonconference game and it was to the then-No. 10 team in the country. These Razorbacks are just two games above .500, period.

The Aggies are rising, as well. A preseason Top-25 team, Texas A&M fell out of the rankings in the fall with losses to Florida Atlantic, Memphis, Houston and Virginia. LSU and Auburn then beat A&M to start SEC play. But a win over Kentucky last time out has the Aggies playing again like they were expected.

Arkansas, meanwhile? It’s must-win time.

Behind the Numbers: Did Arkansas get dominated by Texas A&M?

The numbers paint a disappointing picture for Arkansas in their 34-22 loss to Texas A&M on Saturday.

Saturday afternoon’s loss to Texas A&M marked the third-straight loss of Arkansas football’s season.

Unlike the first two losses of the year, though, this one felt different. Aside from a couple of brief moments in the second half, the Aggies were in firm control for the majority the contest.

The offense couldn’t get anything going on the ground or through the air, the defense wasn’t able to consistently slow down [autotag]Bobby Petrino[/autotag]’s offensive onslaught and, as the cherry on top, special teams allowed a punt return touchdown.

It was an incredibly disappointing finish for those fans who made the trip to AT&T Stadium in Arlington. Does that warrant calls for Sam Pittman’s job? That’s a conversation for a different day.

For now, let’s take a closer look at the numbers from Arkansas’ 34-22 loss to the Aggies and see just how bad things are right now.

KJ Jefferson’s record-breaking day overshadowed by Hogs’ poor performance

Much like the man whose records he broke, KJ Jefferson’s three years as starter are going the way of Matt Jones’.

KJ Jefferson deserved better than to go out like this.

The fifth-year senior quarterback at Arkansas set two Razorbacks records Saturday in the team’s 34-22 loss to Texas A&M and a season that could have cemented Jefferson’s legacy as perhaps the best quarterback in school history, is trending toward being remembered as a massive disappointment.

Not of Jefferson’s doing, mind you, but it will be years before the thing most remembered about Saturday’s game was Jefferson’s setting of the school’s career touchdown and career yardage marks. Heading into Week 6, Jefferson has 8,408 yards of total offense and 78 touchdowns.

Incidentally, the Mississippi native seems to be on-pace with the guy whom he passed, Matt Jones. Arkansas went 9-4, 9-5 and 5-6 in his three years as starter. Arkansas went 9-4, 7-6 and to-be-determined in Jefferson’s three years a primary starter. Jones’ first two seasons are fondly remembered before the final was considered a disappointment, too, much the way Jefferson’s is trending.

Arkansas still has time to fix things, certainly, with the team just a game below .500. But considering Week 6 is at an Ole Miss team that just beat an LSU bunch that Arkansas lost to and Week 7 is the deadly trip to Alabama, the odds of the Razorbacks snapping their three-game losing streak soon are limited.

Still, if Jefferson can stay upright – Arkansas 18 sacks allowed rank the Razorbacks ahead of just eight teams in FBS – lemonade is still in the recipe book.