HawgBeat - Thoughts from Arkansas' crushing loss to No. 25 Auburn
HawgBeat provides notes, quotes, thoughts, stats, observations and more from Arkansas loss to Auburn.
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HawgBeat's Mason Choate and Riley McFerran provide thoughts, notes, stats, analytics and more from Arkansas largest home loss in Bud Walton Arena history — an 83-51 crushing defeat against No. 25 Auburn in the conference opener on Saturday.
Box Score
Largest loss in Bud Walton Arena history
The 32-point margin was the largest margin of defeat the Razorbacks have ever had at Bud Walton Arena. The previous high was a 30-point loss to Florida in 2012.
"That’s a pretty bold statement," head coach Eric Musselman said postgame. "And it’s factual. I don’t know what it means to that locker room. I know what it means to me. I know the history of this program. I have incredible respect for everybody that’s coached here, everybody that’s played here. That’s a ‘wow’ statement."
The loss dropped Arkansas from 58th to 73rd nationally on KenPom, which now has the Razorbacks projected to finish with a 16-15 overall record.
"This team has not resembled what we’ve built the last four years from a competitive standpoint, from a defensive standpoint, from a loose-ball getting standpoint," Musselman said. "So what are we going to do? We’ve got to try to figure it out as much as we can. Guys got opportunities and didn’t seize the opportunities. We had 165 passes when our goal is 200. Again, we built something that I thought was really special. And this group of guys has not carried on the tradition. So we’ve got to try to continue to get as best we can with the group that we’ve got right now."
While it was just the first game of SEC play, this Arkansas team has been showing signs of trouble for a while now. Four non-conference losses, including a bad home loss to UNC Greensboro on Nov. 17, already had the team in a bad spot, but a 32-point loss at home to anyone isn't going to do anything to help the resume.
"I've coached a long time," Musselman said. "I don't remember a home game like this ever since I've been coaching, whether it's the minor leagues or whatever. We had people that paid good money to come to the game. We had people that drove far. It's basically a filled up building."
New-look starting lineup...again?
Everyone in Bud Walton Arena was probably scratching their head when Arkansas' starting lineup was announced.
Not only did forward Jalen Graham earn his first start as a Hog, but the Razorbacks trotted out two additional forwards with him in Chandler Lawson and Trevon Brazile.
In true Musselman fashion, the starting lineup didn't last very long. Lawson was subbed out at the 17:21 mark after committing a personal foul for Davonte Davis, who didn't start because he was late to a team function according to the TV broadcast.
It's not uncommon for Musselman to tinker with lineups throughout the early-goings of a season, but this level of inconsistency doesn't bode well considering the Hogs have started conference play.
Knowing Musselman, he'll eventually figure out the right rotation to turn Arkansas back into the same winning program that's made three straight Sweet 16's. For now, though, a lot of issues need to be fixed — lineups included.
"Yeah, well when the games happen there’s toughness, will to win, there’s a whole bunch of stuff that goes into a game that maybe don’t come open in a practice type situation," Musselman said. Again extremely disappointed in our collective effort tonight.
"I don’t know really what else to say other than not only do we have to improve a lot. We have to improve in a lot of areas. Understanding the margin of winning, we don’t have enough guys who understand that at all."
What happened to Khalif Battle?
It wasn't that long ago that Battle was dropping 20-point games on back-to-back nights and leading the Hogs in scoring. However, in three of his last four matchups, the Temple transfer hasn't eclipsed the five-point mark.
Battle has displayed a bad habit of driving to the rim and forcing bad shots instead of attempting passes out to the perimeter.
That level of inefficiency — and the emergence of guard Keyon Menifield Jr. — has resulted in less playing time for Battle.
In 16:49 minutes of game action against the Tigers, Battle finished with four points on 1-4 shooting, two rebounds and a turnover. He was also just 2-4 on free throw attempts.
Arkansas needs Battle to be the guy that hits contested shots around the rim and drains soul-crushing three pointers. Until he gets back to doing that at a consistent level, the Razorbacks' ceiling will be handicapped in a major way.
Uncharacteristic defense
Arkansas' best teams have been characterized by elite defense, dating all the way back to Nolan Richardson's "40 Minutes of Hell."
The Musselman era has also been defined by defense, but this season has been an exception. In the three seasons the Hogs have made the Sweet 16 under Musselman (2021-23), Arkansas finished the year with an adjusted defensive rating of 89.6 (10th), 90.4 (11th) and 94.0 (17th) according to Kenpom, respectively. As of now, the Razorbacks rank 96th in the country with a rating of 101.2.
"We struggled everywhere defensively," Musselman said. "We’ve struggled on pick-and-rolls. Your shot selection has a lot to do with your transition defense. So, I mean… When you lose by 30, we could go all the way around the room and each of you could pick a different area and you would all be right. We stunk in all areas."
The first half of the game wasn't all that bad for the Hogs. Arkansas held star Auburn center Johni Broome to zero points, but he exploded for 14 in the second half as Auburn's second-leading scorer.
"I mean, transition defense, what about Johni Broome in the second half — I could go on and on," Musselman said. "Yeah, we stunk. We gotta get a lot better to even survive in this league. We’ve got to get a lot better. We’ve got to be a lot more competitive. So, with that, I will say you guys all saw how poorly we played and there’s a million things we could discuss, but we stunk in all those areas."
Broome's second-half performance was a sign of a lack of consistent game-plan discipline, but the Hogs let go of the rope in more ways than one on defense to end the game.
When Arkansas has struggled to win games early in previous seasons under Musselman, it usually couldn't be blamed on defensive struggles. The storyline has changed in 2023-24, however, and things aren't looking great in the near future with the Razorbacks starting conference play.
Musselman postgame
There was more eye contact than expected, but Musselman didn't hold back in his postgame press conference. The Head Hog was obviously frustrated and he even ended it by walking out, something I don't believe he's done before at Arkansas.
For context purposes, Musselman didn't walk about because of a specific question asked, nor was anyone surprised by him doing it. His team had just lost by 32 points at home, so there wasn't much to say.
"When you lose by 30, we could go all the way around the room and each of you could pick a different area and you would all be right," Musselman said. "We stunk in all areas. I mean, transition defense, what about Johni Broome in the second half — I could go on and on.
"Yeah, we stunk. We gotta get a lot better to even survive in this league. We’ve got to get a lot better. We’ve got to be a lot more competitive. So, with that, I will say you guys all saw how poorly we played and there’s a million things we could discuss, but we stunk in all those areas."
Musselman had plenty to be upset with, and he was even not happy about the fact that fans spent hard-earned money to watch his team get dominated at home.
"We have people driving from all over," Musselman said. "We have people commit to come and watch this team play. They spend their money to watch our team play. And tonight was a huge disappointment for all of them. And just as importantly for all of us."
Did they quit?
The Razorbacks ended the first half on a bad note. After taking a 27-26 lead on a Jalen Graham layup with 4:55 to play in the first half, the Hogs let the Tigers go on an 11-3 run to end the first half with a 37-30 lead.
While it wasn't ideal, the Hogs still had every opportunity to win the game in the second half. Unfortunately, Auburn started the second half on a 13-2 run that the Razorbacks could never recover from.
"We talked about how we got to keep fighting," Keyon Menifield Jr. said. "It feels like we quit. We didn’t play as a team and we weren’t together out there. So when you’re not together and you don’t have fight out there and let people punk you, that’s what happens."
The box score shows that the Hogs basically gave up. Auburn had 30 more points in the paint, 47 more bench points, 14 more rebounds, eight more assists, 16 more made field goals and six less turnovers.
"Some of the plus-minuses on our team, I've never seen some of those like that in the minutes that some of those guys played," Musselman said. "As a competitor, disappointed. I really don't know what else to say other than the fact that practice competitive nature and games become two different things."
Other Notes
• Arkansas starters were Keyon Menifield Jr., Tramon Mark, Trevon Brazile, Jalen Graham and Chandler Lawson.
• Auburn controlled the tip to start the game.
• Auburn’s Jaylin Williams scored the first points of the game at 18:52. Trevon Brazile scored Arkansas’ first points on a 3-pointer at 16:39.
• Davonte Davis was the first Razorback sub.
• Jalen Graham got his first start as a Razorback.
• The four 3’s made by Menifield tied his career high.
