Thru the first half of the season, it appeared Arkansas had three pieces that were missing. Muss was able to plug those pieces in the following order
First, it appeared we did not have a true PG. But with Muss’s coaching he has proved to me that you can win big without a true PG if other pieces are there. With Muss’s coaching Tate has become more than adequate and has provided surprising offense.
Second, SG (Sills) lacked height and an adequate handle to match Tate on defense. Freshman Davis plugged that piece.
Finally at the 5, we had the height but not the skills to defend the post and rebound. JWill plugged that final piece.
Hogs turned a corner with the addition of Davis to the rotation and turned the other corner with JWill. I did not expect Davis and JWill perform thus way until next year.
The arrow for the Hogs now is straight up. It is going to take someone to play their best game or Hogs to have an off day to beat them.
This is a complete team now with solid play at all positions and an instant offense off the bench, And of a course a solid coach.
Recruiting strategy of only signing 4 and 5 star HS players and complete the roster with proven transfers works. With that, Muss will never have rebuilding year.
Very pleased with the State of the Union for Razorback basketball.
Agreed. The part about JWill’s game that has me excited is that he is rebounding with authority now. I even saw him steal one away from Justin Smith at one point, and I thought, “wow, okay, something clicked with him. This kid learned how to rebound with the big boys.”
You have to think that the the trajectory of the program should make recruiting in state a bit easier–and if in-state recruiting is a bit easier, you can focus more time on out-of-state recruits that you really want to steal.
You wonder about team chemistry. How would things have been different if KK doesn’t get hurt? Maybe we’d be better, but maybe not. I can’t complain about the way things have turned out, but I hope KK is a major factor in 2022 and beyond.
I just reflect on what we saw from Notae & Tate early in the season and comments about them at the time. Fast forward to now - with the right coach old dogs can be taught new tricks.
As for the development of freshmen, Muss really has that mastered.
Good points Pj… Williams is the best rebounder, passer, and big man coverage on the team. Now’s a beautiful time for the rest of college basketball to witness it.
Yep. If not for the COVID relief he would have played enough games not to have the possibility of an injury hardship (he played 11; we’ve played 30, and the limit is 30% of the season). But now he gets this year back for free.
Yea, I think he still needs to develop offensively (scoring). He’s already a pretty good passer but could really develop back to the basket moves and shooting from 15 feet on out. Looks like he has a good touch, just really never looked to shoot. Guess that wasn’t his role.