We played terrible tonite, yet we still won. I think the standard for Arkansas Basketball needs to be to field a team that never loses at The Bud. So far, Muss has done that. It’s going to get harder, but there is no reason for a good Arkansas team to ever lose a home game. Coach A lost 6 last year. Had he won em all, he would still be here. As much as I love him, that is a fact. Just my 2 cents. Go Hogs!
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Need to play at least .500 ball in the next 18 games. Do that and the Hogs should make the dance. I think we’ve already become spoiled as fans in the early Muss era, expecting to never lose. This team is solid but like most, has weaknesses that will be exploited. They are fun to watch and I’m going to enjoy it, win or lose, because they leave it all on the court. Plus this coaching staff is more than prepared for every opponent and is uber competitive. Great spot to be in as a fan.
I agree. The rule used to be win all at home and half on the road and you were 12-4 in conf. That was the starting point for a top seed in the tourney. If we can get on that train again we will have a bright future.
That’s definitely the goal but a very small % of our teams won every home game.
This is probably a Swine question but I think our last team to go undefeated at BWA was ‘98. So very rare. If we go 8 -1 it would be fantastic.
I’m not saying we will win every home game, but that should always be the goal. So many good things happen when you protect your home.
I remember when losing 4 or 5 conference games was almost unacceptable. Oh how spoiled we were! If we somehow go 13-5 or even 12-6 this year I will be ecstatic. In fact 9-9 is fine, any win over 9 is bonus (this year). Looking forward to expecting no more than 3 or 4 losses in the SEC (some time in the not so distant future!)
No doubt losing 6 at home last year was a big problem. Having the fourth youngest team in the nation had a lot to do with that. Just like having no freshmen on this year’s team has a lot to do with this year’s record.
Coach A had a very good home record if you don’t take last year and generalize it.
Last year’s non-conference losses were an outlier. We all know that. Other than 3 to 5, Coach A’s home losses have come in the conference.
Just for the record, Coach A over eight years, has a 54-18 conference record at BWA, i.e, 75% winning percentage, That equates to 2 home losses per year. That is what Mussleman needs to beat to justify your “Protect The Bud” subject line.
For both conference and non-conference games at BWA, Swine needs to do the research. But in Mike Anderson’s second season in 2012-13, Arkansas went 9-0 in the conference with one non-conference loss to Syracuse…
I just went back to 97-98. That was the last time we went undefeated at BWA. A couple times we have been undefeated in NC since then, but lost a conference game.
Edit: Sure you know, but 93-94 is the only other year we didn’t lose a game at BWA.
Edit 2: ok this is what I found
Undefeated at BWA - 93-94, 97-98 (2 years)
Undefeated at BWA SEC - 12-13 (1 year)
Undefeated at BWA NC - 98-99, 04-05, 05-06, 06-07, 07-08, 08-09, 10-11, 11-12, 13-14, 14-15, 16-17, 17-18 (12 years)
94-95 also shows undefeated at BWA in NC, but it doesn’t list all the NC sites. AR had some NC losses. I’m guessing Jeremy can tell us on this one
Some sites say we lost home games during some of those years, but it was at Verizon/Alltell
As of now we are undefeated this year, but we still have one NC game and 8 SEC games left
Ok. We only lost one NC game in 94-95. That was to UMass in Springfield, MA. We only lost one conference game at The Bud. That was to Bama, who we turned around and beat on their home floor.
Thanks
Look, PJ, I love Coach A too. I managed the team with him in the early 90’s. My point is you just can not lose 6 home games in a year where 2 or 3 more wins gets you into the Dance. Still yet, I was really upset when he was fired, but I talked to Beck and McDaniel, and they were really excited about Muss. They understood we needed a change, and who would know better than them?
Jeremy, it is not a matter of loving Coach A or not. I have seen people take last year and whatever happened, like last year’s Gafford heavy free throw percentage and generalize that to Arkansas shot free throws badly under Anderson. I thought that is what you were doing with the record at BWA over the last eight years.
If you were not doing that, my apologies.
What really got me going was, remember the knock against him was that he wins at home but not on the road? I thought you were now saying he cannot win at home.
I fully understand why he got fired and am at peace with that. I just don’t want his tenure here misrepresented.
I would never do that, PJ. I just think we all expected more when he came back home. I hate that it didn’t turn out better. Coach A probably does too. That being said, I very much like the product I’m seeing on the floor this year, and when former players who won with Coach A, tell me we are in good hands with Muss, I have to believe them.
My memory may be incorrect, but didn’t Nolan used to say, Win all your home games and half your away games (in conference) and that wins the SEC. . I wonder if that is still the case with the additional teams added to the conference.
Kw
He did indeed say that. That’s a pretty good formula for success, no matter what league you play in.
If you win al your SEC home games and half your conference away games you end up 14-4. Quite a few times that wins the conference. Sometimes it doesn’t.
This year, so far we’ve won all our NC home games, and 75% of AFB (Away from BWA) games. So we have a good start.
Going 14-4 in conference this year and finishing 12-1 in NC, would make us 26-5 before the SECT. That pretty much guarantees a spot in the dance.
Eddie Sutton actually said it 45 years ago
We lost the opener in 94-95 on a neutral court to UMass, our first encounter with Calamari (the neutral court was in Springfield, Mass, so it might as well have been a UMass home game). Didn’t lose another NC game. Went 12-4 in the SEC, lost in the SECT final to Kentucky, lost the NCG to UCLA. Those were the 7 losses in a 32-7 season.