Mahki, after getting benched as a starter for the first time all SEC season, for the way he played against Bama and KY, took it as a teaching moment. He played a very good game against Auburn. Tonight, he may have been the best player on the Razorback team. He played 31 minutes and at the end he played as hard, if not harder, as any Razorback out there. Mahki saw 1st hand, how good he can be at this level when he’s focused and playing this hard. He’s NCAA tournament ready.
Just like TN, playing back to back games against MO, our team also ran out of gas at the end. Nick wasn’t ready for 39 minutes. The last 4 or 5 minutes, all his shots were short - his legs were gone. He showed how good he can be in the first half. He was magnificent.
AB also played very well tonight. He’ll have a great NCAA tournament. Now, he’ll have 2 more days to rest his ankle injury.
I’m not sad about not playing back to back to back games. Fortunately, we will not see that ridiculous back to back game format in the NCAA tournament.
With all due respect, Larry, I think that take is a reach.
While I don’t give a damn about the SEC Tourney, you win the games you should win, and tonight should have been a very easy victory.
Instead, it was the same old same old…tired kids stop moving and go 1 on 1 late against a veteran team and lose.
I’ve seen this movie too many times.
Not a fan.
Jeremy, that’s the point. Our kids are just tired. They need a break, and get ready for a run against other competition. I’m with you, I hate the SEC Tourney in both baseball and basketball, it’s abuse of young players.
The only problem I have with that going forward is there is a very proven way to beat us this year.
Hopefully, seeing other teams will help.
I sure hope so.
We play and coach young at times. We don’t always play or seemingly coach two halves at times. Glad we are in tourney where players and coaches can redeem.
Copy paste repeat! This years hogs haven’t taken care of the ball or had enough basketball IQ to understand time and score. They make entirely too many stupid mistakes in every game. I do mean every game. There’s no leader on the floor and some of them totally disappear especially on Offense. The lack of chemistry has showed ever since Nick Smith came back and started playing.
They have played one complete game all season.
The lack of outside shooting success has been and will be a problem they are who they are.
It’s apparent they can’t make free throws. No one excluded! They give up too many easy shots and fail to rebound. Yesterday they rebounded like mad men today they were a no show.
The way they look good for one half and then look like turds in the second half is a theme.
You have to ask yourself though, aren’t other teams playing the same schedule as us and winning? In fact Arkansas has won this once and made the final twice (once with Portis-Qualls duo and once with Macon-Barford- Hannahs trio).
I don’t think this game fits that definition. We were playing a team who lost just 3 SEC games this season. They were coming off 5 days rest, while we had won a tough game the night before.
Their offense didn’t play well in the first half. I knew they would go on a run in the 2nd half. They took the lead at about the 10 minute mark of the 2nd half. The team you are referring to would have lost this game going away. Instead, we fought through our exhaustion and with 30 seconds left, we had the ball and a chance to cut their lead to 2 or 1. We missed the shot and had to foul.
I firmly believe if both teams had come into this game with 5 days off, we would have won. Had we come into the game with 5 days rest and A&M had played the previous night, we would have won going away. The same would also have happened for TN.
Jeremy, I would agree with your statement about seeing this too many times earlier this season. I just don’t think this performance, with so much stacked against us (and TN) before tip-off, compares to those earlier games where both were coming in with days off.
My question, do you think these kids are having fun?
Nope.
We are tighter than the doors of Fort Knox when the game gets close.
Combine that with playing too few guys too many minutes, and you have what we are…tantalizingly average.
Go Hogs!
They looked like they were having a ball last night after they won the very close game against Auburn.
In the beginning, I thought Muss should play more guys, but after back to back Elite Eights, I got over that. I do think this year, all those minutes have impacted these guys more because they are freshmen. They just are not yet in as good “game shape” as 4th and 5th year men. The last 2 years he had lots of Jrs and Srs who are men not boys, fresh out of high schools.
After these last 2 games, despite losing one (to a very good team) I see improvement going into the Big Dance. Nick has now fit in to the offense better each game. He led the team in assists tonight, which I see as a good thing.
I love Muss. And he is a very good coach. But I do think he should play his best players slightly fewer minutes. And go with an 8 man rotation rather than 7.
Until he goes to the Final Four or wins the natty or just wins the SEC title I will keep feeling that way. Doesn’t mean I don’t support him. I am glad we have him. But I do think he could tweak his philosophy a little. And as jeremy pointed out earlier, mixing in a different defense every once in a while would be helpful. We don’t really have a press when we need one.
Nick going 0-7 on his last 7 shots screams of dead legs.
If we are a poor shooting team, and most teams like A and M jam up lane in zones in second half, what was our coaching strategy in second half other than play into opponent’s hands?
I agree, and I believe that is exactly what he would have done this season except for 2 injuries.
1 Nick
2 AB
3 Brazile
4 Devo
5 Mahki
6 Walsh
7 Ricky
8 Mahkel &/or Graham
Brazile and Nick played only 3 complete games together the entire season. If Nick and Trevon had been healthy the entire season, we would have been a totally different team and be about to head to the final four +? AND, I also would have been happy if we’d lost this game tonight to A&M.
If they are tired playing a 2nd game the following day, how are they going to fare in the tourney? Muss needs to learn to use a deeper bench in the season.
You are correct about that. It can still be a fatigue challenge however. I think it will hang over Muss’s head until he proves he can go final 4 or win a natty with a 7 man rotation.
