Razorbacks Unleash Frustration, Turn it Toward Vandy
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – After looking like the lid had been shut on this year's Arkansas basketball season with Vanderbilt ready to flush, the Razorbacks came out in the second half and nearly doubled their first half production en route to a 90-85 overtime win in the opening round of the SEC Tournament.
It turns out while Hog fans were giving their own special halftime speeches from the comfort of their recliners, a series of similarly colorful talks were happening in the locker room in Nashville. First, Arkansas coach Eric Musselman offered a bit of advice that he highly watered down for audiences at home before clearing way for a very pointed players only meeting.
"We talked about ball security at halftime," Musselman said. "It's like a football team. You know you can't turn the ball over with fumbles and interceptions and ball security was pathetic in the first half. Defense was pathetic in the first half. But, a lot of resiliency in the second half and then into overtime."
Of course, Arkansas guard Khalif Battle pulled the curtain back just a little further while identifying at least a portion of the message that spurred him to score 21 points after halftime. That was following an 0-for-3 first half where his only three points came off free throws.
[Musselman said] we were playing soft and we took it personal from there," Battle said. "He challenged a lot of the guys in the locker room and we got to stand up to the challenge, and I think we did."
Fellow guard Tramon Mark, who has split his time with Battle as the team's go-to scorer, went scoreless in a first half that saw the starters produce only 12 points. That is until he and his teammates got a chance to get some things off their chests.
"It was definitely a fired up locker room, especially when the coaches left the locker room," Mark said. "We had a player players only meeting and we just we just called out each other basically and that fired us up, basically."
No stone was left unturned. Everyone who wanted a chance to speak got free reign to let it all out.
"Everybody had something to say," Mark said. "It was it was good because we came out there with a chip on our shoulder in the second half."
The question now is whether a moment at halftime was enough to break whatever was holding this team back. It resulted in an explosive team that managed not to fold after giving up a steal and a last second shot to force overtime, but that doesn't mean it's sustainable.
"Now we got to do this together," Battle said. "We can't break apart. We got a team full of tough guys, resilient guys. Things haven't went our way this year, but, you know, it's still March and anything can happen. We've been working hard, we've been in close games, and now we just gotta finish it out and show everybody what we can do."
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