Eric Musselman: Defending 3-pointers Was Part of Hogs' Game Plan

It didn't look like Arkansas had seen that as the Panthers were hot enough to stay close most of way

FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas held off Northern Iowa for a nail-biting 93-80 win.

Yes, that's correct. It was all of that and more, mainly because the Panthers lit up the Razorbacks from behind the 3-point line.

"I can promise you defending the three was part of the game plan," Hogs coach Eric Musselman said later.

Arkansas didn't really worry a whole lot about those until the last three minutes of the game. Until then NIU was shooting the nets off the rims at Bud Walton Arena.

They were hitting 53% from behind the arc. In the last three minutes they were 0-for-5 to finish 17-of-37 (45.9%).

"I have not seen many teams make 27 field goals and 17 of them on three's," Musselman said.

Eric Musselman wasn't pleased with Razorbacks' defending 3-points against Northern Iowa :: Michael Morrison/allHOGS Images

It's not that he thought the Panthers were that big of a threat shooting like that from deep. Most of the damage was done on the wings where NIU was 12-of-21 (57%).

"They haven't shot very well until they met our defense," Musselman said. "We haven't solved that."

This may be one of those nights he doesn't get much sleep trying to come up with a solution and he's got some drills he hasn't tried before ... mainly because he hadn't really seen a need to do that.

"It's mind-boggling to me," Musselman said. "Two years ago we led the nation (defending the three) doing the same freaking drills we do now."

Despite all of that, when the Hogs needed to turn up the pressure, they were able to. Fans — and Musselman — kind of expect that.

"This team has a lot of spurtability," he said, admitting that probably wasn't even a word. "We can come at you quick. You want a team to close games properly and we did that tonight."

It should be noted former college basketball analyst Clark Kellogg, who replaced Billy Packer at CBS, probably started using the word on the air first so it's not like Musselman completely invented it.

While fans will complain about this one, there were a lot of positives as you can see a lot of the improvements in the Hogs this year.

"We're only three games in and they've solved a lot of the problems this early," Musselman said and he was genuinely excited about that. "This team is further ahead at this point that last year except for one area."

Defending behind the arc.

The Hogs have some time now to work on that. They will open play in Kansas City in the Hall of Fame Classic against Kansas State on Monday at 8 p.m.

The next night they will play either Illinois or Cincinnati.

All of the games in that tournament will be televised either on ESPNews or ESPN2.

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