Give Musselman Some Credit for Playing Against Mississippi State

Even short-handed, there was never any doubt the Hogs would play Bulldogs

Don't hit the panic button over Arkansas basketball ... yet.

A lot of teams would have backed out of the Razorbacks' game with Mississippi State on Wednesday afternoon to kick off the SEC conference schedule.

The Hogs were missing their leading scorer in JD Notae was out (illness) and Kamani Johnson was suspended indefinitely in the past week. Chance Moore was also out (illness), but his only stats are a couple of fouls.

"We’re not going to figure out a way to not get on the plane," Eric Musselman said after an 81-68 loss in Starkville. "We’re going to get on the plane and play as long as we’ve got enough bodies and they’ll let us go."

Arkansas' Davonte Davis goes up for a rebound against Mississippi State / MSU Athletics

In today's world, that's unusual. Everybody is finding ways not to play games if a key player is sidelined.

The pandemic has given a lot of coaches more control and many want that power more than a win. It gives them an excuse to avoid failure.

At least the Hogs aren't looking at things that way.

There are subtle little hints that not all coaches are buying the COVID excuses some teams are making. Nobody knows better than other coaches what's going on.

Hogs football coach Sam Pittman and Penn State coach James Franklin dropped some not-so-subtle hints in that direction during their press conference ahead of Saturday's matchup in the Outback Bowl.

Musselman didn't want to leave maybe his best player in Fayetteville, but he did. The Hogs looked bad ... even horrible at times.

They missed Notae.

"He was the leading scorer in the league," Musselman said. "But we got on the plane to compete and win the game. We were down bodies, but we’re not excuse-makers and we’re not going to not go play a game because if we have enough bodies to go play, I’m going to play. That’s how I was raised."

Despite missing key players, there are problems with this team. They haven't figured out rotations, it looks like players haven't figured out their role and none of them appear particularly interested in stepping up and taking that role, either.

Musselman knows all of this. The guess is he's doing everything he can to fix things, but there are times in basketball, well, there is no magic button to be found.

And he's not making any excuses or missing games if at all possible.

"That’s our obligation and that’s what we did," Musselman said. "We lost the game and we got outplayed."

For that he deserves some credit.

As for all the issues, well, he'll get them fixed or wear himself out trying.

Jaxson Robinson looks inside against Mississippi State / MSU Athletics

"Our team has got to learn that you have to play hard for 40 minutes against good teams," Musselman said. "We’ve got a lot of little areas that we have to get a lot better at.

"We got outplayed tonight, I don’t know what else to say."

At least he played the game.

A lot of coaches these days would have stayed home.

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