SEC Does Hogs No Favors with Schedule

Arkansas loses full third of day to prep for South Carolina in Round 2

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – A lot has been made of how well Arkansas coach Eric Musselman handles the flow of an NCAA Tournament.

The preparation schedule there is much more in line with what an NBA team faces throughout the regular season with games happening often across a 48-hour period. The advantage in those cases go to Musselman because he spent a large chunk of his career getting players ready for games in that time frame, unlike most NCAA coaches.

He still carries a little bit of an advantage in situations where games are back-to-back, which, while often complained about in the NBA, still happens every now and then. However, even the NBA usually gives teams a full 24 hours to rest up and get ready.

That won't be the case for Arkansas. For some reason, the SEC sets up its tournament schedule where the team that finished playing at 8 p.m. the night before has to come back and play at 2:30 p.m. 

For those doing the math, that gives Musselman and his staff roughly 18 hours to get players fed, rested and prepared for their game against South Carolina today. That means packing a lot into very little time.

"We'll get back to the hotel and we'll start on prep," Musselman said. "There'll be a walkthrough tonight. There'll be film tonight. There'll be a second film session. And possibly a third." 

And it's not like Arkansas is getting set to face a below average team in the second round. No. 15 South Carolina (25-6) spent most of the season ranked and has wins over Kentucky, Tennessee, Florida and a sweep of Ole Miss.

"We've got to get ready for what's one of the best teams in the country," Musselman said. "A team that's really well coached. A team that understands their roles, but also a team that we felt like when we played South Carolina at Bud Walton that we were not right at the time. And I think that we've played much better basketball right now and so have they. They're 4-1 in the last five, so we got it we got to bring our A-game."

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