FAYETTEVILLE — One of Eric Musselman's offensive keys each and every game is for Arkansas to commit nine or fewer turnovers.
The Razorbacks blew past that mark before they reached halftime Tuesday in their 69-61 win over Austin Peay in Bud Walton Arena. Arkansas turned the ball over 20 times in the win, its most in a game since the season opener against Rice (21) on Nov. 5.
Razorbacks guards Mason Jones and Jalen Harris led the team with six miscues - both career highs. As Jones sat down in the interview room following the game, he was audibly frustrated. When asked about his turnovers, he chalked them up to being sluggish and not fully ready to play.
"I don’t want to say the shoulder (was the reason)," Jones added. "That’s no excuse. I should play way better. I hold myself to a higher standard than six turnovers.
"I just got done talking to coach Musselman, and I was very disappointed about it. I told him I apologize for it. I’ve got to get ready for the next game and move on."
And what did Musselman tell Jones?
"Don’t turn the ball over," the coach said. "I mean, six is a lot."
Arkansas committed a turnover on 28.6 percent of its possessions against Austin Peay, according to KenPom analytics. That is the highest turnover rate in Musselman's college coaching career, which spans 152 games, and the highest by an Arkansas team since a Jan. 3, 2012 win over Savannah State (30.7).
In addition to Harris and Jones' turnovers, Joe had three for the second consecutive game. He was whistled for traveling twice in the first half, and officials also nailed Jones and Jimmy Whitt for rare carrying violations.
"You can't play at home and have 20 turnovers," Musselman said. "You've got to have nine or less turnovers to be an effective offensive team."
Jones scores 16 in return from injury
After missing his first game with the Razorbacks on Saturday with a shoulder injury, Jones, Arkansas' leading scorer at 18.5 points per game, returned to the starting lineup against Austin Peay.
Turnovers aside, Jones turned in a solid game with 16 points and four rebounds in 27 minutes. He did not see the floor over the final seven minutes, 20 seconds, but Musselman noted it was due to Jones' foul trouble and needing to save him in case the game became too close for comfort in the closing minutes.
"I thought he played well. I really did," Musselman added. "He shot the ball well, I thought he played unselfish. Certainly, you know, the turnovers, six is a ... we only want our team to have nine. I thought defensively he did a good job for us.
"He battled, he scrapped, and I thought he played well. And we need him to play well on Saturday."
Following the game, Jones noted that he injured his right shoulder on a hard fall to the floor in the win at Georgia Tech last Monday. The shoulder is at about 70 percent, he said, but he did not want to sit out for a second consecutive game.
"I want to be a good player, and I know I’ve got to play through it," Jones said. "It was sad to sit out the first game, but no excuses. I’ve got to be ready for the next game. (I will) get a lot of treatment and just get ready for Western Kentucky on the road.
"Regardless of the shoulder, I had to play," he continued. "I didn’t want to see my team suffer. I didn’t want those boys to play hard and I’m on the bench not doing nothing. Anything I can give to the team, I want to give to the team - scoring, rebounds, assists. Just anything. Just being a presence, being a decoy. I just want to be out there with my brothers."
Jones was efficient scoring the ball against the Governors, knocking down 4 of 6 shots and 2 of 4 from distance. He also hit all six of his free throws, bringing him to 40 of 43 for the season (93 percent).
Sills finds touch at right time
Sophomore guard Desi Sills entered Tuesday struggling mightily from 3-point range. His woes beyond the arc to begin the season have been puzzling considering he closed his freshman year on a high note in that area.
But Sills never lost confidence in his touch, and neither did Musselman. And in helping Arkansas secure its eighth win, he knocked down a pair of back-breaking 3s in a 34-second span late in the second half.
"It’s good to see Desi knocking those shots down with confidence," Jones said. "You could tell when he made that first one that second one was going up automatically. When he took it, I knew it was going in. I put my hand up for a 3-ball."
Musselman described the two 3-pointers as "separators" in the game. His first triple put the Razorbacks up 62-49 with less than three minutes to play and, after an Antwuan Butler 3, Sills answered again and forced Austin Peay coach Matt Figger to call for time.
Sills, who had still made great contributions in the first seven games of the season thanks to a relentless and aggressive approach going to the rim (team-high 23 scores at the basket), finished with eight points - all in the second half.
"I went to my knees. We had done our job, and he shot it up in the air and it drew some rain and went in," Figger said. "It’s just one of those things. It was deflating for us because we were right there."
Both of Sills' 3-pointers came on the right side of the floor. Coming in, he was a combined 1 of 9 on attempts from the right wing and right corner.
"We felt eventually he would knock some down," Musselman said. "The good thing is we’re going on the road and hopefully that kind of picks up his confidence level. And those two shots were really, really important and crucial for us at that time."
Western Kentucky up next
The Razorbacks, with a win on the road against Western Kentucky on Saturday, would match the 1993-94 national championship team's 9-0 start. Musselman, though, isn't even going there yet.
He is currently worried about how Arkansas will go about slowing Hilltoppers star forward Charles Bassey. As a true freshman, he scored 21 points, grabbed nine rebounds and blocked five shots in Western Kentucky's one-point win over Arkansas in Bud Walton Arena last season, getting the upper hand in his head-to-head matchup with Daniel Gafford.
It is commonplace for Musselman and his staff to have vital information regarding the team's next opponent on a whiteboard in the locker room following games. There was no deviating from that Tuesday.
"It's not going to be an easy place to play," Musselman noted. "It's a weekend game. I'm sure they'll have a good crowd. They came in here last year and won the game. Our guys know that they beat us here last year, and when the schedule came out we knew with the three true road games, meaning the Georgia Tech game, the Western Kentucky game and the Indiana game, we knew those three games we had to circle."
While Arkansas heads into its second road trip of the season undefeated, the Hilltoppers are 6-3 and will be coming off of a two-point loss at Wright State on Tuesday. Western Kentucky has also lost to Bowling Green and top-ranked Louisville on a neutral floor.
Austin Peay visited the Hilltoppers on Nov. 9 and the Governors, according to Figger, got their teeth kicked in, losing 97-75 behind 20-point games from Camron Justice and Taveion Hollingsworth. Bassey also finished with 10 points and a game-high 12 rebounds.
Figger doesn't envision Arkansas being rattled on the road.
"You're going to play in a hostile environment. They have got experienced guys just like (Arkansas has) some experience," he added. “They are a high field-goal-percentage team, but I think the way (the Razorbacks defend) that the key will be keeping Bassey out of the paint and off the glass."