NORTH LITTLE ROCK — The current state of Arkansas basketball can be best summed up by one response from Eric Musselman following the Razorbacks’ stunning 89-81 loss to Hofstra on Saturday at Simmons Bank Arena.
No. 24 Arkansas’ third-year coach was asked for the single biggest hurdle his team has to overcome to reverse course after a second consecutive loss — one that will knock it from all top 25 polls for the foreseeable future. Musselman quickly rattled off six things.
“Leadership, toughness, competitiveness, shooting, defending the ball from three, defending it off the bounce,” he said.
“All of those things. I mean, anyone who was here would say we struggled defending their dribble-drive. We’ve struggled all year defending the three. We didn’t rebound the ball like we should’ve been capable of tonight. You said it was a complicated question, it’s a complicated answer, because I could go on and on.”
The Razorbacks, which fell to 9-2 on the season, posted their worst offensive efficiency rating (89.8) and second-highest defensive efficiency (111.9) mark of the year against Hofstra. The Pride rode a pair of 22-point nights from guard Jalen Ray and Aaron Estrada, and an 18-point, 14-rebound double-double from former Arkansas forward Abayomi Iyiola.
The Razorbacks’ highest defensive efficiency rating of 2021-22 came last Saturday in the 88-66 loss to Oklahoma at BOK Center in Tulsa.
Collectively, Hofstra’s top three scorers knocked down 21 of 36 field goal attempts and grabbed 25 rebounds. The Pride also finished with a 44-26 edge in points in the paint and won the rebounding battle 40-33.
“They led the entire game and we got out-rebounded by seven,” Musselman said. “If your shots aren't falling and you get out-rebounded and you don't defend very well, you're probably going to be in for a long night, which is what happened.”
According to HogStats.com, Hofstra’s 89 points are the most a team has scored against Arkansas in North Little Rock. The previous high was 87 by Houston in an 87-78 Cougars win in November 2011.
Musselman went on to say he has not had a team at the college level that did not compete for the full 40 minutes, but that has now happened in each of the last two games.
“We’ve got to get better,” he said. “I don’t know what else to say. I’d like to give you a magic formula for this thing.”
Point guard play has been a consistent topic of conversation for Musselman even in the team’s victories this season. KK Robinson, a sophomore from nearby Bryant, earned a start Saturday, his first since the season opener. He played 4 minutes, scored 3 points on 1 of 3 shooting and had 4 assists.
Davonte Davis, who entered the weekend averaging 19 points over the Razorbacks’ previous 4 games, finished with 9 points on 3 of 11 shooting.
JD Notae, in a reserve role, led Arkansas with 20 points and hit 8 of 16 shots, including 4 of 9 three-point attempts, but committed 6 turnovers, his most as a Razorback. Chris Lykes added 19 points.
Davis, Notae and Lykes fouled out.
“We’ve got a lot of holes. We’ve been searching for point guard play,” Musselman said. “I tried to search again tonight. Now, all of a sudden, we go back to struggling with rebounding. We’re turning the ball over too much. We lack shooting.
“There’s a lot of things that we’ve got to continue to try to work on, and then you add in how competitive you are, now you end up with two losses in a row.”
Lykes, in a two-minute appearance at the postgame press conference, noted one of the Razorbacks’ key issues remains figuring out how to play as a team.
“In everybody’s eyes it’s different,” he said when asked what is currently holding Arkansas back. “We’ve got new guys, new roles. Coach expects a lot of us, as he should.
“We’re a really talented team. I think we just haven’t put it completely together.”
Hofstra led by as many as 10 points in the first half and took a 14-point lead with 8:26 remaining following an Iyiola layup that capped a 10-0 run.
Arkansas trimmed its deficit to 66-64 after a pair of free throws from Davis, but the Pride responded with eight consecutive points and the Razorbacks trailed by at least seven points the rest of the way. Hofstra made 16 layups and three dunks, and scored 1.171 points per possession, according to StatBroadcast.
"We didn't keep anybody in front of us,” Musselman said. “In basketball, you've got to be able to slide your feet. (You’ve) got to have leadership in your locker room. We've got two days before we play again, and I have no idea what we'll do.
“I have no idea at all what we'll do."