FAYETTEVILLE — Eric Musselman wasn’t expecting to get much sleep after the University of Arkansas fell 79-74 at No. 9 Tennessee, then the Razorbacks experienced travel delays on their way back to Northwest Arkansas overnight Wednesday.
After the team arrived at Drake Field in Fayetteville at 3:15 a.m. Thursday and Musselman returned home around 4 a.m., he was assured of a short period of rest before his daughter Mariah woke up to head to school.
“When we lose, I don’t sleep anyhow,” Musselman said, before adding his wife Danyelle occasionally gives him melatonin gummies that help him sleep. “Usually Danyelle gives me like two of those. When I got home there was about nine of them sitting on the counter. I didn’t take any of those gummies.
“I just sat and stared at the stat sheet and waited for Mariah to get up to go to school. I gave her a hug and started the day off. I didn’t get much sleep at all. That was not a fun travel night.”
It was a little better for Arkansas guard Jalen Tate, a native of Pickerington, Ohio, who transferred from Northern Kentucky.
“That’s as close as I’m pretty much going to get being back in Ohio other than Lexington and Nashville when we play Vanderbilt,” Tate said. “I was able to have some people come down and see me play, and I was able to spend a little more time with them, so it was a blessing in disguise a bit.”
Desi doings
After blowing up for a career-high 23 points on 8-of-15 shooting in the Razorbacks’ victory at Auburn, guard Desi Sills has gone a combined 1 for 11 with 6 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists and 3 steals in losses to Missouri and Tennessee.
Sills missed his only shot, a three-point try, while being held scoreless at Tennessee and also passed up some shots he normally takes.
“With Desi, it’s confidence, and if he’s not knocking down the shot, it’s get the steal, coming up with an energy play,” Coach Eric Musselman said.
“His work ethic doesn’t change, man,” guard Jalen Tate said. “That’s one thing about Desi is he’s a consistent guy.
“You’ve just got to find a way to continue to be able to put your stamp on the game, and I think Desi’s more than capable of doing that and I expect him to. With the upcoming schedule we have, we’re going to need him and he knows we’re going to need him.”
Covid OK
Arkansas Coach Eric Musselman, asked about the postponements of two SEC games this week due to covid-19 issues at South Carolina and Missouri, said the Razorbacks were doing OK.
“We tested yesterday and we get our results back this morning, everything is great on our end,” Musselman said. “I never know when our opposing team is doing their covid test.
“Sometimes you might do it the day before you leave on a trip. I think that’s why we’ve seen some games canceled. You just kind of roll with what you roll with.”
Smith and Crean
Georgia Coach Tom Crean recruited Arkansas graduate transfer Justin Smith to Indiana as the Hoosiers’ head coach, and the pair will have a chance to reconnect today.
“I love Justin Smith and his family,” Crean said. “For him to graduate in three years from the business school at Indiana says a lot about him and his abilities and character. He’s got a lot of really good basketball in him that I’m sure Eric and his staff are going to bring out.”
Smith will miss his third consecutive game after ankle surgery from an injury in the Hogs’ 97-85 SEC-opening win at Auburn on Dec. 30.
Kier’s fire
Georgia graduate transfer Justin Kier scored 20-plus points for the 10th time in his career with 25 in the Bulldogs’ 94-92 loss in overtime at LSU on Wednesday.
Kier made six three-pointers, the first Georgia player to hit that number since one-and-done freshman Anthony Edwards did it against Florida on Feb. 5, 2020.
Bit of zone
The Razorbacks played five possessions of a 2-3 zone defense against Tennessee, partly because 6-9 Vance Jackson does well in it. The possessions resulted in a missed three-pointer, followed by a shot-clock violation and three scores.
“We’ve been working on the zone a lot,” Eric Musselman said after the game. “We went back and thought that Vance was really effective in the zone at New Mexico, so when we did go zone, Vance was on the floor. I think he does a good job of using his wingspan.
“Then we felt with Connor [Vanover] by the hole, that might help us a little bit. We’ve been working on it every day in training camp. It’s part of our daily vitamins that we do every single day. I thought it was a good change of pace after a timeout, and then they kind of figured it out, and we went back to our man.”
Series update
Arkansas holds a 23-16 edge over Georgia in the all-time series, including an 11-3 mark in home games. All the games have been played since Arkansas joined the SEC for the 1991-92 season.
Arkansas had won six of the past seven games in the series prior to the Bulldogs’ 99-89 triumph Feb. 29 at Stegeman Coliseum in Georgia.
Georgia’s last victory at Walton Arena came in a 60-59 decision on March 2, 2011.
The Hogs and Bulldogs have met nine times in the postseason, with Arkansas holding a 6-3 edge in those games. Georgia won the most meaningful of them, however, a 66-57 decision in the SEC Championship Game held at Georgia Tech on March 16, 2008, the year the Georgia Dome was hit by a tornado.
The Arkansas-Georgia series is the third-least played for the Razorbacks among the rest of the current SEC lineup with 39 meetings, just ahead of Florida (38) and South Carolina (35).
Health update
Arkansas guard Khalen Robinson is questionable after revealing foot pain in the loss at Tennessee that kept him out of the second half.
“Yesterday he got X-rayed,” Coach Eric Musselman said. “There was nothing on the X-ray. He will have an MRI today, and then I’m assuming the trainers and doctors will look at that and try to determine what the next course of action is.”
No moral wins
Both Arkansas and Georgia played relatively well in road losses Wednesday, but neither head coach was ready to call it a job well done.
“Moral victory is not a word, it’s not a phrase,” Georgia Coach Tom Crean said after his team’s 94-92 loss in overtime at LSU. “Learning and understanding that we can come out here and compete, for our first road game. We can compete. We can play hard. We can play tough. We can get our speed going. We can make big plays.
“Moral victory is not a phrase I’d use. I am proud of their effort, their tenacity, their togetherness, their bench energy in here.”
Arkansas Coach Eric Musselman said he noted progress in his team’s 79-74 loss at No. 9 Tennessee.
“I was really, really happy with our field goal percentage, with our shot selection,” Musselman said. “That’s what was addressed leading up to this game, based on how poorly we were offensively against Missouri.
“So I think we took a step forward. Razorback fans don’t want to hear that. Obviously we lost the game. So we’ve got to just keep getting better.”
Underwater
Coach Tom Crean has a 390-270 mark in 21 seasons as head coach at Marquette, Indiana and Georgia, including a Final Four appearance with the Golden Eagles in 2003.
However, he has a sub-.500 record with the Bulldogs, entering today’s game with a 34-39 record in his third season in Athens, Ga. Georgia is 7-31 (.184) in SEC play under Crean, with a 2-16 mark in his first season and a 5-13 record last year.