Arkansas coach Eric Musselman did not sleep a lot in the three days between the Razorbacks’ loss at Alabama and the game at Missouri on Tuesday.
He wasn’t in the best mood, either, and didn’t even feel like petting his dog much.
Given the way Arkansas performed against the Tigers during a 76-57 victory in Mizzou Arena, all of that should change for at least one night. The Razorbacks improved to 20-6 overall and 9-4 in the SEC.
Arkansas is now one game behind No. 4 Kentucky and No. 16 Tennessee in the conference standings, and the Razorbacks host the Volunteers on Saturday at 3 p.m.
Tennessee defeated the Wildcats 76-63 on Tuesday.
“The most impressive thing to me is not necessarily that we won or the margin,” Musselman said. “I think when you look at the totality of the winning streak, playing the No. 1 team in the country (Auburn), go into Alabama playing extremely well, where you could have won the game, you lose a heartbreaking game.
“The guys put it behind them, and I'm really impressed with the mental makeup of the group right now.”
More from WholeHogSports: Full coverage from Arkansas' win over Missouri
With Tuesday’s win, Arkansas has won at least 20 games in each of Musselman’s three seasons. It is also the earliest in a season the Razorbacks have reached 20 wins since 2014-15.
A balanced and well-rounded effort helped Arkansas get there. Stanley Umude, as he has done lately in games away from Fayetteville, stole the show.
The South Dakota transfer scored a game-high 23 points on 8-of-13 shooting, and he knocked down 6 of 9 attempts from three-point range. It was the second time this month he made six three-pointers in a game away from home.
He is 15 of 24 from deep in the team's last three road games.
Umude entered the game averaging 14.5 points on 52.0% from deep in true road games as a Razorback, and the 6-6 wing again looked like an All-SEC caliber player Tuesday. He is shooting 43.3% beyond the arc in SEC play on 60 attempts.
Umude has been lighting up teams from the left wing, where he was 9 of 13 in conference games prior to the rematch with the Tigers.
“It’s a sweet spot for me,” Umude said with a smile. “My team does a good job of finding me there. I let them know that the left wing, I’m feeling good right now, I’m feeling hot from the left wing. I'm just knocking them down.
“I’m getting a lot of reps in, working hard in practice and just carrying it over to the game.”
Umude was in such a rhythm offensively that Musselman opted to feature him for a long stretch. Running the set Fist Out 13 — a wing pick-and-roll with the point guard on the ball and small forward setting a ball screen — he took advantage of Missouri a number of times.
If the Tigers switched the screen, Umude could take his matchup near the block and elevate with a jumper. If they did not switch, he could get to another sweet spot — the short corners — and play a bit of iso ball.
"That's Stanley. Stanley is a scorer,” said Trey Wade, who had 12 points and 11 rebounds. “We rely on him, and if he can keep that going it's a great help to our team. It helps us win.
“I look forward to him doing that every game. It's nothing new to me."
PHOTO GALLERY: Razorbacks win in Columbia
Davonte Davis also added 11 points on 3-of-5 shooting — including 2 of 3 from deep — and 2 assists in 33 minutes.
Aside from getting terrific offensive contributions from pieces around JD Notae (17 points) and Jaylin Williams (13 points, 11 rebounds), a priority for Arkansas was minimizing forward Kobe Brown’s effectiveness.
Mission accomplished.
Brown, averaging 19.8 points in his team’s 4 SEC wins and less than 10 in its first 7 losses, was held to 6 points on 3-of-10 shooting.
In games against the Razorbacks this season, Brown had 12 points on 6-of-15 inside the arc and 0-of-6 beyond it.
Musselman credited a number of players for their defense on Brown, but Wade drew the assignment more often than any of his teammates. According to StatBroadcast, he finished with eight defensive stops, second on the team to Williams’ nine.
“I thought that all of our guys did good job of covering the boxes and elbow every time that Kobe Brown had the ball,” Musselman said. “It was important for us to focus on him as much as anybody. (Javon) Pickett really hurt us in the first half, so what we did at halftime was we completely made that adjustment and switched and had the spy on Pickett.
“I thought our guys were able to adjust on the fly very, very quickly to go from Brown to Pickett in that second half.”
VIDEO: Eric Musselman, players meet with media following Mizzou win
Pickett scored 13 points in the first half. He did not score after the break, misfiring on all five shots.
According to KenPom data, Arkansas posted a defensive efficiency rating of 87.2. The Razorbacks have held their last 11 opponents to an offensive efficiency rating of 95.0 or worse.
Umude and Williams each blocked two shots. Five players tallied at least one steal. Notae led the way with two steals.
"That's what great teams are all about,” Wade said. “We had to bounce back. We took a loss. We bounced back and got a W, and we want to keep it rolling.
“There's nothing more to it."