SAN FRANCISCO — If Arkansas’ basketball team appears to be comfortable and making itself at home while on the game’s largest stage, it’s because it is.
Thursday’s matchup against No. 1 Gonzaga was not the first rodeo at the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament for several Razorbacks, including guards JD Notae and Davonte Davis, and forward Jaylin Williams. The experience each gained during the team’s Elite Eight run a season ago undoubtedly paid dividends at Chase Center against the Bulldogs.
Though the in-arena atmospheres varied from the 2021 Indianapolis bubble, the lights were just as bright this time around. The same stakes were attached: win or go home.
"I feel way more comfortable," Williams said Friday. "I come into every game like it’s just another game. Of course (Duke on Saturday is) the biggest game of the year, but, I mean, it’s just another basketball game.
"I’m used to this by now."
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Arkansas stuck to its guns and, with the nation watching and hanging on every play, the Razorbacks thrived off the doubt that surrounded them against the Bulldogs. They moved to within one game of New Orleans and the Final Four by largely following the script that turned their season around.
It all begins with the stars. Notae scored 20-plus points and stuffed the stat sheet with rebounds, assists and steals, and Williams turned in another double-double.
Arkansas was stout defensively, limiting the most efficient offense in the country to well below its season averages. And valiant efforts from complementary pieces pushed it over the top.
If you have been following these Razorbacks long enough, Thursday’s result did not come as a real surprise. Meeting the moment is what Eric Musselman’s team does best.
It wasn’t a shock to his confident group of players, either, because there is little at this point that can come as a shock to them. Rigorous preparation — unlike that of any other team remaining in the tournament field, Musselman said earlier this week — keys all of the success.
“We grinded in our prep,” Musselman said after the win over Gonzaga. “I give these guys a ton of credit. We took a four-hour flight after traveling from Buffalo to Fayetteville for 24 hours...and then we went straight to an hour-and-45-minute practice.
“I can't compliment these guys and the entire team enough for the way that they buy in to game preparation. It's probably the coolest thing I've ever been a part of that they just kind of do what we ask.”
Arkansas’ comfortability at this juncture of the season is twofold. The days between the Razorbacks’ games include an on-court practice and media obligations.
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For Notae and Williams, the faces of the team, they are often requested to be Arkansas’ representatives in front of hosts of media members, local and national. With a few exceptions, they have fielded similar questions heard throughout the long season over and over between Buffalo and San Francisco.
The duo has answers to the most-often-asked questions memorized, much like the detailed scouting report of the upcoming opponent. Williams has been prompted for insight into his charge-taking prowess perhaps more times than he has drawn a charge in 2021-22.
Other popular topics center on embracing the city in which Arkansas is playing, sightseeing during this NCAA Tournament journey and leaving the bubble life of last year behind. And no press conference is complete without an inquiry about what it is like to play for an energetic and tactical coach like Musselman.
"The off-the-court stuff, it’s fun," Notae said Friday. "Just being able to talk to you guys is a blessing, honestly, and not everybody gets this type of opportunity. It’s just been amazing."
Smiles regularly accompany the players’ comfort when Arkansas Democrat-Gazette beat writer Bob Holt takes his turn with the microphone and introduces himself. To them, no introduction is needed on account of great familiarity.
Again, not much surprises the Razorbacks. Terms like tough as nails and well prepared in all facets perfectly describe this Arkansas team, which is on a magical ride that few outside of the locker room saw coming.