Arkansas coach Eric Musselman recaps loss to No. 2 Alabama

Yeah, just, you know, disappointed in our free throw shooting, you know, in that second half. We shoot a decent percentage from the foul line, you know, possible different outcome. You know, this Alabama team is obviously ranked second in the country and playing at home and having lost the game. I thought our effort was tremendous. You know, some guys played really well and we had some guys struggle today. And you know, that's happened to us on the road. You know, but you know, we got to get back and quick turn around for, you know, obviously for for Tennessee.

And then I guess how frustrating is it to defend an Alabama offense like that to the three of 22 from the three point line, but then have some of the struggles defending the paint that you did today? Well, you're not going to you're not going to take away both Curtis. I mean, you're not going to do it there. That's why they're ranked second in the country. And at least two of the three were were hit on one guy from three and possibly all three. I mean, the job that the Vonte did defensively taken away the three was was was incredible. You know, we felt like if we could take away the three that that would put us in position to to possibly win the game. And you know, we really struggled to start the second half.

You know, and you know, that was that was the difference in the game was a was a was a stretch there to start the second half. Scotty. Yeah, Eric Nick came in here a few minutes ago and was talking about how it's a man's game. I'm curious how you you kind of viewed the you guys handling the physicality of the game today. Yeah, I mean, I you know, I mean, we had 13 offensive rebounds. They had 14, you know, they did out rebound us. You know, but I thought, you know, defensive activity, we had 12 steals to Alabama six.

You know, I thought we did a fairly good job and in a lot of areas, we've talked about the, you know, the the three ball defense, but you know, they take 30 free throws. We took 29. You know, the difference is, you know, they made, you know, five more free throws in us. You know, and as I've looked at the stat without looking at film, you know, that's the that's the difference in the game. They had 17 turnovers. We had 11 turnovers. So you know, we made five threes and only took 10 attempts and Alabama took 22 threes and made three.

So unfortunate, you know, for us, we, you know, we came up three points shy. We've had a lot of close road games that could have gone either way. And you know, we're, we're some free throws away. So again, I mean, it's, it's, we only have two games left to play in the regular season. And we got to continue to try to get better. I thought that we were better today against Alabama than we were in Bud Walton. But you know, tonight it was the, it was a five minute stretch, you know, just in the second half and last game, it was, it was the last four minutes and 30 seconds at.

You know, Bud Walton, but I, you know, I mean, I think we've played Alabama, although we're only two, we played them well. And you know, they are at home in the number two team in the country and, and we've got to get better in some areas and we need everybody to play good games against the team that that is really, really good like Alabama is. Typically, AB got a couple early fouls in the first half, typically that's not very, you know, not very good for you guys, but you guys played pretty well when he's at what, what offensively works and then maybe what did you see that Alabama did that kind of limited AB? Yeah, I mean, you know, I mean, I thought they pressured him and you mentioned, you know, there was a couple of fouls off the ball, you know, but, but AB, I mean, he struggled tonight and, you know, the foul trouble, you know, certainly attributed to that in the first half and, and as a team, we did not play very good. Like I said, for a, for a, for a stretch in the second half. Tom. Yeah. Hey, Eric, other than the miss free throws in that one stretch you're talking about, what else did you see happening in that period? Well, obviously we weren't converting enough baskets either.

And Alabama, you know, probably out of all the teams in the country, even teams like Houston and, and, and other great teams, they probably have, you know, the ability to put together spurts as well as any team in the country. You know, and, and, and our game plan was to try to take away the three and was to try to limit fast break points. And you know, from a fast break standpoint, I mean, we actually doubled them up on fast break points. So I thought we ran the floor really well, especially in the, in the first half. And then I thought we ran the floor really well down the stretch. Yeah. And I wanted to ask a two part here, your execution when you were fouling and coming back at the very end, what'd you think of the execution of that part? And were you able to communicate anything you wanted in the last, was it eight seconds there? Yeah.

I mean, we have a, we have a play that we had run the prior two times and, and had gotten really good looks. They denied, you know, denied our trigger guy at the ball. And so Ricky, I was, we were out of timeouts, obviously. We got a three point shot up. And, you know, I mean, you could take that possession and dissect it just like you could any during the course of a 40 minute game. Yeah. And then your execution as you were coming back though, that gave you that chance? Well I thought our execution, you know, towards the end of the game, when we, when we got down double digits, you know, there was probably a time when, you know, when it didn't look like we would be able to have the ball with, with a, with a chance to put the game into overtime, but I thought our guys executed and had a, you know, really, really good time management.

And, and like I mentioned before, we really struggled, you know, for, for a, for a stretch there in the second half. Thanks. Thanks coach. Thanks coach, appreciate your time.

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