NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - COLGATE VS ARKANSAS

March 19, 2021

Eric Musselman

Arkansas Razorbacks

Bankers Life Fieldhouse

Postgame Media Conference

Arkansas - 85, Colgate - 68.

ERIC MUSSELMAN: I thought that maybe our inexperience in the tournament showed the first ten minutes of the game. So many young players, Vanover being a sophomore, two freshmen that played a lot, Davis and Moses Moody, along with Jaylin Williams, who's in our rotation.

Then I thought we got a little bit settled in, maybe after the nerves of that first ten minutes. I thought our defense was incredible. Our full court 55 defense to speed the game up on that 17-0 run to end the first half. Then I thought we did a great job of closing the game out as well down the stretch. I thought we just kept building the lead, building the lead, building the lead as the game progressed.

Q. Coach, you talked about the defensive pressure there during that 17-0 run. Did you expect that to be something you needed to do, picking up full court, or was that something you just decided middle of that first half?

ERIC MUSSELMAN: No, we were going to unleash it. I didn't know if it was going to be in the second half or if it was going to be in the first half, when it might be, but we were going to do that. We had talked about -- my son was in my room last night, and we talked about potentially having to play Justin at some five. I hadn't addressed that with the team much, but Michael and I had discussed it. I thought maybe that would help us speed the game up, and I thought Justin could protect the rim against their bigs.

Obviously, Connor's been a big part of what we've done all year, Jaylin Williams has, Ethan has, but tonight, again, kind of a father-son conversation about, you know, that was a way to change the tempo of the game if we needed to do that.

We tried all three centers. I didn't like the complexion of the game at all or the pace of the game, and that 17-0 run with four guards and Justin Smith out there, again, I think that changed the complexion, and I thought the last five minutes of the game as well. So we closed the half out phenomenal, and then we closed the game out as well.

Q. Coach, you brought Jalen Tate in as a grad transfer. He's one of the few guys that you had that's been there, done that in the NCAA Tournament before. I don't know, things have been a little shaky for him in recent games. Can you just talk about the leadership and the game he played today?

ERIC MUSSELMAN: I thought it was phenomenal. Four assists, seven rebounds. He knocked down 4 of 4 from the foul line. But the seven rebounds was really important because, when you play small ball like we did tonight, you're going to need your guards to fold back and rebound, and I thought he did a phenomenal job of doing that, being our second leading rebounder, then JD Notae being our third leading rebounder.

When you only have ten turnovers, you've got to look to your point guard, which Jalen did a great job taking care of the ball, four assists to only one turnover. And really we just -- Devo had some turnovers early, and then other than that, we probably only had six turnovers the rest of the way after we were shaky at the very beginning.

So good job creating steals. Excellent job of getting to the foul line and trying to attack the rim with much more force in the second half.

Q. Justin is the first Arkansas player to go for 29 and 13 in a tournament game since Carlos Williamson in '94. Just how big was he? I guess you felt like he was a pretty good mismatch for you guys today.

ERIC MUSSELMAN: Yeah, I just thought the combination of strength, speed, athleticism would be a lot for their front line to handle. I mean, I knew if we went to that, that it might hurt us a little bit on the glass, which it did. We didn't win the rebounding battle. The next game's going to have a different complexion. Somebody else is going to have to step up. We'll probably have to play bigger than we did tonight, I understand that.

But that's what this game called for. It's really hard to advance in this tournament against anybody. Colgate's a team that cuts hard. We heard everybody talking about how this was -- circle this game. We were going to get upset. I'm just happy we're advancing and moving on to the next game.

Q. Coach, congratulations on the win. So you guys obviously just made the round of 32. You haven't made the round -- or the program hasn't made the Sweet 16 since '96. You'll be playing the winner of Utah State or Texas Tech. What's the mindset or the message going into that game?

ERIC MUSSELMAN: I just want to go back out in the arena and wave to my wife and daughter and my son, and then as soon as that game's -- you know, our assistant coaches are divided up, where one has Utah State, one has Texas Tech. I'm not going to spend any time because we're going to find out probably by the time we get -- our bus gets back to the hotel, we'll probably at that time know who we're playing, and then we'll start our preparation.

You know what, there was no celebrating in the locker room tonight. The other tournaments that we've been able to advance in, there's a lot of celebration even after Game 1. There was none. When I walked in and asked if they were happy and all right, they said, Coach, we were supposed to win, which is the mindset that you want your basketball team to have.

We know that this next game is going to be even more of a challenge. Both teams present problems. I know Utah State, because we played against them, and Queta's a force inside. They have great shooting. And obviously, any time you're talking about Texas Tech, they're physical. But we'll worry about them once we get back to the hotel.

Q. Colgate's a team that obviously has taken pretty good care of the ball, but they haven't played a team like you guys. But getting 22 turnovers to result in 34 points, how does that feel? And if I understood correctly, you and Michael talked about the press last night and that's what you did today. Have I got that right?

ERIC MUSSELMAN: Yeah, we didn't do it until we had to because it was out of necessity. We started picking up full court -- like I said, Bob, our 55 defense -- I mean, obviously, if the game plan was to play Justin at center from the get go, we would have done that, but I threw Jaylin Williams out there. We threw Ethan out there. Obviously, Connor started, and then we went small at halftime.

And I got feedback from the players as well, and they felt like they felt comfortable going small as well against Colgate. I knew we were going to have to turn them over. We couldn't let them run their offense.

Again, I attribute, at least early on, to some nerves maybe, but, hey, we're moving on, and that's what this whole thing's about.

Q. How come you're calling 55, and was it even more effective? How much have you guys practiced that, and was it more effective than you could have imagined?

ERIC MUSSELMAN: No, we've done it a lot of late. We did a lot at South Carolina. We have worked on it. Our five defense is our man-to-man, and 55 just means full court man-to-man. I don't know how much you want me to tell Craig Smith or Coach Beard.

Q. That's okay.

ERIC MUSSELMAN: But, yeah, we do practice it. I mean, it's one of four different full court defenses that we can go to.

Q. Coach, obviously, you're not sure about which team exactly you're going to play next in the round of 32, but just kind of what do you know about each of those programs, Utah State and Texas Tech?

ERIC MUSSELMAN: Obviously, first of all, I like your name, Eric. That's good. Second of all, I was in the Mountain West, so I played against Utah State for four years. I know their personnel. Some other staff members that were at Nevada know their personnel. And then when I was at Nevada, we also played at Texas Tech. David Patrick on our staff was in that conference when he was at TCU.

So I'm not really worried about either team right now until we know who we play. So their depth charts are up in our locker room right now, but we won't start talking to the team until we know for sure who we play.

Q. Hey, Coach, I was curious about JD Notae and his aggression. Is that something you just kind of live with for fear of taking away that killer instinct he has? I mean, he was throwing some daggers, and he's done that all year.

ERIC MUSSELMAN: I don't know how many baseball fans we have here, but he's either going to hit a home run or strikeout. Historically, I've had some players like that, and I just give them freedom. I don't want to try to control their game. The beauty in some players is the freedom you allow them. Like JD, he's just playing ball, man. His attitude, when he walks out there, is no different than if he was playing in a park somewhere, shirts and skins. He just goes out there, and he just plays.

You're going to live with an air ball three, and then the next time down he's going to hit a Steph Curry step-back three from 35 feet. And I've made the decision, with JD and a lot of our players, that I'm just going to give him freedom offensively and then demand that they play defense at the other end.

Again, I thought that's a very good offensive minded team, Colgate. We heard all about their scoring and being in the top ten in the country. You know, is this game going to be in the 80s? We hold them to 68 points. We hold them to 39 percent from the field. We're an underrated defensive team. I think people look at our offensive numbers and sometimes don't realize how good we play defense for the majority of the year and how much pride we take in our defense.

You've got to play both sides of the ball, and I think a lot of our offensive numbers are because of our defense.

Q. I think Brendan Haywood, you didn't get to hear him, did a great job on the color of the game. He said Vinnie Johnson's already got the microwave. So maybe like the air fryer, would that be an appropriate nickname for JD?

ERIC MUSSELMAN: We can go with the air fryer. I'll ask JD if he likes it.

Q. Moses had seven quick points right out of the gate but only finished with 12, five the rest of the way. What was Colgate able to do to kind of keep him quiet offensively?

ERIC MUSSELMAN: I thought they did a good job of staying attached to Moses. I mean, Moses, he played 35 minutes and had one rebound, which is uncharacteristic of him. They just stayed attached to him, and guess what? Sunday's going to be a different game, and we need Moses Moody to have a good game. I know he'll be locked in. He's played great all year.

Regardless of it, he still scored in double figures. He took eight shots and got 12 points. They elected to not leave him and not help off of him, so that opens up some things for some other people.