WATCH: Eric Musselman delivers colorful postgame interview after Arkansas upsets No. 1 Gonzaga
The No. 4-seed Arkansas Razorbacks did the unthinkable on Thursday night, upsetting the No. 1-seed, No. 1-ranked Gonzaga Bulldogs, and in emphatic fashion — head coach Eric Musselman delivered on an excellent gameplan that saw Arkansas win both halves, never even giving the Bulldogs a chance to mount a second-half comeback.
After the victory, the biggest of Musselman’s tenure (which happened to come in his 100th game at the helm of Arkansas), the Razorbacks’ head coach delivered an all-time postgame interview on CBS Sports. He was as loud and colorful as he’s ever been, thanking all the doubters that helped fueled Arkansas to a 74-68 victory.
Musselman danced his way toward the postgame interview after the handshake line and couldn’t hold in his emotions talking to CBS’ Tracy Wolfson.
“Same thing all year,” Musselman said, when asked what his team showed in the win over Gonzaga. “I mean, our defense, to hold them to 68 — just incredible defense. We believed. Nobody else did. We read everything. I’m telling you: we put it up on the screen every single meal. Thank you to everybody that said we had no chance!”
Arkansas stuns top-seeded Gonzaga, punches ticket to Elite Eight
The Arkansas Razorbacks stunned the top-seeded Gonzaga Bulldogs on Thursday night, pulling out a 74-68 win that is sure to burn brackets across the country. The Razorbacks forced the Zags into double-digit turnovers and the Hogs played impressive defense all night long.
Arkansas was paced by 21 points by their star guard, JD Notae. While he poured in 21 points, he did so on 9-of-27 shooting. He had a number of impressive plays throughout the night, including an epic chase down block of Gonzaga’s Rasir Bolton in the first half. The win on Thursday night was the first for Arkansas in program history against a No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Chet Holmgren of Gonzaga fouled out of the game with 3:29 remaining in the game. The Zags missed his presence in the final few minutes of the game. A few of the fouls called against Holmgren were quite controversial. Andrew Nembhard drilled a three with 16.5 seconds remaining to cut the score to lead to Arkansas lead to three, 68-65, but that was as close as they got in the final seconds.
Before tonight, the Razorbacks were 0-10 all-time vs. No. 1 overall seeds in the NCAA Tournament. Trey Wade buried a huge three from the corner for Arkansas to put them up 66-58 with 2:08 remaining in the second half. The Razorbacks also had a big night from Jaylin Williams, who stuffed the stat sheet with 13 points and 11 rebounds.
On3’s Wade Peery contributed to this report.