Breaking down what has gone wrong for Arkansas in 2023-24
Arkansas‘ season hasn’t gone to plan. The Razorbacks were voted to finish third in their conference in the 2023-2024 SEC Men’s Basketball Preseason Media Poll. Currently, the team is 9-7 and a mere 1-3 in conference play.
While Arkansas was able to pick up a win over Texas A&M on Tuesday, the team has a long way to go to reach its preseason expectations. On Thursday, On3’s Joe Tipton weighed in on Arkansas’ underwhelming season thus far.
“Arkansas was kind of a shocker,” Tipton told On3s Andy Staples. “I didn’t anticipate them to lose this many games. We talked about the transfer portal and it did wonders for Tennessee and Dalton Knecht.
“But, then, a team like Arkansas, they live and breathe off the transfer portal. And they brought in several talented guys, and it’s just not paying out for them as much so far.”
Arkansas added seven players in the transfer portal this offseason while only losing three. Three of the players the Razorbacks added were standouts at their previous schools: Tramon Mark, Khalif Battle and Keyon Menifield.
To pile on, the team returned Trevon Brazile and Davonte Davis. Brazile was preseason All-SEC First-Team member and Davis was a Second-Team member. The pair is only averaging a combined 16.2 points and 11 rebounds per game.
In contrast, most of the transfers are holding up their end of the bargain. Mark is leading the team in scoring this season and exploded for a career-high 35 points against Texas A&M. Mark also knocked down a game-winner with 1.1 seconds left on the clock. Battle and Menifield are also two of the team’s top four scorers.
Arkansas gradually figuring it out
Offense is hardly Arkansas’ issue. The team is forcing just 10.65 opponent turnovers per game, ranking No. 308 in the country. Worse, the team is giving up 77.6 points a night, falling at No. 312 nationally.
Arkansas held Texas A&M, who had just defeated No. 6 Kentucky, to 77 points on Tuesday. After the game, head coach Eric Musselman pointed to his lineup changes as part of the reason behind his team’s success.
“Different lineup? I thought that Joseph (Pinion) and Layden (Blocker) played really well last game,” explained Musselman. “I think that kind of put everybody on alert, so to speak, that you’ve got to play super, super hard. You’ve got to follow the game plan.
“I think those two guys playing well kind of helped some of the other guys, maybe, understand that I better play or I’m not going to get my minutes back,” Musselman added. “When you have guys that come off the bench that do that the prior game? I think it carried over tonight. I really did – guys understanding the urgency of them performing at a high level from an effort standpoint.”