Eric Musselman breaks down Arkansas defensive game plan following Gonzaga upset

Heading into Thursday’s game against Arkansas, Gonzaga averaged 87.8 points per game, meaning the Razorbacks would have their hands full no defense. But they stuck to their defensive game plan — and Eric Musselman broke down how they did it after the game.

Arkansas held Gonzaga to 68 points en route to a 74-68 win over the No. 1-seeded Bulldogs in San Francisco. It didn’t look like it’d be easy for Arkansas to contain Gonzaga, but the Razorbacks did it. Musselman pointed to an emphasis on transition defense as a reason why his team was able to come away with the win.

“I thought it’s one of the fastest-paced teams that I’ve ever seen with the push of the ball, but even this morning, we were still working on our transition defense,” Musselman said. “We wanted to take away their long outlet passes. That was something that we picked up on film when [Andrew] Nembhard would get a head of steam, and Au’Diese [Toney] met him really, really early away in the back court, and I thought that really helped.

“And they did a great job of their pitch-ahead sideline and break. We took that away.”

Arkansas stuns top-seeded Gonzaga, punches ticket to Elite Eight

Arkansas stunned top-seeded Gonzaga on Thursday night, pulling out a 74-68 win that is sure to burn brackets across the country. With the upset victory, Arkansas advanced to the Elite Eight for the second consecutive season. The Razorbacks forced the Zags into 15 turnovers and the Hogs played impressive defense all night long.

Star guard JD Notae led the way with 21 points for Arkansas on 9-of-29 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. Notae also stuffed the stat sheet with six rebounds, six assists, three steals and two blocks.

The win on Thursday night was the first for Arkansas in program history against a No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. The Razorbacks also became the first team in history to beat an AP No. 1 team in the regular season and in the NCAA Tournament.

Chet Holmgren of Gonzaga fouled out of the game with 3:29 remaining. He only had 11 points in 24 minutes, but managed to pull down 14 rebounds in the losing effort. The Zags missed his presence in the final few minutes of the game.

Things got interesting late, though, when 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 the Bulldogs got in the final seconds as Arkansas hit some huge free throws to seal it.