The future is bright for Arkansas basketball under Eric Musselman. Despite injury and a limited roster, the Hogs won 20 games and were in the bubble conversation in a 2019-20 season that was cut short.
Arkansas basketball entered the 2019-20 season with low expectations. The Razorbacks, picked to finish 11th in SEC pre-season predictions, began the Eric Musselman era with just 9 scholarship players and one of the shortest rosters among NCAA D1 programs.
On the surface, it is fair to look at the Hogs and say “they were what we thought they were”. Lack of depth and front-court size reared its’ head at times in SEC play. Arkansas finished 7-11 in SEC games, good for 11th in the league, right where they were picked.
However, a look beyond the raw numbers paints a different, more optimistic picture for the season. Despite their limitations, the Razorbacks rolled through a 12-1 non-conference slate to a 20 win season and looked the part of an intense, well-coached group that played above their ceiling for large stretches of time.
In fact, Arkansas was widely regarded as an NCAA Tournament team until the untimely injury that cost sharp-shooting wing Isaiah Joe to miss a significant amount of time. The Hogs went through a rough stretch of play without him but were showing signs of hitting their stride again upon his return.
Many say a season can be defined by a handful of possessions, and this year was no exception for Arkansas. Of the 12 losses for the Hogs, six came by 5 points or less, and 3 were decided in overtime. Had a couple bounces gone their way, the Razorbacks could have potentially been squarely in the NCAA Tournament field.
The reality for Arkansas was that they were a fringe bubble team at the time the season was canceled, but there was a path for them to make a case for themselves. Arkansas dispatched of Vanderbilt to open SEC Tournament play, and was looking forward to tough, but winnable match-ups with South Carolina and LSU ahead that could have propelled their resume into much stronger consideration.
Had things worked out and Arkansas received a bid to March Madness, they would have been looking at an 11/12 seed and a possible First Four game. However, with the way the Razorbacks defend and their lethal tandem of Mason Jones and Isaiah Joe, they are not a team I would have looked forward to facing in a round of 64 game.
Let’s take a deeper dive in the season in review for Eric Musselman and Arkansas basketball.