FAYETTEVILLE — The Arkansas Razorbacks missed Justin Smith at the start of Saturday’s game against No. 12 Missouri, missed Coach Eric Musselman at the end, and missed way too many shots and free throws in between.
Missouri pulled away to beat the University of Arkansas 81-68 in Bud Walton Arena after the Razorbacks had their worst-shooting performance in five seasons.
“I’ll be honest. I didn’t think anybody played very good today. I didn’t think I coached good,” said Musselman, who was ejected with 3:51 left by official Doug Shows after getting two technical fouls. “I didn’t think the assistant coaches coached good.
“I didn’t like our shoot-around [Friday]. There were way too many distractions. People talking.
“We’ve got to across the board get better. I didn’t think anyone on our team did very well.”
Arkansas (9-1, 1-1 SEC) played without Smith — a senior forward averaging 11.6 points and 7.1 rebounds — after he had ankle surgery Friday that is expected to sideline him three to six weeks.
“We missed Justin Smith,” Musselman said.
The Razorbacks also missed 52 shots — including 21 three-point attempts — and 11 free throws.
Arkansas finished 26.8% from the field (19 of 71), 7 of 28 on three-pointers (25%) and 23 of 34 on free throws (67.6%).
According to Hogstats.com, it was the Razorbacks’ third-worst shooting performance in an SEC game and worst ever in Bud Walton Arena.
Arkansas shot 22.6% (16 of 72) in a 78-46 loss at Mississippi State on Feb. 9, 2016, and shot 25.0% (17 of 68) in a 84-54 road loss to the Bulldogs on Feb. 8, 2003.
Missouri (7-1, 1-1 SEC) ended a six-game losing streak at Bud Walton Arena, where the Tigers last had won 75-71 on Jan. 28, 2014.
“Really disappointed,” Musselman said. “It’s the worst home loss that I can ever remember being a part of. We had two starters go 1 of 21.”
Junior guard Desi Sills was 1 of 10 from the field and sophomore forward Connor Vanover 0 of 11 after they had combined to score 40 points in the Razorbacks’ 97-85 victory at Auburn on Wednesday night.
“As a coach, I’m never one to ever, ever blame one player,” Musselman said when asked specifically about Vanover’s shooting struggles. “They’re student-athletes.
“Having said that, we need Connor to produce and we need Desi to produce if Justin’s not available.”
The Tigers bounced back from a 73-53 loss to No. 7 Tennessee — Arkansas’ next opponent — on Wednesday night in Mizzou Arena.
“You play with a level of grit, toughness, and I thought we had some conviction on the defensive side of the ball,” Missouri Coach Cuonzo Martin said. “It’s like, ‘Man, take pride in that.’”
The Razorbacks were 8 of 30 on layups, according to statbroadcast.
“I’ve never in my entire coaching career seen so many missed layups,” Musselman said.
Musselman also praised Martin and the Tigers’ defensive effort.
“Give Coach Martin and his team a tremendous amount of credit,” Musselman said. “He’s always had great defensive teams. He’s always had great, physical defensive teams.
“Having said that, we missed a great number of point-blank layups. Scoring around the rim has been a problem for us since our very first game. So we have to be physical around the rim.”
Arkansas couldn’t match the physical play inside of Missouri, especially Tigers 6-10 senior Jeremiah Tilmon, who had 25 points and 11 rebounds.
“Tilmon played phenomenal,” Musselman said. “[Xavier] Pinson played phenomenal.
“We laid out the game plan — do not foul Pinson — and Pinson went to the foul line 15 times. Four of them were my fault. I get that.”
Pinson, a junior guard, scored 23 points and hit 12 of 15 free throws. He hit 3 of 4 free throws resulting from Musselman’s technical fouls to push Missouri’s lead to 69-52.
The Razorbacks, who trailed by as many as 18 points in the second half, led for only 14 seconds of the game. They went ahead 19-17 midway through the first half after a driving basket by junior guard JD Notae.
Notae led Arkansas with 19 points, but he was 6 of 18 from the field. Freshman guard Moses Moody had 18 points and a season-high 10 rebounds for the Razorbacks.
“It was a physical game,” said Moody, who shot 4 of 15. “We played through a lot of no-calls.
“Some of those could have been called one way or another, but at the end of the day we’ve got to finish through contact.”
Missouri had 21 turnovers, but the Razorbacks were able to convert those into only 15 points.
“When we turned them over, we didn’t look to kick it ahead,” Musselman said. “We didn’t run, and we did not make the extra pass.
“I mean … you can’t make this up. You can’t make up that you lose a game by double digits and cause 21 turnovers.”
Another bothersome stat was Arkansas had only seven assists. Sills and Vanover each had two assists to lead the Razorbacks.
“You’ve got to run the floor hard,” Musselman said. “You’ve got to cut hard to get open.
“Those are two things we haven’t done at the pace that we need to. Not just [against Missouri]. I think it’s been something that we continue to talk to our guys about.
“Guys weren’t running to their spots on spacing the floor properly. We looked young, you know. We did. We just had plays on both sides of the ball that we’ve got to get a lot better at.”
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