Musselman Fueling Up On Disrespect

If there’s one thing that’s always been perfectly clear about Eric Musselman from the day he stepped onto the Arkansas campus, it’s that he thrives on the feeling of disrespect.

Fortunately for Arkansas fans, if disrespect were a meal, then Musselman and his team will be sitting down to a buffet that would put Golden Corral to shame before the NCAA tournament officially kicks off Thursday.

We start with the one element that gets Musselman’s blood boiling even hotter than when anyone happens to walk past him in a black and white striped shirt – the NET rankings.

How this thing got to be an analytic device that gets taken seriously is anybody’s guess. When Musselman, in a moment of sarcastic frustration quipped that LSU would probably still be ranked ahead of Arkansas even after the Razorbacks blew out the Tigers to go 0-3.

Even Will Wade, in his final act as LSU’s head coach, declared Arkansas obviously better than the Tigers. But then the final NET rankings came out and no one was laughing.

At No. 18 sat LSU. Two spots below was Arkansas at No. 20.

Even the NET rankings say they are wrong for this. Just compare each of the variables.

Overall Record: Arkansas 25-8, LSU 22-11

Road Record: Arkansas 5-4, LSU 2-8

Home Record: Arkansas 17-2, LSU 15-2

Quad 1 Record: Arkansas 7-6, LSU 6-9

Quad 2 Record: Arkansas 5-1, LSU 5-1

Quad 3 Record: Arkansas 6-1, LSU 6-1

Quad 4 Record: Arkansas 7-0, LSU 5-0

The only place LSU has an edge is on a neutral court. There LSU is 5-1 while Arkansas is 3-2.

Even without the head-to-head disparity of a 3-0 sweep, the Razorbacks still performed either equally or better in every NET ranking measurement, but one.

No matter how you shake it, the most cited factor in bracketology this year still thinks LSU is better than Arkansas.

AMERICA DOESN’T THINK MUCH OF ARKANSAS EITHER

One in five brackets supposedly have Vermont picked to beat Arkansas. However, that doesn’t reflect ESPN’s projection of a 36% chance that the 13-seed Catamounts pull off the win in nearby Buffalo.

Across various stories, ESPN writers refer to Arkansas as small, a poor shooting team, and expected to struggle to keep up with the shooting abilities of Vermont.

MUSSELMAN NOT TOP 10 MATERIAL

According to ESPN’s Jay Bilas, the head Hog not only isn’t among the Top 10 coaches in college basketball, he’s not even among the Top 10 out of 68 in the NCAA tournament. Based on who is in the Top 10, Musselman isn’t even Top 3 in the SEC.

It might take a second Elite 8 run, which would require a win over No. 3 rated Mark Few and his Gonzaga Bulldogs, to begin to gain respect as a coach on the national scene. Anything less will apparently keep the man who requires a breakdown of how he coaches in practice nearly every single game on the back burner as far as respect as a coach.

APPARENTLY, NOT ONLY ARE ARKANSAS PLAYERS SMALL, BUT THEY'RE NOT THAT GOOD

ESPN decided to put together a mock NBA draft that includes both rounds drafting only from NCAA tournament teams. Arkansas barely got a single player into the draft.

Forward Jaylin Williams is the only Hog to be hypothetically chosen. He went to the Portland Trailblazers at No. 39 in a 58-player draft. While most players got a write-up, Williams merited merely a name and a stat line.

Eight other players from the five other SEC teams in the tournament went before Williams. As for J.D. Notae, he did not warrant even a hypothetical draft pick against a limited field.

The entire Duke starting five went 14 picks before Williams. That means ESPN thinks the two best players on the Arkansas team could not start for the Blue Devils.

It also suggests that, at best, Notae would be lucky to be the fifth best player at Arizona or Gonzaga. Had he gone to Alabama, UCLA, Baylor, or Purdue, the best he could hope for would be to be the fourth best player on the team.

In all, there are apparently at least 32 teams in this tournament, that’s half the field, where ESPN doesn’t think Notae would be the top player if he joined. That includes schools like Davidson, Richmond, Murray St. and South Dakota St.

He’s not good enough to be the man there. In fact, at Memphis, third best is his only shot.

So, as you can see, at the national level, when it comes to the Arkansas Razorbacks, there’s just not much to see. Of course, that’s exactly how Musselman likes it.

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