Arkansas Basketball: Why you shouldn’t panic if the Hogs lose to North Texas

The Arkansas basketball team is preparing to compete in another exhibition game a week after narrowly escaping with a win against a Division-II opponent (East Central). This time the Razorbacks will be hosting North Texas— a team they’ve played 16 times over the years and never lost.

While the Hogs may be 16-0 all-time against the Mean Green, don’t be surprised if the Hogs struggle again this week in the exhibition game.

These are essentially practice games meant to give Razorbacks Head Coach Eric Musselman valuable data he can use to evaluate players and evaluate the efficacy of certain lineups.

Arkansas basketball plays North Texas in an exhibition game before the regular season begins

Musselman has gone on record saying he wishes college basketball would have more exhibition games. They play and present just like a regular season game, without the consequences of a win or loss. You can do things that are perceived as risky or out-of-the-box before you play games that count.

After the close call against East Central last week, Musselman told reporters not too read too much into the final result of an exhibition game.

“The truth of the matter is you either do one of these or you do something behind closed doors,” Musselman said.

“One year when I was an assistant at Arizona State, we did a closed-door scrimmage and we lost to the University of San Francisco by 50. I think we literally lost by 49,” he said.

Musselman and his staff didn’t hit the panic button then and they won’t now.

“We went on to have a really good year. What [exhibition games are] for is, we’re trying to figure out who we are, what our holes are,” the Razorbacks head coach said.

No matter what happens against North Texas, the Hogs will be just fine. Don’t read too much into a win and don’t read too much into a loss.