No. 1 ranked Auburn was defeated by the Arkansas Razorbacks. Auburn was No. 1 at home on Tuesday night. The Tigers lost their second game of the basketball season in overtime, losing by 80 to 76. Guard JD NotaeTo carry the Razorbacks, he scored an unbeaten 28 point game record.
During an interview Wednesday with SiriusXM Radio’s SEC This Morning, Arkansas head coach Eric Musselman talked about how the Razorbacks’ home atmosphere is unrivaled in college basketball.
“I’ve been coaching for a long time and the two loudest that I’ve ever heard a building I had mentioned earlier when we played Kentucky two years ago and last night,” Musselman said. “I got home and the first thing my wife said was is she thought that it was so loud in there that it did affect free throws by the opposition last night and I think she was right. Before the game, I usually go out right after the opposing team’s introduced, and literally the walls in the back locker room were shaking because we’re really close to the student section.
“There’s no way a building can be any louder than that, I don’t care where it is. And the cool thing is we were sold out from September on but we all know that in college basketball once you get past the football season and you get into February, that’s when the crowds really start to grow and I truly believe that our LSU game, our Tennessee game, our Kentucky game, these homes games that we have coming up will be very very similar to the atmosphere that we had last night.”
Auburn head coach Bruce PearlHe was also asked about the raucous Auburn crowd following the game.
“I was proud to have been No. 1. And we haven’t lost since November. We are aware of the price we’re paying, it’s very hard on the road. Congratulations to Arkansas! It’s hard to believe that we were the first No. Since the SEC was founded, No. 1 has been here. We put our best effort to achieve that position. It was tough. It was hard. It was tough. They had 23 field goals and we had 30.
Auburn was held to less than 40% field goal shooting by Akransas in the win. Mussleman was interviewed about his defensive efforts.
Musselman stated, “I don’t know how much credit (I could take),” “There aren’t many teams shooting around at this time of the year. We did a 4-man shell today. It was called an Auburn four-man shell. We did it over and over. It is semi-live today. They don’t stop believing in each other and they continue to talk in practice through everything. Auburn isn’t a team that is high-assist, so the ball scores even though it’s not. We had to do an excellent job of collapsing, and try to be disruptive with the ball.”
