Razorback basketball report: Early projection has Hogs out of tournament

FAYETTEVILLE — If ESPN analyst Joe Lunardi is on point, the Arkansas Razorbacks would be out and North Carolina-Wilmington, the Hogs’ opponent today at 4 p.m., would be included in the NCAA Tournament field if it was selected today.

Lunardi included the Seahawks (9-2) on the 13-seed line of his latest bracket prediction as the projected automatic qualifier out of the Colonial Athletic Conference.

Arkansas (8-4), while taking on a difficult early schedule, is considered the No. 81 team in the analyst’s rankings, well out of his projected bracket.

The Razorbacks will open the day ranked No. 97 in the NCAA’s NET Rankings, one of the components used by the NCAA Tournament selection committee to determine at-large berths. The Seahawks are No. 109 in the rankings.

Two-a-days

The Razorbacks were able to get in a series of two-a-day practices prior to their Dec. 21 win over Abilene Christian and also after returning from the Christmas break.

“It’s tough, but it’s making us better,” guard Khalif Battle said. “It’s a grind, but to get where we’re trying to get to that’s what it takes. It’s an honor and a privilege to do what we’re doing and we need to take advantage of it.”

The Razorbacks practiced on Christmas night, then went with two-a-days the next couple of days.

“They’ve been going well,” guard Tramon Mark said. “You have a defensive segment of practice and then an offensive segment. They’ve been going good.”

Coach Eric Musselman said the two-a-day workouts have done some good.

“It’s allowed us to clean some things up offensively,” he said. “It’s allowed us to do prep. It’s allowed us, hopefully, to see some of the holes that we have in areas that we have to gave growth at.”

No. 1 energy

Arkansas guard Keyon Menifleld contributed 11 points on 4-of-8 shooting, 6 rebounds, 2 assists and 4 turnovers in 28 minutes off the bench in an 83-73 win over Abilene Christian on Dec. 21.

Beyond that, the sophomore transfer from Washington, who wears No. 1, provided an emotional lift in just his second game after having his eligibility confirmed by the NCAA.

“He gives us bounce,” Coach Eric Musselman said. “He gives us a sense of urgency. He gives us speed. He changes the complexion of our tempo offensively.

“Defensively, he can pick up in the backcourt. We’ve been a low-volume steal team. Hopefully he can add to that. … We are hopeful playing man-to-man defense he is going to create more steals than what you would get opportunistically in a zone. Been very happy with him.”

Never away

Coach Eric Musselman took three days off for a Christmas break, immediately following the Hogs’ win over Abilene Christian.

Musselman and family traveled to his hometown of San Diego, where he nominally “got away” from basketball, if only in theory.

“Pretty easy on the Boardwalk and being at Don Bravo to turn it off,” Musselman said when asked Thursday if he could ever truly turn his mind off basketball. “But only then. … but even then [I’m] watching tape and trying to figure things out. So I would say a little bit … in all seriousness.

“But you know, [San Diego is] the one place that my mind does get away a little bit. It was there because just so many friends and family and the beach. But other than that, no.”

Musselman said his top Christmas gift is a FitBit watch given to him by his wife Danyelle.

The lack of down time is a growing concern in the coaching industry.

“I think right now, and it’s been discussed with a lot of college coaches just that … there’s really not any down time, to turn your mind off or to catch a breath,” Musselman said.

Coach’s cradle

North Carolina-Wilmington has been a proving ground for multiple players coaches and players who have gone on to Division I success, among them Kentucky Coach John Calipari, who was a back-up point guard from 1978-80.

Other Division I coaches who have spent time at UNC-Wilmington are Clemson’s Brad Brownell, James Madison’s Mark Byington, North Carolina State’s Kevin Keats, LSU’s Matt McMahon, Coastal Carolina’s Benny Moss, current UNCW Coach Takayo Siddle and Texas’ Rodney Terry, who was an assistant for the Seahawks from 1998-02.

On the call

The first meeting between the Razorbacks and Seahawks, and the last game of the calendar year for both teams, will be broadcast on SEC Network.

James Westing will provide the play by play call and former Razorback great Joe Kleine will give color analysis on the broadcast.

3 spree

On this date 25 years ago the Razorbacks launched like mad from three-point range in a 100-77 win over North Texas.

Arkansas took a school-record 54 three-pointers and made 19 of them. Pat Bradley took a school-record 24 of those three pointers and he made 10 en route to a game-high 32 points.

30-point pounding

North Carolina-Wilmington, ranked No. 7 in the CollegeInsider.Com Mid-Major Top 25, has only two losses, to Appalachian State and at East Carolina.

The first, an 86-56 beatdown by the Mountaineers in Fort Myers, Fla., is a head scratcher.

UNCW held a 34-33 lead at the break before Appalachian State put on a monster second half. The Mountaineers made 21 of 30 shots (70%) in the second half, including 6 of 12 three-pointers, to outscore the Seahawks 53-22 and break away before a small crowd of 512 at the Suncoast Credit Union Arena in the Fort Myers Tip-Off Tournament.

Who’s that?

Three of the Seahawks’ wins have come against lower-level regional programs in the Carolinas. North Carolina-Wilmington defeated the Montreat College Cavaliers, a private Christian college in Montreat, N.C., by a score of 119-50 on Dec. 10.

The Seahawks downed Columbia International, an NAIA school located in Columbia, S.C., 116-80 on Nov. 14. They took down the University of Mount Olive, from Mount Olive. N.C., 105-66 on Nov. 6.