Arkansas basketball defeated Duke by five in front of a raucous home crowd on Wednesday night behind head coach Eric Musselman’s uniquely disrespectful game plan. The 59-year-old electric factory did not mean to completely disrespect Blue Devils forward Mark Mitchell. He was just doing his job!
However, in the process of doing his job, Musselman completely disrespected the former five-star.
Mitchell played 19 minutes in Fayetteville. The 6-foot-9 sophomore recorded just six points and three rebounds, while shooting 25% from the field and 0-of-3 from beyond the arc.
If that wasn’t ugly enough, Eric Musselman made the performance look so much worse. He said afterward that the Razorbacks specifically chose not to guard Mitchell throughout the entire college basketball game.
Duke was forced to take Mitchell, one of its best offensive rebounders, out of the game because he was shooting so poorly while Arkansas keyed on the other four players on the court. The home team was able to double team everyone but Mitchell— who they left wide open on purpose.
For the Blue Devils to make a deep run into March, it will require better play from Mitchell. Other teams are going to hear what Musselman had to say and implement a similar disrespectful defensive strategy until he proves that he can shoot the ball.
Mark Mitchell is very talented. There are high expectations for him, and there is still a lot of season left for him to figure things out.
However, the sophomore bump hasn’t played out as Duke may have hoped thus far. The Razorbacks literally chose not to guard Mitchell on purpose. Even if it worked, and proved to be the best defensive strategy, to simply ignore someone’s entire offensive game is ice cold.
Musselman and his team may have unintentionally mocked Mitchell for being a terrible offensive player, but they won! It worked. Mitchell needs to get his game up.