Arkansas coach has to be restrained during loss before staff member throws student reporter’s phone
The Arkansas basketball coach has to be restrained during the loss before a team staff member THROWS the student reporter’s phone onto the floor
Arkansas coach Eric Musselman had to be contained as his team made an early Southeastern Conference tournament exit at the hands of No. 18 Texas A&M.
The Razorbacks suffered a 67-61 loss Friday night in the quarterfinals as the Aggies rallied from a 13-point deficit.
And Musselman’s frustrations boiled over when he made his anger very clear with the Razorbacks assistants who had to hold him down a couple of times during the loss.
But tensions peaked after the game when an Arkansas staff member walking behind Musselman as he left the field grabbed a journalism student’s phone and threw it to the ground.
The reporter, Jack Weaver, tweeted that Musselman stormed out of court “in a fury of f-bombs” along with video of the incident showing team staffer, identified as Razorbacks video coordinator Riley Hall. by CBS reporter Lee K. Howardsnatching the phone.
Arkansas coach Eric Musselman had to be restrained when his team lost to No. 18 Texas A&M
An Arkansas staff member grabbed a journalism student’s phone and threw it on the ground (L)
The Kentucky Kernel, the independent student newspaper at the University of Kentucky, released a statement after the incident involving its journalist.
‘The Kentucky Kernel is appalled by the actions of the Arkansas men’s basketball program. … no journalist, especially a journalism student, should be subjected to violence simply for doing his or her job,’ the statement said.
Musselman didn’t mention any outbursts when he met with reporters after the game.
“If you’re down 7-0 in foul count at any level, whether it’s CYO, college, the NBA, it affects your defensive aggressiveness, especially a team that shoots free throws on percentage, like Texas A&M has everything.” all season,’ Musselman said.
Wade Taylor scored 18 points to help Texas A&M (24-8) advance to the semifinals for the second straight year, where they will play Vanderbilt, which beat Kentucky.
Arkansas (20-13) must now wait until Sunday’s NCAA Tournament bracket announcement to learn its postseason fate.
Musselman said it would take some time to get over this painful loss.
“For much of the game we had an advantage. I mean, we had a 27-minute lead or whatever,” Musselman said. ‘Obviously we played a very good first half and a poor second half. I give Texas A&M credit for their second half play.’
The Razorbacks suffered a 67-61 loss Friday in the Southeastern Conference quarterfinals.
The Razorbacks coach said it would take some time to get over this painful loss.
Coach Buzz Williams said his second-seeded Aggies weren’t good in the first half and it didn’t help that Taylor had foul trouble early on.
“We tried to play him offensively for defense the best we could,” Williams said. ‘Nine turnovers is not good. Nine blocked shots is not good. The reason they shot 55% is 18 times we gave them the ball and we never got our defense ready.’
Henry Coleman III had 16 points and 11 rebounds for Texas A&M. Dennis Dexter and Tyrece Radford each added 11 points.
Nick Smith led Arkansas with 16 points and Makhi Mitchell finished with 15.
Jordan Walsh hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to give the Razorbacks a 38-25 halftime lead.
Texas A&M trailed 40-27 early in the second half before taking a 46-45 lead on Dexter’s jump shot with 10:26 remaining.
Coleman said none of the Aggies panicked.
“Our leaders stepped up and said the right things,” Coleman said. “The coach came in and prepared us for the second half. We weren’t really playing Texas A&M basketball in the first half. I thought our ability to go downhill, control the foul line and control the glass was a big key.