Eric Musselman stayed in his shirt Thursday night as his basketball team got exposed.
A parting thought from the NCAA West Regional was that the Arkansas Razorbacks, like star-crossed lovers Rick and Ilsa in "Casablanca," will always have the Kansas game. That for one afternoon in Des Moines, Iowa, the Hogs played like the team that Razorback Nation envisioned at the season's outset, beating the defending national champion with a second-half comeback (rare for this team) for a 72-71 victory that made a jubilant Mussselman come out of his shirt.
Some (mostly Razorback fans of a certain age) thought little wrong with Musselman baring his chest. Some of my Twitter followers (not always a social bunch) raked me over the coals in cyberspace for calling that an over-the-top gesture. If anything, it ranked with storming the court after a big win, and Arkansas doesn't have many bigger in basketball than beating Kansas -- be it at home, on the road or a neutral site.
How long that game will remain fresh is debatable in the aftermath of Connecticut 88, Arkansas 65. Some might prefer a one-point loss to a superior team, which Connecticut was, to a 23-point mismatch that had UA fans looking for alternative programming by halftime.
Arkansas fans sometimes are reluctant to give an opponent its due. That was not the case on this night. So enchanted with the Huskies were some that they projected the Huskies cutting down the nets a week from Monday night in Houston.
Musselman's team, prone to lapses most of the season, resembled Las Vegas tourists caught in a Baccarat game when nickel slots were a safer choice. The Huskies raised the pot on every bet, finding the Razorbacks quickly strapped for cash and looking for the airport.
UConn, 26-8 before today's West Region final against Gonzaga, shot 57.4% and outrebounded Arkansas by 12. The Huskies got 22 points from the bench to Arkansas' 14, the Hogs losing starter Kamani Johnson to fouls on a scoreless night they shot 31.7% and were led in scoring by freshman Anthony Black with 20.
Arkansas finished 22-14, below a good UA team's standards, though the Kansas game alone attested to their tournament credentials. They were seeded higher in the region (8) than in the Southeastern Conference (10). Considering this team displayed a split personality at times, its 3-2 March tournament record is not altogether disappointing.
UA fans will wonder the outcome had Musselman more often fielded the team he envisioned, one with Nick Smith Jr. and Robert Brazile. At times, the Razorbacks' shaky inside game was revealed against physical teams like Alabama and Tennessee within the conference and Baylor outside. Black, for one, seemed to have too much to handle and Jordan Walsh, another freshman with promise, needed a steadying hand to see him through the long season.
Musselman, whose basketball know-how is essential and made him desirable to Athletic Director Hunter Yurachek when it came time to replace Mike Anderson, is hip when that, more than ever, means something to a recruit. Shaping this team around projected one-and-done players backfired, but that is not to say it hasn't worked elsewhere and wouldn't work here.
Arkansas, picked second in the SEC, was not the only national team with a bull's eye painted on its back. Kentucky, in a hit-and-miss season for John Calipari, went out after one game in the Big Dance.
Kansas State, so long in Kansas' shadow, beat teams coached by Calipari and Tom Izzo (Michigan State) in March. Texas lost its coach in midseason but looks like a team that can stay the distance. A Final Four with Houston and Texas in the April 1 semifinals at NRG Reliant Stadium is enough to make the mouth water. In a year that Alabama's football team was stopped short, Nate Oats' basketball Crimson Tide seem to understand the championship "process" of which Nick Saban speaks.
A Final Four berth would have required Arkansas to swim beyond international waters one time too many. Giving us a season of thrills, no matter the double-digit losses, the Razorbacks will always have the Kansas game to savor fondly. At their best, they were a team that would make a coach give one the shirt off his back.