Consider Arkansas head coach Eric Musselman day-to-day with a sore right Achilles tendon and slight abdominal strain. Those aches and pains just happen to be some risks associated with climbing on a courtside table while celebrating a thrilling win during March Madness.
The No. 3 seed Razorbacks were justifiably frenzied on Sunday night in Indianapolis, as they defeated No. 6 seed Texas Tech, 68-66, in a second-round South region matchup, securing the program's first trip to the Sweet Sixteen since 1996.
"It was great. I need some sleep," Musselman told the Tiki & Tierney show on Monday afternoon. "The adrenaline from last night was insane, but it was an incredible game. Texas Tech's so well-coached. They're so physical, they have great toughness. It was a street fight on the backboards last night, and there were no easy baskets, from either side."
Musselman's analysis checks out -- there certainly were no easy baskets. And perhaps no one understood that harsh reality more than Texas Tech guards Terrence Shannon Jr. and Kyle Edwards. Trailing by one, with 37 seconds remaining in the game, Shannon Jr. missed a go-ahead layup near the right block after receiving a nifty pass down low. Two possessions later, trailing by two, Edwards' attempt at a game-tying layup was too strong, and the game ended with Arkansas recovering the ball off the glass.
Suffice to say Musselman's photo-worthy celebration was warranted. A huge sigh of relief, followed by a burst of uncontrolled excitement. Survive and advance, as the old adage says.
"What you've got to try to express to your players is, you've got to figure out a way to win the game on that particular night," Musselman said. "Games are going to have different themes and different storylines throughout the game, and you just can't get too high if you're playing well in a half and you can't get too low if you don't play up to your standards. I think the big thing is, how do you play as productive as you can through 40 minutes of play. And that's how you can survive."
On Saturday, Mar. 27, Arkansas will face a unique Sweet Sixteen opponent in No. 15 seed Oral Roberts. The Golden Eagles pulled off a major first-round upset against No. 2 seed Ohio State last Friday, and followed that historic win by knocking off No. 7 seed Florida on Sunday. Oral Roberts is just the second No. 15 seed in history to reach the Sweet Sixteen, and with a win over the Razorbacks, they'd be the first No. 15 to ever reach the Elite Eight.
If that storyline somehow isn't intriguing enough, perhaps it's worth noting that Arkansas played Oral Roberts during the non-conference portion of their regular season schedule. And the Razorbacks' 87-76 win over the Golden Eagles back in late December didn't come easy.
"We were actually down 10 points at halftime, so our players automatically have great respect for them," Musselman said of Oral Roberts. "But we watched all their made baskets today [on film], we kind of dissected where our holes were. And then we started to go through their made baskets against Ohio State, and then we'll probably go back to their conference tournament as well... There's a lot of detail that goes into [preparing]…"
Sweet Sixteen games are scheduled to begin on Saturday, and be played at Hinkle Fieldhouse and Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
The entire conversation between Musselman and Tiki & Tierney can be accessed in the audio player above.
You can follow the Tiki and Tierney Show on Twitter @TikiAndTierney and Tom Hanslin @TomHanslin.