Eric Musselman assesses current state of Arkansas offense, defense
Arkansas will look a lot different on the court than they did on their way to the Elite Eight last season. They bring in six new faces from the 2022 signing class, as well as five new transfers. Head coach Eric Musselman assessed the state of his team’s offense and defense ahead of their first competitive trip together overseas.
The Razorbacks have to replace the production of the SEC’s second-leading scorer in JD Notae, as well as second-round NBA draft pick Jaylin Williams and several more upperclassmen.
“I think just the identity that we’ve had the last three years and the roadmap, defensively, we’re probably still further ahead,” Musselman said. “Todd Lee and I were talking the other day, just about, because he had worked with us many years ago and thought, offensively, we spent way more time in practices and now, he thinks it’s tilted way more because he’s been away from me for an extended period of time. It was a really interesting observation.
“And he talked about the attention to detail we put into defense and how that’s such a high level,” Musselman continued. “Offensively, it’s just sharing the basketball. It’s the same thing across the board for teams right now. Understanding offensive spacing. We do have a lot of offensive sets in. I hope when we’re back in September that we’ll be able to clean up.”
Musselman says he’s not sure whether all his new faces are prepared yet for the versatility needed from them in the offense. However, he’s pleased with how far along the defense is so far this summer.
The Hogs’ first game of their four-game Euro tour is on Aug. 9 in Valencia, Spain. The team partnered with FloHoops to stream the games live and to archive them for on-demand streaming.
Musselman details how Arkansas will tackle European Tour
The Razorbacks will soon depart for Europe for their foreign hoops tour where they’ll play four games across locations in Italy and Spain. Of course, playing overseas comes with different rules, a different ball, and even a different court altogether. Hogs coach Eric Musselman isn’t too worried about those differences.
“I know all the rules inside and out,” Musselman said. “I might know the rules in FIBA better than I do college, believe it or not. Because I probably coached just as many games under those rules. I’m not worried about it. I don’t know if Riley did it — but somebody pulled out the FIBA balls. I mean, I’m not really worried about these four games. I’m worried about the 30 games after these four. And so I wish we were shooting with our balls, college balls, but somehow, somebody — and no one will admit who brought the balls out — it might help us over there.”
Musselman then went on to explain some of the rules he likes, even if the Hogs won’t work on them.
“The one year I was in the CBA, the NBA asked our league to experiment with the goal-tend,” Musselman said. “By the way, I think it’s a great rule, but we’re not gonna work on it. I got 15 different drills that we used to do in the CBA on that. Especially off a free throw it can be effective. That’s the easiest way to affect the ball hitting the rim and bat it off or tip dunk it in. But I’m not gonna go through any of that stuff. Just because it’s four games.”
On3’s Alex Weber contributed to this report.