WATCH: Eric Musselman ditches shirt, calls the hogs with fans after Arkansas knocks off Kansas
Arkansas head coach Eric Musselman wears his heart on his sleeve, except for when he’s not wearing sleeves — or a shirt. And the fiery coach ditched his red polo amid the furor after No. 8 seed Arkansas came back to topple No. 1 seed Kansas.
After doing a quick postgame interview, Musselman ran over to the Arkansas fan section and stood before them, urging them on. As he got more and more into it, he couldn’t help himself and got rid of his red polo.
He spun it above his head a few times before leading the fans in a classic chant of calling the hogs.
Another angle shows Musselman interacting with the fans after the chant, before being carried off my his players.
A heck of an evening for the Arkansas coach and his squad.
Plus, after Saturday night, he can probably afford a few more shirts.
With the win over the Jayhawks and a trip to the second weekend locked in, Musselman secured another $200,000 in bonus money for this year, according to Steve Berkowitz of USA Today.
With that $200,000, Musselman is now up to $250,000 in bonuses for this season, according to Berkowitz. This is on top of the baked-in $100,000 annual raise and a contract extension that have him due at least $3 million.
He could earn up to $4.2 million on the deal if incentives are hit. Not a bad prize to go along with a Sweet Sixteen berth. Plus, he got some advice from Arkansas legend and pro golfer John Daly.
“Really good,” said Muss about his upcoming message to Daly. “He tried calling me, got a couple texts already. Before we hit the plane I’ll try to call John. You know, he’s been texting me even drills. Like he wanted our guys to get a putter out and hit a ball into a cup. We haven’t tried it yet, luckily we’ve been making foul shots. But I know the state of Arkansas is on fire right now and I know John Daly’s pretty pumped up too.”
Musselman continued about the message from Daly.
“He was very happy with our free throw shooting. That’s not a joke,” said Musselman after that win. “I really do get several texts, and sometimes we do converse, believe it or not, late night on our lack of free throw shooting. I sent him — just so everybody knows, I did send him several of your guys’ Tweets, and I think he felt good about that, too, that we acknowledged him in a press conference.”
Perhaps the two of them can hangout shirtless one day this summer.