Arkansas Razorbacks coach Eric Musselman on what he saw in Wednesday night's Red-White Scrimmage in Barnhill Arena, kicking off the new season with a lot of new faces.
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00:00 Eric, just for general overall thoughts, you were sitting right in front of us and you were acting like you were, you know, coaching a regular season game or something like that.
00:09 No, I was, first of all, the crowd was awesome. I mean, it was closer to 6,000 than 5,500, so the turnout on a weather's not great, we're still a long way from playing a game.
00:25 So I thought the crowd was awesome. I think the guys felt that even pregame, but a lot of things that we need to clean up, we need to get better, but all things that we think are teachable.
00:38 You know, the shooting is obviously, we're going to be able to stretch the defense out a little bit more than maybe we have in the past.
00:46 So, really pleased with our shooting. Pretty pleased with how the flow of the offense is. You know, we're running an offense that we ran for about 10 games two years ago.
01:01 That's kind of what Milwaukee ran two years ago. And it requires a lot of thinking and a lot of reading, and pretty happy with how far advanced the guys are with that.
01:17 Obviously, we've got to get a lot, lot better, and some guys are further advanced on knowing this than others, but that'll hopefully come over time.
01:28 We know Khaleef Bowe was on crutches. Can you tell us what's going on with him?
01:33 Yeah, he practiced today. I walked over and got in the gym, and he said his foot was really sore.
01:41 And they took him for preliminary look at over at the football facility.
01:46 At that point, there was no determination that there was anything, no break or anything, but I know that they're going to look at it again tomorrow with some different x-rays or whatever.
02:04 So, as of now, no update, nothing other than the fact that he felt uncomfortable. Not in the same spot as where he had a break earlier.
02:18 Same foot, but not really related as of now. But we did have more than one doctor look at him over at football, and then we had a couple more doctors in our locker room.
02:31 So, right now, nothing unless whatever test they run, something comes up.
02:38 Eric, just wanted your thoughts on El tonight. 16 points, 8 of 10 shooting, 6 assists, 1 turnover.
02:45 Seems like, sitting right behind you, it looks like you've got a good bit of trust built up in him already.
02:50 Yeah, I thought El was phenomenal. Shot selection, you mentioned, Scotty, I think you said he was 8 of 10.
02:58 And one of his shots was addressed right away. It was his first shot of the game, a pull-up three that he's not going to take again to start a game.
03:08 Other than that, you take that shot away and he goes 8 of 9, and that's really hard to do.
03:14 But I think that some of the shooting is really going to open up dribble-drive angles for guys like El and Devo.
03:24 I think that the threat of perimeter shooting, even our bigs, Kai made a three and Bay, maybe his foot was on the line or whatever,
03:33 but Davenport and Joseph, we have some guys that can make shots, and Devo's really, really been shooting the ball from three at a high clip in practice.
03:43 And we've been working every day. We end every practice with 10-minute shooting, nothing but three balls for everybody in the gym.
03:50 And you shoot 10 straight minutes with a bunch of rebounders and three or four balls at one basket with one guy.
03:57 That's a lot of reps. So pleased with how we're shooting the ball and not pleased with how we defended the three.
04:06 Coach, reading up on Davenport, whatever he committed, it seemed like he was kind of a streaky shooter there to Cincinnati.
04:12 Had 19 points in the first half, not much in the second half. Is that kind of what you're seeing a little bit, the streakiness in him?
04:18 Yeah, I mean, if he had 19 points in the second half, he probably wouldn't be playing here.
04:25 I mean, he is a streak shooter. He's a guy that can put points on the board in a hurry.
04:33 Defensively, we need him to improve. We need Joseph to improve. But those guys, both of them, are really, really good shooters.
04:42 And really, with Davenport, when his feet are set, he's not a good shooter. He's a great shooter.
04:48 I think sometimes off the bounce and off the move, the turnovers.
04:53 He'll work on playing in a crowd tomorrow or whenever we get back together and work on not getting the ball stripped.
05:00 But he's 19 points in a half. Can change a game for you when you really think about it.
05:05 I mean, if a guy does that in a regular season game or an SEC game, then you're probably in a pretty good spot
05:12 if you have a player that has the ability to get close to 20 and a half.
05:16 I want to know who was guarding him, though.
05:20 I wanted to ask about some of your frontcourt guys. What did you see from Graham and Maki tonight, and then a double-double from Chandler Lawson?
05:27 Yeah, so this Bucks offense that we're running that involves a lot of post play at the elbows,
05:34 and then some Princeton cutting and some split actions, whether it's a guard-to-guard split or a guard-to-wing split,
05:42 Kai's really, really good at that. And when we went back and reviewed the film from last year,
05:48 he was involved in a lot of our big post-elbow actions that led to layups and dunks.
05:56 He's a really good passer. He's a willing passer. He likes to play there.
06:00 He does a good job sealing off defenders on the elbow to receive a catch.
06:05 And then Jalen Graham, he's practiced a lot better than he did last year.
06:14 I think he's bought in to the total scheme on both sides of the boys.
06:19 I'd like to see him rebound a little bit more in traffic.
06:23 But offensively, he's a really hard guy to cover, and he commands a double team.
06:30 And he's going to have to learn when people dig down or trap how to get that thing out
06:37 and then get it back off of a repost will be really important for him.
06:41 Some of the players were in here saying that they were tired.
06:46 How are some of the new guys adjusting to your style, your pace, and things like that?
06:51 I think they're still adjusting.
06:54 That's why we run the mile, is to try to get them in shape.
07:00 We have some guys, probably some of the newer guys, that are probably really tired.
07:06 I think that we can play even harder than we did tonight.
07:10 I thought that in transition defense we gave up too many layups.
07:14 We didn't protect the rim enough.
07:18 We didn't go vertical enough around the rim.
07:22 We didn't pick the ball up quick enough full court.
07:26 With our backcourt players and our post players, when they were guarding the inbound passer,
07:30 needed to do a better job of stunt bluffing and letting the point guard
07:36 or whoever's trying to initiate offense play in a crowd a little bit more.
07:39 And all that's a lot of effort things.
07:41 We didn't go to the offensive rebounds off our free throws nearly with the intensity that we want
07:47 or have come to expect here to try to get extra possessions.
07:51 But hopefully, again, over the next three weeks we can improve these areas
07:57 that we will identify next time we get together.
08:01 Coach, we got to see Devo and Mark kind of go one-on-one against each other a little bit tonight.
08:07 What's it like watching them tonight go against each other in practice?
08:10 How will they complement each other when you guys finally do face an opposition?
08:15 Yeah, I mean they're both fierce defenders.
08:18 They both have great length, both with their wingspan.
08:23 They have great quickness, great anticipation, toughness,
08:28 all things that we can't teach any of those things.
08:35 They both have high will to win.
08:37 So I think those guys together--I mean, obviously Devo's been a guy that for three years now
08:44 we've told him to go guard the best player on the other team.
08:47 And now we hope that T-Mark can do the same.
08:51 And maybe those guys can alternate between guys and we can give the opponent a different look.
08:59 T-Mark's a little bit different defender than Devo is,
09:02 although they're both really excellent in their own ways.
09:06 And T-Mark's got to--he's still got to jump to the ball when his man passes.
09:12 That's an area that we need him to improve on.
09:15 He still needs to close out with a high hand when his man catches the ball.
09:19 And those are just some little DNA things that are really important to us,
09:23 and he's still adjusting to do those things.
09:27 But I think just, "Hey, go guard that guy," I mean he's probably as good as anybody.
09:33 Yeah, Coach, what did you think of the chemistry between Devo and Ellis tonight?
09:37 I thought it was really good.
09:39 Obviously both guys have the ability to score,
09:44 and both those guys can go get their shot virtually whenever they want.
09:51 And so how is the chemistry--is the ball going to move, is the ball going to stick too much,
09:58 is the ball going to be shared?
10:00 All those things are certainly areas of concern if you have two guys that can,
10:05 off the bounce, go get something.
10:09 But the great thing is there's a lot of end-of-shot clock stuff that happens in college basketball.
10:14 And when you don't have people that can go get their own or get a teammate a shot,
10:20 which I thought El did a great job tonight and Devo of getting by their defender,
10:25 drawing an extra one, and making an extra pass,
10:28 if those guys do that I think we can be pretty effective in late-clock situations.
10:35 Thanks, Coach.
10:39 Yeah, Coach, around this time last year I remember you saying that in practice
10:42 when you have one group that builds a little bit of a lead, they just kind of go on a run,
10:45 and it seemed like it was kind of back and forth like that.
10:48 It seemed like today there was, on both sides, some pretty good runs.
10:50 I just wonder what you see from that perspective.
10:53 Yeah, I mean I think that we can--we're probably a team that can score in spurts.
10:57 We've got to do it--that team that wore the white uniforms tonight got off to a pretty good lead,
11:05 and then you look what happened after the first quarter,
11:08 and Red was way more consistent on both sides of the ball.
11:13 So if you're a little bit streaky offensively, you want to be really, really consistent defensively
11:20 from an effort standpoint, from a defensive rebounding standpoint,
11:23 from a transition defense standpoint, and we've got to get better at that.
11:27 But look, this Red-White game is played way earlier than we've done in the past,
11:33 so that we have more film.
11:35 We thought that playing the Red-White game and then having two exhibitions,
11:39 we felt like it was too crammed together.
11:42 And so last year we were able to have the four games in Europe in the summer
11:47 that allowed us to have a lot of film and body of work,
11:50 and that was part of the reason we moved this game up,
11:54 was to have some video to teach before we compete again.
12:01 Coach, you mentioned this Thursday we got to see it for the first time,
12:04 just the maturity level of this team, so much experience that you brought in,
12:08 experience you're seeing on the court together.
12:10 For these guys to gel so quickly, is it because of how much basketball these guys have played elsewhere?
12:17 I think that certainly helps.
12:21 I think it helps because obviously we have a ton of new guys, but we also--
12:27 I mean, you guys probably better statistically or have it in the top of your head,
12:31 but we have a lot of returners it seems like.
12:34 Yes, we've got a ton of new guys, but Devo started, Kai started,
12:40 Joseph knows the offense inside and out.
12:43 Two walk-ons, phenomenal buddy coaching in practice.
12:48 So I think that that kind of consistency has helped the new guys as well.
12:53 Jalen Graham's a returner, and he's a guy that played some significant--
12:57 so I think we got--the new guys are being acclimated a lot because of their teammates
13:03 who are trying to help them in practice.
13:07 But yeah, we have maturity, and surprisingly we've gelled pretty good offensively
13:15 and need to gel better defensively, and most of the time it's the opposite.
13:20 At least in my tenure it's been really good defensively
13:25 and not so cosmetically pleasing offensively until we get to March,
13:30 and even then it's probably not real cosmetically pleasing.
13:34 Coach, you said recently you really want your team to get out and run this year.
13:37 A couple of questions on that.
13:38 How did you feel like the transition offense was,
13:41 and I know you said the defense wasn't what you wanted it to be.
13:44 And then also I thought you got some threes, some open threes on secondary break,
13:48 just a couple of quick passes around the perimeter
13:50 before the defense got set or could close.
13:52 Could you talk about both of those aspects of your running game?
13:55 Yeah, I mean, you know, it's really interesting because when every new team--
14:00 you know, a coaching staff can have a vision of what they want.
14:04 We noticed it about two weeks ago that we have some guys
14:09 that have an innate ability to contest a shot and then fly and release early.
14:14 Not something that we've done here in the past
14:17 because we focus so much on defensive rebounding,
14:20 but we do have some guys that just innately contest and fly,
14:24 which is a--you know, it happens in the NBA all the time.
14:30 If we can get the other four guys to defensive rebound at a high level,
14:34 we'd like to continue to contest and fly just because we have guys that--
14:39 you know, we've probably got two or three guys that have been doing it their whole life,
14:43 and it just kind of happens.
14:44 It's not anything that we taught.
14:46 And when you have a player that through instincts can be effective,
14:49 you want to let them go and maybe--you know, as coaches we've got to adjust.
14:54 Now, like I said, we can't do that if the other four don't defensive rebound.
15:00 But yeah, I think our secondary break, Kevin, is--I think this Bucs--
15:06 you know, we're running it after misses,
15:08 and then we're going to our half-court package on makes,
15:11 and I think that they understand there's five spots on the floor that have to be occupied,
15:16 and they're doing a good job of owning the corners, running to the corners as quick as they can,
15:21 getting to the 245 degree, and then having a trail guy regardless of what position you are.
15:28 I think tonight you probably saw a lot of fours and fives even handle the ball a little bit more,
15:32 although Davenport probably is not going to be bringing it up anymore.
15:37 But, you know, if Jalen Graham gets a defensive rebound,
15:41 you know, we want our guys to have the freedom to grab and go.
15:45 Scott.
15:48 Yeah, Eric, I know it's a red-white game.
15:50 Red shot 68.5 percent and the white shot 55.
15:55 I assume you guys hadn't shot over here, right?
15:59 We might be a really good road shooting team.
16:01 Yeah.
16:02 Is that where you're going?
16:03 Yeah, but what do you think of those shooting percentages
16:05 and, you know, the fact that you all shot like that in a gym you're not used to being in?
16:11 Well, the great thing is we've never practiced in Budwald,
16:13 so maybe we'll shoot the crap out of it when we go there.
16:18 I mean, I think it's a good -- you know, like we didn't shoot around here today either.
16:22 You know, when we practiced today, we practiced in our practice court.
16:26 So the first time they ever, you know, were in here shooting was tonight.
16:32 Great for our offense.
16:35 I don't know who our defensive coordinator is, but he's got a lot of work to do tomorrow.
16:39 Eric, Joseph was in here earlier saying that he feels like he's matured most,
16:44 I guess in areas of growth.
16:45 Maturity is a thing that has grown since the end of last year.
16:49 What are you seeing from him in terms of that?
16:52 And then were there any physical changes?
16:54 Like did he get taller or just put on some mass in the summer?
16:58 Yeah, I think he's definitely stronger.
17:03 I think he's gained some weight, but it's really, really good weight.
17:06 I think he's actually leaner.
17:08 It's not often you can have a player gain some -- you know, get stronger,
17:12 gain a little bit of weight and kind of lean out as well, and he's done that.
17:18 You know, when he got here, he was wearing a knee brace.
17:20 It was pretty heavy.
17:22 I think it affected his mobility for sure.
17:26 And then when you take that thing off, you know, you've got to get through some stuff too.
17:33 And then he's a freshman, you know, and he's been patient,
17:37 and I think we're seeing a better player today than last year.
17:43 And look, when Joseph got an opportunity last year, I mean, he helped us win, you know, the Missouri game.
17:49 I mean, he flat out as a freshman went into the game and helped us.
17:54 And, you know, we had enough confidence to have him in the game at the end of the Baylor game
17:58 where he took the last shot that could have put in overtime or whatever.
18:02 So he is not a good shooter.
18:04 He's a phenomenal shooter, and he's done a good job rebounding defensively
18:08 because that's been an area that we felt, you know, we needed him to go to the glass defensively a little bit.
18:15 He's got to improve defensively, and it starts with getting lower,
18:20 having a little bit lower disposition defensively.
18:24 We're a no-middle team, and it should help him.
18:29 You know, I think that if a quicker player's got the ball
18:34 and you know where you have to shade it, it should help him.
18:38 You know, he gave up middle a little bit too much tonight,
18:41 and the good thing is we'll be able to go back and talk to him and tell him,
18:44 "Hey, you've got to shade this guy where the help is."
18:50 Coach, final question.
18:53 Mike's always rushing me out.
18:56 I've been up for hours.
18:58 I'm tired.
19:00 I drove back from Beyonce all night the other night.
19:03 I tried getting back at 4:30 in the morning.
19:05 Coach, when we talked to you last week, I think you said Brazil's timeline is two and a half weeks.
19:09 Is he still on track for that?
19:11 And I think if my math is right, that would put him back a few days before the first exhibition game.
19:14 Is that a goal to get him to play in that?
19:17 Not necessarily, Hutch.
19:19 Look, we are--with TB, like we're being--I want TB in March.
19:29 You know what I mean?
19:30 We want him to get his rhythm and all that.
19:32 He's done an awesome job.
19:36 He's been cleared.
19:38 He's been with his rehab guy.
19:41 They've done all the testing.
19:43 Everything's great.
19:46 Probably could have played tonight, three minutes a half, but why?
19:52 We want him to go a little bit more three-on-three.
19:55 He's been going three-on-three live after we're done with practice.
19:59 And so he'll go three-on-three live one more time this week at some point.
20:06 And then--but he's been jumping into all of our drills.
20:10 And look, offensively, when a player's coming off an injury like that, that's not really an issue.
20:15 The issue is I'm guarding you or you, and I've got to react.
20:20 And so that's why we want to take our time.
20:25 And no real timeline other than we certainly--with the way it's going now,
20:32 he's playing opening night.
20:34 I mean, that's not--as long as everything continues to progress as is.