Arkansas Razorbacks coach Eric Musselman recapping what they learned, need to improve before Saturday's exhibition matchup with highly-ranked Purdue after 92-39 win over UT-Tyler on Friday night at Barnhill Arena.
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00:00 Coach, just first off, how good was it to see Raziel out there
00:03 today?
00:03 And what are some of the final steps in his rehab
00:06 that you need to see from him before it's a full go?
00:09 Well, I mean, he played 19 minutes,
00:13 which coming into the game, the thought process
00:16 was really between four and six minutes a half.
00:21 So he went a little bit over what
00:23 the plan coming into the game.
00:25 But he felt good.
00:26 I think he knew he needed the reps.
00:28 We certainly felt like he needed the reps.
00:30 We just don't go live that much.
00:32 I mean, we practice a little bit more like a football team
00:37 where we're in stations and drill work.
00:41 So he misses a little bit of live action
00:43 based on how we go about practice.
00:46 And he's still got a ways to go conditioning wise.
00:50 But you saw the explosiveness on the dunk, which we've seen.
00:55 And he was really good the other day
00:57 when we went live in pro day.
00:58 And I think it's just a matter of getting his timing back.
01:02 But he wanted to stay out there, which
01:03 is a great sign as well.
01:05 Khalif also returning tonight and sneakily led you guys
01:09 in scoring.
01:10 I mean, how much of a boost is it
01:12 to get that kind of efficient offensive game?
01:14 And do you want to see him maybe even be a little bit more
01:16 aggressive than he was tonight?
01:17 Yeah, I mean, the thing that I was most impressed
01:19 with our team, especially in the first half,
01:22 I thought our ball movement was crazy good.
01:26 I know at halftime we had 101 passes.
01:28 I do not know what it ended up being.
01:31 But we'll find out here in a second
01:33 as soon as they tally the numbers.
01:35 But great ball movement.
01:37 Look, KB is a guy that is arguably
01:41 one of the country's best free throw shooters.
01:45 We saw a couple of years ago how important
01:47 a guy that can make foul shots in late games
01:49 is for a team, especially with the amount of close games
01:52 you have in league play and close games
01:55 that you'll have in the Bahamas.
01:57 So really important.
02:00 I mean, for a guy that has been out for a long time, which
02:04 he's been out for quite some time, most of the summer,
02:08 I thought he came in and shot the ball
02:10 with great aggressiveness.
02:11 And he's an explosive scorer.
02:15 Coach, I know El was giving you guys some scoring punch
02:18 there early.
02:18 Then you look up at the end of the night,
02:19 he's got four assists, no turnovers, four steals.
02:22 I guess that's what you're looking for out
02:23 of your point guard.
02:24 El was phenomenal.
02:26 Some of those guys that I've seen
02:29 through the red and white game, through pro day,
02:32 through practices, a guy like El, his minutes,
02:36 they were limited tonight just because he's going
02:40 to be out there a lot for us.
02:43 Devo obviously is going to play more minutes than what he did.
02:49 But this is the deepest team we've had, for sure.
02:52 I thought that guys checked into the game,
02:55 they played the way they were supposed to play.
02:57 And we have some explosive scorers in Davenport and battle
03:03 that can really score the ball.
03:04 And El's playing the right way, the way
03:06 that we want him to play.
03:07 And then we have two fierce competitors in team ARC
03:12 and Devo on both sides of the ball.
03:15 And so some really good things tonight.
03:19 We've got to rebound the ball better, for sure,
03:21 especially a week from today.
03:23 And then your defensive end of the floor,
03:25 I know those guys are maybe a little bit overmatched there.
03:28 But to hold anybody under 40, they had one three pointer
03:30 and they turned it over 20 times.
03:32 Got to feel pretty good to set the tone on that end.
03:34 Yeah, coming into the game, we did personnel,
03:40 but we did not do any scheme stuff.
03:43 We didn't walk through any plays because we
03:45 didn't know what plays they would run, quite frankly.
03:49 The whole game plan was no threes.
03:51 So to look at the stat sheet and see that they went one of 20,
03:56 great job.
03:57 And the one they hit, we'll look at and see why they hit it.
04:02 Eric, I'm curious what you thought of Chandler Lawson
04:06 defensively.
04:06 It seemed like in that first half,
04:08 he was either getting a hand on a ball, steal, block,
04:11 you name it.
04:12 Yeah, I thought Chandler was--
04:14 first of all, the three he made and took
04:16 was what we need him and want him to do that
04:20 with his feet set.
04:21 But I thought great defensive activity.
04:24 He was a really good help defender for us
04:27 tonight in the post.
04:31 Really happy with the way that Chandler played
04:33 and rebounded the ball as well.
04:37 Transition 16 to 6 advantage, but going back
04:40 to that secondary transition, seems
04:41 like you were talking about the passing
04:43 and the ball was moving before guys were back in set.
04:45 I think Brazil's first bucket in this first half,
04:48 everybody was inside the three line, yet they still
04:50 weren't set and he got it off the glass.
04:53 Can you talk about that ball movement
04:54 before the defense ever gets set?
04:56 Yeah, I mean, we've really worked on this Milwaukee Bucks
05:01 flow game.
05:02 We've spent a ton of time.
05:04 I didn't know really how it was going to work.
05:06 We ran it two years ago and then we gave up on it a little bit
05:10 too early.
05:10 And when we went back this summer and watched film,
05:13 we were like, why did we give up on this?
05:15 Because it was pretty good on film.
05:18 It's what Milwaukee ran two years ago, not last year,
05:22 but what they ran two years ago.
05:23 And our guys enjoy running it in practice
05:28 and I was really pleased with how
05:30 we played outside of our normal half court sets.
05:34 And we have so much to clean up in our half court sets,
05:39 but we still have a little bit of time.
05:41 And then on Davenport, I think you guys started 2 of 9
05:43 from 3.
05:44 You hit a couple early.
05:45 He comes in, I think he ends up 3 of 5
05:47 and you all kind of caught fire from behind the arc.
05:49 He sold that in red, white, and even
05:51 that open part of practice.
05:54 Please talk about him and his progression as that guy maybe.
05:57 Yeah, really, really quick release.
06:00 The guys look for him when he's in.
06:02 I mean, he's a guy that's going to take a high volume of shots
06:05 in his minutes.
06:07 We need to try to find him in transition.
06:09 We need to try to run some plays for him
06:11 to come off some screening actions.
06:16 But he's got incredible confidence shooting the ball
06:21 and has really, really deep range.
06:25 Hey, Coach.
06:25 I wanted to ask about Bay fall.
06:27 I know he didn't have the most minutes out there,
06:29 but I was wondering what you saw from him out there
06:31 in live action.
06:32 We thought it was important to get Bay a start tonight.
06:37 Obviously, Kai Mitchell started basically every game last year
06:43 and obviously Devo Davis has been
06:46 a starter for quite some time.
06:48 And we brought those two guys off the bench tonight.
06:51 TB is a guy that's been a predominantly starter for us.
06:58 So we brought all three of those guys off the bench.
07:00 I'm not sure what we will do Saturday against Purdue,
07:04 what the lineup will be.
07:05 But I thought Bay did a good job playing his minutes.
07:08 I thought he was active as a shot blocker.
07:09 He ran the floor hard.
07:12 And he's just a young player who's
07:14 got to continue to progress.
07:18 But we wanted to give him an opportunity to start,
07:20 which he got tonight.
07:22 Eric, before I forget, what was up with Graham?
07:25 He's not playing.
07:26 Yeah, back spasms.
07:28 Yeah, so he had back spasms, was out about a week,
07:32 practiced one day, and then it locked back up on him.
07:38 I have no idea what it will look like.
07:41 You would think in a week that he
07:44 would be able to be in uniform next week.
07:47 And that would be the hope and the thought.
07:51 And then I know it's an exhibition game.
07:53 But you know, Louisville had such a horrible year.
07:55 And they lost to a D2 team.
07:57 Yeah, they lost to a D2 team.
07:58 Which we talked about today.
07:59 You can ask him.
08:00 I understand you guys showed video of the teams that lost,
08:03 including Louisville.
08:04 I mean, it's an exhibition game.
08:06 What do you think it meant to Al,
08:08 not after such a horrible experience last year, a year
08:11 ago, to start off well and play well tonight,
08:14 you guys to win big?
08:15 Well, I think that Al's excited to play
08:17 with some surrounding pieces that he can show people
08:24 his willingness to be a passer and a ball distributor
08:27 and play more like a true point guard.
08:29 And I think we've seen that since the day
08:31 that he stepped on campus.
08:33 And tonight he played with great pace, didn't turn it over.
08:40 I was really happy with our lack of turnovers tonight.
08:43 I mean, we had a limited number of turnovers.
08:46 And three of them, I think, were moving screens.
08:48 So you eliminate that part of our turnover game.
08:51 And Al did a great job taking care of the ball.
08:58 And we know Khalees has been out a fair amount.
09:01 How good-- again, I know it's an exhibition game against Tyler.
09:03 But how good to see him come in and have some good minutes
09:06 when he's been out so much?
09:08 Yeah, I thought he offensively really played his minutes well.
09:11 He's got a quick release.
09:13 He's got great confidence.
09:14 You can isolate him a little bit,
09:17 which we did a couple of times.
09:18 I mean, we got some guys that can shoot.
09:24 And some explosiveness and some streakiness as well.
09:29 Davenport can get streaky hot.
09:32 And Joseph Pinnion can get streaky hot.
09:34 And KB can get streaky hot.
09:36 So we have some guys that we're going
09:39 to have to tinker with on a nightly basis
09:41 to try to see who we can get a favorable matchup to,
09:47 where they can get some clean looks from three
09:49 of those guys in particular.
09:52 Coach, I was wondering what you thought
09:54 of the defense as a whole, and fouling and help defense
09:57 as a whole.
09:58 Yeah, I mean, obviously, second half,
10:01 when they were in the bonus, we've
10:02 got to do a much better job of not using our hands.
10:06 But we want to be a really ultra-aggressive team.
10:09 We want to be a team that has physicality.
10:11 And I thought we did that.
10:13 I thought our guards were really physical.
10:15 I think inside, interior, we have to probably
10:17 be a lot more physical than we showed tonight
10:20 at the four and the five spot.
10:22 Physicality's got to get a lot more aggressive, especially
10:27 what we're looking at a week from tonight.
10:31 What a great challenge.
10:32 What a great atmosphere it's going
10:34 to be next Saturday against the number three
10:38 team in the country, coming in here with all those returners
10:41 and the Big 10 champs with their whole roster back.
10:46 It's going to be a incredible challenge this early
10:50 in the year.
10:51 You mentioned Pinnion just a second ago.
10:53 I think he missed his first three shots,
10:55 then came out strong in the second half.
10:56 Is that kind of what you want to see from him
10:57 to stay confident, even if they're not falling early?
11:00 Yeah, I mean, right now, Joseph has the green light
11:05 to shoot when he feels he's opening, and KB does.
11:09 And even Team Mark, I mean, he shot some pull-up jumpers.
11:14 We were really aggressive shooting the ball from three.
11:17 I mean, 34 threes attempted when we probably
11:22 could have gotten to the foul line at a much higher clip.
11:25 Yeah, I was going to ask, is that a number you're OK with?
11:28 Or would you like to see more aggressiveness going
11:30 to the basket, things like that?
11:31 I mean, if the results are like this, Hutch,
11:33 well, it's not going to be like--
11:35 so we're going to have to mix it up a little bit more.
11:38 I thought we were a little aggressive from beyond the arc.
11:43 Dan.
11:45 You brought up the Purdue game.
11:48 Just like last year when you tested yourself at Texas
11:50 in exhibition season, you started
11:51 to see more of a rotation early in that game.
11:53 I know the second half got a little out of hand,
11:56 everybody played.
11:57 Do you think-- do you have a vision for a rotation
12:00 coming into this game?
12:01 Is it going to be a little tighter?
12:02 And what did you see tonight that maybe helps form that,
12:05 that maybe you didn't know coming into tonight?
12:07 Well, one, just the health of battle.
12:10 I think that he looked fresh, he looked healthy.
12:17 We have no idea on Graham, obviously.
12:19 So I really--
12:21 I don't know, Kevin, what--
12:23 I don't know who's going to be healthy come next week.
12:26 Because we have a week of physical practices.
12:29 I mean, we're going to have to really work
12:32 on our post-defense.
12:33 We're going to really have to work on defending the three.
12:37 When you play someone in the Big 10,
12:39 I mean, that's as physical a league as there is.
12:43 But I'm excited.
12:45 I mean, regardless of results next week,
12:47 it's going to be great for us, for sure,
12:51 to play a team that's--
12:53 I'm never going to come in here like a well-oiled machine.
12:55 Because they know their roles, and they know who they are,
13:02 and they're really, really well-coached.
13:04 So it's quite the challenge, like I said, to think that--
13:09 but we need it.
13:09 I mean, we got some tough games coming up right out of the gate.
13:13 And we got four games before we go to the Bahamas and then
13:16 Duke.
13:17 So we got-- we might as well challenge ourselves
13:20 as quick as possible.
13:22 Coach, you've got to set the rotation every year.
13:25 But this season, there's a little bit more depth, maybe.
13:28 I mean, is that an enjoyable process for you,
13:30 something you stress about, just kind of assigning minutes
13:32 this early in the season?
13:34 No, I'm not going to stress about the minutes.
13:38 Because I mean, I'm in the weight room with them.
13:41 I run on the treadmill, and I'm with them
13:45 every day at practice.
13:46 And so I mean, there's certain guys that have earned stuff.
13:53 But yeah, we're deeper, for sure.
13:55 And so if you're deeper, you can look at--
14:01 we've studied rotations in Final Fours.
14:04 We've studied NCAA tournament teams rotation.
14:07 I've read four articles on hockey rotations and line
14:11 changes.
14:13 This morning, guys were laughing at me on staff.
14:16 They saw that I was reading an article on the Rangers
14:18 because they know I'm a baseball fan.
14:20 And I told them that it was the New York Rangers, not
14:24 the Texas Rangers.
14:25 So I mean, we're not going to sub like a hockey team.
14:29 But at least I'm studying it.