• last year
Arkansas Razorbacks coach Eric Musselman with the media Wednesday morning looking at Monday's season-opener with Alcorn State at Bud Walton Arena.
Transcript
00:00 - Hey coach, I guess what's the rundown on Alcorn State?
00:03 It looks like a team that could have,
00:04 maybe should have made the tournament last year,
00:06 a chance to win their league this year.
00:08 - Yeah, I mean, when you look at Alcorn State,
00:11 two time SWAC champs,
00:13 and they have a returning point guard in number two,
00:17 Joshua, who great quickness with the ball,
00:22 high steel player, ability to make three point shots,
00:26 and then they have some really good shooters.
00:30 Number 10, Gambrel, took 10 threes
00:34 in their exhibition game the other day,
00:35 and Jones, number four, and Hawkins, number three,
00:40 those guys can shoot the ball.
00:42 And Thorne is a returner who did not play
00:45 in their exhibition game the other day, number 12,
00:48 who is one of the SWAC best three point shooters.
00:52 So, you know, they have some experience
00:55 and then a lot of new players as well.
00:57 They're well coached.
00:59 They play at a certain pace.
01:02 They try to dictate the tempo of the game as well.
01:06 - I also wanted to ask you about Leighton Blocker.
01:09 It seems like every time he takes the floor,
01:10 he gets better and better.
01:11 It looks like he was up for the challenge
01:12 in his minutes against Purdue.
01:13 Just, I guess, what progression have you seen
01:15 from him so far, and how do you feel
01:16 like his preseason has gone?
01:18 - Yeah, Leighton's, you know,
01:19 I think in the minutes that he's been given,
01:21 he's done a great job.
01:22 He's got great toughness.
01:23 He's kind of fearless.
01:25 He's a really, really good defensive ball pressure player.
01:30 He can pick up full court.
01:33 You know, and then I think offensively,
01:36 he's done a really good job of trying to facilitate
01:39 as well as, you know, as well as being aggressive
01:44 to score the ball as well.
01:46 Bob?
01:49 - Hey, Eric, how you doing?
01:53 Yeah, I wanted to ask you about Bay.
01:55 I had a couple people ask me,
01:56 "Hey, was he hurt the other day?"
01:58 And I said, "I don't think so.
01:58 I think he just maybe wasn't physically a good matchup
02:00 for Purdue's bigs."
02:02 But what went into Bay not playing the other day?
02:06 - Yes, I mean, we sent Bay down to the, you know,
02:09 to the scorer's table at one point,
02:11 and then there was a matchup that we wanted to stick
02:14 with what we had, so we had him come back down.
02:18 You know, but Bay's done a great job in practice.
02:21 He's a worker, you know, but we just, you know,
02:26 it was a situation where Chandler Lawson
02:29 was really following the game plan,
02:31 and it was hard to take him out based on, you know,
02:36 the way that he was defending, you know, Eadie,
02:39 and then obviously, you know, Kai did a great job too,
02:43 although the 5,018 minutes, you know,
02:48 so between those two, those two guys ate up, you know,
02:53 the center spot, and then we played, you know,
02:55 we went with some guards as well.
02:58 You know, a couple of guards got some minutes
03:01 at the four spot, Bob, so I think that's, you know,
03:04 and we played, you know, the rotation was fairly large
03:08 for us as is.
03:10 - And, you know, there are a lot of teams that guys
03:13 like Bay and Leighton, they'd be starting, you know.
03:16 What does it say about y'all that, you know,
03:19 the talent you've accumulated that you can kind of,
03:21 how good is it, I guess, to ease,
03:23 you can ease these, as talented as they are,
03:25 you can ease these freshmen in,
03:26 you're not having to throw them into the fire,
03:28 and last year you had great freshmen,
03:30 but you did have to play a lot of freshmen
03:31 a lot of minutes early.
03:32 How good is it to be able to ease these guys in
03:34 and kind of, how would you say they're adjusting to that?
03:35 'Cause they're obviously used to being, you know,
03:37 the center of attention on their high school
03:40 or AU teams or whatever.
03:42 - Yeah, no, I think that, you know,
03:43 there's always adjustment for freshmen across the country.
03:46 You look at, you know, especially in our league,
03:50 just like there's an adjustment in the NBA.
03:53 I mean, you look at some NBA rookies
03:56 and they're playing a lot,
03:58 and you look at other NBA rookies
03:59 and they're not playing a lot.
04:01 You look at some NBA rookies
04:03 and they're assigned to G League teams
04:05 and other NBA rookies are learning
04:09 by sitting on the bench and watching
04:11 and getting better during practice and growing.
04:14 So I think every player is on his own timeline
04:16 and every organization in the NBA is on their own timeline,
04:20 just like every college program,
04:22 there's a different timeline for guys.
04:24 So, you know, the one thing with both of our freshmen
04:29 and all six of our freshmen last year is all,
04:33 that whole group of guys has been incredible workers.
04:37 And, you know, Bay and Layden have great competitive nature
04:42 and really, really work on their craft.
04:45 And, you know, they work in the weight room.
04:48 And so it's, you know,
04:51 like they're going to keep getting better
04:53 as the season progresses.
04:55 - But maybe how good is it for them and for y'all,
04:58 you know, for the team that you don't have to force feed them,
05:01 I guess, so to speak, that, you know,
05:03 they can adjust at their pace probably.
05:06 - Yeah, I mean, I think that, you know,
05:08 when you're on a good team or a deep team,
05:12 you know, there's always, you know,
05:16 there's pluses and then there's areas, you know,
05:19 that a player has to learn to continue to grow in,
05:23 you know, practice, game preps,
05:26 all those things are obviously new for any freshmen,
05:30 just no different than all of our rookies
05:35 that are in the NBA,
05:36 the game preps that they're going through
05:37 are going to be slightly different
05:39 than the way they were done at Arkansas.
05:41 And there's so many more games coming at you.
05:43 So, I mean, I think that, you know, for us,
05:48 we want all of our guys to try to continue to get better
05:51 every single day.
05:53 - A question Nate wanted me to ask if I could,
05:58 basically that was obviously like you've said multiple times
06:01 that was not your normal exhibition game the other day.
06:04 And, you know, the crowd was in it,
06:06 it was very emotional, I guess.
06:08 And Nate was wondering, you know,
06:12 the emotional high of that for the team
06:13 and the crowd and everything,
06:14 do you have to bring the team back down
06:16 for this regular season game?
06:17 It's kind of weird, usually regular season games
06:19 are a bigger deal than the exhibition,
06:20 but in this case, you know, playing Purdue,
06:22 that was probably a bigger, you know,
06:23 that was a really big deal.
06:25 Just kind of, do you have to bring the team down
06:26 after such an emotional exhibition game like that?
06:30 - Well, certainly hope that you have, you know,
06:33 great team-wide maturity, but, you know,
06:38 we need to have better practices the rest of the week
06:42 than maybe what we've had Monday and Tuesday
06:45 after being off on Sunday.
06:47 So, you know, hopefully, you know,
06:52 you never know till you play your next game,
06:54 but certainly there was an emotional feel
06:59 that's not like many exhibition games,
07:02 but that game is over, it doesn't count.
07:04 You got to look straight ahead.
07:06 You can't look backwards.
07:07 You know, and we're, you know,
07:11 we're going through some guys having, you know,
07:14 some colds and some sickness and minor injuries
07:18 just based on a physicality game that we played.
07:21 And so we want to try to get healthy too
07:24 before Monday as well.
07:27 - I might have a couple more,
07:29 I'll turn it back to Mike for others.
07:31 Thank you.
07:32 - John.
07:33 - I didn't have a question, but coach,
07:39 how was the Halloween party last night?
07:41 - Really cool, well-participated Halloween party,
07:47 really impressed with our guys' costumes,
07:51 overly impressed with their engagement
07:55 as trick-or-treaters or passing out candy.
08:00 So it was a really good Halloween party
08:05 with some really good food.
08:07 - Andrew, you have a question?
08:12 - Yeah, coach, I was looking at Alcorn State's roster,
08:14 don't see a ton of overwhelming size or anything.
08:16 So do you feel like this matchup might be one
08:18 where you can throw Trevin at the five
08:20 and maybe experiment with what kind of smallish lineups
08:23 you have with so much depth and versatility on the wings?
08:26 - Yeah, I mean, I think that, you know, every game,
08:29 you know, Andrew, just kind of, you know,
08:31 like it's going to dictate in the flow of the game.
08:34 I mean, you know, going into the Purdue game,
08:36 we felt maybe we were going to have to play a big lineup.
08:39 And sure enough, when there was a timeout
08:42 and we were getting ready to diagram plays
08:44 and, you know, TV was at the three spot
08:48 and we really had not in practice, skeleton,
08:52 dry run, whatever you want to call it,
08:55 with him at the three spot.
08:58 So we were able to experiment with our really big lineup,
09:02 having two bigs in Brazil in at the three.
09:05 Certainly, you know, you want to try to explore
09:09 other lineups as you get opportunities in certain games.
09:14 I don't know how, Alcorn State's
09:16 a really good rebounding team.
09:18 You know, sometimes six, seven, six, eight guys
09:21 can out rebound six, nine, six, 10 guys off quickness,
09:25 off reaction, off, you know, being scrappy.
09:29 So one of our concerns, one of our areas of emphasis
09:34 going into the Alcorn State game for sure
09:38 is rebounding the basketball,
09:40 especially rebounding the ball defensively.
09:43 That's a big part of our emphasis
09:48 'cause they do have guys that pound the offensive glass.
09:51 - You mentioned the rebounding.
09:53 With those group of bigs, you know,
09:54 we haven't seen Graeme Motton, but with Lawson and Makai,
09:57 I guess what's the key to separation between those three?
10:00 'Cause it seems like they're all pretty tight
10:01 in terms of where they stand on the hierarchy with you guys.
10:04 - Yeah, I think each guy does something different.
10:07 You know, Chandler's just really, really solid.
10:09 You know, he follows a game plan.
10:13 He can make a three.
10:15 He's got length to block shots.
10:17 Kai is really, really good in our elbow offense
10:21 where he can run DHOs and share the ball
10:26 as a point center, so to speak,
10:29 'cause he's a really good passer.
10:31 You know, and then Graeme, you know, as we saw last year,
10:36 you know, really good one-on-one offensive player
10:40 with his back to the basket or in the mid post.
10:42 Now, you know, I've just kind of stated strengths.
10:46 You know, now, you're going to rebound.
10:49 Where's your rebound minute's going to be?
10:52 You know, how much defensively can you be?
10:54 How good are you at getting loose balls?
10:56 All of those things are going to be separators
11:00 as we continue to evolve and figure out rotations
11:04 and things of that nature.
11:06 - Curtis.
11:08 - It seems like, I guess, based on the preseason, at least,
11:13 that you guys will be shooting it better
11:15 and be able to operate with a more spaced floor.
11:18 Curious, what does that do for a guy
11:20 like maybe Makai?
11:21 I mean, does having more room to operate
11:23 unlock some things for him offensively?
11:25 - Yeah, I think that anytime, you know,
11:27 the lane's not congested, you know,
11:30 based on perimeter threats, what it does, Curtis,
11:34 is it opens up dribble drive angles.
11:36 You know, we need to be a better free throw attempt team.
11:41 I mean, you know, we didn't attempt a foul shot
11:44 against Purdue until 29 and a half minutes into the game.
11:49 We have to do a way better job
11:51 'cause historically our programs or our teams
11:55 have been not good at getting to the foul line,
11:57 but great at getting to the foul line.
11:58 And with the perimeter shooting threats,
12:01 you'd think you'd be even better getting to the cup,
12:03 but we would hope that it opens up driving angles
12:07 and post-ups for guys to have more one-on-one situations
12:12 and not have defenders in the gaps, so to speak.
12:16 - And then correct me if I'm wrong,
12:18 but has the pregame warmup routine from a couple years ago
12:22 made a return in some form or fashion?
12:24 I guess if so, what sparked the comeback there?
12:28 - Wow, Curtis, somebody finally picked that up.
12:31 It was really random.
12:34 I mean, the pregame warmup in the past
12:37 had been something that we worked on all summer.
12:40 This is a variation.
12:43 We took some stuff that we saw an Argentinian team run
12:47 and we kind of mixed it in with some of the stuff
12:49 that my dad's team had done in the past.
12:54 It's a smaller, shorter version,
12:58 but I'm glad somebody noticed.
13:02 - Bob?
13:06 - Well, I heard "Sweet Georgia Brown,"
13:09 but it didn't look like as much stuff
13:11 as you guys were doing a couple of years ago.
13:12 It didn't look like the Globetrotters,
13:14 so I guess I thought maybe it was more of a musical thing,
13:16 but I'll have to pay more attention to that.
13:18 - Yeah, please pay attention, Bob.
13:21 - Hey, hey, plus my eyes aren't that good,
13:24 you know, from way back there.
13:26 Hey, getting back to the rebound,
13:27 I mean, obviously you guys shot great the other day,
13:29 forced a lot of turnovers, did a lot of good things,
13:31 but I think if I remember the stat right,
13:33 Purdue was like 17-0 on second chance.
13:35 And like you say, you know,
13:38 they got the free throw line a lot more than you guys do.
13:42 And I know, I think Purdue was a plus 11 last year,
13:44 so it's not like, you know,
13:45 they out-rebound everybody by a big margin usually,
13:47 but what do you think you guys got to do to rebound better?
13:50 - Be physical.
13:53 I thought our guards did a great job rebounding.
13:55 You know, T-Mark was, you know,
13:57 his rebounds per minute was good.
13:59 Battle, KB did a great job rebounding the basketball.
14:06 So those two guys in particular,
14:09 defensive rebounding were phenomenal.
14:11 We need our bigs to, you know, to rebound,
14:14 although, you know,
14:14 one of the assignments for the bigs was to just try
14:17 to their best to keep Edie off the offensive boards.
14:22 And I told him, if you block him out and don't get the ball,
14:25 it is one of our perimeter guys' job to go collect that.
14:29 And then offensive rebounding,
14:31 we want to be better as well, Bob.
14:33 You know, we need to go to the boards more.
14:35 I mean, we are charting this year,
14:37 goes and no-goes on offensive rebounds.
14:41 We started doing that after the Purdue game.
14:44 We charted it, we showed our players which guys went,
14:47 even if they didn't get the ball,
14:49 and which guys didn't attempt to go,
14:52 both offensive rebounding and defensive rebounding.
14:55 And so we're going to add some things
14:57 to the way we chart things just based on, you know,
15:01 it was really lack of offensive rebounding as much as any,
15:04 because Purdue really is a great,
15:07 great offensive rebounding team.
15:09 - Yeah, I think Chandler said he basically was,
15:11 hit Edie, hit Edie, hit Edie, hit Edie,
15:13 you other guys get the boards.
15:15 I think that was his quote or something to that effect.
15:17 And then, you know,
15:18 Bay's obviously a guy with a lot of length.
15:20 Is he a guy that, as you know,
15:23 if he maybe gets more minutes this game,
15:25 at their plays, could he help you rebound?
15:28 - Yeah, I think Bay can help, you know, I mean, you know,
15:31 (laughs)
15:33 if whoever's not getting a minute on that night,
15:35 you guys are going to ask me, we don't play Graham,
15:37 you're going to ask if Graham should get in,
15:39 if who's, where's the minutes going to come?
15:42 You know what I mean?
15:43 It's hard to play for interior players, Bob.
15:48 I mean, there's only 40 minutes in a game.
15:52 And obviously, Mekhi Mitchell started last year.
15:55 We played Chandler a lot of minutes
15:57 because he did a really good job.
15:59 So then that leaves Jalen Graham,
16:02 who, you know, wasn't able to play last game.
16:06 And that leaves Bay as well.
16:08 So either we're going to have to, you know,
16:11 play some guys shorter minutes,
16:13 or we're going to have to play a bigger lineup
16:16 because we did play Brazil even last game at the three.
16:21 Normally he's going to play four and five for us
16:26 based on his size.
16:27 And so as we juggle the minutes around, you know,
16:32 are you going to play less guards and play more bigs?
16:35 Or are you going to, you know,
16:36 it's a decision game by game
16:41 that we're going to have to make.
16:43 - You mentioned Jalen, how's his back doing?
16:46 Any chance he could be back Monday
16:48 or has he been able to practice at all?
16:50 - Yep, Jalen is moving around much better.
16:53 I think that his chances of playing
16:56 are trending in the right direction where he will be.
17:00 Again, back spasms can, you know, can change at any moment.
17:06 But right now we are expecting Jalen
17:08 to be in uniform on Monday.
17:11 Yes, that's the plan right now
17:14 from a training perspective, strength coach perspective,
17:17 doctor perspective, and player perspective
17:20 that he will be able to be in uniform Monday.
17:24 - And if you're trying to figure out minutes
17:25 for all these guys,
17:26 isn't that really kind of a good situation?
17:28 Because there are probably coaches out there going,
17:30 man, I don't have enough players.
17:31 Who am I going to start?
17:32 Who am I going to play?
17:33 Who's my bench?
17:34 And you're trying to figure out
17:35 how to get minutes for McDowell's All-American, you know?
17:38 - Well, I think we're, you know, we're always trying.
17:40 I mean, I think that even last year
17:42 we were trying to figure out, you know,
17:44 I think that's why, and I use the example all the time.
17:47 That's why a guy like Trey Wade went from having a bit role
17:52 to midpoint of the SEC, you know,
17:56 calendar to playing a lot, Bob.
17:58 I mean, you get, you know, as a player,
18:00 regardless of who it is, it's like,
18:03 how do I get better every day?
18:05 How do I have a great practice?
18:07 You know, that's what you do as a player.
18:10 How do I make sure that my game preparation,
18:14 when we quiz our guys in film, you know,
18:17 that I'm answering, you know, that I know the game plan
18:22 and what we need to do as well.
18:24 So there's a whole bunch of stuff that goes into
18:27 how we have to, you know, divvy up roles
18:30 and minutes and stuff.
18:32 - And then how good is,
18:33 I say I'm doing some on a freshman,
18:35 how good is it for like a guy like Leighton,
18:37 you got all these older guards.
18:38 I mean, obviously he learns from the coaching staff
18:40 and you guys coach him up,
18:41 but he's got all these older guards to learn from.
18:43 And Bay's got these older guys like Kai and, you know,
18:48 Chandler to learn from.
18:49 How good does it help those guys
18:51 that they've got older players, not just coaching staff,
18:53 they've got older players that can help,
18:55 I guess, you know, coach them up and mentor them,
18:58 that kind of thing.
18:59 - Yeah, I think that, you know,
19:01 you always want to have veterans
19:03 that are willing to share with younger guys.
19:06 Again, I love to reference stuff that I've seen in the pros.
19:09 I mean, there's a lot of veterans
19:11 that last a long time in the NBA
19:13 because they're great mentors to incoming rookies.
19:17 Udonis Haslam, a guy that comes to mind,
19:21 Mike Miller was a great mentor to rookies.
19:25 And so, yes, I think L. Ellis has done a great job
19:30 of helping Layden, 'cause, you know, all these guys,
19:34 you're still in competition with teammates,
19:36 no different than any sport at any level.
19:40 But I do think that this year's group of veteran players
19:43 or this upperclassmen have done a really good job
19:47 of trying to help mentor both of our younger guys.
19:51 I do think, you know, and only the two, you know,
19:55 freshmen can answer how much the mentoring has helped,
19:57 but I do see guys, and Justin Smith did a great job
20:02 that year that we had the four freshmen.
20:05 He and Jalen Tate were phenomenal,
20:07 helping Moses and Devo and Jalen and those guys.
20:12 I mean, they did a great job.
20:13 You saw it on a daily, daily basis.
20:16 And this year's group does a phenomenal job.
20:19 They do a great job just leading by example,
20:21 let alone just getting in guys' ears as well,
20:24 but certainly leading by examples, a great way
20:28 to mentor a younger player.