Arkansas Razorbacks coach Eric Musselman knows quality of opponent they'll be facing against UNC-Wilmington on Saturday.
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00:00 I'm curious, are you able to turn your mind off of basketball, like when you get these
00:06 breaks or around the holidays at all?
00:09 Only while I'm in San Diego.
00:13 Pretty easy on the boardwalk and being at Don Bravo's to turn it off, but only then.
00:21 But I mean, even then, it's, you know, watching tape and trying to figure things out.
00:26 So I would say a little bit Scotty, in all seriousness.
00:31 But you know, the one place, you know, that my mind does get away a little bit is there
00:37 because just so many friends and family and the beach.
00:41 But other than that, no.
00:43 You find that to be good for you?
00:45 Because I know you probably go 90 to nothing, you know, 300 plus days out of the year, you
00:50 know?
00:51 Yeah, I mean, I think right now, and I think that it's been discussed with a lot of college
00:55 coaches just that, you know, there's really not any downtime to turn your mind off or
01:02 to catch a breath.
01:03 I mean, we do it as a family over July 4th and then we do it, you know, for three days
01:10 over Christmas.
01:12 But you have to consider, you know, three days over Christmas is not much when you're
01:17 flying to California because there's travel day involved in those as well.
01:24 Last thing, I've got just five games this month.
01:27 How have you and how have the guys handled it and kind of taken to some of the downtime
01:32 between games?
01:33 Yeah, I mean, I think that once we get into a normal rhythm, which, you know, finals throws
01:39 you off the rhythm, you know, it wasn't that long ago where we did not have a Christmas
01:44 break, you know?
01:46 I mean, when I played, we never went home for Christmas.
01:49 And I know at Nevada, at least the first year or two, there was no Christmas break.
01:56 You know, I think the guys have done great.
01:59 I mean, we've been able to go two a days, you know, prior to the last game, we've gone
02:04 two a days, you know, since we came back from our Christmas break.
02:11 And it's allowed us to clean some things up offensively.
02:16 You know, it's allowed us to do prep, it's allowed us hopefully to see some of the holes
02:21 that we have in areas that we have to have growth in.
02:23 Curtis?
02:24 Must, obviously, Willington's had quite a bit of success on the road already, the win
02:34 at Rupp stands out there.
02:35 I guess, what are some of the traits that you see in them that make them successful
02:38 in those environments?
02:39 Well, one, they're a deep team.
02:42 Two, they have a great star in number 13, White, who can really score, high volume free
02:48 throw attempt player.
02:50 They run them off Iverson hoops.
02:52 They'll isolate him in a zipper play for him to drive the ball hard.
02:58 They have three point shooting surrounding 13, White.
03:02 Newby's a really good shooter, number one.
03:05 You know, Jenkins, number zero, is an incredible shooter.
03:09 Ross can make shots at the power forward spot.
03:12 Hodge can make shots, both of their backup bigs, both of them can make threes.
03:19 And then they have a point guard in Phillips, who's a really, really steady, heady, smart,
03:27 excellent mid-range shooter, good dribble driver, really good player inside of 17 feet.
03:34 They know their roles.
03:36 They play with a good pace offensively, defensively, they'll deny a little bit at times.
03:42 They have a little bit of a three-quarter court press that they'll do at times.
03:46 They'll switch a lot defensively.
03:49 You know, we've had enough time to dissect many of their games.
03:53 You mentioned they played well on the road.
03:56 They got a great record.
03:58 It's a team that I'm sure in their conference will be at the top of their conference.
04:05 So all those, you know, those are some of their characteristics.
04:10 And interestingly enough, like, you know, their one center, I mean, he played, you know,
04:16 played like 40 minutes on the season.
04:17 He played 20 minutes against Kentucky and hit a big three, that being number 23.
04:23 And 30 is their normal backup center for R. And he did not play much against Kentucky,
04:29 but in the other games, he's a three-dimensional scorer who can score on the block, score facing
04:34 up and make threes.
04:36 So you know, and then McGriff, 21, who starts at centers, an active player who rebounds.
04:45 And then right around the 16, 40 mark, you know, they're going to sub five guys at a
04:50 time.
04:52 Hockey line sub against Kentucky.
04:55 They did that hockey line sub again at the 12-minute mark.
04:59 You know, so it's a team that's very, very dangerous.
05:03 It's a team that is very well coached.
05:06 It's a team that understands their roles.
05:08 And it's a team that has two stars surrounded by really, really good perimeter players.
05:12 And it's a very, very old team.
05:14 I mean, they got some veterans on this team that have played at multiple schools and played
05:21 multiple years of college basketball.
05:24 And just curious, what have your impressions been so far of Keon on the defensive end of
05:29 the floor?
05:30 What have you seen from him from that standpoint behind closed doors at practice?
05:33 Yeah, I mean, we hope that Keon can, you know, he gives us bounce.
05:38 He gives us a sense of urgency, a sense of energy, gives us speed.
05:42 He changes the complexion of our tempo, offensively especially.
05:47 Defensively, he can pick up in the backcourt.
05:50 We've been a low volume steel team.
05:53 Hopefully he can add to that.
05:54 You know, I think last year as a freshman at Washington, because they play zone, I don't
05:59 think that, you know, we are hopeful that playing man-to-man defense, he's going to
06:04 be able to create more steals than what you would get opportunistically in a zone.
06:11 But been very happy with him, I think, offensively.
06:13 He's a guy that's going to give us a, when the shot clock is winding down, he is another
06:19 guy that's going to be able to get a shot for us when the shot clock's winding down.
06:24 Obviously, T-Mark's been a guy that's been able to do that, and Barrel's been able to
06:28 do that.
06:29 You know, L at times has done it for us.
06:32 Debo at times has done, and Keon is just, you know, he's another guy that off the bounce
06:37 will be able to create shots for himself or others when a play breaks down.
06:42 Or when teams pressure or teams deny, I think he's going to give us an added dimension,
06:49 you know, against some of these teams that have some defenses that try to take you out
06:54 of your stuff.
06:55 I mean, even Wilmington, I mean, at times they're going to switch one through five,
06:58 and you've got to be able to have guys that can play the game without structure.
07:05 And Keon's certainly a guy that can play and thrive against non-structured situations late
07:12 clock.
07:13 Jackson?
07:14 Coach, what have you seen when you went back on film from the four-guard lineup?
07:23 What kind of stood out from that second-half lineup that made you guys so successful?
07:28 We played with pace.
07:29 We played with energy.
07:30 We got to lose balls quicker.
07:32 Our post defense, actually, Debo Davis played as good a post defense as anybody we had.
07:37 He was the one guy that fronted the post.
07:39 He was the one guy that worked around the three-quarter.
07:43 Just the pace.
07:45 I thought we shared the ball better.
07:49 We had a sense of energy about our team as well.
07:54 And then we become harder to guard when we do that as well.
08:00 How much are you with that lineup specifically?
08:03 Is there a concern with rebounding, maybe?
08:06 Or do you think it's something that could be sustainable moving forward, playing those
08:09 four guards and a big together?
08:11 Yeah, I mean, I don't think, Jackson, that I've ever said we're rolling that lineup out.
08:17 I mean, you're talking about our last game against a team that didn't have great size.
08:24 So never one time have I said, "Hey, we're rolling with this four-guard lineup.
08:29 Here's who the four-guard."
08:30 We're still trying to figure out who we are, just as we have the last four years.
08:35 We don't have a ton of continuity with returners, as do many teams across the country right
08:42 now in all sports.
08:45 And so what we do against Wilmington is not necessarily what we've done against Wilmington
08:56 or Abilene Christian, or certainly not what we'll do against Auburn.
09:00 So I mean, I think every game takes on its own identity.
09:04 Every game you try to mix and match and try to figure out the way that we're going to
09:08 defend Wilmington is not the way that we defended Abilene Christian.
09:13 You want your core philosophies to be there.
09:19 Whether we go four-guard lineup against teams that press, maybe that happens.
09:27 Maybe a big's playing really well and you don't want to take him off the floor.
09:30 I don't have a crystal ball, but I do think that that group in that particular game, Jackson,
09:37 they played very, very well together.
09:41 Eric, sorry, I was pressing the wrong thing there.
09:47 I wanted to ask you about bench points.
09:49 I press the wrong thing a lot in a lot of games of late.
09:52 Okay, well, you'll get it figured out.
09:56 Obviously, KB's played off the bench all year and really most of his career.
10:00 Tmark's played off the bench of late.
10:03 I know bench points are a big deal, too.
10:05 I'm just kind of wondering what your philosophy is on that.
10:08 Like you say, lineups can change, but at least of late, your top two scores have been playing
10:12 off the bench.
10:13 What's your thoughts on that?
10:16 Yeah, I mean, I do like, Bob, it's really comforting to look down the bench and be able
10:23 to have a go-to score.
10:25 We did it with J.D. Notay a few years ago.
10:31 If you just start your five scores or however you want to word it, and then you get down
10:37 in a game, it puts you in a dilemma then.
10:46 Whether it's Philadelphia 76ers bringing Bobby Jones off the bench many, many years ago,
10:53 or another Sixer team when Mark Averone started and then came out of a game fairly quickly.
11:00 I do think there's beauty.
11:04 Because we're on the subject of Wilmington, of late, they bring in their leading scorer
11:09 white off the bench.
11:11 So how we go moving forward, I would like one score that we can turn to, to give us
11:20 a punch or some juice if we're struggling offensively.
11:23 I don't know if that answers your question, Bob.
11:26 Of course, Frank Ramsey, he's kind of the godfather, sixth man, I guess, back in the
11:30 '50s.
11:31 I know you know that because you're a historian.
11:34 But right now you kind of have a sixth and a seventh man, at least, of late.
11:38 I get T-Mark might be back in the lineup.
11:40 But do you remember ever having that much firepower coming off the bench that you've
11:44 had the last couple games?
11:46 Well, we've had better records than we have right now.
11:49 So I don't know what you consider firepower.
11:53 I mean, two guys scoring 43 points off the bench, I'd call that firepower.
11:58 And 62 points off the bench total, I'd call that firepower.
12:02 Pretty good firepower.
12:04 We want it to correlate to our record.
12:06 We better look at our non-conferences.
12:08 There's not been as much firepower as I hope.
12:12 Or we got to defend, maybe.
12:14 Maybe you're right, Bob.
12:16 Maybe we got enough firepower off the bench.
12:20 And defensively, things got to change and get better.
12:24 Because you're right.
12:25 I mean, in all seriousness, those two guys scoring off the bench, those numbers are insane.
12:30 Our bench plus/minus has been great, especially of late.
12:37 But having said that, we got to put everything together through 40 minutes.
12:40 We got to figure out a way to generate more wins.
12:44 You bring up Wilmington.
12:45 I was looking up where you guys ranked.
12:47 They actually are number one.
12:49 They're averaging over 40 points.
12:50 So it's obviously why, like you said, I think you had 27 off the bench at Kentucky and 27
12:55 their last game.
12:56 What do you think about their bench?
12:58 Yeah, I mean, like I've mentioned, we've studied their substitution patterns.
13:04 Normally, we don't study substitution patterns other than maybe a sixth or seventh man.
13:10 But I've mentioned number 23, and I've dissected his minutes and the games that he played and
13:15 the games that he hasn't played.
13:16 I've dissected.
13:17 I mean, that's their third string center when you just base it off minutes.
13:21 So I mean, if we're studying their third string center as well as their second string center
13:27 and see the impact that they've had in different games, then obviously that shows you how deep.
13:32 I haven't mentioned number 22, you know, Mays, who comes off the benches as a backup point
13:38 guard.
13:40 And he played minutes against Kentucky.
13:42 And he's a guy that can make three balls, especially when you look back in his career
13:47 at his three.
13:48 So yeah, this is it.
13:49 The teamwork that's coming into Bud Walton on Saturday uses their bench and is as deep
13:55 as any team that we've played all year and probably as deep as any team that we will
14:00 play all season long and uses their bench as effectively as any team that we've played
14:07 all season and certainly anybody that we will play.
14:09 I don't know if I've seen an SEC team this year, and I have not studied them like we
14:15 have an upcoming opponent, but they do.
14:19 They do hockey line sub five at a time, and they'll do it for sure.
14:24 What they've done of late is at least at that 16 and a half to 17 and a half minute mark.
14:30 That's coming at you.
14:33 And then like I said, they've done it again around the 12 or 13 minute mark in other games
14:39 as well.
14:40 And then, you know, I know upsets are happening every week, but when you saw that, knowing
14:46 you were playing Wilmington and they want it rough, what went through your mind?
14:50 What was your reaction to that?
14:52 And is that something that you can really use with your team to make sure you guys are
14:56 at your best?
14:57 Well, I mean, all you got to do is look at Wilmington's record, and that should, you
15:01 know, I mean, that lets you know how good they are.
15:06 But we try to schedule teams that are really good.
15:09 I mean, that's the object of what we do.
15:14 You know, we don't sit in the office in non-conference and say, "Hey, you know, how many wins can
15:20 we get?
15:21 How many schedule wins?"
15:22 I mean, you schedule people that you think can challenge you.
15:24 You schedule people that you think are going to have good, you know, like them beating
15:29 Kentucky.
15:30 You know, it's not good for the SEC, but it's good for our strength of schedule.
15:36 You know, if they beat a Power 5 team, that's good for us that Wilmington has had success.
15:44 You know, so for us, we have to come ready to play.
15:47 I know as a coaching staff, we have as much respect for Wilmington as any team that will
15:51 play all season long because they got a star player.
15:56 They got a secondary star.
15:59 They got great surrounding pieces.
16:02 I mean, Todd Lease, you know, he played against their starting small forward, Harden Hayes,
16:09 and knows his game really well from the Summit League.
16:11 I mean, they crash the offensive board.
16:15 They do a lot of things really, really well.
16:18 Yeah, one more.
16:19 How did the Christmas night practice go, and then how have the two-a-day practices gone?
16:23 And when you don't play for nine days, I know you're practicing hard.
16:27 Do you worry about that, or do you feel like your practices have been pretty good?
16:29 No, we've been real—I mean, this team, Bob, has practiced really well.
16:35 We have great shoot-arounds.
16:36 We have great practices.
16:38 Actually, we had a meeting early this morning as a staff, and we—I mean, this team practices
16:43 as well as any team that we've had since we've been, you know, at Arkansas.
16:49 Maybe doesn't practice quite as good as our team at Nevada with Caleb and Cody Martin
16:53 and Jordan Caroline, but as far as any Arkansas team that we've had, they practice and have
16:59 shoot-arounds as well.
17:00 We got to carry it over the game for 40 minutes and have a sustained amount of urgency for
17:06 40 minutes, and hopefully, you know, we're progressing towards that point.
17:11 A tough one here.
17:13 What was their favorite Christmas present that you got?
17:17 Mine was this watch that, you know, Fitbit watch that tells me if I'm working hard when
17:21 I'm on the treadmill in the weight room.
17:23 Did Danielle get you that, or who got you that?
17:25 Yeah, Danielle got me that, yep.