Arkansas Razorbacks coach Eric Musselman's complete press conference Wednesday afternoon looking at SEC opener Saturday against Auburn at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville, Ark.
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00:00 Hey, Coach, it looks like you nailed it in the preseason when you said T-Mark was an underrated
00:04 offensive player. But I remember you saying maybe he had a bit of an adjustment period,
00:08 maybe scheme-wise, defensively. Just curious what you've seen from him on that end of the floor.
00:13 I imagine he's going to draw some tough assignments in league play.
00:15 Yeah, you know, I think T-Mark's done a, you know, he's improving with some of our schemes
00:21 and techniques. Obviously, last year, playing at the University of Houston, Coach Sampson does an
00:27 incredible job of demanding defense. They've always been historically one of the best defensive
00:33 teams. And obviously, with T-Mark, the minutes he played, 25-plus minutes a night and starting
00:40 every game, certainly he's got the ability to be a high-level defender. He's proven that. He has a
00:47 high track record of being an excellent defender. And I think he's done, you know, what we thought
00:53 he would do of late defending. And he's certainly been rebounding the ball much better as well.
01:00 And then I think he's had his best cutting games the last two games. I thought he's
01:04 done a much better job offensively moving without the ball, especially as teams try to limit his
01:11 catches. He's been great at backdoor cut and cutting when the defense loads up on him at times
01:20 when he's off the ball. And looking at Auburn, I think they're maybe one of just five or six
01:25 teams that rank inside the top 20 in offensive and defensive efficiency. Just what have you made of
01:31 their season so far and the challenges they pose? Well, certainly, you know, in the four years,
01:37 four and a half years that I've been in the SEC, Coach Pearl's done an incredible job. They
01:42 understand who they are. You know, they have a, you know, just much like Wilmington that we just
01:50 played. I mean, when they sub, they get better at times and they get better at certain positions,
01:55 you could argue. But they bring Cartwell in, you know, for Broome, center for center. They
02:02 bring Katie Johnson in at that off-guard spot for Denver Jones. You know, they bring number 10 in
02:11 at the small forward for Chris Moore. You know, they bring Donaldson in for Holloway at the one.
02:16 So they bring in a true point, a true off-guard, a true small forward, true power forward, and a true
02:22 center. And so, you know, you're getting a steady diet of guys playing their natural position.
02:32 You know, there's not a lot of real big lineup or not a lot, maybe of small ball. It's true
02:40 positional, you know, position for position when they sub and their bench points, you know,
02:49 are phenomenal. Bob. Hey, Eric, we got to get you some Packers gear to wear. Anything is free.
03:00 Okay. Hey, I hope KB's ankle's okay. Just wondering, is he even practicing? How's he doing?
03:08 Yeah. So he did not practice on Monday. We did go to practices yesterday. We went to practices
03:17 today, although the format was a little bit different today than what it was yesterday
03:22 and what it was last week. He did go through both practices, you know, yesterday and today.
03:29 So I assume he's okay if he practiced. And kind of what did you make of his season? He's obviously
03:35 given some great games. He's had a couple of subpar ones, but he doesn't seem to be a guy
03:40 that loses confidence. Just kind of what do you make of his season? What are you
03:43 expecting from him in SEC play? Yeah. I mean, I think KB's an explosive offensive player. He's
03:49 really, he can really get streaky hot. You know, we want him to continue to have consistency from
03:58 a defensive standpoint. You know, offensively high energy guy, incredible confidence. Obviously,
04:06 we run plays for him when he is in the game. Can go get his own shot off the bounce.
04:12 Has great elevation on his jump shot. You know, so I think that he's, you know, the one thing is
04:22 just consistency. I mean, he's had some, you know, some games where it just lights out and the
04:28 defense has no answer for him. And then there's been some other games of some two for 10 nights
04:33 that I think all offensive players that are explosive scorers, they go through those nights
04:40 as well. So, but we've been really happy with him as an offensive threat. He's got deep three-point
04:47 range and then his free throws attempt numbers are as good as anyone in the country. And he's
04:52 able to do that through isolations. He's able to do that through broken plays and he's able to do
04:57 that in late shot clock situations. And then Devo, you know, we obviously talked about him the other
05:03 day, having such a good game. He's a guy that's played as many SEC games as probably anybody the
05:10 last four years or three years going into his fourth year. How valuable is Devo's, not just
05:15 his experience, but the SEC experience and what kind of leadership does he provide for a lot of
05:20 these guys who haven't played SEC games yet, even if they're experienced college players,
05:24 they haven't experienced the SEC? Well, certainly that's a big concern when you play Auburn,
05:28 when you look at their roster and you sit there and you understand that Jalen Williams has been
05:33 a part of Auburn's success for more than one year. And he's played in Bud Walton. And you look at
05:40 KD Johnson, he's played in this building. He understands what it's like to play in this league.
05:46 I'm sure Auburn has aspirations to be a Final Four team. I'm sure they have aspirations to
05:52 win the SEC. They're a top 25 team with experience. Johnny Broom was one of the best
06:00 centers in the league last year. So he's got great experience in this league. So they have a lot of
06:08 guys that are going to play major minutes for him that understand what it's like to play in the SEC.
06:15 And we have some guys as well that, and you mentioned, Debo Davis has a lot of experience
06:21 in SEC play and certainly a guy like Jalen Graham has a year under his belt. And Tee Brazil's got a
06:28 couple of years of playing in this league. So, Kai Mitchell. So we have some guys as well that
06:34 hopefully can shed some light to our new guys about the importance, how every game is tight,
06:40 how every game is a hard fought contest. So certainly that all becomes factors.
06:48 You talked the other day about Debo always seems to pick up his game this time of year,
06:53 maybe he did a game earlier. I mean, do you get a sense he's kind of ready to really ratchet it up?
06:59 Yeah, I think Debo's a guy that coming off of his best game, he's an explosive defender because he
07:09 can guard so many different positions offensively. I think Keon really has helped Debo get good open
07:18 looks. I mean, you look at the three point shots that Debo made last game, a lot of them were
07:23 coming off Keon Minifield, draw defender, spit it out, Debo, feet set threes. I think that that
07:30 has helped Devontae. And last year, you look at Debo's three point shooting. I mean, he shot the
07:38 ball as well as any guard, as really as well as any player from three in our league. And certainly
07:44 feel like he's worked on that in the off season. He's certainly now getting a little bit different
07:49 looks maybe than he was during those first few segments when he was playing some point,
07:56 had the ball in his hands a lot. Now you're shooting three point shots off the bounce rather
08:00 than maybe catching shoots. And I think Debo can get to the basket even more than what he has shown.
08:07 I think that that's a part of his game that we want to have continue to evolve as well because
08:12 he's so sneaky off the bounce and he's got good explosiveness around the rim. So that's an area
08:19 that we want to continue to see him get better at or utilize it more than maybe what he has thus far.
08:24 Yeah, any question they want me to ask, maybe Mike can call on me at the end for an innate question.
08:30 Thanks. Jackson.
08:32 Personally, I love the hoodie, Eric. I just want to get that out there. But
08:38 you kind of touched into my question there, just Keon's presence, not just Devo, but Tremont and
08:45 KB. How much does it help them maybe being able to play off the ball a little bit more,
08:49 have spent some time as spot up shooters and not have to all kind of focus on, maybe focus
08:57 a little less on organizing the offense? Yeah, Keon's got true point guard mentality.
09:03 He's not a combo guard. He's a player that really understands how to get people in the right spots.
09:11 He's got creativeness off the bounce. He's got shiftiness. He's got really, really good
09:16 court vision. I think that that's the one thing, you know, when we recruited him, obviously we saw
09:23 his ability to score, his ability to break down a defense when plays break down. It was important
09:30 for him to gain some of the weight that he has, which he did do a great job of that during the
09:35 course of the off season. But I do think he's helped that, you know, I think it alleviates
09:41 some pressure maybe of guys like T-Mark trying to, you know, trying to set people up, trying to
09:48 score that, you know, when you got multiple thoughts going through your head, it can make
09:53 things difficult. So I think that, you know, that Keon's really helped in that area for sure.
09:58 TB had some moments against Wilmington where he looked really aggressive, kind of like driving to
10:05 the basket, finishing through contact and such. I mean, how positive was that to see, you know,
10:10 coming off the ankle and right before SEC play that kind of aggression coming from him?
10:15 Yeah, I mean, he needs to be a guy that beats people off the dribble because he's got a good
10:21 quick first step. He's got a long first step. You know, people underestimate how long that first
10:27 step of TB's can be. We tried to put him in some positions out on the floor, you know, where he had
10:35 the ability to be able to jab step and rip and go. But that's certainly an area besides his three
10:44 point shooting. We all know that he's an excellent pick and pop player. He's an excellent floor
10:49 spacer. He did a great job against Duke spacing the floor and bringing their foreman away from
10:55 the basket. So we know that he's going to do that. We know that we're going to put him in
10:59 positions offensively to be a floor spacer. And then we need him to have that aggressive mindset
11:05 off the bounce. Anytime somebody closes out to him, you know, with the thought of trying to take
11:11 away the three, he's got to be able to utilize his bounce game, which he obviously did against
11:16 UNC Wilmington. And last one for me, always hard for a freshman to kind of be a point guard in
11:23 college basketball, but Aiden Holloway is having a pretty good year. What have you seen from him
11:27 and what kind of excites you about the matchup between him and your guards? Yeah, super impressed
11:32 with Holloway and the fact that his assist to turnover ratio is good. Super impressed with his
11:39 ability to create shots for others, his high volume assists. And then look, you got to identify
11:45 him. You got to ID him right away. He takes deep, deep, deep shots, you know, shots at what you
11:52 would consider the four point line. So you can never, you know, not carry a hand. He's really,
11:58 really great shooter off the bounce. Unique when a guy can be shifty, go left, right, east, west,
12:05 and pull up, rise over the top of you. So been very impressed with him and Donaldson's done a
12:10 good job backing him up as well. They got great point guard play. You look at their limited amount
12:16 of turnovers last night against Penn. They've done an excellent job of taking care of the
12:20 basketball for sure. And they play with great pace offensively and Holloway spearheads their
12:27 attack game off the bounce. They do a good job throwing both point guards, sideline break. And
12:34 then very uniquely when you really sit and study them, their point guards will bring the ball
12:39 up sometimes, for instance, on the right wing and they'll throw the ball across court at a 45 degree
12:45 angle from the back court to the front court to open up dribble drive angles for guys like Katie
12:51 Johnson or for three balls to guys like Denver Jones off of 45 degree cross court pass from
12:59 three quarter court. Really impressed with that. That's a unique transition trait that both point
13:07 guards have. I thought you still got a question? I was going to ask about TB and Holloway and
13:14 Jackson got both of them. So I'll turn it over to Bob. Go ahead, Bob. Okay, I appreciate the
13:20 deferring. This is Nate's question. I'm going to read and make sure I don't screw it up.
13:25 Even with all the tough non-conference games you've played, what do you anticipate your team
13:32 experienced starting in SEC play, starting with Auburn, that maybe you didn't experience in the
13:36 first 13 games? Is there anything new about SEC play? Yeah, I mean, I think our league for all of
13:44 us, I don't think, Alabama's played a really tough schedule. Auburn's played a difficult schedule.
13:50 We feel like we've experienced a lot of different things through non-conference, but when you get
13:56 to the SEC, it doesn't matter if it's this year or four years ago, you're talking about great length,
14:02 you're talking about great athleticism, and for the most part in our league, you're talking about
14:08 really good pace of play. You talk about great rebounding teams. Those are some of the traits
14:14 that I've seen over the last four and a half years with SEC play. And then every conference,
14:21 whether it's 1987 and I'm playing at the University of San Diego, when you play Pepperdine,
14:27 you play St. Mary's, you play Gonzaga, those guys, those teams in league play, you're talking
14:34 about close games, you're talking about games that oftentimes come down to the wire, you're
14:39 talking about playing teams more than one time during the course of the second half of your
14:44 season or conference play. And so all of those things, you know, make it a different and unique
14:52 situation to be in. Obviously, some of these teams, you know, you might play somebody three
14:58 times. And then our players, when you're in non-conference, look, our guys did not know who
15:05 UNCG was, our guys did not know any of the Stanford Cardinal players. Half of our team knows half of
15:13 the Auburn team and vice versa. So that alone takes on new meaning. Some of these guys have
15:19 had matchups against each other in the past. So now there's some personal stuff that goes into
15:25 going against a certain player or going against a certain program. So, yeah, there's a lot of
15:32 added things that start taking on a life of its own in conference play. I mean,
15:39 from a coaching standpoint, I've never sat in a meeting with Jared Haas from Stanford. I've never
15:48 sat in a meeting, you know, with the UNC Wilmington coach or the Furman coach. I mean,
15:55 as coaches, we sit in meetings with each other. There's personalities that are in those rooms
16:00 that are unique and different. And, you know, then there's some competitive stuff that comes
16:05 into everything. So, yeah, it's a lot different league. And then I know this is just the first
16:11 18, but you're playing Auburn, they're ranked, your next two are on the road. I mean, how
16:16 important is this game Saturday to get off to a good start at home?
16:20 Well, I think every game, you know, every game is whether you're home or road is really important
16:30 to both teams. It's the start of conference play. It's one game, but it's against a team that
16:37 has won a lot of games since Coach Pearl's been there. And they're going to be ready to play.
16:46 And we hope that our guys are ready to play. And you're playing against a team that's ranked. I
16:52 think any time you play against a team that's ranked, you know, you should be ready to play.
16:58 And then we got to turn around and we got to start getting ready for what's coming is
17:04 a unique cycle where it's Tuesday or Wednesday, Saturday, Tuesday or Wednesday. And so now we're
17:11 going to start getting into some rhythm. Our practice structure is going to start changing
17:16 beginning tomorrow. And it'll change, you know, throughout the year, the practice schedule as
17:24 well as you get deeper into February. And, you know, but this is a start of the league play
17:32 against a ranked team on a Saturday, which should be a great crowd, should be a lot of enthusiasm,
17:41 both Auburn side, their guys will be ready to play. And hopefully, like I said, our guys will
17:46 be ready to play as well. And obviously then, as you mentioned, Bob, we're staring at two road games
17:51 back to back. We have never gone on the road and stayed on the road. We're going to do that
17:56 on this trip based on the two places that we're going to. And based on the fact that we're not
18:02 in school, although we know that Georgia's students are back, I think, and Florida students are back.
18:09 So we're still not in class. So we'll stay on the road for that one road trip.
18:14 You know, we haven't done it in the past. We'll see how it rolls.
18:18 I got one with Broome, you know, he's obviously a great inside player. I think he missed 16
18:23 straight threes, and then he hit three out of four last night. Does that change how you defend
18:30 him at all? Or do you just think, well, he can't have games like that? Or just wonder what you
18:34 thought about his three point shooting? No, I've read all their articles that have come out in the
18:39 last month. I know that he's worked hard based on what I'm reading. He's worked really hard on his
18:43 three point shot. I thought Broome's three point attempts last night looked good coming out of his
18:50 hand. He's obviously going to come into this game, regardless of what happened in the prior games,
18:55 coming off his last game, he made three threes. And, you know, but he does most of his damage
19:01 inside. I know that that was, you know, nine of his points or whatever last night, but he's
19:05 still interior. You know, that's where you've got to be the most worried about. But you certainly
19:12 don't want any player to take horse shots, and you're closing out short to someone that has the
19:17 ability to make threes. And you can't close out reckless because he's got a good deceptive first
19:22 step off the bounce. So you got to play him for when he's out on the perimeter, you got to play
19:28 him for several things. He's really good DHO, dribble handoff player, because guards get stuck
19:34 on him when he DHOs out on the floor. And he does a pretty good job of passing the ball to Jalen
19:40 Williams on duck ins. And then obviously last night, he proved he can be a multiple three point
19:45 threat as well. So a lot of things that you have to do when you guard Johnny Broome.
19:50 Thanks. All right, coach. Thanks. Appreciate your time.
19:55 I mean, I got no nothing else. I got a lot of time now that we've already got two practices in.
20:00 We sure everything's good, everybody?
20:03 Well, I mean, if you want a couple more questions, I can oblige you.
20:06 We'll do one more if you got one, Bob. It's got to be really important one.
20:10 Oh, man, you're putting the pressure on.
20:14 Well, put the pressure on me. So I'm coming back at you.
20:17 Okay, well, they're three. They're not a big three point shooting team, but they hit I think
20:22 10 and one last night, the first half. Well, yeah, that's what I mean. I mean,
20:26 do you look at that as a well, that was just a weird one time thing against Penn or does that
20:31 something you have to think, well, man, we this something we need to do at the end of the week
20:35 is get ready for their three point shooting. You know, I mean, I think that they're really
20:39 good offensively. Obviously, you know, they they shot they were on fire the first half and then
20:44 the second half was, you know, the script, you know, flipped a little bit from three point range.
20:50 But look, Katie Johnson can make threes. We all know Holloway can make threes. We know Broom
20:55 with his feet set times can make threes. We know Jalen Williams can make threes at that
21:01 power forward spot. Denver Jones, if you look at his Florida international numbers, phenomenal
21:07 his numbers now, he's a great foul shooter. His three point percentages is good off the bench.
21:13 Number 10 at the small forward spot, their lefty who played at San Diego State, he can make threes.
21:20 And so, yeah, you got to guard both. And that's what good players and good teams,
21:26 they they're a threat on the perimeter and they're a threat off dribble drive and they're
21:30 a threat at the rim. And certainly that's what you're going to face when you play Auburn.
21:34 Moore, he's a West Memphis kid. I know you all recruited him. He's he's had a solid career there
21:39 and been a star. But, you know, obviously, Pearl likes starting him and he gets in his 15,
21:46 16 minutes. What do you see from Chris Moore? Yeah, he's a, you know, same thing that we've
21:51 seen from him, you know, every every year that we've talked about him, he's a relentless competitor.
21:57 He's got great toughness. He scores around the rim. He does a great job getting loose balls.
22:04 Coach Pearl will put him on the one, two or three or four, whoever he thinks is a primary
22:09 offensive threat. He gets low in the stance. He's got great pride in his defense, you know,
22:15 and then they're and then they're going to come in with some other firepower off the bench as well.
22:19 But he's a he's a he's a fierce competitor who plays really, really hard.
22:25 Is there anything else you want to say?
22:28 I don't think so. I think we've covered it all.
22:34 OK, those are good, thorough answers. I appreciate that. All right, you guys. Thanks.