Arkansas Razorbacks' coach Eric Musselman's press conference Monday via Zoom previewing Wednesday night's game with Vanderbilt at SEC Tournament and always recruiting, even at tournament time.
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00:00 - Hey, I know I asked you about the rotation.
00:02 I was wanting to go a little deeper there
00:03 for something I'm working on.
00:05 You know, you look at these eight guys
00:06 and probably at the LSU game,
00:09 several of them weren't in the rotation for various reasons.
00:12 What have you thought about how this group has come together
00:15 and like you say, you're playing your best ball.
00:18 Nate Oates said that too,
00:19 that you guys are playing their best ball.
00:21 What is it about this group that's working
00:23 and a month ago or whenever, could you imagine this?
00:27 This would be the core group you're going with
00:29 down the stretch?
00:30 - No, I mean, I think one,
00:32 it's a group that's continued to work.
00:35 I think the other thing is just the health.
00:38 You know, like KB dealt with some different things.
00:42 He's still dealing with an Achilles.
00:45 Obviously TB has been hurt throughout different times
00:51 of the season.
00:53 It's just kind of a group that
00:58 when we've tried to add everything up,
01:00 meaning practice and games
01:03 and the different vehicles that we use
01:06 from a statistical analysis,
01:08 it's just been kind of the group
01:10 that we've settled on down the stretch here.
01:13 But guys that aren't in the rotation,
01:16 obviously have to stay ready,
01:19 especially in a tournament type setting.
01:24 But yeah, I mean, how it's evolved
01:28 is probably a whole bunch of different things
01:30 put together, Bob.
01:33 I don't think it was just one particular thing.
01:37 We've been trying to find a group
01:39 that complements each other as well.
01:41 So there's all those different factors, really.
01:45 - Well, why do you think it's working with these guys?
01:47 - You know, it's a good,
01:52 the combination together is good.
01:54 You know, it started,
01:56 I think it was even the Mississippi State road game.
01:59 Devo was playing the four at that spot,
02:02 you know, at that time.
02:03 So it hasn't just been this group.
02:06 I mean, it has been, you know,
02:08 for the last couple of games,
02:09 but, you know, they complement each other.
02:14 I think that's one thing.
02:16 I don't know.
02:21 I'm trying to contribute to your story, Bob.
02:23 - I appreciate that.
02:25 I don't want to make anything up.
02:27 And, you know, when I say the group,
02:29 I don't mean just the starters.
02:30 I mean, you know, the eight guys that you're,
02:33 and I think you had 16 different starting combinations.
02:37 I know, you know, like nobody likes doing that, right?
02:40 But how good is it,
02:42 how good do you feel that you've been able
02:43 to finally settle on a group
02:45 and do it the way you've always done it?
02:47 - Yeah, I mean, you know,
02:50 I think the team has played confident.
02:52 I mean, I think our last three road games
02:55 on weekends were Mississippi State, Kentucky, and Alabama.
02:59 Those are three hard places to play.
03:02 All you'd have to do is look at their home record.
03:05 If you add those, and, you know, we didn't win them,
03:07 but we gave ourselves, or we had an opportunity
03:11 to win all three of those games.
03:13 And, you know, so I think that it's a confident
03:18 or a more confident team than we were earlier.
03:21 And I do think that, you know,
03:23 this particular group knows where shots are coming from
03:26 and who they're coming from.
03:28 And, you know.
03:31 - Well, I'd ask some about Davenport too,
03:34 if I could kind of follow up what you said the other day.
03:36 I was reading, this might've been a Scottie story
03:38 from his long lost whole hog days,
03:41 but Wes Miller had a quote,
03:43 I think in the Cincinnati Inquirer,
03:45 just praising Davenport and how much he loves coaching him,
03:48 kind of similar to what you said.
03:50 I don't know how many guys you'd have two coaches say that
03:53 about, what is it about Jeremiah that makes guys
03:57 like you and Wes Miller love coaching him?
04:00 - Just super high energy, you know, competitive,
04:05 plays with emotion, practices with emotion,
04:08 good teammate, you know, can accept different roles.
04:15 You know, he's, you know, he's just, he's got a,
04:22 he's got a positivity about himself.
04:26 He's great on the bench when he's not in games,
04:29 brings energy to his teammates.
04:32 So I would say those qualities, you know,
04:36 willing to take on any defensive assignment,
04:39 regardless of position.
04:40 - And I know you brought him in to be a shooter
04:43 and he's hit some shots, but he's rebounded real well.
04:45 And I think there was a game earlier this year
04:47 where he scored real well in the first half
04:48 and then you didn't play him
04:49 'cause he didn't have a rebound in the first half.
04:51 He's really rebounded well.
04:53 You know, he passed, had a lot of assists.
04:54 He seems like he's doing more than just shooting.
04:57 What do you think about his all around contributions?
05:01 - Yeah, I mean, I think that's, you know,
05:02 that's why, you know, we're playing better.
05:05 He's playing better is there is a more, you know,
05:09 across the board, he's, I mean, he even had, you know,
05:14 for a shooter, he had a high quality assist numbers
05:16 the other night as well.
05:17 So, I mean, he's doing a little bit of everything,
05:20 which is, you know, what you want out of those guys
05:23 that are six, five to six, seven.
05:26 You want those swing guys to be able to, you know,
05:29 to impact the box score in more than one way.
05:34 And, you know, he's starting to do that
05:36 with the rebounding, the passing.
05:38 He made a great dribble drive move the other night
05:43 in Tuscaloosa.
05:44 So, and again, you kind of look at the history of our guys
05:49 that play the three, four, and those guys have been players
05:53 that can do a lot of different things.
05:55 The Adisa Tonys and the Stan Amudes and Jordan Walsh's,
06:00 those guys have been, you know, it's been important for us
06:03 for those guys to do multiple things
06:06 while they're on the floor.
06:07 And, you know, JD is slightly undersized
06:12 compared to those other guys,
06:14 but he is the closest thing to those other guys
06:17 as far as a multi-positional guy
06:20 that can kind of play three different positions for us.
06:24 - Yeah, I might have a couple more.
06:25 I'll turn it back to Kyle if time allows.
06:27 Thanks.
06:28 - Curtis.
06:29 - Coach, you kind of touched on it
06:32 a little bit earlier there,
06:33 but I guess you've kind of settled in on your rotation,
06:36 but in a tournament setting like this,
06:38 if you get to the later rounds,
06:39 you might need more than that.
06:41 So what's the added benefit of having guys like a blocker,
06:44 a Keyon, a JG who might not be in the rotation right now,
06:47 but they've contributed for you in SEC play this year?
06:51 - Yeah, I mean, you know, the only thing, Curtis,
06:53 we're really worried about is how to,
06:54 you know, obviously how to beat Vanderbilt.
06:56 You know, so, you know, as you look beyond that,
07:01 I mean, I don't think that any of the players can,
07:04 and I don't think that the coaching staff can,
07:07 but I will say that for any teams that advance,
07:11 you know, depth can, the further you advance,
07:15 depth can become more of a more, you know, of a factor.
07:20 And certainly guys like Leighton Blocker,
07:22 I mean, Leighton has practiced really hard, you know,
07:26 and he, I know like, you know,
07:28 Leighton Blocker's staying ready to play,
07:31 and that's what you need to do.
07:33 You know, if you're not getting the reps in a game,
07:36 you know, it's important to stay mentally focused
07:38 and get the reps and work on your cardiovascular.
07:42 And I do think we have some guys that, you know,
07:46 first one in the building, those guys, you know,
07:49 that are doing that type of stuff,
07:51 they're staying ready to play.
07:53 And like I said, you know, if you're a fortunate,
07:58 any team that's fortunate enough to advance, you know,
08:03 rotations can alter with each extra game
08:07 that you have to play.
08:08 - Scotty.
08:10 - Yeah, Eric, I wanted to ask you about Makai.
08:13 Just how valuable has his progression been
08:16 over the last month plus, I guess,
08:18 just in terms of giving the front line some stability
08:21 with guys in and out of the lineup?
08:24 - Yeah, Makai's been great.
08:25 Pick and roll, you know, we're playing through him.
08:29 You know, he's done a great job of rolling.
08:31 He also understands when to short roll
08:34 against different defenses.
08:36 And, you know, he's, I mean,
08:39 he's played really, really good basketball.
08:43 You know, you look at his last 10 game segment,
08:46 you know, we need him to play better than the Vandy game,
08:52 'cause other than that game,
08:53 he's played at a high, high level.
08:56 And so we just need him to continue
08:59 to do what he's been doing,
09:00 to continue to play like he did against Alabama
09:03 in some of these games of late.
09:05 He's really played fantastic
09:08 on both ends of the floor for us.
09:09 - And then on Califf, looked at his numbers,
09:14 at least one steal in the last six games,
09:16 four blocks in the last two.
09:18 Has anything in particular stood out to you
09:20 defensively with him, you know,
09:22 maybe from early in the year until now?
09:25 - Yeah, I think he's just way more comfortable
09:28 in our system right now.
09:29 I think he understands the terminology.
09:31 I think he understands, you know,
09:34 where he's supposed to be on the weak side defensively.
09:37 And then I think his on-ball awareness
09:40 has become more aggressive as well.
09:42 So I think all those factors, you know,
09:46 would be why I think we're seeing
09:48 defensive numbers increase with KB.
09:52 - Hutch.
09:55 - Yeah, Eric, you've mentioned several times
09:57 that y'all played really well down the stretch,
09:59 except for maybe an eight-minute stretch against Vandy.
10:01 And you got those guys coming up.
10:03 Do you look back at that stretch
10:04 and kind of watch the film with the team
10:07 and try to make specific corrections based on that?
10:10 Or is that kind of been completely flushed?
10:13 - No, no, I think it's extremely important
10:15 as you play a team multiple times
10:18 that you look and review things that you did well
10:21 and things that you didn't do well.
10:23 And certainly Jerry Stackhouse, you know,
10:28 they run great stuff.
10:29 They'll change up their defenses.
10:32 You know, they have three players
10:34 that are playing at a high level.
10:36 And Coach Stackhouse does a great job of getting,
10:38 you know, Manjohn and T. Lawrence and Lubben inside.
10:44 You know, he gets those three guys to basketball.
10:46 And then they have other guys
10:49 that are surrounding those three that can make threes.
10:52 But certainly, Hutch, we've gone back
10:56 and today will be another day
10:58 where we'll show video of the last game.
11:02 We'll also show some video
11:04 and discuss some of the things
11:06 that Vanderbilt did against Florida in their last win.
11:09 So yeah, I think you look at our past game,
11:14 that carries a lot of weight in adjustments.
11:18 And then certainly their most recent games
11:22 become part of evaluation, adjustments, and game planning.
11:27 - And I know this season hasn't gone
11:29 the way y'all had hoped,
11:30 but, you know, the all-SEC teams came out today
11:33 and T. Mark wasn't one of the 17 guys on either team.
11:36 Were you a little bit surprised,
11:37 considering as good as he's been for y'all,
11:39 that maybe he wasn't at least a second team guy or anything?
11:42 - Yeah, Hutch, I came straight from lunch,
11:45 had some salmon at Taziki's, and walked in here
11:50 and Kyle put me in front of you guys.
11:53 So I don't know what time that came out.
11:56 So I don't have a comment
11:59 unless I had some time to digest it,
12:02 but I don't know who the other names are,
12:04 so I guess it would not be,
12:06 it'd be inappropriate for me to comment.
12:08 Certainly feel like T. Mark has had a great, great season
12:13 and has been productive throughout the SEC season as well.
12:16 So unless I had time to study that list,
12:20 it would be, I would be ill-informed other than to say
12:22 that I think T. Mark has had a great season.
12:25 - Jackson.
12:27 - Hey, Moss.
12:30 Lubin, I know he did a really good job
12:32 on the offensive glass against you guys,
12:34 but he also got some easy baskets.
12:38 What's the key maybe to making life
12:40 a little more difficult for him?
12:41 Does it start with the guards that they've got?
12:43 - Well, I think a couple things.
12:45 You know, I think Jackson, when you look at,
12:48 so Florida's one of the biggest teams in the SEC,
12:52 and you look at the offensive rebounding numbers
12:56 in Vanderbilt's last game,
12:58 that's a lot of offensive rebounds they got as a team
13:01 against what I consider as good a rebounding team,
13:06 you know, maybe in our league.
13:10 But Lubin, he did a great job reacting to rebounds.
13:15 You know, if Manjohn and Lawrence
13:20 get into the teeth of the defense
13:22 and are able to give dump-off passes,
13:25 and your bigs help, certainly that creates issues.
13:30 We've got to have better smashes,
13:32 was what we call it on the weak side.
13:34 And yeah, he played a great game against us.
13:39 He's a really good player that, in my opinion,
13:42 he's, you know, he's a hard cover.
13:44 He made a couple threes against the Gators.
13:47 So that opens up a little bit more of his game as well.
13:51 So, you know, like I said, they have three,
13:55 in what our opinion or the way that we are deeming them
13:59 is they have, you know, three stars,
14:01 and you've got to try to contain those guys.
14:03 And then you've got to understand
14:05 the other guys in their rotation and their strengths
14:09 and try to take away somewhat of their strengths.
14:12 And, you know, a lot of their other guys
14:14 that we haven't mentioned are three-point shooters
14:18 and high three-point attempt players.
14:21 So that's kind of how we're formulating the game plan,
14:25 but certainly the effectiveness that they had
14:30 at that five spot in the first meeting,
14:32 we've got to improve.
14:34 And that's everybody's responsibility,
14:37 you know, from the coaches to all five players on the floor.
14:42 - Last one, Anthony.
14:44 - Hey, Eric, hope you're doing well.
14:46 Obviously I know all the focus is on Vanderbilt
14:48 at the moment, but I just wanted to ask you a little bit
14:51 about recruiting, especially with some guys
14:52 entering the portal at this point.
14:54 Is that something you look at,
14:55 or how much do you look at it, at the stuff like that
14:58 with that's at this stage of the season?
15:00 - We're looking at it.
15:02 I mean, we've made phone calls
15:06 and, you know, if it requires video evaluation,
15:11 there's not a lot in the portal.
15:14 There might be stuff that's on social media
15:19 that says, you know, a guy's going in,
15:21 but until a guy actually shows up in the portal,
15:25 in the NCAA database, you know,
15:29 and so there are not a lot,
15:32 but there's a couple of guys that,
15:34 names that'll pop up in there and we'll evaluate
15:38 and do what we can and recruit the minute
15:40 after we evaluate, you know, then it, you know,
15:45 gets to a matter of, you know,
15:46 are you going to make phone calls or not?
15:48 And look, before Elite Eight games, we've been doing Zooms.
15:51 I've said that in the past.
15:54 So certainly if you're playing for an Elite Eight
15:58 and an opportunity to make a Final Four
16:00 and you're doing Zooms, then certainly
16:02 we're going to be working to the best
16:04 of our ability right now, as well as preparing,
16:08 which is the most important thing,
16:10 is to prepare for Vanderbilt.
16:11 That takes, you know, that's the front seat
16:15 and then the back seat would be, you know,
16:20 recruiting and working the portal
16:22 as names pop up in there.