As an assistant for his dad Bill with the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves, new Arkansas basketball coach Eric Musselman was just not down with his father’s slow pace of play.
“Interestingly, we play exactly the opposite of my dad’s teams,” Musselman said. “My dad was a great defensive coach and they played really, really slow on offense. So when I was sitting on his bench as an assistant coach with the (Minnesota) Timberwolves, I was like yawning and saying ‘dad, let’s score some transition baskets.’
“So I just kind of started forming my own philosophy on trying to create my own style that players would await to be a part of, that fans would want to be a part of, that coaches would want to be a part of and especially at the collegiate level.
“The bottom line is that you have got to get your recruits excited and want to play in your system. So that is how we have come up with this pace and space type of offense.”
Musselman didn’t waste any time getting down to recruiting at Arkansas as he reportedly offered two Phoenix Hillcrest juniors on Monday before his pair of introductory press conferences.
Those were five-star guard Kyree Walker (6-6, 200), who is top-13 nationally, per ESPN, and thinking of reclassifying to 2019, and four-star small forward Dalen Terry, (6-6, 170) a top-35 player nationally.
Walker, who was once committed to Arizona State, had narrowed his decision down to Memphis and Nevada before Musselman moved on.
Arkansas currently has two available scholarships in the 2019 class after signing early enroll Justice Hill last November, having center Daniel Gafford announce for the NBA Draft and Keyshawn Embery-Simpson announcing his intent to transfer to Tulsa.
“Yeah, I mean, obviously with the NCAA rules, we can’t really talk too much about recruiting,” Musselman said. “But yeah, we’re going to work hard to still look at guys that are in this class. So there’s no doubt that’s going to happen.”
Musselman, who relied heavily on transfers while going 110-34 in four years at Nevada, made it clear that he was planning on recruiting Arkansas’ talent-laden 2020, 2021 and 2022 classes instead of loading up on transfers as he did with the Wolf Pack.
“I think so, without a doubt,” Musselman said. “There hasn't been a high school player within driving distance where I was at my prior stop that we recruited heavily except for a couple of guys that we did get.
“For sure at Nevada transfers have been a big part of our success there, but people don't talk enough about the freshmen that we did bring in, Lindsey Drew and Cameron Oliver, in our first recruiting class, really what started the foundation. Two incoming freshmen that were Pac-12 commits that came and played for us.
“Then last year we got a McDonald's All-American in Jordan Brown. Nevada had not had a McDonald's All-American. He was the first five-star on campus other than a local player Luke Babbitt several years ago … I haven't been a head coach in college for 20 years, but to have a McDonald's All-American and two Pac-12 commits is great.”
Mussleman is eager to recruit with the Arkansas name behind him.
“The great thing about Arkansas is there is a brand,” Musselman said. “Everybody in the country, when they see that logo, they know what it is. Obviously from a social media standpoint, if anybody followed what we did at Nevada, we were trying to create a brand, trying to create who we were.
“I’ll still probably be extremely active on social media, because I enjoy it. But having said that, we don’t need to do anything … We did some crazy stuff (at Nevada) and had some fun on social media. And we’ll still have fun. But that logo means a lot. When people see it, they know what it means. So I don’t think we need to get too outlandish here.”
He feels good about the impact his wife, Danyelle Sargent, a former ESPN sports personality, can have on the Razorbacks program.
“My wife plays a humongous part in everything we do,” Musselman said. “I mean, at Nevada we really felt like it was a true family atmosphere. My wife would come by practices. She’ll stick her head in the locker room after a game and congratulate guys. Or if somebody’s down, she’ll say something to them outside the locker room. She’s as much a part of our program as I am, except during the 40 minutes of the game.
“She has a huge impact. She’s going to have a huge impact in recruiting. I think it’s really important that our recruit’s parents meet my wife and feel her passion for — because she kind of looks at them all as kind of an extension of her kids as well.
“She’ll also tell me, ‘Like lay off so and so. He’s really trying hard.’ She sticks up for the players a lot more than she sticks up for me.”
Musselman met with Arkansas’ current players Sunday night at athletic director Hunter Yurachek’s house where they had a cookout, played pool and ping pong and watched WWE’s WrestleMania pay-per-view broadcast.
He feels good about retaining those players, who were all at Monday’s event.
“As of right now I am shocked how happy and excited our guys are,” Musselman said. “I spent as much time as I could with them last night. It was kind of interesting. All the adults were upstairs and I went immediately downstairs with the team.
“I wanted to eat down there and spend as much time as I could with our players. And right now I think they are excited. I think they are happy and I think they are looking forward to us starting out on the court as soon as sometime later this week. I don’t anticipate anybody leaving. I think we have guys that are happy.”
Yurachek, who noted the decision to let go of former coach Mike Anderson was the toughest thing he has had to do professionally, echoed that sentiment.
“I think they’re doing great,” Yurachek said. "After Coach Anderson had met with them roughly two weeks ago, I followed that up with my own meeting with them and I allowed them to throw whatever daggers they wanted at me quite candidly in the locker room and there were very few thrown.
“Obviously all of those players cared for Coach Anderson and he was one of the reasons they were here at the University of Arkansas. That change was tough, but what I can tell you is last week whenever I went over to the basketball practice facility after the week off, most of those guys were in there working out, they were lifting weights and on the Gun shooting and they were playing 5-on-5.
“I think that speaks volumes that they want to be taken to the next level and are preparing for the next coach. I think the attitude, of course whenever coach walked in last night everyone was quiet and stoic, but after they went upstairs and got their meal, he went down there and was very intentional about his conversations with them. I thought it went really, really well.”