SEC coaches give Musselman scoop

Arkansas basketball coach Eric Musselman speaks to reporters while athletics director Hunter Yurachek looks on during a news conference Monday, April 8, 2019, in Fayetteville.

FAYETTEVILLE -- Eric Musselman and Cuonzo Martin met more than 20 years ago in the Continental Basketball Association.

It was during the 1996-97 season.

Musselman was head coach of the Florida Beachdogs, who played in West Palm Beach.

Martin, who had been a standout at Purdue for Coach Gene Keady, was a guard for the Grand Rapids (Mich.) Mackers between his brief NBA career -- seven games total -- with the Vancouver Grizzlies and Milwaukee Bucks.

"We had some intense games," Martin said of the Beachdogs-Mackers matchups. "The good thing about Muss is that he talked trash a little bit as a coach on the floor. I enjoyed that."

Martin, who is going into his third season as Missouri's coach, laughed when asked on Thursday's SEC coaches summer teleconference if he could repeat some of Musselman's trash talk.

"I can't necessarily share the words, but I looked forward to it," Martin said. "I was fresh out of college and that was a new experience for me -- a coach talking trash. It was all in good fun.

"His teams played hard, they were competitive. It was great. That kind of started the relationship. We'd laugh and joke in between games."

Musselman is preparing for his first season as coach at the University of Arkansas, which plays Missouri twice annually as part of the SEC schedule.

So Martin and Musselman -- who was hired from Nevada to replace Mike Anderson -- will have a chance to laugh and joke and maybe exchange some good-natured trash talk.

"We have a good relationship," Martin said. "We don't talk all the time, but we see each other and we've had some great times.

"I think he's a good man and he's done a great job as a coach at all levels. You hate to see Mike leave, but I'm happy to have Muss on board."

Two SEC coaches -- Florida's Mike White and Alabama's Nate Oats -- faced Musselman's Nevada teams.

Musselman's final game at Nevada was Florida's 71-60 victory over the Wolf Pack in last season's NCAA Tournament.

The Gators held on to win after Nevada cut an 18-point deficit to three points with five minutes to play by turning up the defensive pressure.

"[Musselman] did a terrific job at Nevada," White said. "I thought they were difficult to prepare for. They played downhill. His particular team last year was very, very experienced. They were long, athletic, interchangeable.

"And we were prepared, but not prepared enough to face that unique defense they went to when we got ahead. We might have been better off if we hadn't gotten ahead as much as we did midway through the second half, because they did such a terrific job of scrambling and jumping us and rotating and turning us over.

"I'm sure that at Arkansas they're going to be really good at a lot more than just that."

Oats, going into his first season at Alabama, was Buffalo's coach when Musselman's Nevada team beat the Bulls 67-62 at the Great Alaska Shootout in Anchorage during the 2016-17 season.

"They were really good," Oats said. "Eric obviously did a great job upgrading the talent at Nevada in a pretty quick fashion there with the transfers."

Musselman led Nevada to a 110-34 record in four seasons -- including three NCAA Tournament appearances and a run to the Sweet 16 in 2018 -- in his first college head coaching job. He previously had been a head coach in the NBA with Sacramento and Golden State along with his CBA head coaching stints.

"He's got an NBA background and he's really good at getting his best players in great spots on the floor," Oats said of Musselman. "Offensively, they were tough to cover.

"I think it'll be pretty similar at Arkansas. I think he's a really good coach and he's going to get the talent level up there."

Oats said Musselman will play a different style than Anderson did as Arkansas' coach the previous eight seasons.

"My guess is he's not going to be pressing too much," Oats said. "You don't do that in the NBA. I think he'll be a pretty straight man-to-man guy, real solid on defense."

Kentucky Coach John Calipari said he got to know Musselman when both were NBA assistant coaches in the late 1990s. They also coached against each other internationally when Calipari led a team from the Dominican Republic and Musselman led a Venezuelan team.

"I watched him at Nevada," Calipari said. "I think [Arkansas] got a great coach -- a driven human being who is smart. He's really going to do good work at Arkansas. No doubt in my mind."

Georgia Coach Tom Crean said Musselman's pro background should help him manage his roster at Arkansas at a time when players are transferring at an increasingly higher rate.

Musselman, whose Nevada teams featured several transfers led by twins Caleb and Cody Martin, has added four transfers since taking the Arkansas job.

"Eric is a master at roster management going back to his days in the CBA," Crean said. "He has a real comfort level with that, which I think in this day and age of basketball, it's very much like that.

"You've got to be comfortable right now with [adding] a scholarship [player] in July and August because of the way the [transfer] portal is and all the rules that go with it. I think Eric is excellent at that."

Oats said he's not sure if Musselman will rely on transfers at Arkansas as much as he did with the Wolf Pack.

"But, shoot, he was pretty successful with it at Nevada," Oats said. "His roster at Nevada was better than a lot of high-major rosters. If he's able to get the same type of transfer talent at Arkansas, my guess would be he'll do it.

"I see he's is offering a lot of high school kids, too. My guess would be he thinks at Arkansas he can probably get a higher level of high school kid than he could at Nevada. That's similar to what we're trying to do at Alabama versus what we did at Buffalo."

Martin said he's not surprised at how Musselman has risen through the coaching ranks considering his father, Bill Musselman, was a long-time coach in the NBA and CBA and in college.

"It's in his bloodlines," Martin said. "His dad did a tremendous job. His dad is one of the best that's ever coached.

"Muss has been doing this for a long time. I think it's great he's coaching in the college game now. Some might think he'd be in the NBA game, but he's great for the college game."

Crean said he's impressed with the careers of Bill and Eric Musselman.

"I have a ton of respect for Eric," Crean said. "First off, his father is one of the most underrated coaches that's ever done it at any level -- bar none.

"I only met Bill Musselman once, but I followed him and studied him. He was just a tremendous coach, and Eric certainly grew up around that.

"You look at the success Eric has had in his life of basketball. I think he'll be excellent at Arkansas. He knows how to recruit, he knows how to teach, he knows how to develop players.

"He's been successful at many, many levels."

Sports on 06/28/2019