FAYETTEVILLE — Eric Musselman's teams during his four-year run at Nevada were among the best in the country at valuing the basketball.
The Wolf Pack posted top-15 offensive turnover rates in each of his final three seasons, and in 2017-18 finished with the No. 1 mark nationally, turning the ball over on just 13.5 percent of their possessions, according to KenPom data, en route to a Sweet 16 appearance.
Turnovers, though, topped the list of concerns for Musselman in the early stages of his first season with the Razorbacks. Arkansas committed 18 in both exhibitions against Arkansas-Little Rock and Southwestern Oklahoma, and 21 in the season-opening win over Rice.
Then, against Austin Peay on Dec. 3, the Razorbacks turned in the highest single-game turnover rate (28.6) of Musselman's college head coaching career.
However, four games into SEC play, Arkansas (14-2, 3-1 SEC) is beginning to resemble Nevada teams of 2-3 years ago. Musselman's club is No. 1 in the SEC in offensive turnover rate at 11.9 percent, per KenPom, entering Saturday's matchup with No. 10 Kentucky.
"We would like to go back and look at our Nevada teams and see if we got better as the year goes on from a turnover standpoint," said Musselman, who noted that he discussed the topic at lunch Thursday with Anthony Ruta, Arkansas' director of basketball operations.
"That was one of the things that we stressed every day. Normally when we turn the ball over we all do 10 pushups, me included. Just little things."
Arkansas' primary ballhandlers - Isaiah Joe, Mason Jones, Jimmy Whitt - have protected the ball well. They have only 20 miscues, an average of five per night between them, in four league games, of which two were on the road.
It is a fairly remarkable figure considering each player has been on the floor for at least 88 percent of the team's minutes against conference opponents. The three also hold a personal usage rate - a measure of personal possessions used while on the court that assigns credit or blame to a player when his actions end a possession either by making a shot, missing a shot that isn’t rebounded by the offense or committing a turnover - of 22 percent.
Musselman and his staff use the soccer and hockey term "shots on goal" with the Razorbacks. On each offensive possession the objective is to put up a quality look. Musselman added that even a bad, contested attempt is better than a live-ball turnover.
"Most of the teams I’ve coached when you take a bad shot you’ve got a chance to get an offensive rebound," he said, "but with this team we really don’t have a chance to get an offensive rebound, but at least it’s better than a live-ball turnover.
"If you like football, you can’t turn the ball over in football and win. In basketball, especially if we’re fighting for possessions and we’re fighting for field goals attempted because of the opposition’s ability to out-rebound us, taking care of the ball is vital."
No Arkansas player has been better in that regard since the calendar turned to 2020 than Jalen Harris. The junior guard, who transitioned to a bench role this season, has not given the ball away in 81 minutes of conference action. Harris has dished out 12 assists in that span.
He only has one turnover in his last 98 minutes played.
Sophomore guard Desi Sills has committed only one turnover in Arkansas' last five games as well. All five of the Razorbacks' guards rank in the top 30 in the SEC in turnover rate, according to KenPom.
Thinking back on his Nevada teams, Musselman recalled Wolf Pack guard Lindsey Drew, the team's assist leader, being injured midway through the 2017-18 season, which prompted Cody Martin, who now plays for the Charlotte Hornets, to move from power forward to point guard.
Nevada turned the ball over on fewer than 10 percent of its possessions in five of 10 games in Drew's absence and did not post a turnover rate above 15 percent.
"It’s just valuing the ball," Musselman said of the key to Arkansas' success. "Not making home-run passes, not making high-degree-of-difficulty passes, and trying to be as fundamentally sound as possible."
Kentucky, coming off an 81-78 loss at South Carolina on Wednesday, ranks 13th in the SEC in defensive turnover rate (14.5 percent).
"We can’t turn the ball over a lot against Kentucky," Musselman added. "It’s disastrous when you do that."