Start of Razorbacks' Basketball Has Sorta Sneaked Up

With Red-White game coming up quickly, Eric Musselman has positives, coaching points

Author:
Andy Hodges
Publish date:
Sep 29, 2023 12:56 AM EDT

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Arkansas Razorbacks

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — It probably shouldn't come as a really big surprise that Arkansas coach Eric Musselman didn't have all positives coming because he found some things that need work. No surprise there, because he can always find something to be picky about.

Overall, it was pretty balanced with a lot of positives. Some them were really good signs for a team that has the annual Red-White Game at Barnhill Arena coming up on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. We're nowhere near finished with football season and now we have basketball coming up in the windshield really fast.

"We’re probably the farthest advanced we’ve ever been from a scheme standpoint," Musselman said after Thursday's practice. We still have a lot of stuff to clean up and get better. We have as much in as maybe like mid-year almost as far as sets and some of the things we do offensively. Defensively we’re about where we normally are. We’re not ahead at all, but we’re not behind either defensively."

The season suddenly getting ready to start with the games that don't count kinda caught a lot of us by surprise. Not Musselman and his staff because everybody was probably ready for something other than drills.

"The reason we set up our schedule the way we did was so they had something every week to look forward to," Musselman said. "Obviously we’re doing the Red-White game a lot earlier than we have in the past. That’s so they have something to look forward to. Eight of the 10 weeks in the summer is a long grind, then you’ve got this three-a-half-week segment without playing a game. They’ll be anxious for (the Red-White Game) and then we have pro day following that up. Then we’ll have the Division II game, then obviously the Purdue game."

It's all improved the intensity of practices, he feels. But there were some things that need improvement, like conditioning. Nearly the entire team needs to get in better shape to run the floor with the tempo Musselman would like to see in games he feels has been missing the last couple of years. One is already there.

"Devo runs on batteries," Musselman said about senior guard Davonte Davis. "As a whole other than him, we’ve got to get in better shape, we really do. We've got some guys that need to get in a lot better shape to play at the pace that we want. Even going live today, I've never seen a team struggle so bad to get the ball in-bounds as an in-bounder. You can bet tomorrow or the next time we get together, there will be a lot of in-bounding drills because we want to run. But I think fatigue - when we go back and watch a little bit of today, we'll probably see a lot of guys fatiguing. When that happens, execution goes down."

The Hogs host its annual Red-White Game at Barnhill Arena on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. Doors will open an hour prior to tipoff. Tickets are not required for the event and seating will be general admission on a first-come, first-served basis.