Eric Musselman jokes about math, ShotQuality data

College basketball coaches across the country work analytics and data into their scouting reports. Arkansas is no different, and the Razorbacks recently partnered with ShotQuality to measure the quality of shots they take.

Eric Musselman doesn’t consider himself a math guru, though.

“I mean, I’m not a math major,” Musselman joked with reporters this week. “But we’ve got enough numbers floating around on the walls and stuff to make your head spin. When you break it down to the simplicity of percentages, that’s the truth-teller.”

CLICK HERE to subscribe for FREE to the On3 YouTube channel

Musselman said the partnership with ShotQuality is about gathering as much information as possible to help Arkansas win games — which is understandable. The Razorbacks enter the 2022-23 season with high expectations and came in at No. 10 in the preseason AP Top 25 earlier this week.

Last year, Arkansas ranked No. 28 in ShotQuality’s rankings. Musselman said there’s plenty of room for growth, but he doesn’t want to give the players too many numbers. That leads to a case of information overload.

“Unfortunately, I’m not the analytics coordinator of the reason behind services,” Musselman said. “We have wanted to continue to evolve, continue to improve, continue to search. I know some of the guys on the staff that are kind of heading the analytics department wanted to look at some new things. Shot quality becomes one of them.

“What’s a good shot for this group of players, where is a good shot, what point of the shot clock is the good [time], all those things are areas, analytically, we’re trying to figure that out. Then, how do we feed our players the information, but not overload them, as well?”

Eric Musselman previews challenges against Texas in exhibition game

Musselman and Arkansas are getting ready for a “secret scrimmage” against Texas next week, and he knows the Longhorns will present a good test for his group ahead of the season. Having so many new faces makes that game important, as well.

“Right off the bat, I know it’s just an exhibition. But it’s a great one to kick things off with,” Musselman said. “Yeah, we wanted to play on the road because we have so many new players and six freshmen that have never traveled as a collegiate player. And then we have a lot of transfers, obviously, that have never traveled with us. So 11 new travel members out of our 13.”