Eric Musselman says he 'wouldn't be sitting here' without transfer portal

The transfer portal is here to stay, and some coaches are utilizing it better than others.

Arkansas head coach Eric Musselman was an early adapter of the portal’s early days, using it to beef up his final team at Nevada before taking the Razorbacks job the following season.

Musselman pointed out Cody and Caleb Martin along with Kendall Stephens specifically for joining his program at Nevada. They helped make Musselman one of the hottest coaches on the market after his Wolf Pack went all the way to the Sweet 16 back in 2018, and Arkansas was swift to swoop him up.

“I promise I wouldn’t be sitting here if it wasn’t for the transfer portal,” Musselman said. “I kind of felt like at Nevada we were at the forefront of the transfer portal. Really interesting because eight years ago when somebody was transferring, the process was a lot different.

“You had to go through your compliance office and there was a lot of paperwork involved. And I can promise you there was not much competition. The competition now for transfers is as fierce as any recruiting landscape that you could be a part of. But it was not that way for three years, especially because guys had to sit out.”

Musselman took another set of twins out of the portal this past season as well. Former Rhode Island forwards Makhi and Makhel Mitchell combine for 10.9 points 8.8 rebounds per game for the Hogs this season. Former Missouri forward Trevon Brazile averaged 11.8 points and 6.0 rebounds per game before tearing his ACL in December.

No one has been more impactful for Musselman out of the portal this season than Ricky Council IV, though. He’s the Razorbacks’ leading scorer with 16.1 points per game this season, and has been the catalyst for Arkansas’ current Sweet Sixteen run in the NCAA Tournament, the third-straight under Musselman.

With these portalers at the helm, Council, and company are anxiously awaiting to kick the second weekend of their NCAA touranment off against UConn, who also acquired some portal talent onto its own roster last offseason regarding the likes of former ECU guard Tristen Newton and former Southern guard Joey Calcaterra.

Tip-off is scheduled for Thursday at 7:15 p.m. ET live on CBS with a trip to the Elite Eight on the line. The Huskies have opened as four-point favorites and the over/under is set at 140, per Caesars Sportsbook.