Eric Musselman shares how his day-to-day life has changed in transfer portal era

The transfer portal has changed the landscape of NCAA Basketball. However, after recent comments by Arkansas head coach Eric Musselman, this new landscape may be far more bleak than fans realized.

Few college basketball coaches understand the transfer portal quite like Musselman. Just last season, the third-year head coach added top talent such as Ricky Council and Trevon Brazile to the Arkansas roster.

Nonetheless, Musselman’s success comes at a cost.

“We don’t have any down time. For me, it’s an unfortunate situation that you’re playing in the NCAA Tournament and you’re doing Zooms with people that are in the portal the day of the game,” Musselman said in a recent interview on Hit That Line.

SEC Transfer Portal Tracker: Version 4.0

-Arkansas continues to win the portal.
-Florida has been a sneaky winner.
-George trending up.
-Mississippi State nabs Andrew Taylor.
-Coach Beard gaining steam at Ole Miss.
-What is next for the Kentucky Wildcats?https://t.co/UDp9tR1ajZ

— Brandon Ramsey (@BRamseyKSR) May 21, 2023

While these time-sensitive meetings are frustrating, they’re vital, and the 58-year-old head coach knows it.

“Do you want to have a good season the following year? You’ve got to have a long lens,” Musselman said. “We actually had assistant coaches leave from the NCAA site that we lost in, and go out and recruit for seven-straight days.”

Musselman’s long lens is capturing an enticing picture. Following Arkansas’ loss to UConn in the NCAA Tournament, the Razorbacks added El Ellis (Louisville), Jeremiah Davenport (Cincinnati), Khalif Battle (Temple), Tramon Mark (Houston) and Keyon Minefield (Washington) in a span of two weeks.

Unfortunately, the generous portal is a double-edged sword. Three Arkansas players left the program following the season’s end. Musselman recognizes this is the nature of the beast.

“Your roster is complete when you start the first semester of the school year,” Musselman said. “There’s a lot of things that are up in the air still that you’re going to have to wait time-wise to see how it all unfolds.”

Although the portal isn’t going anywhere, it can be improved. Musselman has ideas on how to make the process easier on everybody.

“The NBA calendar does not align at all with the NCAA calendar,” Musselman said. “College basketball needs to look at the NBA calendar and we need to work around that calendar a little more so all this makes sense.”