Eric Musselman shares how Purdue exhibition came about

Arkansas and Purdue will face off in late October in one of the best exhibition contests of the 2023 preseason. The ticket revenue of the game, which will tip off Oct. 28 at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville, Ark., will be donated to charity.

It is the second-straight year the Razorbacks will be playing in an exciting preseason charity game. Last fall, they faced off against Texas in the Lone Star State.

Arkansas head coach Eric Musselman explained to the media recently how the team went about

“The only connection really with Coach Painter is just Nike puts on an event with a certain group of coaches and so I’ve been a part of that with him,” Musselman said. “But nothing substantial other than the fact that from afar, you’re talking about one of the premier programs in the country. When we met about it as a staff it was how can we play a top-three team in the nation who would be willing to play us, and how could we possibly do that in front of our home fans because last year we played Texas, who was a top-10 team for most of the year. How can we get a team in Bud Walton?”

The two teams are not natural opponents on the hardwood. They have only faced off twice. Once in 1938 and once in 1983.

Musselman credited director of scouting and assistant to head coach Todd Lee for helping to spearhead getting the game across the finish line.

“Todd Lee did a great job of working the exhibition game for us and then doing that with the administration and Purdue’s administration,” Musselman said. “I think it’s going to be a great game for Purdue, for Arkansas, for our fan base as well.”

It would have been difficult for the Razorbacks to find a more enticing opponent for its exhibition game. Despite their shocking Round of 64 loss as a No. 1 seed this past NCAA Tournament, Purdue has been one of the most solid teams in college basketball for years now.

This year’s group — which Musselman expects to be ranked as a top-three team in the preseason — will once again be led by star center Zach Edey.

“They’re really unique,” Musselman said. “They have incredible shooters. They were young last year. They have a player that could be player of the year in college basketball, who’s overly unique in how you have to prepare for him. I think it gives us a lot of really great things. We referenced our Texas game even as we got ready for the NCAA Tournament about things Texas did, about physicality. So hopefully this game this is a game that we’re going to be able to reference throughout the course of the season as well.”