Eric Musselman shares importance of having time to prepare for games

Despite landing one of the top recruiting classes in college basketball in 2022, the Arkansas Razorbacks did not make it easy on themselves squeaking into this year’s version of the NCAA Tournament. That’s a spot that head coach Eric Musselman and the Hogs are not used to. After all, they reached the Elite Eight in back-to-back NCAA Tournaments during the 2021 and 2022 seasons. The Hogs finished 20-13 overall this year, but Musselman has a history of getting his team to play better in games when he’s got a little more extra time to prepare. For their upcoming matchup in their first-round game of the NCAA Tournament against Illinois, the Hogs will have had five days to prepare. During his recent press conference, Musselman said his team needed the extra time to prepare for the Fighting Illini, because their offense is difficult to get ready for.

“Maybe I should have been a football coach. I think from a preparation standpoint there are a lot of things. One, players have to retain whatever you talk about. We have had some pretty decent success with time, but Illinois has had the same amount of time,” Musselman explained.

“They’re really well coached. Their offense is something that you kinda need a little bit of time, because they’re spread. They will run a blind pig action which is an old Phil Jackson backdoor-type action and they try to get the ball to the elbows and the nail with their four or five men and then they run a lot of cutting action off of that. So, we have needed this time to prepare for them and learn their personnel as well,” the Arkansas head coach said.

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Musselman and Arkansas should feel fortunate to be in the NCAA Tournament. It’s getting more and more difficult for teams to get in the tournament. Just ask the Clemson Tigers, who finished 23-10 overall and 14-6 in the ACC, but were still relegated to the NIT. The Tigers were bounced in the first round by Morehead State on Wednesday night. Arkansas and Illinois are set to tip-off on Thursday, March 16th at 4:30 p.m. EST. The game will be televised on TBS.

On3’s Riley Gates also contributed to this article.