Hogs’ Coach Eric Musselman Playing by Numbers

Players get a lot of stats every single day, updating where they stand

Author:
Andy Hodges
Publish date:
Oct 11, 2022 7:46 PM EDT

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Arkansas Razorbacks

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Arkansas coach Eric Musselman has taken his analytics to a whole new level.

It was interesting to hear him talking about studying numbers down to the most finite details heading into this season.

"We're charting everything," he said Monday ahead of the annual Red-White scrimmage at Bud Walton Arena on Sunday. "It’s giving us a really fair evaluation."

It probably wouldn't be that shocking to hear he's charting what the Razorbacks eat throughout the day, but when they hit the floor in practice everything else is getting recorded.

Then it's analyzed.

"We give them a daily update, then a weekly update and a cumulative update," Musselman said. "They’re getting three updates every single day. Where they stand, where our team stands, where our team would rank in last year’s college basketball."

He's giving a comparison of where they stand compared to last season's numbers simply so the players can see if they are improving by the numbers.

In case you're wondering, that's not just drawing a comparison with last year's Hogs, but all of college basketball.

The bottom line is it's simply a graphic and direct way to show they players if they are improving or making progress.

They still have things to improve.

"We’ve got to become a much, much better shooting team," Musselman said. "I’ve been saying that for a long time, and it has not changed."

It means they have to work on another area.

"We’ve got to be a great free-throw attempt team," he said.

That's probably why Jordan Walsh pointed out one of the things he is working to do is lean into contact instead of trying to avoid it.

With a roster full of talented players, the major physical part of what they are doing is conditioning. That means he knows what their talent level is capable of doing.

It's early October and Musselman is getting into the fine-tuning of things and figuring out who will be playing and when with all this numbers stuff.

"It gives us a good barometer of where guys are," he said. "Maybe six guys have really established themselves. We have four bigs that are still fighting out how that rotation is going to spill out into the first couple of games."

And we're getting close to getting things started for real, less than two weeks before they play Rogers State at Bud Walton Arena on Oct. 24.

Arkansas coach Eric Musselman, wearing his San Diego Padres' gear, yells instructions at Wednesday's practice as the Razorbacks get ready for European exhibition games. — Andy Hodges / allHOGS Images

The regular season begins Nov. 7 after an exhibition against Texas in Austin on Oct. 29.

"Not a whole lot of time left after being together for an entire summer, an entire September," Musselman said. A short window now to try to solidify where they might be to start the season."