Arkansas Razorbacks head coach Eric Musselman hangs his head on the bench late in the second half of a loss against the Texas A&M Aggies. — Arkansas Razorbacks head coach Eric Musselman hangs his head on the bench late in the second half of a loss against the Texas A&M Aggies at Bridgestone Arena. (Christopher Hanewinckel – USA TODAY Sports)

Where Should Arkansas Stand on Musselman in Kentucky Journalist Incident?

After video surfaces of student's camera being shoved, so many have jumped to outrage

Author:
Kent Smith
Publish date:
Mar 11, 2023 10:37 AM EST

In this story:

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – When I agreed to come on here at allHogs.com it was with the understanding that I got to call it with honesty, even if it didn't put Arkansas in the best light.

When Razorback coach Eric Musselman went after San Diego State fans in Maui, I was free to call him out for actions that were impermissible and immature as a head coach of a proud Power Five basketball program.

And now, with this latest incident involving a Kentucky college newspaper journalist, I again address it with the honesty and sincerity that the moment deserves.

Eric Musselman didn't do anything wrong.

Let's repeat this one so the Kentucky fans in the back can hear also.

Eric Musselman didn't do anything wrong.

He's taking one in the shorts even though the video shows absolutely nothing for which Musselman should be held accountable.

Kentucky Kernal photojournalist Jack Weaver reports the event as tirade of f-bombs as Musselman is leaving the court. Yet, considering his team just blew a 13-point lead and frustratingly showed no evidence that it knows how to put games away, Musselman is shown leaving as calmly as could possibly be expected.

There are no f-bombs. If Weaver is hearing f-bombs then he is telepathic because not only does Musselman not curse, but he doesn't utter a single word.

He's lost in thought, clearly unaware that Weaver even exists until an operations director identified as Riley Hall, in a relatively calm tone, tells Weaver "Hey, get up out of his face," and then appears to push the cell phone out of the team exit area.

Only then does Musselman snap up out of his lost in thought trance and notice Weaver.

If fans need a better idea as to where Weaver was standing, watch back the first few minutes of the game and you will see a line of security perched against the edge of the narrow player exit near the Arkansas bench.

There is a member of security personnel wearing black guarding that area. That's roughly where this video was taken.

Credentialed photographers have a designated area they have to be during the game. It can be seen rather easily on camera from time to time as they are marked off by squares along the baseline to one side of the basket.

For Weaver, his assigned spot appears to have been on the Texas A&M end of the court a few spots over from the goal post.

He had to walk the length of the floor to get to this area and switch from his large photography camera to a cell phone once he got into the tunnel.

The reason this feels off is because there's only three seconds of video. General reason stands that if there is video of Musselman angrily dropping a full string of f-bombs and then a phone is knocked from Weaver's hands, then you post the full video with a reaction to what happened afterward as part of the same shot to show continuity and evidence.

That gets thrown onto YouTube to generate monetized hits and embedded in a Tweet to draw viewers to the video.

Instead, we get three seconds that feel highly selected that creates questions as to what was cut out. There's not even video evidence that the phone hit the ground. We just see it fumbling around after Hall pushes it away.

Does Musselman apologize and say something to Hall? If the phone hit the ground, was it the Arkansas coach who picked it up and handed it back?

We don't know because the video appears to be edited.

Just for fun, we took a phone here at the allHogs.com offices and dropped it on the floor multiple times while recording. Not once did it stop recording.

What we got was an abrupt end to the spin that clearly indicates the phone hit the floor. For the dramatic purposes Weaver is hoping to achieve with his video, having that stoppage of the phone as it stares at the ceiling or goes black while facing the floor before being picked up is crucial to the effect.

Therefore, editing that part out makes no sense.

Below is the first frame of the footage once Hall's hand is removed from the camera.

Here is the next to last frame after the video cuts off. While the speed of the phone moving has made things difficult to make out, it's very easy to tell that the phone hasn't touched the ground.

In the final frame of the video, the phone appears to be pointed up, but the motion indicates it's still moving. From the point of contact until the video ends with the phone still in motion is a full second.

There's speculation that Weaver said something right before that he doesn't want being heard on the video. However, if he did say anything, it wasn't something Musselman heard because his attention would have been drawn to Weaver at that point.

It's possible Hall may have overheard something and wanted to protect his coach from losing it on a college kid when he was in a mindset to be easily angered, but there's nothing here to suggest that either.

Hall appears to have simply gotten a little overzealous at protecting Musselman and should apologize for knocking the phone away. If there was legitimate damage, then the university should drop a few dollars to have it fixed.

However, nothing should happen to Musselman. Kentucky people ripping into him saying he should be fired and that no kid who ever sees this video should go to the University of Arkansas are way out of line.

As true journalists, we follow where the evidence leads, not where someone, including the University of Arkansas, wants us to go.

If Musselman needs calling to the carpet then I have no problem doing so, but in this case, if he even walked into a carpeted room I would ask him to step out for appearances sake.

So what if he did drop a few f-bombs. Unless his mother has something to say on the matter, so what?

I can promise you that Weaver heard far worse throughout the game.

Unless there were small kids standing nearby and Musselman knew it, then the cursing he does is between him and God so long as it doesn't result in a technical foul.

Weaver's tweet and all the headlines that have come out since it was posted should refer to the Arkansas staffer, not Musselman. There was no need for Weaver to mislead his followers on what the video contained.

So, let's fix the headlines and the writing in that tweet.

Arkansas Staffer Pushes Away College Student's Cell Phone
as Eric Musselman Calmly Walks Away
from Devastating SEC Tournament Loss

But, then again, selling the world what he actually had might not have gotten the likes and retweets this young journalist craved at Musselman's expense.