Arkansas Fans Witness Era Come to an End
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Arkansas Razorbacks fans just watched the one and only four-year player under Eric Musselman walk away for a third and final time Thursday.
The reality is Davonte Davis will likely be the first and last four-year player for the Hogs as long as Musselman stays in Fayetteville. This isn't exactly a hot take.
Musselman knows it's almost impossible for him to not get worn out on a player for that long. The kind of athlete he might be able to tolerate for that long will have long since left for the NBA way before he became a threat to run out of eligibility.
He also knows it's also difficult for a player to withstand his intensity and coaching style for four years also. Musselman is a forged under fire kind of coach, burning the impurities out of an athlete's game to maximize his potential.
An object can only be in that level of intense heat for so long before things get too hot to properly shape. It simply melts.
It's the same with assistant coaches. Every potential coach profile mentions Musselman's ability to burn through assistants as one of the big cons in regard to hiring him.
A member of a non-SEC athletics administrative staff pulled me aside once when he heard I cover the Razorbacks. All he wanted to talk about was how intense and difficult Musselman is on his coaches and asked if he's the same with the media.
From a media standpoint, he's great. He's open. He's honest to a fault. If he ever ducked a question, I missed it.
However, this administrator talked about an assistant coach he is friends with who supposedly had a chance to work with Musselman but didn't because he's supposedly too rough on them and runs his assistants into the ground. Just like with his players, it takes a certain mentality to be successful with his expectations and work ethic.
However, on the other end, the tremendous growth makes it all worth it. Look at how successful his players have been at getting into NBA line-ups and sticking.
Gus Argenal, who felt like he was an assistant at Arkansas forever, but only managed two years, has Cal-San Bernadino in the Division II Elite 8 with a 27-6 record. This is his second go in CCAA.
The last time he was in the league, Argenal went 35-76 over four seasons. He's almost surpassed that win total already in his lone season at UCSB.
The point is, two years is the optimal time for a player or coach in a Musselman regime. After that, it's time to move on because he expects the people around him to have maxed their potential and there's not a lot of patience for stagnation.
So, soak in the good and the bad of the Davonte Davis experience with emphasis on the positives. That's probably the last time Hog fans will see something like that until Musselman decides he's maxed himself out at Arkansas.
Then he will push himself into the transfer portal because there's no bounds for his lack of toleration for stagnation, even with himself.
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