Eric Musselman: All Those Preseason Rankings Mean Nothing

Oklahoma's Porter Moser has Sooners ranked now after being dismissed earlier in year

Author:
Andy Hodges
Updated:
Dec 7, 2023 8:42 AM EST
Original:
Dec 6, 2023

In this story:

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — You may look at all those NET and polls every week for the rankings, but Arkansas Razorbacks coach Eric Musselman doesn't care. He's not impressed, but he will say all the politically correct things when his team is in them.

"You guys don't want my reaction," he said Wednesday afternoon before practice.

In case you're wondering that's not just coach-speak. He probably doesn't care.

"It's way too early, it's irrelevant," Musselman said. "We have a whole SEC schedule that is going to determine a lot for us just as anyone we play. We have a game Saturday. That's really all we should focus on. People start talking about March Madness and it's Dec. 6 or something like that. There's a lot of stuff that's going to happen. It gives you guys something to talk about and gives something for me to be in a bad mood about."

He's right. Too many folks have paralysis by analysis over all that stuff and the rankings never have really mattered except to give fans something to jump up and down about. They play tournaments at the end of the year and those matter. What a bunch of media folks think in December doesn't.

Razorbacks coach Eric Musselman against Furman on Monday night

The Razorbacks will face No. 19/22 Oklahoma at the BOK Center in Tulsa., Okla., on Saturday. It will be the last year for them to face the Sooners on a neutral floor with OU coming into the SEC next year. Musselman has no clue if they will be back in Tulsa to play somebody (they have played Oklahoma State there in the past).

"I don’t know what team that would be," he said. "A lot of people say they’d like to play you, but then when you try to present dates, all of a sudden it doesn’t really work out. This series was started because of a relationship between Lon Kruger and myself because I had worked for Coach Kruger. I have incredible respect for Porter Moser, but we weren’t really sure it would continue. Administration took over at that point. The agreement that [he and Kruger] had, obviously the administration liked this game and that’s why it’s being played."

He's also not wasting his time talking about the Sooners coming into the league next year or spending any time dwelling on it. It's a big enough challenge, considering the way the Hogs have played up and down all through these early games.

Oklahoma coach Porter Moser — Oklahoma Sooners coach Porter Moser reacts during a win over Providence on Monday night.
(Alonzo Adams / USA TODAY Sports)

"Look, they’re a really well-coached team," Musselman said. "It’s great they’re coming into the league [because of] proximity. All those things make a lot of sense, but I’m not looking at Saturday’s game — not for one second — and saying, ‘Oh, wow, they’re coming into the SEC next year. How are we going to play this game?’ I don’t really care that they’re coming in at all."

Which, really, is good. He's got enough problem getting this team ready for whatever they can accomplish in March, not for Christmas. The game Saturday will be on ESPN2 and fuboTV.