Musselman May Regret Getting His Wish Granted
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Well, the sun came up today and Arkansas still has a basketball team. Technically.
Usually when a coach departs and people talk about the cupboard being left bare, they mean not a lot of highly talented players were left behind. However, in Eric Musselman's case, it's empty in pretty much a literal sense.
There's not even a handful of players left on the roster. It's Tramon Mark and Trevon Brazile, two players no one knows will for sure come back, and a pair of incoming freshmen. That's it.
While it means there needs to be more urgency in how quickly Hunter Yurachek hires a new coach who can hit the ground running with the transfer portal, it also points out what will be the biggest barrier to success for Musselman at USC. It's much easier to run off most freshmen after a single season if they don't make it immediately to the NBA at a public school than a private school like Southern Cal.
His wipe the slate clean approach even became an issue at Arkansas last year. Not only was it hard to convince enough elite players to come play for him to pack out the roster, but it was difficult to get them eligible at Arkansas.
The pool available to Musselman at USC will be even smaller. The Trojans aren't Vanderbilt when it comes to academic standards for its athletes, but it's definitely a much higher bar than public universities.
A lot of the guys he is going to want aren't going to be an option. It's unlikely USC is willing to pull a few strings and bend rules to get a player in considering the cloud of the high profile admissions scandal the university went through recently.
Musselman is going to have to keep a few players around and develop them which is just not his mode of operation. His biggest personal weakness is the coach version of himself is difficult to be around for long periods of time and he doesn't like to be around others for long periods of time.
Davonte Davis and Kamani Johnson are the only two scholarship players to last more than two seasons under Musselman at Arkansas and no one could say the final two years went smoothly for Davis. USC is going to expect him to bring a solid portion of the roster in as freshmen who will eventually graduate.
That is a recipe for disaster. It's the one aspect that made it uncertain Musselman would get the job despite reportedly landing an interview that would normally make things academic.
The idea of Musselman having to be around six or seven of the same players every year for three to five years is just impossible to picture. He will hate life and those players will be miserable.
Eventually, that door at USC is going to become a flood gate just like it was at Arkansas and that's not going to sit well with administration. There will be grumbles.
It's hard to imagine this experiment lasting more than four seasons. Beyond it being a poor cultural fit, it's going to be hard on Musselman coaching in front of 3,000 uninspired fans and flying to the east coast on the regular.
It's difficult to go from years of 20,000 people losing their minds and minimal travel to empty gyms and 14 hour round trip flights. USC is closer to home, which often carries more weight than anyone could imagine, but every other aspect of what Musselman needs to succeed was much better at Arkansas.
It will be interesting to see how it plays out. It's reasonable to expect Musselman to burn bright in years two and three, but by the fourth season it could start to get messy.
It will certainly be fun if Arkansas and USC meet up in the NCAA Tournament a couple of years from now. Razorbacks fans will enjoy seeing the new coach measure himself against Musselman in his peak production years.
Musselman will be there. It's now up to Yurachek to provide him a dance partner on Arkansas' side.
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KENT SMITH
Kent Smith has been in the world of media and film for nearly 30 years. From Nolan Richardson's final seasons, former Razorback quarterback Clint Stoerner trying to throw to anyone and anything in the blazing heat of Cowboys training camp in Wichita Falls, the first high school and college games after 9/11, to Troy Aikman's retirement and Alex Rodriguez's signing of his quarter billion dollar contract, Smith has been there to report on some of the region's biggest moments.