How can you assess Eric Musselman's short tenure at Arkansas?
Breaking: Former Razorbacks head coach leaves for USC, and I'm processing the decision
Getting on board with Eric Musselman at Arkansas has been a Sisyphean task. I force the boulder up the hill before stumbling and rolling back down to my starting point in the valley. Repeat ad infitium. I never reached Mount Musselman's top—that peaceful prairie where he is, at worst, the next Eddie Sutton and, at best, the next Nolan Richardson. Some fans bought property there moment one.
Shirtless and jubilant, Musselman is a fan favorite, a 21st-century recruiting whiz, a master of the transfer portal, and a son of the game. Stubborn and stale, Musselman is also a corporate Schill, schematically limited, and a crybaby when things aren’t going well. All these things are true.
Complicated as he may be, there is no denying that he had the best three-year run in decades at Arkansas. However you feel about him leaving—whatever descriptors from above best suit him in your eyes—you are justified.
If Mike Anderson had to be replaced, I wanted Musselman
Whoever followed Anderson would immediately start with a bigger boulder to push. I am a serious fan of Anderson because he was such a committed Hog. He bled Razorback red. I felt he deserved at least one more year based on the number of players from his young core returning (71.4% of minutes played and 68.8% of his scoring came back the following season, per Basketball Reference).
Still, once that decision was made, I pushed hard for Musselman to be the next Head Hog because he checked so many boxes. He had previous NBA and SEC experience. He won over 76 percent of his games as head coach at Nevada and led the Wolfpack to a Sweet 16. It doesn’t matter what level you are coaching. Winning over 3/4 of your games is impressive. Additionally, he recruited well in Reno and put guys in the NBA. That’s a strong resume.
His resume was also clean as hospital linens. Musselman came to Fayetteville with much less baggage than some of the other names being floated at the time. I argued against candidates like Kelvin Sampson (which I was wrong about) because he was too old and too NCAA-infraction prone or Richard Pitino (I was right) because he had never really shown an ability to win at the major level. Musselman was the smart choice.
On a personal level, you’ll never hear me say anything negative about Musselman the man. He is a genuinely good guy, and he even gave me a quote for an article I wrote about New York Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau. He didn’t need to respond to that request, but he did, and lots of Razorback fans can share similar positive experiences they have had with him. Those human interactions matter in an increasingly corporate college athletics landscape.
This boulder moves pretty easily up the hill.
Musselman’s first year at Arkansas
Once Musselman arrived in Fayetteville and began his duties as head coach, some of his actions began to irk me on and off the court. Whether during a game or during a press conference, it just seemed to always be about him.
We learned early on that he has many connections in the coaching world across different sports at various levels. We were given another photo daily of him living his best life at stadiums and ballparks, rocking every team’s gear under the sun.
It wasn’t just different teams, though. It was every product you can imagine. Reese’s Cup t-shirts. Hellman’s mayo hats. Dunkaroo’s boxer shorts. None of it had to do with basketball. His primary focus seemed to be building the Musselman brand. Any positive outcome for Arkansas Razorbacks basketball was a secondary byproduct.
Recruiting photos on social media was a similar idea. The staged photo shoots he would do with players were a genius recruiting tool, but he was also in every one of them. Build the Musselman brand first and Arkansas second.
The on-court product wasn’t much better early on. Musselman fielded a strong defensive team in the first year, finishing with a 20-12 (7-11) record when the COVID-19 cancellation ended the season before the SEC tournament had completed. It was pretty clear, though, that a miracle SEC tournament run was critical for any shot at making The Big Dance.
The boulder gets the best of me and rolls back down to the flatlands.
Musselman found success at Arkansas
Over the next two seasons, that boulder felt like a paperweight. I tossed it up into the air and caught it in my palm. I skipped up the hill, stopping for picnic lunches of finger sandwiches and wine. I picked petunias and composed poems in my head for my sweetheart.
Going 53-16 (26-9) with two trips to the Elite Eight will do that for you.
Musselman had restored the Arkansas program of my youth. All his sideshow antics with the sponsored gear that he struggled to keep on no longer mattered. Winning cures all ills, and he won at a pretty elite level.
The Arkansas fanbase was beside themselves. Musselman was the best coach since Richardson. Some argued he could eventually be better than the cowboy boot-clad high water mark whose name graces The Palace floor.
Musselman’s final two seasons at Arkansas
Make no mistake about it. While I never made it to the top of the hill, I would never argue that Musselman should be fired. Even after the rough final two seasons.
Yes, he did get another Sweet 16 birth last year with a surprising upset over Kansas in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. He also went just 38-31 (14-22) in the final two years of his Arkansas tenure despite having three players drafted to the NBA in one season and a preseason top-15 roster in the other.
The fantastic defense that had been a staple of Musselman’s Razorback teams dropped from 10th and 11th the two Elite Eight years to 17th and 136th his final two seasons. The offense, which was never great, also cratered, ranking 106th during 2023-2024. His offense felt especially stale without an elite isolation scorer or high-level facilitator.
Everything about the program’s culture seemed to evaporate in direct conjunction with the wins drying up. Gone were the days of viral snipets of his locker room pre-game speeches. Gone were the in-game puff pieces about his in-depth scouting approach. Gone were the shirtless celebrations. Press conferences became snippy. Rumors abounded. Players missed games because of their grades.
If you only have a culture when you’re winning, then you never really had that culture in the first place. And that’s where I’m at, ultimately. That’s why the boulder has come crashing down the hill again for the final time.
Musselman’s tenure at Arkansas is a mini-golf course. They are an absolute blast. I’ve never not enjoyed myself at one. There are bells and whistles and colored water and colorful balls, but it’s all so phony. The windmill is one-dimensional and the back wasn’t even painted. The blue water is dirty. The greens are scuffed and you’re stuck behind a kid who can’t finish the hole.
Hunter Yurachek now has a pretty important job ahead of him. He has to find a coach who can sustainably capture the highs of the Musselman era—which is absolutely where Arkansas Basketball belongs—in this new era of college basketball. That will be difficult, but it can happen.
He must find the coach who will inspire me to push the boulder all the way up the hill.