Musselman relishing high expectations: 'Bring it on'

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Official preseason polls are still a few months out but Arkansas fans have the Hogs dancing already after the news broke Saturday that guard Isaiah Joe will return for his third season on the Hill.

Talks of a conference championship or a Sweet 16 appearance will persist from now until Eric Musselman's team steps on the court, and that's exactly the kind of preseason discussion he wants the Razorbacks in yearly.

"I think that no one’s going to put more expectations on anything than I will internally," Musselman said. "I knew that there would be expectations, and certainly with Isaiah coming back those expectations got even more so. Which is cool, you know. Bring it on."

The Razorbacks haven't been an AP preseason top 25 team since 2007 but they've started cracking analysts' lists already since Joe announced his return. They're ranked No. 24 by Gary Parrish, No. 25 by Jeff Borzello and on the bubble at No. 28 by Jeff Goodman.

Perhaps Arkansas would be ranked even higher already but the Razorbacks' roster has done such a 180 that it's not totally clear what the Hogs' calling card will be or even what the starting lineup may look like with so many new faces.

"Right now, what we are is we’re a team with potential," Musselman said. "There’s a lot of factors like chemistry, accepting roles, sharing the basketball, rotating on defense when you’re supposed to, getting loose balls, playing hard. All those things, I don’t know how they’re going to go, but I knew that if we had a good roster that the expectations at Arkansas, I knew what they were going to be like because we have incredible fans that have got a lot of energy, a lot of enthusiasm and they want to win."

Musselman's year two roster features three new grad transfers, four Rivals150 signees, three sit-one transfers and three returners. Depth is now no issue compared to last season when Arkansas had three players sitting on the bench and an unused scholarship.

"Certainly right now, we have a roster that we feel is deeper, more talented than last year’s roster, and I think the guys that were here last year and are here now would say the same thing."

Musselman said former Razorback Mason Jones concurred with his early assessment after seeing the new squad practice last week. Despite all the new faces, almost every player on the roster is capable of a double-digit scoring night.

Arkansas went 20-12 last season but finished 7-11 in conference play. The SEC is perhaps as strong as it's ever been but expectations for Muss and his Hogs get higher and higher.