Arkansas closed out its 2022 recruiting class with a commitment from five-star McDonald’s All-American Anthony Black.
For the longest time it seemed like the Duncanville, Texas, native was a long-shot for the Razorback staff, but head coach Eric Musselman added further proof that he’s one of the best recruiters in college basketball.
Musselman didn’t hide the fact that landing Black involved heavy competition from other schools like Gonzaga, but he said the process itself was easy.
“The whole recruiting process with him and his mom and Coach Peavy and his brother, it was about as easy as (any player I’ve recruited)," Musselman said on Sept. 26. "When I say easy, not that it wasn’t extremely competitive with other programs, but easy in the fact that it’s really fun and easy to recruit someone who you enjoy being around their inner circle and their family, and certainly we felt that way from the beginning dealing with Anthony and his family.”
Black having an inner circle that’s such a joy to be around definitely plays a major part in his own personality and interactions with others, but his style of play excites his teammates, as well.
“I would say on the court, it’s crazy playing with a guy of that length — he’s 6-7, 6-8, whatever you want to call him — he plays guard, he plays point guard, so that’s just crazy to have someone out there like that, that catches lobs on the backside, like a wing," Missouri transfer Trevon Brazile said. "It’s just crazy to play with somebody that versatile on the court. Then off the court, great personality. I got really close with him on the foreign tour. Just a great kid, great personality.”
Musselman echoed Brazile's compliments of Black's personality.
“He’s an awesome young man. I think everybody in the program, the way that he respects everyone, the way he treats everyone, he’s got a great demeanor about himself," Musselman said. "You can often sit back and watch how a player treats a graduate assistant, an assistant coach, a trainer, a strength coach, an equipment manager, an assistant equipment manager, an assistant trainer, he’s just got a great disposition about himself.”
While having such great relationships with everyone on staff isn’t a bad thing, it can have some minor consequences, such as a coaching staff not pushing a player as hard as they could.
“We as a coaching staff probably need to be even harder on him,” Musselman said. “Sometimes he’s so likable that it’s a little more problematic to get on him when he might need us to based on just … he’s an easy guy to be around.”
Black is not only an easy guy to be around and a high-level basketball player, but he’s also savvy as a world traveler.
During the European tour, he managed to help some teammates make it through airport security.
“It was actually me, the (Mitchell) twins, Devo (Davis) and I don’t remember who else was there, maybe Jalen (Graham)," Wichita State transfer Ricky Council said. "(Black) is from Germany, that’s what he told us, and I know he’s been overseas a couple times, so he just knew what to do. We were all confused, but he knew what to do and he got us where we needed to go.”
The Razorbacks will have their annual Red-White Scrimmage on Sunday, Oct. 16, at Barnhill Arena before they travel to Austin, Texas, for a charity exhibition with Texas at 3 p.m. CT on Saturday, Oct. 29.
