Arkansas Hires Nevada's Eric Musselman as Next Head Coach
FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas has found its next basketball coach, as Eric Musselman was announced as the 13th head coach in program history Sunday.
Coming off three straight NCAA Tournament appearances at Nevada, Musselman replaces former head coach Mike Anderson, who was fired March 26 after eight years at the helm.
The 54-year-old has won at least 24 games in each of his four seasons as the Wolf Pack’s head coach, compiling a 110-34 (.764) overall record and capturing three straight regular-season Mountain West Conference titles to end his tenure.
“My family and I couldn’t be more excited to be coming to the University of Arkansas,” Musselman said in a statement. “The opportunity to be a part of the rich tradition of Razorback basketball and to experience the passion of the Razorback fans is something that I am very much looking forward to."
The son of former NBA head coach Bill Musselman, he spent more than two decades at the professional level before moving to the college coaching ranks.
Musselman’s first head coaching experience came in the Continental Basketball Association (CBA) - then the official minor league of the NBA - with the Rapid City Thrillers in 1989-90. The then spent most of the 1990s and early-2000s going back and forth between the CBA and as an assistant coach in the NBA.
"Eric Musselman is a coach that has had experience at every level of basketball from the NCAA to the NBA,” athletics director Hunter Yurachek said in a statement. “He was practically born into the game and his passion for basketball is unmistakable.
"He has been successful throughout his career, including the remarkable job he did in returning the University of Nevada into a perennial NCAA Tournament team. Coach Musselman is high-energy and possesses an extremely high basketball IQ. He has a great attention to detail and has structured his programs to develop players individually while building a successful team."
After stints with the Minnesota Timberwolves, Orlando Magic and Atlanta Hawks, Musselman got his first NBA head coaching job with the Golden State Warriors. He was also an assistant for the Memphis Grizzlies before coaching the Sacramento Kings for one season.
In three seasons as an NBA head coach, Musselman was 108-138 (.439) and failed to make the playoffs. He ended up coaching a pair of NBA D-League teams before moving to the college ranks.
Arizona State was his first college job, as he was an assistant coach under Herb Sendek for two seasons from 2012-14. He was also the associate head coach for Johnny Jones at LSU in 2014-15, when the Tigers reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
That helped him land his first head coaching position in the NCAA at Nevada. He led the Wolf Pack to an 18-12 record in the regular season, doubling the team’s win total from the year before, and they eventually won the 2016 College Basketball Invitational.
Since then, Nevada has gone 28-7, 29-8 and 29-5, winning the MWC’s regular-season title each season. In 2018, the Wolf Pack reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament thanks to a 14-point comeback win over No. 10 seed Texas and a 22-point comeback over No. 2 seed Cincinnati.
With a starting lineup featuring five fifth-year seniors who had transferred in at some point during their careers, Musselman’s squad was ranked seventh in the preseason AP poll and as high as No. 5 at one point early in the year.
However, the Wolf Pack lost three of their final eight games before the NCAA Tournament, including to San Diego State in the MWC Tournament semifinals. That dropped them to a No. 7 seed for the big dance and they were upset by Florida 70-61 in the first round.
Including those five starters, Nevada’s roster featured 10 transfers last season. Among the three scholarship players who signed with the Wolf Pack out of high school was forward Jordan Brown, a McDonald’s All-American and five-star recruit.
At Arkansas, Musselman will be tasked with returning the program to its earlier glory. The Razorbacks have not made it past the second round of the NCAA Tournament since 1996, just two years after they won the national championship.
He is the second head coaching hire Yurachek has made since becoming Arkansas’ athletics director. For his first, he plucked away Courtney Steinbock from his previous school, Houston, to lead the women’s tennis team.
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