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FAYETTEVILLE — Eric Musselman has joked that he wakes up in the middle of the night wondering how Arkansas is going to rebound this season.

Considering the Razorbacks’ lack of size and their traditional struggles in that area, perhaps that was more of a confession by the first-year coach rather than an attempt at humor.

Arkansas has ranked in the bottom half of Division I in rebounding margin for the last decade, bottoming out at 328th out of 351 teams last season. Even with 6-foot-11 Daniel Gafford, it was out-rebounded by an average of 4.6.

That’s a number Musselman is trying to improve, despite Gafford now playing with the Chicago Bulls and his tallest eligible players being Reggie Chaney and Ethan Henderson at 6-foot-8.

“When you look at the rebounding numbers over an extended period of time, rebounding’s got to get better,” Musselman said. “We need to rebound better than that and we don’t have Daniel, so it’s going to have to be collectively.”

The Razorbacks added Jimmy Whitt Jr. - who Musselman considers the best rebounding point guard in the country - and 6-foot-7 forward Jeantal Cylla as graduate transfers this offseason.

With those weapons at his disposal, Musselman said he’s trying to develop a specific plan to rebound this season. He mentioned Thursday that they might shoot for winning the rebound battle at three of the five positions on the floor.

For example, it would be a goal for Whitt and Jalen Harris to get more boards than the opposing team’s point guards. The Razorbacks’ off-guards and small forwards would have a similar goal, and then they would try to hold their own at the 4 and 5.

“We’re still trying to tinker with some different motivations/statistic ways (to improve),” Musselman said. “Those are some of the formulas that we’re trying to come up with from a rebounding standpoint.”

Led by Whitt’s team-high nine rebounds, Arkansas was out-rebounded 42-37 by UALR in Sunday’s exhibition. It will get another test at 7 p.m. Friday when it hosts Southwestern Oklahoma State, a Division II program, for its second and final exhibition of the preseason.

Although his assistants have watched some film of the Bulldogs, Musselman said he hasn’t personally done much scouting.

“I’m more worried about our team, to be honest with you,” Musselman said. “Philosophically, this has probably been the least we’ve ever prepped for a particular team because I think it’s important to continue to work on who we are and try to get ready for these non-conference games.”

Rebounding will certainly be at the forefront of his concerns, but Musselman will also emphasize taking care of the basketball.

As was the case last year, when they ranked 205th with 13.2 per game, the Razorbacks struggled with turnovers against the Trojans. They committed 18, which is not something Musselman isn’t used to. His last three teams at Nevada each ranked 26th, 4th and 11th nationally in turnovers.

The other two areas he hopes to improve in the second exhibition game are intertwined: foul trouble and the second unit’s ineffectiveness.

Three of the Razorbacks’ four main bench players fouled out against the Trojans. Harris and Mason Jones each did so in about 20 minutes, but Chaney picked up four of his fouls in the first half and played less than 15 minutes.

Musselman admitted that their physical practices over the last several months, which didn’t have referees, might have played a role in that, as did the fact that it was the first game of a new season.

“Historically, the first week of the NBA season, there’s a lot of fouls called; first week, two weeks of college basketball, it’s the same thing,” Musselman said. “Then it kind of starts evening out as the players adjust to the refs…because there’s always points of emphasis every year with the referees and that takes a little bit of getting used to with the players.”

Among those players off the bench, Jones probably had the most disappointing performance. Three of his five fouls came on the offensive side of the floor and had made just one of six shots, which including five from three-point range.

Including the Red-White game, Jones is just 3 of 10 shooting, 1 of 7 from beyond the arc and has six turnovers to go along with 10 fouls. After averaging 13.6 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.8 assists last season, the coaching staff has challenged him to play better and it sounds like he’s responded well.

“It’s been his best week, by far, of practice dating back to even when I first got the job,” Musselman said. “This short stretch between Sunday and right now have been his best practices, so hopefully they’ll carry over into the game.”

On a more positive note, Musselman said he was pleased with how well the first unit played.

When the starting five of Whitt, Desi Sills, Isaiah Joe, Cylla and Adrio Bailey were on the floor together, Arkansas outscored UALR 22-3. They were a big key to jumping out to a 19-3 lead and also opening the second half on a 13-0 run.

“Just the first five minutes of the game and the first five minutes of the second half, I thought they were outstanding from a defensive intensity standpoint,” Musselman said. “I just thought that first unit did such an incredible job of clicking on both sides of the ball.”

Defensively, the Razorbacks used multiple coverages against the pick-and-roll throughout the game, Musselman said, in an effort to determine which worked best.

On the other end of the court, Musselman was impressed with how well the unit executed their NBA-type sets, which take 12-15 seconds to develop compared to the 20 seconds of traditional college sets.

He added that of the 18 turnovers, all but four were unforced, so he’s hopeful that was just a product of it being early in the season.

“That was probably the area that our staff was most surprised with,” Musselman said. “With the number of sets, we thought we’d look a little bit sloppier with the ball.”

Unlike the UALR exhibition, which was a charity event to raise money for flood victims in Arkansas, this is a typical exhibition game for the Razorbacks.

That means it is part of the season ticket package, with single-game tickets available for $5 or $15 through the UA. The game will not be televised, streamed online or broadcast on the radio, but HawgBeat will be in attendance and providing update on The Trough.