Minutes have been hard to come by over the past few weeks for Arkansas 7-foot-3 big man Connor Vanover. He played just 22 minutes combined in the four games leading up to Saturday's matchup but head coach Eric Musselman switched things up and played him for 18 against Vanderbilt.

Not only did Vanover play 18 minutes, he also got his 14th start of the season on Saturday. Many questioned the move after it seemed like freshman Jaylin Williams had earned the head hog's favor with talks of a shortened rotation coming after the comeback win versus Auburn.

Williams is averaging three more minutes a game than Vanover in SEC play but has gotten just two starts in the eight SEC games. Against the Tigers, Williams played every minute of the second half and finished with seven points.

On Monday, Musselman explained his rotational choices in Saturday's game and discussed the things he weighs game by game:

"How often are we playing against someone over 7-foot in league play? Not often. So it is going to be dictated a little bit on matchups and it’s going to be dictated on, ‘Are we getting an advantage with Connor on the floor?’ Whether it’s offensively or defensively.

"With Jaylin, he’s one of our most physical defenders and so when we play against physicality, we need him out on the floor. We didn’t feel against a Vandy team, where they had their four and five out on the floor a lot playing at the three-point line, that maybe he had to be in there banging in that particular game.

"And we needed Connor to play extended minutes, because he hadn’t in a while. So it was really important for him to get back out in the flow of things as well."

Musselman often preaches about productivity earning minutes but he's also balancing trying to find ways to get Vanover back to where he was this summer before a flu caused him to drop 15 pounds and miss three weeks of work with the team.

"Connor's done a great job. I feel a little bit bad for him because he had such a great summer and then he had a setback losing weight trying to get back healthy," Musselman said. "I think he's played really well.

"Connor needs to continue at his size to go down on the block and create an advantage at 7-3 with some back to the basket stuff. That's up to him to come to the coaches and ask for post-practice, post-work. We go to him a lot with it. He needs to go down there and utilize his jump hook a little bit and not just float on the perimeter at 7-3 for us. Because he does have a great size advantage and he does have great touch around the rim. I think he lost a little of that when he lost his weight, because it was so significant during this offseason around September."

So far in conference, Vanover is 11-11 from the free throw line, 4-19 from three and 14-40 from the field. His shooting percentage is the worst on the team in the last eight games but perhaps he'll find his rhythm again with more live play.

The Razorbacks host Ole Miss on Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m.

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