The Razorback basketball team began official practice for the 2022-23 season Monday and head coach Eric Musselman is already dealing with issues he isn't used to.
This year's Arkansas team features six freshmen scholarship players — Nick Smith Jr., Anthony Black, Jordan Walsh, Barry Dunning, Joseph Pinion and Derrian Ford. Over his first three seasons as the head coach of the Hogs, Musselman brought in just five true freshmen scholarship players.
Being a former NBA and G League head coach, Musselman is used to dealing with veterans. Even during his time as a college head coach at Nevada and Arkansas, he has been known for bringing in transfers who have been around the college game.
Musselman never had more than five freshmen on a roster during his time at Nevada and the most he's had at Arkansas prior to this year was four scholarship freshman in the 2020-21 season.
This year, he is going to have to rely on the freshmen for success, something that has tested his patience to this point.
"We have a young team, a lot of new guys," Musselman said. "We find ourselves repeating ourselves a lot in practice. We’re not moving ahead maybe at the rate that I want to because of having to repeat things, so we’ve got to move the chains every week little bit further."
The official start to practice means the team can finally go from practicing together for just four hours a week to 20 hours. The expanded time limit will help, but there is still a learning curve.
Not only is Musselman dealing with six freshmen, but he also brought in five new transfers.
A trip overseas that featured four games in Europe over the summer benefited the team, but they are still getting a grasp of things.
"It’s a young team and coach said he’s not used to it, so I know he makes his own adjustments with that," Wichita State transfer Ricky Council IV said. "But at the end of the day we’re just going to have to buy in. He’s used to coaching older guys, so I’ve just got to be mature."
Musselman said he's received help from assistant coach Keith Smart in the patience department. Smart filled in as head coach for Musselman during the game at LSU last year when Musselman had shoulder surgery.
"Keith Smart is probably one of the most patient men that I've ever been around, so he helps a lot," Musselman said.
He went on to say that Smart does a good job of putting things in perspective on a staff text thread.
Outside of work, Musselman's wife, Danyelle, has been doing her part to help him.
"My wife reminds me walking out the door that each day at practice you're going to see some turnovers and to be patient and that the last few years of us doing this our teams have always gotten better and to keep that in mind," Musselman said.
Arkansas' full schedule still has not been released, making it one of 38 Division 1 teams without a schedule out yet.
It was announced today that the team will play a charity exhibition game against Texas at 3 p.m. CT on Oct. 29 in the Longhorns' new Moody Center. The game will be televised on the Longhorn Network.