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FAYETTEVILLE — Eric Musselman has been cleared to rejoin the team and will be on the bench for Arkansas’ SEC opener.
The second-year coach missed last week’s Abilene Christian game and was in a contact tracing-induced seven-day quarantine that ended when he got a negative COVID-19 result back around 8:20 p.m. Monday.
That mean’s he’ll be one the sideline when the Razorbacks face the Tigers at 6 p.m. CT Wednesday for first conference game of the year for both teams. It’ll be televised on ESPN2.
Never one to sugarcoat his feelings, Musselman was clearly excited to be back at the team facilities when he spoke to the media via a Zoom videoconference Tuesday morning and was pretty blunt about his time away.
“The last several days sucked,” Musselman said. “I hated being away from the team.”
Musselman said he worked out in his garage three or four times a day because he had nothing to do. He also took several extra COVID-19 tests before the Tuesday test required to clear him, just to make sure his wife and daughter were fine, and each of them came back negative.
Missing only a week was made possible an update to the SEC guidelines earlier this month in response to updated guidelines from the CDC and it couldn’t have come at a better time for the Razorbacks.
Thanks to a scheduled road game at Tulsa being canceled because of COVID-19, Wednesday’s matchup will be the first time Arkansas has played away from the friendly confines of Bud Walton Arena.
With reduced capacity because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Auburn Arena will have only about 1,800 fans in attendance. It will be the smallest official crowd to see Arkansas play a regular-season SEC game, according to HogStats.com, but Musselman still expects there to be a home court advantage.
“We know how good they are in their own building,” Musselman said. “I know it’s a different year, but there’s still comfort in your own building. They don’t lose many games at home, so obviously it’s a tough challenge.”
It will also be the Razorbacks’ first game against a power conference opponent this season. A Big 12/SEC Challenge matchup with Oklahoma State looms late next month, but so far they’ve built their 8-0 record against a non-conference slate with a strength of schedule that ranks 297th out of the 335 Division I teams that have played so far, according to KenPom.
With such a new team, only Desi Sills and Ethan Henderson have played in an SEC game, but the players seem to be ready for the next step of the season.
“I don't think anybody is nervous,” Sills said. “I feel like everybody is antsy, everybody's excited, everybody's ready to see what the SEC is about and show what Arkansas can really do.”
Musselman’s message leading up to Wednesday has been about not having any “empty minutes” in conference play. After winning their first eight games by an average of 28.4 points, things won’t be as easy for the Razorbacks moving forward.
“I remember being a freshman at the University of San Diego…and our coach talked about conference play and how hard it was going to be and how every game was going to be close,” Musselman said. “Everybody’s having these same discussions with their team to try to get everybody to understand the importance of every possession, because really that’s what time frame we’re in right now.”
Arkansas will get its first taste of that at Auburn, which is 6-2 with losses to No. 1 Gonzaga and UCF and a win over Memphis.
The Tigers are 65th on KenPom, with offensive and defensive efficiencies each ranking in the top 70 nationally, and have taken on the personality of a typical Bruce Pearl coached team - despite the bulk of the team being freshmen and sophomores.
“They play really hard,” Musselman said. “They’re a very good offensive rebounding team. They’re really, really active on the glass. They’re a great loose ball-getting team.”
Defending the three-point line will important for both teams Wednesday. Arkansas comes into the game making 10 deep balls per game on 34.9 percent shooting, while Auburn makes 9.6 on 32.5 percent shooting.
Although the Tigers’ efficiency doesn’t jump off the page, Musselman said they have several “streaky” shooters capable of getting hot at any point, but that may not be the most concerning aspect of their offense.
“I think what makes Auburn challenging is a lot of those guys are really good with the ball in their hands off the bounce,” Musselman said. “So you've got to take away the three, but also understand you have to guard off the bounce, as well. Sometimes, strictly a three-point shooter is a little easier to guard than a guy who can score in several different ways."
One of those players is sophomore Allen Flanigan, an Arkansas native who played high school ball at Little Rock Parkview. He is Auburn’s second leading scorer at 13.8 points per game - just behind Justin Powell’s 13.9 ppg - while shooting 51.4 percent from the floor, including 39.0 percent on 41 three-point attempts.
Musselman said he felt like the 6-foot-6 guard was a solid piece for the Tigers last year, when he averaged 3.2 points in 13.8 minutes, but now he’s been given more freedom and more opportunity, as he’s started all games and averaging 28.5 minutes.
Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said Flanigan backed up Isaac Okoro, the fifth overall pick in this year’s NBA Draft, last season, but really benefited from facing him in practice and even throughout the offseason.
“Throughout the COVID spring, he was in the gym constantly, getting his individual workouts,” Pearl said. “Obviously physically, he’s gotten an SEC body, so his elevated play from a year ago to this year has been a big part of the reason why we’ve been competitive so far.”
Perhaps no one at Arkansas is more familiar with his game than Sills, who played in the same AAU organization - the Arkansas Hawks - as Flanigan, granted in an age group above him. They also played against each other when Sills was at Jonesboro and Flanigan was at Little Rock Parkview.
“I feel like he's been more consistent than he was last year,” Sills said. “He's elevated his game. I guess he's been working hard this summer, and you can tell by his work ethic and it's showing this season.”
As for the Razorbacks, Musselman said he is looking for everyone on the team to elevate certain aspects of their game as they enter SEC play.
He gave examples like Jalen Tate cutting down on turnovers and Justin Smith being as effective on the defensive glass as he is on the offensive boards, but said he could go down the entire roster with similar areas of focus.
“We’ve given all of our guys little notes on their cum(ulative) stats thus far, highlighted them with detail on areas they can improve and get better at and areas that the team needs them to do,” Musselman said. “We need everybody to just get a little bit better than maybe what we’ve been through non-conference play.”
While he and his coaching staff gave the players suggestions, it was Musselman’s wife, Danyelle, who gave the Razorbacks’ head coach some advice as he comes out of quarantine. She told him to “control my emotions to the best of my ability.”
"She just knows that I have 40 minutes put in storage,” Musselman said. “She doesn't want me to try to use 80 minutes worth of energy, because I missed the last game, in 40 minutes."
