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FAYETTEVILLE — Preparing for the next game on Arkansas’ schedule has provided a trip down memory lane for Eric Musselman.
No. 9 Tennessee, which hosts the Razorbacks at 6 p.m. CT Wednesday, runs a variation of Bob Kloppenburg’s SOS defense that has helped it post the top scoring defense in the country so far this season.
A longtime NBA assistant in the 1980s and ‘90s, Kloppenburg was actually an assistant for Musselman’s father, Bill, with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 1981-82. Musselman attended his camps and read his book when he was younger, plus also developed a friendship with his son, Gary, who now coaches in the WNBA.
“I went to his camp and I know all about his defense,” Musselman said. “It’s hard to score on. It’s all about disruption. It’s about the offense having to react to the defense instead of the defense being the reactor.”
Needless to say, Musselman is very familiar with the concepts the Volunteers have on defense.
Coming off a game in which it had a season-low seven assists and played - as the players themselves described - selfishly, Arkansas will need to have much better ball movement Wednesday night.
“It’s a defense that’s really hard to score on, so if you think you’re just going to come down and score on the first side against that type of defense, it’s not going to happen,” Musselman said. “The ball’s got to move to the second side, the third side and you’ve got to share the basketball.”
However, Musselman said he doesn’t think his extensive background with the defensive system will be a huge factor. Tennessee doesn’t run the exact same SOS defense as Kloppenburg developed, plus it has great athletes that make it even tougher.
Through eight games, the Volunteers are allowing just 55.0 points per game. That leads the country, but they’re also 10th nationally in field goal defense (37.0 percent), 19th in blocked shots per game (5.2) and 33rd in turnovers forced per game (17.4).
With that stout defense, Tennessee won its first seven games by an average of 27 points, including solid non-conference victories over Colorado and Cincinnati and a 20-point blowout at No. 12 Missouri to open SEC play, before slipping up in an upset loss to Alabama on Saturday.
