Pushups and huddles creating unity among Arkansas basketball team
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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Razorback head coach Eric Musselman continues to develop new ideas to bring his team closer together.
During his time at Arkansas, Musselman has started with teams that don't really know each other well. With just two returning players who saw regular action last year, this season's team incorporates the most new faces of a Musselman squad in Fayetteville to this point.
During Arkansas' team practices, the squad goes around shooting free throws and every time they miss consecutive shots, everybody on the court does 10 pushups. Not just players, but the coaches and the staff too.
"My dad would do it so I guess I took it from him. It was either planks or pushups or sit-ups," Musselman said. "My dad's thing was the minute you can't demonstrate, get out of coaching. I'm not sure everyone buys into that, but that's the roof that I grew up under. So, if our players are going to do pushups, I should probably be able to."
During Wednesday's open practice, the team did around 90-100 pushups.
Musselman had surgery to repair a full tear of the supraspinatus tendon and partial tears to the infraspinatus and subscapularis tendons in his left shoulder last season. He said he was a little worried about re-injuring himself with the amount of pushups he did.
"I was a little worried," Musselman said. "That was a few extra pushups than normal, and I was worried about my workman's comp in my left shoulder and whether that rotator cuff was going to pop back out or not."
Along with the pushups, the team gets together for football-like huddles before going into a new drill. They talk through the game plan and then break, just as an offense does in football.
Musselman said he spent time at a retreat with the NFL's Carolina Panthers and he admired the togetherness of a football team.
"I sat in (on meetings) and took some things away and one of them was the togetherness of a football team, especially in their individual breakout rooms," Musselman said. "Just felt like that was something new that we wanted to add that we've never done. Because we all know in a game some guy might not be happy with his role or shots or whatever. I thought the huddle, ready, break kind of adds a level of togetherness that you don't splinter."
He said he plans on having the team do the huddle and break during games this season. Musselman has yet to come up with a punishment for if a player strays away or refuses to do it.
Based on the way players spoke after Musselman, it seems like they are all on board. Freshman forward Jordan Walsh spoke highly of the way Musselman runs his team.
"I feel like simple things like (pushups) show the unity of not just the players, but the programs as a whole," Walsh said. "With the coaches doing it on the court, in the middle of the court. And also the staff on the sidelines and in the middle of the court. Everybody doing one thing as a moving unit is something that’s going to help us have a little bit of an advantage over a great team in March, because Elite Eight’s are cool, but we are trying to get to that Final Four and championship."
The new squad is filled with highly-touted freshman — including three McDonald's All-Americans in Walsh, Nick Smith Jr. and Anthony Black — along with a strong group of transfers. Despite the amount of talent, they seem to all have the same goal: win games.
Being connected as a team is key to success, and a trip to Europe can be a great bonding experience. The squad will hit the road for Spain and Italy next week to play four games again international squads.
In the past, Musselman's squads have taken a bit to connect well. It seems like he is trying to get ahead of the curve this season.
"Connection and teamwork all leads into March, and that’s where we are trying to get to, to that Final Four," freshman Barry Dunning said. "I feel like this trip is going to be for the betterment of the team and where we are trying to get to."
Whether or not pushups and huddles will help with connecting, a trip to Europe should. At the very least, the team will be a bit stronger from the pushups.
"With a lot of pushups, we’re going to be really strong, I can tell you that," Dunning said.