Newly extended and sufficiently paid, Eric Musselman made a new hire this week, bringing on his former assistant Gus Argenal to replace departed assistant Corey Williams. Williams took the same position at Texas Tech, not a promotion, leading some Arkansas fans to wonder why the Head Hog wouldn't (or couldn't) keep his staff intact after an uber-successful season that culminated in an Elite 8 appearance.
A look back at Musselman's history as a head coach so far shows that staff turnover is just part of his M.O. Keeping up with his intensity for long periods of time could cause even the best coach to burn out. And yet, even as this part of his reputation grows, coaches still line up to work with him.
Despite frequent staff turnover, Musselman's hiring of Argenal shows that it's not all scorched earth with his assistants. His former assistant didn't come with him to Arkansas on his original staff because Argenal was interviewing to take the head job at Nevada and Iowa State at the time but, after his assistant coaching stint at Cal State-Fullerton, he's back to work for the man some might label functionally insane.
A more important point, none of the staff turnover has kept him from winning basketball games and exceeding expectations. Musselman doesn't seem to mind a clean slate and anyone who's spent any time around him knows he's always looking for even the smallest way to improve–just look at all his transfer portal moves.
Here's a look at all of Musselman's coaching staffs since 2015:
2015-2016
Eric Musselman began his DI head coaching career at Nevada with Jermaine Kimbrough, Jay Morris and Doug Stewart as his assistants. After going 24-14 and winning the CBI, all three assistants left and were replaced.
Kimbrough took a job at Wyoming where he stayed for three seasons before going to Loyola-Chicago. He was announced as an assistant at Arizona State just five days ago.
Morris took a non-coaching position at San Diego State before being promoted to assistant coach. He then moved to San Jose State, and subsequently returned to SDSU.
Stewart left Nevada and was named associate head coach at Tulane.
