Ellis May Have Gotten Start Because He Expected It

Trying to shake things up, Musselman went with guy that basically took it in practice

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — It was a little surprising to see El Ellis with the starting group with Arkansas against Texas A&M on Tuesday night. For a guy that had bounced all over the lineup, he kinda just nominated himself in practice. That got coach Eric Musselman's attention.

"Whenever we practiced the other day," Musselman said after a 78-77 win over the Aggies. "To be honest with you, he jumped out there with the first unit. I was putting in a play. Didn’t call out five guys and he jumped out there."

For a team desperately in need of some guys that wanted to step up, it gave Musselman some confidence. He was planning to start Ellis anyway (at least that's what he said Tuesday night) but that move gave him a big confidence boost heading into a game they had to win after opening SEC play with three straight losses.

WATCH: Mark, Ellis on Last-Second Shot to Down A&M

"When he did that, kind of showed the whole staff he wanted to be in that first group," Musselman said. I didn’t call a first five on purpose. I wanted to see who the first five were eager to get out there as we were adding something. We need him to play well."

Ellis responded with 15 points. He wasn't particularly hot shooting, hitting just 3-of-11, but there are other ways that appears to make a bigger impression on Musselman. Ellis was 8-of-8 on free throws and got 6 rebounds and a couple of assists.

"That’s a career-high," Musselman said of Ellis' rebounds. "He played a lot of minutes last year. You look at those minutes every night. For him to rebound the ball like he did, phenomenal. Our bench has to rebound, flat-out. This plus-minus thing is important to me and to our staff. We got to get better in the plus-minus area from an individual standpoint. Some of our guys, that’s got to happen for us."

Arkansas Razorbacks guard El Ellis put himself in starting lineup against Texas A&M had night that impressed coach Eric Musselman on Tuesday night at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville, Ark :: Craven Whitlow / allHOGS Images

If you're wondering what that whole plus-minus thing is it's really pretty simple. Players on the floor in a 10-2 spread are +8. If you're on the downside of the same number it's -8. It's a big deal to this staff. That's what they use to determine what groups work well together and the ones that don't. Musselman won't be spending an awful lot of time celebrating, though.

"Confidence-wise we needed it for sure," he said. "It’s one game, it’s over. Up there is South Carolina’s depth chart right now. I can’t wait to get home and start digging into South Carolina. They’ve had an incredible season so far. I think even myself, you win a game it puts some extra juice in you, you know. It’s on to South Carolina and we’ll see what happens on Saturday."

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