Razorbacks' Musselman Changing Just About Everything Now

Fans not as baffled by problems more than coach, who is making practices tougher

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — It probably shouldn't have been surprising earlier this week with Eric Musselman increasing the intensity of practices. Arkansas is now working out against other scholarship players, which doesn't happen.

"We had five players on the scout team," he said. "That’s not been the case in the four years that I’ve been here. We’ve always used managers or graduate assistants. But today they had to guard five scholarship players. That’s a different look. We’ll see what happens."

So, instead of practicing against managers or graduate assistants, the Razorbacks have been going up against El Ellis, Joseph Pinion, Jeremiah Davenport and Baye Fall. We could probably put Denijay Harris into that equation, too, but he hasn't seen a lot of playing time. That's an indicator the problems this team has are hard to figure out for even the coaches.

WATCH: Eric Musselman On the State of the Team After Auburn Loss

"I try to shoot straight with you guys on everything and try to not have any gray area and to let you know exactly how I feel, whether it’s agreed upon or not," he said. "This team continues to practice really well. Today it was a great practice and the game on Saturday was a really poor performance."

All of that is probably true. Basketball coaches tend to not put as much spin control on things as in some other sports. A lot of coaches in other sports tend to talk in gigantic circles and end up saying absolutely nothing at all of substance. Except with they say they don't know, which is another problem.

Don't get me wrong. Sometimes it's the players, who need to take accountability when things go sideways. You honestly think Musselman or his staff TRY to get players to miss shots or go half-hearted on defense? If there isn't some accountability from the guys messing up, no coaching in the world is going to get it out of them. You wonder if they put all their effort into practice and forget the games, where the scores count. They keep practicing well.

"If it was bad I would be the first to tell you guys that it was bad," Musselman said. "Matter of fact, sometimes I wish I could get on here and tell you guys we did have some bad practices because really practice doesn’t matter. What matters is the game. That’s what coaching staffs are paid for. That’s what players want to do is they want to play in the game. We’ve got to carry over from the practice floor to a game."

That's what he wants to believe. There are times, though, it simply doesn't come together. Call it team chemistry or whatever you want. It's hard to believe any player would want to go out in front of 20,000 people and wallow around for 40 minutes.

At some point, though, some people are going to ask those questions. Everybody with Razorbacks basketball these days seems to not have any answers. When we keep finding out the obvious doesn't seem to be the issue, then we have to wonder if it's something nobody believes is possible.

"We’re not going to just do the same thing over and over," Musselman said. "We’re not going to stop tinkering and try to get better. There’s a lot of former players that have been texting in the last 24-48 hours that have said, ‘Hey coach, been there. Figure it out.’ That’s what we’re trying to do."

The Hogs start a two-game road stretch Wednesday night against the Georgia Bulldogs in a late game, starting at 8 p.m. The game will be televised on ESPNU and fuboTV. If that channel is not on your cable or television provider, you can watch on ESPN+.

HOGS FEED:

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WHO ALL IS GOING TO START FOR THE RAZORBACKS NEXT FOOTBALL SEASON?

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