Richardson Warns Musselman May Face Much Different Problem With So Much Depth

According to former Arkansas coach, talented Razorback roster can come with its own issues if history holds true

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – While it was thought Arkansas coach Eric Musselman had a deep team last season, it never fully made its way onto the court. Between injuries, players needing time to develop and some not being able to live up to expectations, there almost ended up being a depth problem early in the SEC schedule.

However, if health holds up, the Razorbacks appear to have a great deal of veteran depth that only needs polishing rather than full development. While that's a good thing, according to former Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson, it can create an entirely new set of problems given Musselman's history of creating short line-ups come mid-January.

"I don't know if [Musselman] can balance out the playing time," Richardson told 103.7 The Buzz Thursday afternoon. "When you are winning, a lot of teams are good even though the guys might groan and moan a little bit about their playing time, but you are winning, so its quiet. But if you get on a roll where you lose some ball games and you got a kid sitting there than thinks he ought to be in the game in the first place, now you got some problems. You are losing. It's like we won. You lost. It becomes we, me. It can change so quick on you." 

Richardson's solution was simple. He played a lot of players, expecting all out effort every second on the floor. This solved two problems. He was able to keep more players happy and engaged both during the game and practice and it wore down the other team as waves of fresh legs constantly flooded the court.

"That's why I played so many," Richardson said. "The time I had back in the day when we had 15 on scholarship, now that was a madhouse to try to get the kids in. I kinda went on the grounds that we had 12 or 13. I knew I could somehow get them all in the game. But my style of play let me do that. Because we want to play so hard and we wanted to outplay anyone. No one outworks us. In order to get total workmanship from every one of your players that hit that floor, you don't care if they give you one minute or four minutes, but they got to be the hardest minutes they're gonna give. It didn't matter if you are a walk-on or you the No. 1 player, whatever time you are on the floor, you are accountable for it."

While no matter how much fans may want to see the old days of mass substitution where a second group of men anxious to prove themselves worthy of playing time also came in to spell the starters, there are still players under Musselman whom Richardson says can create the kind of tone needed to basically force a need for more of the roster to require playing time.  

"Like Devo," Richardson said. "Devo don't take no plays off. When you are a young man who don't take plays off, you need a rest. You need to get a breather because you are playing with everything you've got all the way through, where some of the players don't play that hard. They play hard on the offensive end, but they may not play as hard on the defensive end."

One way Richardson was able to create depth and flexibility in his line-ups came from his unwillingness to get married to a first team in practice. 

"If your first team, and I never knew about a first team because I mixed them so much, but most teams have a first team and a second team," Richardson said. "Your second team starts getting pretty good because they are playing the first team, but the first team ain't getting any better because they playing the second team. So, I said, 'Hey, I don't know how this is gon' work,' so I've always mixed mine There was no first or second team in practice." 

This forced situations that not only made his starters better, it allowed Richardson to study numerous variables that helped him make quick in-game decisions when it came to substitutions.

"You mix it up because you never know who you gon' get caught with on the floor," Richarson said. "Because some players play real good with certain players on the floor with them. If you take some of those players out that need to glue the team together, you've got problems. 

"That's something that we don't see with the human eye, but I can see the fact, we took him out, this young man is not going to play as well because he doesn't feel as comfortable like he would have someone between, let's say a Lee Mayberry, a Todd Day, a Oliver Miller or somebody that can take up any slack and make you a better player. That's the part, as far as I am concerned with players, making sure they with the right players and hopefully, they will perform a lot better."

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