Eric Musselman Does What Only One Other Coach Has Done for Hogs

Three straight Sweet 16 appearances was only done by Nolan Richardson before now.

Author:
Andy Hodges
Updated:
Mar 18, 2023 11:47 PM EDT
Original:
Mar 18, 2023

In this story:

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Charles Barkley may have said it best right after Arkansas' 72-71 win over Kansas on Saturday.

"Eric Musselman just had a masterpiece," he said on the CBS instant analysis on the postgame.

Yes, Davonte Davis stepped up again in the biggest stage and Ricky Council IV took over at the end, but this team is what Musselman has built.

Don't say you were confident a month ago. Nobody was, not even me, and I kept getting criticized for saying wait and see what Musselman does in the NCAA Tournament.

Musselman gives all the credit to the players, which is what he's going to do.

He's done that for four straight years with the Razorbacks, yet everybody starts losing their minds and jumps off the bandwagon in January. What happens in November-January is doing things none of us realize until March.

The 72-71 win over Kansas gives the Hogs their third straight trip to the Sweet 16 and third straight year to beat a No. 1 seed in the tournament.

That's only been accomplished with the Hogs by Nolan Richardson when he made four straight Sweet 16 appearances in 1993-96 with a national championship mixed in there.

Musselman now has a chance for three straight Elite Eight runs, which no coach has ever done with the Hogs.

Let that sink in for a minute.

"I've been coaching a long time, that's as great of a win as I've ever been a part of," he said Saturday. "Because of the history of Kansas, because of some of the their veteran players that were part of a championship team last year. A lot of people didn't think we were going to win our first-round game."

That's the biggest thing he accomplished. There was a lot of noise a few months ago because so much was expected of this team. For some reason a lot of Hog fans tend to live and die with every basketball possession, much less game, in November.

The griping and whining was loud.

"We told everybody, don't listen to the noise," Musselman said. "Worry about what's going on internally in this locker room and let's just keep getting better."

Beating the defending national champions made it extra special. For historical purposes, it felt a little like beating UCLA in the tournament in 1978's run to the Final Four. At that point, the Bruins had 10 of the last 13 national titles and was the crown jewel of college basketball.

Especially after all the drama with this season and injuries.

"This has been as challenging and up and down season as I've ever been a part of," Musselman said. "For these guys to be rewarded for sticking with it and being able to go to Las Vegas and participate with only 16 teams still standing ... it's really hard to make this tournament.

"It's really hard to win a game in this tournament. It's really hard to beat defending champions, No. 1 seed. We did it, proud of us."

Maybe the best news is this team is still developing.

"We are a team that continues to get better," Musselman said "That just doesn't happen this time of year, but because of all the circumstances that have happened, we're still evolving.

"We're still adding offensive plays, we're still adding defensive coverages. We're an evolving basketball team and I feel fortunate these guys buy into the prep."

That will start tomorrow after the plane gets back in Fayetteville on Saturday night.

Maybe the thing that doesn't get noticed as much with Musselman is how he listens to the players, especially the older guys.

"These guys didn't have hardly any time off between our last game and I didn't want to come shoot today," Musselman said. "Not many teams shot today, they gave up their practice time. So I told them, hey, guys, let's do a walk-through and film and I can walk you through what we need to.

"Ricky and Devo stood up and said no, 'Coach, we want to go to the gym.' I was worried about legs and they said, nope. It wasn't my decision. It was their decision. We used all our allotment time today in shoot-around. That really helped us."

Now he has a bracket that is opening up all sorts of thoughts. The Hogs knocked off the No. 1 seed in Kansas. Facing No. 2 can't happen until the Elite Eight next weekend.

But the way this tournament is going, No. 1 seeds have fallen left and right. It may be possible anything is possible this year.

After all, it's still March Madness.