FAYETTEVILLE -- After a successful pair of exhibition games the Razorbacks open the regular season on Monday night in Bud Walton Arena hosting Alcorn State.
Eric Musselman saw his team defeat UT Tyler 92-39 and Purdue 81-77 in overtime during the preseason. The win over No. 3 Purdue was particularly impressive. But now Musselman has turned his attention to Alcorn State.
"Yeah, when you look at Alcorn State, two-time SWAC champs," Musselman said. "They have a returning point guard in No. 2 (Byron) Joshua - great quickness with the ball, high steal player, ability to make three-point shots. And then they have some really good shooters. No. 10 (Jeremiah) Gambrell took 10 threes in their exhibition game the other day. (Roderick) Jones, No. 4, and (Jalen) Hawkins, No. 3, those guys can shoot the ball.
"(Dekedran) Thorn is a returner who did not play in their exhibition game the other day, No. 12, who is one of the SWAC's best three-point shooters. They have some experience and some new players, as well. They're well-coached. They play at a certain pace. They try to dictate the tempo of the game, as well."
Alcorn State obviously doesn't have the size of Purdue. Will Musselman play some small ball on Monday?
"It's going to dictate in the flow of the game," Musselman said. "Going into the Purdue game we felt we were going to have to play a big lineup. Sure enough when there was a timeout and we were getting ready to diagram plays and TB (Trevon Brazile) was at the 3-spot. We really had not practiced skeleton, dry run, whatever you want to call it with him at the 3-spot. We were able to experiment with a really big lineup having two bigs and Brazile in at the 3. Certainly, you want to try and explore different lineups as you get opportunities in certain games.
"I don't know how... Alcorn State is a really good rebounding team. Sometimes 6-7, 6-8 guys can out-rebound 6-9, 6-10 guys off quickness, off reaction, off being scrappy. One of our concerns and areas of emphasis going into the Alcorn State game for sure is rebounding the basketball. Especially rebounding the ball defensively. That's a part of our emphasis because they do have guys that pound the offensive glass."
Musselman talked about how the team has handled coming off the overtime win over Purdue last Saturday.
"You certainly hope that you have great team-wide maturity, but we need to have better practices the rest of the week than maybe what we had Monday and Tuesday after being off on Sunday," Musselman said. "You never know until you play your next game, but certainly it was an emotional feel that's not like many exhibition games. That game is over, it doesn't count, you have to look straight ahead. You can't look backwards. We're going through some guys having colds and some sickness and minor injuries just based on a physical game we played. We want to try to get healthy too before Monday as well."
Musselman has recruited a deep team and dividing minutes, while tough, in some ways is a good issue to have.
"Even last year we were trying to figure out, I use the example all the time, that’s why a guy like Trey Wade went from having a big role to mid-point in the SEC calendar to playing a lot," Musselman said. "As a player, regardless of who it is, it’s like how do I get better every day? How do I have a great practice? That’s what you do as a player. How do I make sure that my game preparation, when we quiz our guys in film, that I’m answering…that I know the game plan. What we need to do as well. There’s a bunch of stuff that goes into how we have to divvy up minutes and roles and stuff."
Two big-time freshman guard Layden Blocker and center Baye Fall may struggle to get minutes. Blocker scored six points in just under eight minutes against Purdue while Fall never got into the game.
"Yeah, I think that there's always an adjustment for freshmen across the country, especially in our league, just like there's an adjustment in the NBA," Musselman said. "You look at some NBA rookies, and they're playing a lot. And then you look at some other NBA rookies, and they're not playing a lot. You look at some NBA rookies, and they're assigned to G-League teams, and other NBA rookies are learning by sitting on the bench and watching, getting better during practice and growing.
"So, I think every player is on his own timeline, and every organization in the NBA is on their own timeline, and just like every college program, there's a different timeline. The one thing with both of our freshmen and all six of our freshmen last year, that whole group of guys have been incredible workers. Baye and Layden have great competitive nature and really, really work on their craft. They work in the weight room, so they're going to keep getting better as the season progresses."
Jalen Graham has been out since the Red-White game. Musselman provided an injury update on him.
"Jalen is moving around much better," Musselman said. "His chances of playing are trending in the right direction where he will be, again back spasms can change at any moment, but right now we are expecting Jalen to be in uniform on Monday. That’s the plan right now from a training perspective, strength coach perspective, doctor perspective and player perspective that he will be able to be in uniform Monday."
The tip is set for 7 p.m. Monday night. The game will stream on the SEC Network+.
Photos Courtesy of Craven Whitlow CW3 Sports Action
