By Otis Kirk

FAYETTEVILLE -- The 2023 NBA Draft saw three Razorbacks picked and one more ink a two-way contract soon afterward, but Eric Musselman recorded a win as well when guard Davonte "Devo" Davis opted to play another season at Arkansas.

Davis had put his name into the draft, but didn't hire an agent thus giving him the right to come back to Arkansas. That is something he chose to do and that was huge news for Musselman and his 2023-24 team. Musselman shared some of the feedback they got on Davis.

"I think it’s really important for us that we, even our guys that leave, we called at least two people from every organization that a player works out with and then if our guys don’t work out with somebody, it’s certainly important for us to take notes and develop a little book for our guys," Musselman said. "Devo’s situation, I think he’s trending in the right direction. You look at his 3-point shooting last year, his percentage, he’s made drastic, drastic improvements from 3. Came in as an elite dribble-driver and has now evolved into one of the best 3-point percentage shooters and volume 3-point shooters in our league. So I think there’s been incredible growth with Devo in an area that is important for him at the next level."

Davis played in 35 games last season starting 31 of them. He averaged 10.9 points, 4.4 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.4 steals each outing. He shot 41.5% from the field, 71.9 from the free throw line and 34.6 from deep.

"I think everybody understands that Davonte’s as good of a defender as there is in college basketball, rebounds his position, has got great versatility, has played anywhere from the 1 to the 4 for us," Musselman said. "So certainly I think that area of 3-point shooting, he addressed it last year and now the key will be to have consistency and try to improve on some really, really good numbers from 3 that he had last year."

Musselman laughed when asked why Davis' 3-point shooting percentage went up in SEC play while the others all saw their percentage go down.

"Age," Musselman said. "I mean, for freshmen, in the NBA some guys hit a little bit of a wall. When you get into conference play, you’re playing against longer guys, more athletic guys. The season’s a little bit longer than normal, the grind’s a little bit longer than normal. 

"I think that Devo’s got a veteran mentality where he kind of paced himself in the right way very similar to the way we want to try to pace a team, that you’re hitting your stride towards March. The way that he played in conference shooting the ball and the way that he played in the NCAA Tournament, especially against Kansas, is the way that you want to play as an individual and also as a team. He’s a guy that can kind of create his own three off the bounce and I think that really helped him, as well, elevate his 3-point percentage as league play happened."

Musselman is impressed with what Davis and the remainder of the team is doing in the summer workouts. 

"I can tell you conditioning-wise, best team I've had in eight years of coaching college basketball," Musselman said. "Now again, we do the mile times for a reason. One, to find out where we are with conditioning. It's a mental toughness test as well. Everybody passed within the first or second run. That has not been the case in the past. We got one player that still has to pass, but he's had a slight groin/hamstring thing, and we don't want to rush that. I've never had a team do it in two tries and every single guy pass. Great from a conditioning standpoint. 

"We've added a tremendous amount of things from an offensive standpoint. We're running some of the things that the Milwaukee Bucks ran two years ago, their five-out spread offense. We're a veteran team that has a very mature approach to practice and the individual skill work. I have no idea how the season is going to unfold, but it's a group that is very mature and really comes in with a mindset to try to get better. We've had great practices, we really have. And they've had great skill work, as well."

The Razorbacks finished 22-14 last season and advanced to the Sweet 16 where they fell to eventual national champion UConn.