FAYETTEVILLE - Arkansas fans wishing Eric Musselman and his 9-1 Razorbacks a “speedy” recovery after the 88-66 trouncing in Tulsa stamped by the Oklahoma Sooners last Saturday may prefer a different adjective.
“Speedy” denotes the coaching opposition against Arkansas when the fallen from 12th to 24th-ranked Razorbacks of the SEC in their annual Central Arkansas trip meet the 6-5 Hofstra Pride of Hempstead, N.Y. and the Colonial Athletic Association.
At 7 p.m. Saturday on radio only, Hofstra Coach Speedy Claxton brings the Pride to Simmons Bank Arena in North Little Rock.
Musselman knows Speedy well. As the Golden State Warriors coach, Musselman coached Claxton for two seasons of Hofstra grad Claxton’s 10-year NBA career.
“I loved coaching Speedy,” Musselman said. “Certainly Speedy played a lot of minutes and played with a lot of freedom, but he earned all that. Really smart player. Played at the pace that we wanted to play at.
He was just a guy that everyone on the staff liked to be around. He had a positive attitude every day that he came into the gym as well.”
Musselman not only sees his old point guard as an opposing coach but sees a formerly injured Razorback, 6-10 forward Abayomi Iyiola, playing well for Claxton and Hofstra.
Iyiola, called Bay-Bay by Musselman and Razorbacks of his time, played mop-up minutes for one game nursing injuries, especially major knee surgery as a Hog before this season averaging 7.1 points and 7.3 rebounds as an inside man for a hot-shooting 3-point team.
“"I'm really happy to watch him and see the success he's had,” Musselman said. “Incredible young man. Worked really, really hard. Had a great attitude while he was here.”
Musselman thought Hofstra would be a good change of scenery as Iyiola sought a fresh start.
“Certainly, Coach Claxton and I spoke about Bay-‘Bay,” Musselman said. “Everybody on our staff spoke highly of him. I think it's a great fit because they'll put four shooters around Bay-Bay, and he's really good about setting random pick and rolls.”
After the Sooners strafed 13 threes on the Hogs, the Pride hitting 118 of 325 threes so far captures Arkansas attention already caught.
Even with UA final exams ongoing, Musselman practiced them hard all week on defending the three.
“We can't defend the three at a JV level,” Musselman said. “At times, we have defended it at a JV level. We're going to have to defend the three at a high level and have great discipline defensively to play a team that runs a lot of random pick and rolls, a lot of five-out. They can go to their bench and play small and spread you out with five three-point shooters. We've got to defend the three. That's their strengths and that's our weakness."
Guard Zach Cooks leads the Pride in scoring, 17.4 points and has hit 22 treys, but is just fourth on the team in 3-point percentage. Jalen Ray, 45 percent at 32 of 70, takes most pride among the Pride gunners with guard Darlingstone Dubai, 16 of 39, and sixth man Omar Silverio, 30 of 75, also shooting threes at 40 percent or better.
“They are the best 3-point shooting team that we’ve faced,” Arkansas sophomore center-power forward Jaylin Williams said. “We know we have to make them put the ball on the ground. We can’t let them get good looks from the 3-point line. Every day that’s been the focus, running them off the 3-point line.”
Musselman said the Hogs worked hard and well during their Monday through Wednesday practices but “not so good’ on Thursday.
“The first three days were phenomenal,” Musselman said.
The covid-19 restrictions during the 2020-2021 season caused the Razorbacks to cancel their usual game in Central Arkansas and play their home games strictly on campus at Walton Arena in Fayetteville.
So this will be the first Central Arkansas homecoming for Razorbacks sophomore guards Devo Davis of Jacksonville and KK Robinson of Little Rock and junior center Connor Vanover of Little Rock. Vanover was redshirting as a transfer via the University of California when the Hogs last played in North Little Rock.
The Arkansas vs. Hofstra men’s game is Part 2 of a Saturday basketball doubleheader at Simmons Bank Arena.
At 1 p.m. Saturday, the Razorbacks 9-2 women’s team of Coach Mike Neighbors meet the 4-5 University of Central Arkansas Bears of UCA Women’s Coach Sandra Rushing.