Musselman’s offers for in-state players building foundation for future

In a day and age where we have nothing else to discuss, it’s national signing day for college basketball Wednesday and Eric Musselman made his fifth offer for an in-state 2022 player Tuesday.

For a guy that studies everything it’s probably a safe bet he’s aware of Arkansas’ basketball history the biggest success has come with a generous sprinkling of home-grown players.

You can go back to the 1970’s when Eddie Sutton managed to get Marvin Delph out of Conway, Ron Brewer from Fort Smith and Sidney Moncrief out of Little Rock to catapult the program into the national spotlight.

Check some of the best players lists that’s been popular while everything in the world of sports has been shut down and there’s a pretty good representation of in-state players on the list.

Musselman offered Morrilton small forward Joseph Pinion, who is 6-6, 180 and has garnered some pretty high-level interest from the likes of Kansas, Baylor and Oklahoma among some other smaller schools.

Four others inside the state have gotten offers for 2022, too. Guard Nick Smith of Sylvan Hills, guard Derrian Ford of Magnolia, guard Javion Guy-King of Little Rock Mills, and center Kelel Ware of North Little Rock were already holding offers.

Don’t ask me how many he can actually sign here. The scholarship distribution for basketball is subject to a lot of changes based on who’s leaving and who’s coming. Of course there are some that get moved along, but that’s not really anything new.

But Musselman does know the public relations benefits of signing kids from within the state. Nobody can keep them all, so don’t be surprised if one or two go somewhere else.

You don’t get the signature, though, if you don’t make the offer.