Tye & Tommy on Muss’ contract details, meeting your significant other, Richard Davenport and more!
Musselman gets hefty reward for making Hogs relevant again
If Eric Musselman is still as competitive as we think, the official announcement Wednesday about his new contract could be used as motivation.
After all, athletics director Hunter Yurachek as much as challenged him — again — in a subtle way.
“The best way for any head coach to advocate for themselves and their program is to win games,” Yurachek said.
Somehow, I don’t think just making it to the Elite Eight is enough of a goal for Musselman. Winning a championship would just be the starting point to try and win another one in a sport that makes it very hard to win a title.
Don’t start talking about he just signed a deal. In today’s world of college athletics, today’s contract is the starting point for negotiations on a new one … if he wins even bigger.
Although with this contract, the most interesting part is Musselman obviously isn’t looking to get out of town for another job because that’s going to be steep. He has to pay to the UA the following amounts to leave for another gig:
• $7.5 million through the end of next season.
• $2 million through the end of the 2023-24 season.
• $1 million through the end of the 2024-25 season.
$ 750,000 through the end of the contract.
While any of those numbers are tip money to some NBA owners, that’s a big pill to swallow for any other school to pay.
“Arkansas is one of the premier programs in the nation and my family and I are ecstatic to be here,” Musselman said.
In two seasons, he’s taken the Hogs from the middle of the road straight to the fast lane. For the better part of 25 years, the program has been stuck in extreme mediocrity.
How bad was it? One coach was hired and was out of town back to his old job in less than 24 hours. That was a humiliation for a program that had been in decline for a few years.
Musselman’s analytics and teaching works better at the college level than the NBA game. He uses having a few days between games to have his teams prepared as well as anybody.
You sometimes have to squeeze what he teaches for two or three days into less than 24 hours at the NBA level. The guess here is he likes the college game and his style works better there.
And Razorback fans can relax.
The Muss Bus ain’t leaving Fayetteville anytime soon.
Van Horn on juggling players around in 26-1 win over UAPB on Wednesday
Razorbacks coach Dave Van Horn tried to give as many regulars as possible day off and backups light up scoreboard in blowout shortened game.
Goodheart on leading off big win over Golden Lions with homer
Matt Goodheart batted lead-off most of his time playing baseball and was comfortable getting moved there for Wednesday afternoon’s game.
Finally official announcement of Musselman getting new contract
It took awhile for Hogs athletics director Hunter Yurachek to officially announce what everyone knew and Eric Musselman has a new deal.
Pittman looking forward to having first spring game Saturday
With things paused last spring, Sam Pittman didn’t get to do anything until August and he’s looking forward to playing in front of fans.
Henry recalling getting Baum-Walker Stadium opening
The 25th anniversary of the Razorbacks’ ballpark was Tuesday and Hawgs Illustrated’s Clay Henry talked about when it opened on Halftime.
King thinks Georgia’s QB room bulging with star-studded players
Bill King of Nashville Sports Radio said on Halftime J.T. Daniels might not be the best quarterback on Bulldogs’ roster, but he’s got most experience.
Bud Light Seltzer Morning Rush: Where Muss Bus is headed
Tye & Tommy on the Muss Bus, change to high school sports in AR, What’s Your Beef Wed and more!
Reports have Muss agreeing to new deal, but nothing official
Apparently Eric Musselman and Hunter Yurachek have reached agreement on a new contract that’s kept Arkansas fans worrying themselves sick.
There were multiple reports Tuesday afternoon the sides reached a deal.
But the UA has been quiet over it, preferring to milk the publicity with social media posts.
On Monday, Yurachek posted what appeared to be a toast:
Sleep well Arkansas! @RazorbackMBB is in good hands. #OneRazorback pic.twitter.com/3dhOFjIEz4
— Hunter Yurachek (@HunterYurachek) April 13, 2021
Then followed with another of the well-produced videos Tuesday:
— Arkansas Razorback Basketball ? (@RazorbackMBB) April 13, 2021
Okay, there’s not going to be a lot of mystery left to resolve other than they are the best on campus at generating a lot of publicity over something that’s likely been in place for a few days.
Now everybody wants to talk about the numbers.
Musselman was making $2.5 million before this season and got an automatic $250,000 raise by making the Sweet 16, putting him at $2.75 million a year.
Bumping him to $3.5 million is really only a $750,000 raise and it may be higher than that.
Alabama gave Nate Oats a new deal that puts him around $3.2 million a year through 2026-27. Yes, the Crimson Tide are paying pretty big bucks for a coach that’s not named Nick Saban.
The new deal will make Musselman the highest-paid coach for the Razorbacks in any sport.
In the second-largest sport for the Hogs, when you take the program to heights not seen in over a quarter-century, well, you’ve earned a hefty raise. The fact that an Arkansas coach is mentioned every time there’s a big-time opening in the country will also play a role.
To be honest, it’s debatable who could be a better fit at Arkansas in today’s world of marketing and social media. Musselman works at that.
And it’s paying off in recruiting … both high school players and graduate transfers.
For now, though, it looks like the deal is done. How long it’s actually been done we may never know.
That really doesn’t matter, though.
All that matters is he keeps winning games and keep feeding the monster he awakened this past season.
