Maybe more than any other potential candidate, Eric Musselman made it clear to Hunter Yurachek he WANTED the job, had a passion for basketball details and had plenty of energy.
“Watch out Chad Morris,” Yurachek said during his introduction to the football coach sitting in the second row, who hardly ever appears to be still.
When he finally offered the job to Musselman on Friday, the positive answer probably caused Yurachek to move the phone directly off his hear. Apparently it was that loud, accompanied by an enthusiastic response from the family.
“That’s what you want when you offer somebody a job,” Yurachek said. “He was about ready to jump through the phone if he could have.”
Apparently he was that way the first time talked to Yurachek several days before that.
“After I hung up the phone I told my wife I was going on a five-mile run and sprinted out the door,” Musselman told the fans at his introduction.
Somehow it’s hard to imagine any previous Razorback basketball coach doing that. Maybe a mile or two, but not five miles starting with a sprint.
That enthusiasm is something that tends to be infectious.
Morris was a math major and studies the numbers in football. So does Musselman in basketball. Some coaches don’t talk about that much, but not him.
“NBA players are motivated by numbers,” he said. “Certain numbers, yes, we’ll try to motivate our guys with.”
He’s right about that. The pro players can quote their stats faster than they can what they had for breakfast that morning.
“For example, ‘you’re one rebound away from a double-double … go get it,” he said.
Musselman did his homework as soon as he talked to Yurachek.
“As soon as Hunter called, I started watching film of the guys,” he said in the media press conference. “I locked myself in the room to see the talent level. When Hunter and Jon came, I thought it was important they knew what I thought about the team. I wanted them to know I was invested. I continued to watch as much tape as possible between the first call and when we met.”
It’s probably a safe assumption that made an impression on the guy making the final decision.
“He embraced the history of the program and wanted to be a part of that and take the program to the next level,” Yurachek said.
In a way it’s recruiting. When a coach can recruit his way into a job it’s a pretty good bet he’ll do okay talking good players into coming to Arkansas.
Musselman also started recruiting in his first press conference … with the players currently on the roster.
“As of right now, I’m shocked and excited about the guys,” he said. “I got to spend time with the team and ate with them. Right now they’re excited and happy and ready to start on the court maybe later this week. I don’t anticipate anyone leaving.”
A lot of coaches send messages through the media and there may have been a little bit of that going on.
Just like the time the other night he finished talking to former Razorback player Corey Beck, whom he knew from their CBA days.
“You’ll find out I do a lot of odd things,” Musselman said. “I think it was around 1:15 a.m. when we finished talking.”
For Hog fans, that could be an indicator of things to come. No, that’s not any sort of guess at the wins and losses.
It’s a guess this won’t be boring.
