Somewhere Eddie Sutton is smiling

Basketball Insider Board
#1

Coach Sutton and Coach Musselman coach a lot like each other. Both demand great defensive effort and don’t put up with a lot of dumb mistakes or errors. Each coach gets about as much as he can from his roster. We have a 7 man roster like Eddie used to have.

Coach Musselman has made some concessions for the modern player and the 3 point shot. He lets the guys shoot the 3 who can shoot it. You don’t see Jimmy Whitt or Adrio Bailey firing the 3 pointer. Every player knows what his job is… Each guy knows what he can and can’t do. You must have that on a team, especially one with a limited and shallow roster.

Both coaches are fierce competitors. Does anyone remember the TV game against Rice in their high school gym? Eddie got pissed about the horrible SWC officiating and went into the stands and sat with the students and talked to the crowd while the game played on. He drove Shelby Metcalfe and Gerald Myers crazy because they could not beat him to save their lives. He was something.

#2

I agree. He could take any group of players and make them a better team than you’d expect. While he had some great players we all remember he won conference championships with lots of role players too. Zahn, Mike Young, Brad Friess, Carey Kelly, Greg Skulman. Not exactly names to strike fear in an opponents heart. As you said everyone knew what they were supposed to do.

#3

They got to meet at the Red-White game.

Obviously Coach Sutton is having a tough time health-wise right now, but what Coach Musselman did to honor Coach Sutton, Coach Richardson and Barnhill Arena was cool.

2 Likes
#4

Muss does his homework. Great Man & Coach just like the 2 he honored.
I feel he will be mentioned in the same way down the road.

#5

Are you just trying to get under pj’s skin with that statement?

Point 1: Dro does, in fact, take 3s. And Muss seems to be good with his 3 ball-taking decision-making process. (I would not be surprised to hear Dro is taking more threes/game this season than ever.)

Point 2: Muss and Whitt have both stated there is no prohibition on JW taking 3s. JW simply chooses not to shoot from behind the arc, because that’s not his strength.

#6

JW knows he can take anyone to the paint and shoot over them. He does it very well. Playing to his strengths

#7

Correct.

Bailey took 12 total last year, hitting two of them, over 34 games

This year, he has already took 10, hitting 4 in 12 games.

#8

Those were great years with Sutton as our head coach. We owned ut & the SWC in basketball, and Arkansas was usually in the NCAA final mix at year-end. We may not have always had the best talent on the court, but Sutton coached teams were prepared, disciplined, & aggressive with Arkansas rarely outplayed.

Muss teams remind me of Sutton. Wait until Muss recruits the big men that we need. Top talent will come to Arkansas realizing Muss can coach them into the NBA.

#9