NWADG Basketball

2019

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4 Northwest Arkansas Basketball Sunday, November 3, 2019 his offseasons from the professional and college ranks. Musselman hopes Arkansas will be his final coaching job. "There's not going to be a better job come along for me than Arkansas," he said. "We're in a great league in the SEC with a lot of resources. There's a winning history and tradition here. The arena's great; the practice facility's great. There's a good recruiting base for basketball. "An NBA job isn't better than the Ar- kansas job. This is a great job. Now we've just got to win." LEARNING FROM DAD After Musselman graduated in 1987 from the University of San Diego — where he played as a backup guard for the Toreros — there never was any doubt he'd be a basketball coach. Musselman grew up going to his fa- ther's practices and games. Bill Musselman also was a college coach, including at Minnesota where he won a Big Ten championship in 1972 — the Gophers' first title in 53 years. "I went to literally every practice and game I could from the time I can remember," Musselman said. "My mom would drop me off at the gym after school, and I'd stay there and watch my dad coach his team until it was time to go home. "Then I'd turn around and do it all over again the next day." Musselman recalled going on road trips with his father and the Gophers. "I can remember a mouse running underneath the bleachers during a shoot-around when we played at North- western," he said. "I remember Campy Russell playing for Michigan when we went to Crisler Arena. I remember a guy named [Rick] Schmidt who played for Illinois when we played there." Musselman said his mother, Kris, who lives in San Diego, was hoping he would choose a different career path than his father. "My mom at first did not want me to get into coaching, because she knew it was a tough profession," Musselman said. "We had a lot of conversations about me going to law school. But I never wanted to do anything but coach." Musselman began breaking down film at an early age. "When I got up in the morning as I kid, I didn't watch cartoons," Musselman told Ron Higgins of Nola.com in 2014 when he was hired as an LSU assistant coach. "I watched the same game film of my dad's teams that I watched the previous night before I went to bed. I was preparing to be a coach, and I didn't even know it." When his father took a two-year break from coaching in the late 1970s to work in real estate, Musselman worked as a ball boy for the NBA's San Diego Clippers. "I can remember my mom saying, 'Why do you want to go be a ball boy when your dad's not coaching? Why not take a break while he's taking a break?'" Musselman said. "But I just loved being around the game. As a ball boy, I viv- idly remember the guys that tipped. I remember the guys that were rude. I remember the coaches that gave great motivational talks, because I had the opposing team's locker room. Musselman v Continued from Page 2 NWA Democrat-Gazette File Photo/BEN GOFF • @NWABENGOFF Arkansas head coach Eric Musselman watches Oct. 5 during the annual Arkansas Red-White Game at Barnhill Arena in Fayetteville. v Continued on next page

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