Eric Musselman made a point, without anyone on the Arkansas basketball beat asking, that he would not be playing 13 players a game on the regular this season.
Against Alcorn State on Monday in the team’s season opener, Musselman, now in his fifth year at the helm of the Razorbacks program, played all 13 of his eligible scholarship players. In fact, he played them all within the first 13 minutes.
Four or five of them won’t see much, if any time, come February when the heart of Southeastern Conference play hits; not when Arkansas will either be fighting for a potential No. 2 or 3-seed or maybe trying to avoid the No. 8 or 9-line. No one, not even Musselman himself, knows which four of five it will be and which of those two outcomes awaits.
“We’re not going to play 13 guys. That’s unrealistic,” Musselman said. “Do we play nine? Do we go back to eight? You want players to feel they can play through mistakes, as well, and I think when you extend the rotation, guys (sometimes don’t feel that way).”
Until those guys are known, it’s impossible to tell whether Arkansas will be among the favorites for the Final Four or fighting to avoid playing a No. 1 or No. 2-seed in the second round. The smart money, if being forced to choose, is on the former.
Arkansas did not earn A-plus marks across the board against the Braves on Monday, but the dominance was certain and constant, the latter trait was something that was missing at various points last year, especially in nonconference play when teams far below the Hogs’ talent level would hang around too long.
If that isn’t happening two months from now, the Arkansas-to-the-Final-Four predictions aren’t exactly farfetched.
If Musselman is still playing 11 guys a night and four of them are rotating between 20 and four minutes without ever knowing who is going to get what, then, well, maybe four straight Sweet Sixteens can still happen.
But that isn’t what is counted as an achievement around Fayetteville anymore. Arkansas is still a quality program with a fourth straight Sweet Sixteen. It’s just not elite.