Tourney different for family
FAYETTEVILLE — After the University of Arkansas men’s basketball team opened the NCAA Tournament by beating Colgate 85-68 on March 19, Danyelle Musselman led a group of family members to a street corner in downtown Indianapolis.
The group then looked up at a hotel room window across the street and waved.
Eric Musselman — Danyelle’s husband and the Razorbacks’ coach — waved back from his fifth-floor room.
“It was different,” Danyelle Musselman said. “But it gave us all a chance to see Eric, even it was through a window from across the street.”
Safety protocols to prevent the spread of covid-19 being followed by the NCAA has meant teams playing in the tournament aren’t able to spend inperson time with family members.
“The toughest part is we couldn’t really celebrate with Eric after either one of those wins,” Danyelle Musselman said of the Razorbacks’ victories over Colgate and
Texas Tech.
“But it is what it is.
“Honestly,
I’m just glad they’re able to play the tournament. If that means we have to celebrate separately, then that’s just what we’ll do.”
Eric Musselman said it’s been weird for his family to be in Indianapolis and see his wife, daughter Mariah and youngest son, Matthew, only from a distance.
“As human beings, you want to hold your wife’s hand, you want to hug her,” Eric Musselman said. “[Family members are] five feet from our bus or whatever we’re supposed to be, eight feet, 10 feet, 20 feet … and you can’t reach out and hug your wife or daughter or son. "But we're doing the best we can under these circumstances. To have family here is awesome and they'll all go back home, and then they'll be back for our next game, which will be great."
Danyelle Musselman said attending the games was worth the trip even with the safety restrictions. "We still had an amazing time," she said.
"We were bouncing off the walls in the stands. It was just a smaller group of us.
"But nothing was cooler than doing Hog calls to people in the other side of the arena. The excitement is still there."
Eric Musselman has his oldest son Michael, in the NCAA Tournament bubble with him. Michael Musselman is the Razorbacks' director of recruiting.
"It's been great being able to spend lot of time with Michael," Eric Musselman said. "We go lift weights every morning together, so that's been really cool for he and I.
"He's a great sounding board as I go through what we might want to do in practice. We'll sit and talk, and I'll throw ideas out to get his feedback.
'I know he's youngercloser to the players’ age — and I’ll ask, ‘What do you think they’ll think of this? Or is this too confusing?’ He’s been a big help.” Before the Arkansas-Texas Tech game last Sunday night, Eric Musselman asked his wife when she was flying home. “I told him we were going back home Monday morning,” Danyelle Musselman said. “He said, ‘If we lose, we’re going back at 1 o’clock in the morning and I don’t have a key to the house. I left my keys at home.’ “So I said, ‘Well, you better not lose.’ ” On March 15, the day after the Razorbacks arrived in Indianapolis, teams were required to stay in their hotel rooms for 24 hours as part of a quarantine process. “Eric was going stir crazy,” Danyelle Musselman said. “He called me about eight times before 10 o’clock in the morning. “Once you’ve been in that situation, you really appreciate the little things. I know he was even excited [earlier this week] just to switch hotels. “But he wants to stay in the bubble as long as possible, even though it might not be an ideal situation, just because he wants to win.”
Eric Musselman praised the job the NCAA has done to keep teams safe and able to play. The only team that had to opt out of the NCAA Tournament because of covid-19 issues is Virginia Commonwealth.
“The NCAA has done an incredible job making the best of a pandemic,” Musselman said. “We just feel fortunate that this has worked out so well. Everybody just wants to get to the finish line and have a national championship game, and then hopefully get back to some normalcy next year.”
Respecting ORU
Arkansas is a No. 3 seed and Oral Roberts a No. 15, but Razorbacks guard Jalen Tate said there’s no way they the Razorbacks will be overconfident with a trip to the Elite Eight on the line in tonight’s game.
“At this point we’re in the Sweet 16, and even when you first get to the NCAA Tournament, everyone is really good,” Tate said. “Seeds are blown out the window, obviously, with the teams that they beat.”
The Golden Eagles beat Ohio State 75-72 in overtime and beat Florida 81-78 for their first NCAA Tournament victories since 1974.
“I think they’re playing as good as anybody in the country right now, so you can’t take them lightly,” Tate said. “I think we’re actually a little more locked in just because of what they’ve been able to do so far.”
Arkansas Eagle
Oral Roberts assistant coach Solomon Bozeman led Magnolia High School to the Class 4A state championship game and was player and assistant coach for the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
As a senior at UALR, Bozeman averaged 16.6 points and led the Trojans to the 2011 Sun Belt Conference Tournament championship and an NCAA Tournament berth.
FT kings
Oral Roberts is hitting 82.2% of its free throws (397 of 483) to lead the nation. The Golden Eagles top freethrow shooters are Max Abmas at 89.9% (132 of 147) and Kevin Obanor at 87.2% (109 of 125).
When Arkansas beat Oral Roberts 87-76 on Dec. 20 at Walton Arena, the Golden Eagles hit 18 of 24 free throws for 75%.