Grit Personified: Eric Musselman Refused To Stop Coaching The Last Month After Tearing His Rotator Cuff Doing A Practice Drill
[247] - Eric Musselman informed media after Arkansas' late-December win over Elon he had sustained a torn rotator cuff during a recent practice drill. After gutting it out for a few weeks, the head coach underwent a successful surgical repair Thursday morning.
He is expected to miss at least a couple games with Keith Smart assuming the role as interim beginning with this weekend's trip to Baton Rouge. The Razorbacks should be in good hands with Smart, whose long career in the game includes stops as head coach for three separate NBA franchises.
“Almost six weeks ago, Coach Musselman sustained a significant shoulder injury in practice after a collision with a player
This might be the least shocking thing I've heard about Muss. The dude might be from California and looks like he's made for the beach. But he is grit. He probably would run on the court and try to take a charge if he could. At the minimum - because he likely agrees most charges are bullshit - he'd go out there and D up a guard going off against Arkansas. At least he's taking a break after a high note:
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Can we just kick Missouri out of the SEC? They are so horrendous at basketball they are ruining the league's standing. Not a fan of it. Now, I don't want to lose the automatic win in football, but I'm willing to look for the greater good here. Let's trade them for someone.
That's not the point here though. I just needed to get that out of the way. For Arkansas? Well, this is a huge stretch coming up. They have been a disappointment this year. I know their record is 11-5. But they are down to 44 on KenPom and 83 in the NET. Their 11 wins? Well, there's nothing to write home about. They only have two top-100 wins and they were neutral wins over Kansas State/Cincinnati - not Tournament teams. They go to LSU Saturday without Muss. It ultimately comes down to February for them though. They have home games against Auburn, Kentucky, LSU and Tennessee. That's how they get into the Tournament and a decent seed.
I just need to know what drill Muss was doing to get hurt. He's the head coach! I love that he's out here doing drills, but what exactly happened here? Had to be a box out drill. Just had to be. Coaches fucking love demonstrating the box out drills.