re: 2024 Basketball team

Muss has tweeted a few clips lately from practice. Must not get hopes up.

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Arkansas
Head Coach: Eric Musselman
2022-23 record: 22-14
Conference: SEC

The skinny: Arkansas lost three players to the NBA draft, but thanks to their activity in the transfer portal and players getting healthy, their team may have more cohesion than last. Eric Musselman likes to spread the floor and take advantage of one-on-one matchups. Through the portal, the Razorbacks added Khalif Battle (Temple) and El Ellis (Louisville), who have a little boogie in their step. The return of Trevon Brazile, the conference’s best pure shot blockers will be big as well. They have depth up front, with Makhi Mitchell, Jalen Graham, Chandler Lawson, and four-star recruit Baye Fall added to the mix. Perimeter defense should be upgraded as well with Davonte Davis and Tramon Mark.

Most Eric Musselman teams take a month or so to get things together but come tournament time when he is given guys who can beat one-on-one matchups, his teams can be dangerous.

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Anyone else thinking this team could give some serious 2020 vibes just in terms of playing style?

This roster is obviously more talented than that 2020 group but I think the heavy four guard line ups is something we will see often next year.

In 2020 our most common line ups in the last 5 games were Sills, Jones, Joe, Whitt and Henderson/Bailey at the five spot. We actually ran a five guard line up a decent amount with Harris included while swapping out Henderson or Bailey. We played small more because we had to and not so much because Muss wanted to imo. We were not as good in the paint defesivley as we normally are under Muss but we had the 2nd best defense in the nation in terms of 3 point shooting. That was also our best 3 pt shooting team by percentage.

When I think about this upcoming year, its hard for me not to think our best line ups will include four guards. Hard to know that will be the case and I'm sure we will get plenty of Brazile and Makhi together. Davenport, Harris or Lawson are other guys that could fill that four spot on the court but I think a bigger guard like Battle or Mark will be the better option.

If the above is the case, it really feels like this could be Muss' best perimeter team on offense and defense. Another big plus is regardless of how the front court ends up looking by the time the season starts, its going to be much more talented than a combo of Bailey/Henderson. I say that as someone who believes Bailey might be the most underappreciated players in the Muss era so far.

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Khalif Battle

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He seems like a bonafide bucket. Nice size and is a true 3 level scorer.

Super solid schedule. Should be a banger of an RPI for seeding.

Here's each team Torvik projection for next season (takes into account how successful each program has been over the last 3 years, returning minutes, individual player ratings). I think the returning minutes component is overplayed in the transfer era, but still gives us an idea. Better than top 25 poll popularity contests.

Oct. 28 - Purdue (charity exhibition) - #1

Nov. 6 - Alcorn State - #290

Nov. 10 - Gardner-Webb - #179

Nov. 13 - Old Dominion - #198

Nov. 17 - UNC-Greensboro - #111

Nov. 22 - Stanford (Battle 4 Atlantis) - #33

Nov. 23 - Michigan/Memphis (Battle 4 Atlantis) - #55 / #31

Nov. 24 - TBD (Battle 4 Atlantis) Possible opponents:
Villanova - #11
Texas Tech - #34
UNI - #123
UNC - #14

Nov. 29 - Duke (ACC/SEC Challenge) - #5

Dec. 4 - Furman - #126

Dec. 9 - Oklahoma (BOK Center in Tulsa) - #68

Dec. 16 - Lipscomb (Simmons Bank Arena in Little Rock) - #160

Dec. 21 - Abilene Christian - #165

Dec. 30 - UNC-Wilmington - #105



We're projected #27

If you want the sunny side up view: Returning minutes holds us back in the metrics. But only 10 teams projected ahead of us have higher projected talent. Only 3 teams have higher experience rating.

One heck of a home season package

Duke
Auburn
Kentucky
Tennessee
Zou