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Jeff Goodman was one of the first to be out in front of the news that Mike Anderson was being let go. Today he had some new news on the Arkansas coaching search.
Nevada’s Eric Musselman is a serious candidate for the Arkansas opening, sources told @Stadium.
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) April 2, 2019
The initial interest was that Kelvin Sampson was the first name Arkansas was looking at, but he is closing in on a new deal with the Cougars.
So who is Eric Musselman? For starters he just wrapped up his fourth season with Nevada, where they finished with a 29-5 record and lost to Florida in their NCAA Tournament opener. It was a team loaded with seniors, so it would be a natural break for him to move on this year. At Nevada he had a 110-34 record and made the Sweet 16 in 2018.
He’s also got experience as a head coach in the NBA, two seasons with the Golden State Warriors, and one with the Sacramento Kings. He also has spent time coaching in the NBA D-League (now the G-League), and international ball. His only SEC experience came as an assistant for LSU for a single season before taking the Nevada job.
If he takes the job we’ll dive into much more detail on his coaching and history, but for right now the news out there is that Sampson is out as an option, and Musselman has taken the pole position as of Tuesday morning.