Twitter — or X, whatever you want to call it — has not been kind to Arkansas coaches this season.
Perhaps that’s to be expected considering the underwhelming nature of the Razorbacks’ football and basketball seasons.
Of course, the social media site is also a platform for them to issue a response and Danyelle Musselman, the wife of Arkansas basketball coach Eric Musselman, took advantage of that Wednesday morning.
“Jumping on here only because people have resorted to asking my 8th grader for clarification,” Danyelle Musselman wrote. “There is zero truth to every ridiculous rumor that I’ve read/heard and people reporting from “a good source” should go sell the story to Netflix. Sounds like a three part series (laughing/crying emoji)”
The “ridiculous rumors” she mentioned could refer to multiple things, like the “love triangle” Trevon Brazile referenced on Thursday. They could also refer to those surrounding the departure of Davonte Davis and the future of her husband.
The latter of those seems to have gained the most traction. Whether Eric Musselman would leave Arkansas for another job has evolved from social media and message boards to more traditional media.
Longtime sportscaster Mike Irwin has addressed it publicly. Radio personality John Nabors of Natty State Sports dedicated his Tuesday show to the topic. Unfortunately, it’s not particularly surprising that the rumors surrounding Musselman’s future made their way to his daughter Mariah’s school, prompting Danyelle to speak out.
On Wednesday evening, in a special Arkansas basketball round-table, all of Pig Trail Nation’s sportscasters agreed that the fact this kind of talk has filtered down to younger children is disturbing. Courtney Mims, a Florida graduate, said part of the reason that Mike White decided to stop coaching the Gators in spring 2022 was because of infringement into his personal life.
“Part of the reason Mike White left Florida was because his kids were not just getting bullied at school – they were getting harassed by the fans every day because of how he was doing,” she said. “That’s where you’ve crossed a line.”
Reminiscent of Sam Pittman
This isn’t the first time an Arkansas coach, or someone close to an Arkansas coach, has spoken out against similar rumors.
Sam Pittman vented his frustrations about rumors surrounding his future back in November, leading up to the FIU game.
“We can’t do anything about what people write,” Pittman said on Nov. 13. “I just wish they’d write truth. Not opinion. If you’re saying a man is fired then he should be fired. We can’t deal with (untrue) things and that’s probably the most difficult thing, because the kids believe and the parents believe it.”
That comment came a few days after the Razorbacks were blown out 48-10 at home against Auburn. Not only was Pittman tasked with trying to keep the team together for the final two games and searching for a new offensive coordinator, but he also had to get on the phone with recruits to tell them he wasn’t going anywhere.
It was just the latest example of Pittman’s disdain for social media. Despite being 59 years old, Eric Musselman has generally used it as a tool for recruiting and promoting the basketball program. On the other end of the spectrum, the 62-year-old Pittman got so fed up with Twitter earlier in the season that he actually briefly deactivated his account.
Pittman is back on the social media platform, but has sent only one tweet and retweeted two others since returning. All three are about Arkansas football commitments.
Arkansas vs Missouri Basketball
With most of the focus being on the off-court stuff, it was easy to forget that there was an actual Arkansas basketball game Wednesday night.
Arkansas took the battle of two of the bottom three teams in the SEC standings, as the Tigers were 0-7 in conference play and Arkansas is 1-6 heading into the game.
However, Missouri still treated it like a rivalry game and acted like it’s a big deal, even implementing a “White Out” for its fans. A group of Missouri male students also decided to wear drag and hold up questionable signs.
Naturally, the Tigers tried to use former Arkansas big man Connor Vanover to hype up the game, despite him averaging only 4.0 points and 2.6 rebounds in 12.1 minutes.
Vanover knocked down an early 3, but finished with only 7 points and 4 rebounds in 14 minutes. Those were still above his season averages of 4.0 points and 2.6 rebounds in 12.1 minutes.
In the end, at least for one night, Arkansas looked like the team many expected it to be this year.
The much-needed victory snapped another three-game skid and helped Arkansas (11-10, 2-6 SEC) avoid dipping below .500 for the first time under head coach Eric Musselman.
Read more about the Arkansas basketball win:
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Check out our in-depth preview of the Arkansas vs Missouri game here:
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More coverage of Arkansas basketball and Eric Musselman from BoAS…
