Nevada's Eric Musselman has been hired as the next head coach at Arkansas. Razorbacks athletic director Hunter Yurachek announced the move on Twitter: I am excited to officially announce the hiring of Eric Musselman as our new Head Coach for @RazorbackMBB. And to welcome his wife Danyelle, their daughter Mariah and sons, Matthew and Michael to the Arkansas Razorback Family. #OneRazorback pic.twitter.com/ydHjNwG2UY — Hunter Yurachek (@HunterYurachek) April 7, 2019 Musselman, 54, has led Nevada to three NCAA tournament appearances in four seasons since taking over in Reno, winning 110 games during his time with the Wolf Pack and making a Sweet 16 appearance in 2018. This season, Nevada started 24-1 and won a share of the Mountain West regular-season championship before losing to Florida in the first round of the NCAA tournament. "I want to thank Eric Musselman for four thrilling seasons with the Wolf Pack and for elevating the Nevada men's basketball program to the top of the Mountain West Conference," Nevada athletic director Doug Knuth said in a statement. "We wish Eric and Danyelle nothing but the best moving forward. "We will immediately begin a national search for the next leader of the Wolf Pack men's basketball program and will have no further comment until that search is completed." Musselman has had a well-traveled career, highlighted by stints as an NBA head coach with the Golden State Warriors and Sacramento Kings. He also spent several years as a head coach in the CBA and D-League and has made stops as an assistant in both the NBA and college. Prior to becoming the head coach at Nevada, Musselman was an assistant coach at LSU for one season. Musselman replaces Mike Anderson, who was fired last month after eight seasons in Fayetteville. Anderson led Arkansas to three NCAA tournaments during his time as Razorbacks coach.<doc-sep>1:10 p.m. update: The Arkansas Razorbacks have removed the video feed from their Facebook page. TV package subscribers can watch the broadcast via ESPN here. Original story: Former Nevada head coach Eric Musselman will be formally introduced as Arkansas’ new coach on Monday at 1 p.m. (Pacific. ). The Razorbacks’ athletics department has scheduled a news conference at that time at the university’s Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville. The RGJ will link to a live feed of the news conference here. The video feed is expected to begin at 12:50 p.m. Goodbye Musselman:Here's what people said about Musselman leaving the Pack For more on the Wolf Pack, college sports, and Reno's baseball and soccer teams, follow the author at @RGJduke. Digital subscriptions to the Reno Gazette Journal begin at as little as $1 a month; click here for details.<doc-sep>Arkansas has its man. Eric Musselman, who led Nevada to a 110-34 record and three consecutive Mountain West Conference regular-season titles in four years with the Wolf Pack, agreed Sunday to become the Razorbacks' new head coach. Musselman replaces Mike Anderson at Arkansas, who was fired late last month. Anderson coached Arkansas to a 169-102 record during his eight seasons with the program but made only three NCAA Tournament appearances. Musselman has made three Big Dances in the past three seasons. The son of former NBA coach Bill Musselman, Eric also was an NBA head coach, for the Warriors and Kings, as well as in the NBA Development League. In 2015, he took over a nine-win Nevada program and, in his first season, won 24 games. His last two seasons, he posted 29-win campaigns and made the NCAA Tournament in the last three seasons. "(Musselman) was practically born into the game and his passion for basketball is unmistakable," Arkansas athletic director Hunter Yurachek said in a news release. "He has been successful throughout his career, including the remarkable job he did in returning the University of Nevada into a perennial NCAA Tournament team. Coach Musselman is high-energy and possesses an extremely high basketball IQ. He has a great attention to detail and has structured his programs to develop players individually while building a successful team."<doc-sep>This is a breaking news story and will be updated. It's official: Eric Musselman is headed to Arkansas 12:05 p.m. update: Arkansas director of athletics Hunter Yurachek posted a cryptic tweet at 11:55 a.m. implying that a deal with Eric Musselman has been finalized. The tweet consists only of a GIF showing red smoke rising from Arkansas' Bud Walton Arena. The GIF may be a reference to the Vatican's use of white smoke from a Sistine Chapel chimney indicating that a new pope has been elected. Original story: ESPN reported Sunday morning that Nevada men's basketball coach Eric Musselman is in negotiations to become the head coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks, according to unnamed sources. "Both sides expect a deal to be reached barring something unexpected," the sports news outlet reported. It reflects a significant turnaround from Tuesday, when Musselman's wife Danyelle dispelled earlier rumors that he had no plans to leave the school where he has coached for four years. "He's here in Reno with no plans to go anywhere," Danyelle said in a Tuesday text message to the RGJ. Jeff Goodman, a basketball analyst with the sports network Stadium, posted a tweet on Tuesday morning calling Musselman a "serious candidate" for Arkansas' head coach position. Goodman noted later Tuesday morning that Musselman was just one of several candidates for the Arkansas job, according to his source. "Twitter created this rumor and boy did it spread," Danyelle Musselman said in an interview with the Reno Gazette Journal. On Tuesday afternoon, Nevada senior Caleb Martin tweeted a video of himself playing one-on-one basketball against Musselman at Reno High School, although it was unclear if the video was shot that day. "Mouse in the house," Martin tweeted. Musselman retweeted Martin's message and added, "Relationships don't stop when the season ends." Web speculation runs amok While rumors swirled, Trey Schaap, on-air host with Little Rock, Arkansas sports radio station KABZ, posted a tweet Tuesday afternoon saying that Musselman already was in Fayetteville making a campus visit. One Wikipedia editor on Tuesday changed Musselman's current position to head coach at Arkansas. A writer for Hogville.net, an Arkansas Razorbacks sports news site, tweeted a photo of a sizable press conference setup at Arkansas' Bud Walton Arena. Respondents to the tweet speculated that a Musselman announcement was imminent. Another Twitter user said Musselman already had accepted a 5 year, $14.5 million deal to come to Arkansas, citing a "contract lawyer for the U of A." "Musselman is 'Committed to bringing Arkansas back to the promise land and looks forward to building a top national program,'" the tweet read. UNR president: 'We certainly want to keep Eric Musselman here' Eric Musselman, the highest-paid public employee in the state of Nevada, earned $1.014 million in 2017. Musselman has led the Wolf Pack to a 110-34 record in four seasons with Nevada, along with a CBI Tournament championship, three NCAA Tournament berths and one Sweet 16 appearance. His win percentage of .7638 outpaces the records of illustrious college coaches including Bill Self, Rick Pitino and Jim Boeheim. Musselman has brought Nevada basketball back to the national spotlight, and UNR President Marc Johnson said Tuesday that the university would work to retain his services. "We certainly want to keep Eric Musselman here," he told the RGJ on Tuesday afternoon. "He's had a great run in this community, the community loves him, he's had great success here, and we'd like to see that continue." Johnson said he wouldn't comment on what kind of salary he would offer to keep Musselman at Nevada. "We talk to him all the time, but it's an extremely competitive marketplace, and there are different viewpoints," Johnson said. "You get the coach at Gonzaga (Mark Few) who I'm sure could have gone away for lots of money, but he really enjoyed the Gonzaga community and wanted to see that develop. And he did develop a relatively small school into a phenomenal team and he did that by building a program over many years." THE MANY FACES OF ERIC MUSSELMAN Musselman rumors abound After a three-year stint as an NBA head coach in the early 2000s, compiling a 108-138 overall record with the Golden State Warriors and Sacramento Kings, Musselman turned his coaching career around in the NBA D-League. He led the Sacramento Kings-affiliated Reno Bighorns to a conference-best 34-16 regular-season record in 2010-11; the following season, he helmed the Los Angeles D-Fenders, the Lakers affiliate, to a league-best 38-12. Musselman got his start in college basketball with two seasons at Arizona State, then moved to LSU for one season before accepting the top job at Nevada. His near-overnight success, transforming a 9-22 Wolf Pack into CBI champions the following season, have made him one of the top targets of high-profile programs throughout his career. Following his second season at Nevada, Musselman interviewed twice with California about their head coaching slot in 2017 before withdrawing his name from consideration. He also has long been attached to UCLA's legendary basketball program. The Los Angeles Times mentioned him as a "Plan B" level candidate for the Bruins in February: Eric Musselman: He’s won big at Nevada, but his reliance on junior college players and his hiring of assistant coach Yanni Hufnagel, who faced sexual harassment accusations from a reporter while working at California, could make him unhirable. In January, Sports Illustrated speculated that Musselman's true aim is returning to the NBA: In a recent telephone interview, Musselman makes it clear he’s not lobbying for another job. “I love it at Nevada,” Musselman said. “It’s probably the most fun 3 1/2 years I’ve had in coaching.” But reminisce with him for a few minutes on his NBA days and it’s obvious there’s a part of him that believes there is unfinished business. Coaching departure would be nothing new for Nevada If Musselman does leave this offseason, he wouldn't be the first high-profile coach to leave for a higher-profile gig in recent memory. More:Watch: Eric Musselman, Jazz Johnson break down Pack's Mountain West win over Boise State<doc-sep>
RENO, Nev. -- Arkansas has hired Eric Musselman to be its next head basketball coach. Arkansas director of athletics Hunter Yurachek announced the hire with a tweet on Sunday. Musselman, along with wife Danyelle, daughter Mariah and sons Michael and Matthew, appear alongside Yurachek wearing Razorbacks shirts. Michael, who was a graduate assistant this past season with Nevada, presumably will move. Musselman led the Wolf Pack to a 110-34 record in four seasons with Nevada, along with a CBI Tournament championship, three NCAA Tournament berths and one Sweet 16 appearance. His win percentage of .7638 outpaces the records of illustrious college coaches including Bill Self, Rick Pitino and Jim Boeheim. But Musselman's win percentage and string of postseason appearances came in the mid-major Mountain West Conference. Other than Nevada, the conference has sent just two other squads to the 68-team NCAA Tournament in the past four years — and both of those teams received automatic bids for winning the MW tournament. Musselman faces a much tougher task in Arkansas' Southeastern Conference. Seven of the conference's 14 teams made the NCAA Tournament this year, and six appeared in the AP Top 25 at least once this season. Musselman compiled a 2-3 record against AP Top 25 teams in his four seasons at Nevada. Arkansas won the national championship in 1994. Nevada's next head coach faces a daunting task as well. The Wolf Pack is losing seven seniors from its 2018-19 team, including Jordan Caroline, Caleb and Cody Martin, Trey Porter and Tre'Shawn Thurman. ESPN first reported Sunday morning that talks between Musselman and the Arkansas Razorbacks had advanced to the negotiation stage, according to unnamed sources. Initial rumblings of the move first surfaced on Tuesday. Jeff Goodman, a basketball analyst with the sports network Stadium, posted a tweet on Tuesday morning calling Musselman a "serious candidate" for Arkansas' head coach position. Goodman noted later Tuesday morning that Musselman was just one of several candidates for the Arkansas job, according to his source. Trey Schaap, on-air host with Little Rock, Arkansas sports radio station KABZ, posted a tweet that afternoon saying that Musselman already was in Fayetteville making a campus visit. But Musselman's wife Danyelle dismissed those reports Tuesday afternoon. "He's here in Reno with no plans to go anywhere," Danyelle said in a text message to the RGJ. "Twitter created this rumor and boy did it spread," Danyelle Musselman said in an interview with the Reno Gazette Journal. Musselman brought Nevada basketball back to the national spotlight, and UNR President Marc Johnson said Tuesday that the university wanted to work to retain his services. "We talk to him all the time, but it's an extremely competitive marketplace, and there are different viewpoints," Johnson said. "You get the coach at Gonzaga (Mark Few) who I'm sure could have gone away for lots of money, but he really enjoyed the Gonzaga community and wanted to see that develop. And he did develop a relatively small school into a phenomenal team and he did that by building a program over many years." After a three-year stint as an NBA head coach in the early 2000s, compiling a 108-138 overall record with the Golden State Warriors and Sacramento Kings, Musselman turned his coaching career around in the NBA D-League. He led the Sacramento Kings-affiliated Reno Bighorns to a conference-best 34-16 regular-season record in 2010-11; the following season, he helmed the Los Angeles D-Fenders, the Lakers affiliate, to a league-best 38-12. Musselman got his start in college basketball with two seasons at Arizona State, then moved to LSU for one season before accepting the top job at Nevada. His near-overnight success, transforming a 9-22 Wolf Pack into CBI champions the following season, have made him one of the top targets of high-profile programs throughout his career.