HawgBeat - How Eric Musselman discovered Keyon Menifield Jr.
Eric Musselman stumbled across guard Keyon Menifield Jr. by watching plenty of Pac 12 games on the West Coast.
arkansas.rivals.com
It seems like recruiting the transfer portal has just become second nature for Arkansas head coach Eric Musselman, who has developed a reputation that earned him the nickname "The Importer" from national college basketball analyst Jon Rothstein.
Trying to convince some of the nation's best to come to Arkansas isn't always as easy as it seems, though.
Being the true basketball mind that he is, Musselman just so happened to stumble across Washington guard Keyon Menifield Jr., who played a huge role in the second half of Thursday's 83-73 win over Abilene Christian, while watching Pac 12 basketball on the West Coast last season.
A former player at the University of San Diego, Musselman often returns to the West Coast. He even entered Thursday's postgame press conference in a bit of rush to catch a flight to San Diego — a flight that wouldn't have happened if the Hogs lost to the Wildcats.
"I would not be going to San Diego if we would have lost tonight, I can tell you that," Musselman said. "I would not have had a break. Mine would have been mandatory, in the office, and I would’ve ruined everybody’s Christmas. We could have met all the next five days, the coaches."
Luckily for Musselman, he had the services of Menifield for all 20 minutes of a second half comeback Thursday. The sophomore guard did a bit of everything with 11 points, six rebounds, two assists and a team-best plus/minus of plus-21 to help dig out of a seven-point halftime deficit.
"Keyon just plays hard," Musselman said. "We’ve been asking our guards to rebound. Keyon goes in the game, he weighs less than me, and he has six rebounds, five defensive rebounds. Four of eight (shooting). Still has a lot of rust on him. Ball moves, pace of play is quicker, 55 points in the second half compared to 28 in the first half. I mean, we doubled up our points by playing with way more pace."
Last season, Menifield played in 32 games and started 21 for Washington as a true freshman. He averaged 10.0 points, 2.9 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1.1 steals for the Huskies.
The addition of a transfer from Washington was a bit random, and Musselman's story of how it happened was pretty entertaining.
"The only one that can say this is true is my wife (Danyelle) — when you play a game and you’re in this time zone and then you go home (to San Diego), the Pac-12 is what’s on," Musselman said. "And I don’t know why it was really random and weird, but I kept watching Washington and I kept waking Danyelle up and said, ‘You’ve got to watch this guy. Like, he’s fun to watch.’
"And then he goes in the portal. We don’t really know any of his inner circle, we don’t know his high school [coach]. We don’t know anybody. Probably the most random recruiting ever. Made a phone call, did a Zoom. He and his mom liked us and they basically committed, and then came on a visit after he committed. This is what we expected."
Menifield now has two games under his belt as a Razorback after finding out he received a waiver from the NCAA exactly a week ago today. Initially, the native of Flint, Michigan, was forced to redshirt this season, but the waiver gave him immediate eligibility.
"I think he brought us together as a team," forward Chandler Lawson said Thursday. "Like controlling the team more. Like, we got a lot of guys like pushing the ball when Key got that start. I feel like he got it under control and he controlled the pace and put everybody in position to make the right reads that we need."
The Razorbacks have one more non-conference game against UNC Wilmington at 4 p.m. CT on Saturday, Dec. 30. The game will be broadcast on the SEC Network.
