Who will replace Eric Musselman at Arkansas? Breaking down the top candidates
Arkansas is officially back in the market in search of a head coach following Eric Musselman’s departure to USC.
Musselman’s tenure in Fayetteville ended somewhat abruptly after the Razorbacks failed to make the NCAA Tournament in 2024. However, led Arkansas to a lot of postseason success over his 5 seasons with the program. The Hogs made 3 straight trips to the second weekend of the tournament (2 Elite Eights and 1 Sweet 16) during his time in charge.
Prior to Musselman arriving at Arkansas, the Razorbacks had not recorded NCAA Tournament wins in back-to-back seasons since Nolan Richardson was head coach in the late 1990s.
With that in mind, whoever Arkansas hires will have big shoes to fill as the program tries to replace Musselman. Here’s a list of possible candidates to consider:
The top candidates
Chris Beard, Ole Miss
The former Texas Tech and Texas coach seems to be the early frontrunner for this job. Several national reporters have already named Beard as a leading candidate, including the college basketball insider Jeff Goodman. Beard just wrapped up his first season in Oxford and led the Rebels to a 20-12 season. He once took Texas Tech all the way to the national championship game, so he has the pedigree to continue Arkansas’ momentum going. Prior to being hired at Ole Miss, Beard was fired at Texas midway through the 2022-23 season after being arrested for domestic violence.
Will Wade, McNeese State
Will Wade is another coach who has been mentioned as a candidate at Arkansas. Previously fired at LSU amidst a NCAA investigation, Wade led McNeese State to a 30-4 record this season and a NCAA Tournament appearance. It was his first season as the Cowboys’ head coach. Wade’s teams at VCU, LSU and McNeese have made the NCAA Tournament in 6 of his 7 seasons at the helm of those schools (excluding 2020 when the Tournament was canceled due to COVID). Wade does have an active show-cause penalty that will be in place for another year. In this case, the show-cause penalty means Arkansas would have to deal with certain recruiting restrictions if it chose to hire Wade.
Jerome Tang, Kansas State
Jerome Tang has had a roller-coaster stint at Kansas State so far. Tang led the Wildcats to a surprise Elite Eight appearance last season in his first year in Manhattan, but K-State missed the Tournament altogether in 2024. Tang, a former longtime Scott Drew assistant at Baylor, has been linked to other jobs this offseason such as Louisville. It wouldn’t be too shocking to see him jump for an SEC job after 2 up-and-down seasons at Kansas State.
The under-the-radar candidates
Bucky McMillan, Samford
If Arkansas strikes out with one of its more high-profile candidates, Bucky McMillan would make a lot of sense. McMillan runs a high-tempo offense at Samford and led the Bulldogs to their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1999 this year. Samford averaged 72.8 possessions per game this past season, which ranked 8th nationally. The Razorbacks were routinely top-50 in pace under Musselman, but McMillan’s offenses at Samford have historically shot many more 3-pointers than Musselman’s did in Fayetteville. McMillan would bring a more modern offensive approach to Arkansas.
Amir Abdur-Rahim, South Florida
Amir Abdur-Rahim is perhaps one of the most underrated head coaches in the country. This season, he led South Florida to a school-record 25 wins. The Bulls didn’t quite do enough to make the NCAA Tournament, but it was a great debut season for Abdur-Rahim at USF. He was previously the head coach at Kennesaw State, where he led that program to its first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance in 2023. Abdur-Rahim is a Georgia native who also has ties to Louisiana and Texas, so he has plenty of experience within the SEC footprint.
Other names to consider
Josh Schertz, Indiana State
Josh Schertz has been heavily-linked to the vacant Saint Louis job, but could Arkansas make a last-minute push here? Schertz led Indiana State back to national relevance this season and nearly got the Sycamores into the NCAA Tournament. Indiana State would have made the field as an at-large team if not for 5 bid-stealers during conference championship week. Instead, Schertz and Indiana State will play for the NIT championship on Thursday night against Seton Hall. Schertz’s offense at Indiana State has been top-25 nationally in 3-point attempt rate in each of the past 3 seasons.
Kellen Sampson, Houston
There have not been any official reports tying Sampson to the Arkansas job — or any other opening this cycle — but Sampson would make a lot of sense if Arkansas would be willing to hire someone who isn’t a sitting assistant coach for the role. Sampson has been an assistant for his dad at Houston during that program’s rise over the last few years. The Cougars have finished in KenPom’s top 5 in each of the past 4 seasons. At some point, a smart program is going to give him the opportunity to be a head coach — why not Arkansas?
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Chris Beard.
The Muss bus got close. Beard is next level.
The Muss bus had flat tires. And Muss flattened em. Hard to watch, then know, that he was shopping himself around by conference tournament time. He owed Arkansas a lot more than he was giving. The talent was there certainly for better than 6 conference wins. Coaching failure and sure, it was time for him to move on. He didn’t get the Louisville job so now he moves on to a job that will be impossible to turn out a winner in the Big Ten, a harder BB conference than the SEC top to bottom. He’ll be gone from USC in 3-4 years.
It’s beard or bust!
Welp…
Welp???
Surely not Will Wade.
Most Arkansas fans don’t care for Wade, but if we steal ole miss I could see wade going to ole miss
I wonder what Sankey would say about it?
As we know it depends on which side of his mouth he says something with.
Explain.
Wouldn’t be surprised at all. In fact I’d believe Wade would slip back into an SEC position, and not a bad one at all, before Beard would leave an already SEC position. Seems like unless Beard has been calling Fayetteville, Wade is in a better spot to pull over to The Hill.
Is Kellen Sampson any relation to Kelvin Sampson? his cousin or something…
The fire was gone. Maybe it was because the losses piled up. Reports about the players not meshing I don’t know. That still seems like a coaching failure. Then I read on Yahoo sports that Muss was looking around for a move before the season ended. May not seem like it now, but I can see this being a good change for Arkansas, if they can find a good candidate. Two losing seasons in a row in SEC play, 6 wins this past season, wow, sure looked like a trend.
If they don’t want to waste effort and time (like they did going after Chris Beard) they need to shoot for something actually attainable, like Travis Ford.
Travis would just be fired in 2 years or less
Perhaps, but at least they should be able to hire him without wasting time (or further embarrassment) just to get turned down.
Another Mizzou post that aged about as well as roadkill on hot pavement. Fortunately for Mizzou, Ford will still be available if Mizzou goes 0-19 in the SEC again and fires your Webster look-alike coach.
Calipari is available!!
Who would Kentucky get to replace Cal?
Face it, Cal is your guy until he decides to leave.
If Arkansas had intelligence and money, they’d offer Jay Wright 10 million but they have neither.
Another one of your idiotic posts that aged poorly.