FAYETTEVILLE -- When the University of Arkansas basketball team held workouts for the NCAA-allotted four hours per week in the summer and fall leading into Tuesday's opening practice, Coach Eric Musselman didn't break his players into position groups.
One reason, Musselman said jokingly, is because the team doesn't have any "bigs."
It's true that the Razorbacks have only two eligible players taller than 6-7 -- sophomores Reggie Chaney and Ethan Henderson both at 6-8 -- with 7-3 Connor Vanover still waiting to hear from the NCAA if he'll be eligible this season after transferring from California and 6-9 Abayomi Iyiola sitting out after transferring from Stetson.
But the main reason Musselman said he didn't break the team into guards, wings or forwards is because he wants to build chemistry.
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Among the 12 scholarship players are seven returnees and five newcomers with the only senior being 6-6 Adrio Bailey.
"From a player chemistry standpoint, they've been phenomenal," said Musselman, who is beginning his first season at Arkansas after leading Nevada to a 110-34 record the previous four years. "Off the floor it seems like they've really jelled.
"We've done a ton of things together off the basketball court ... where we come together from a chemistry standpoint. Just not the new players, but also our new coaching staff.
"So there's a lot of newness that we're trying to get familiarity with one another."
Among the off-the-court activities for the team have been boxing drills, yoga and working out with the track and field team.
"We tried to do something at least once a week that's a little outside the box," Musselman said. "I think it kind of helps everybody get to know each other."
Musselman, 54, is going into eighth consecutive season as a college coach -- he was an assistant at Arizona State and LSU before being hired at Nevada -- after previously coaching in the professional ranks, including being an NBA head coach with the Golden State Warriors and Sacramento Kings.
"We're only playing 30 games [in college] and at the pro level you're obviously playing 82 games," Musselman said. "But it's a long grind for 30 games.
"You've got to mix things up in practice so there's some excitement. It can't be the same monotony. I think it goes with what you do on and off the floor."
Musselman said among the standout players in preseason workouts were sophomore guards Isaiah Joe and Desi Sills.
Joe averaged 13.9 points last season and set an Arkansas school record with 113 three-point baskets.
"I would say for sure Isaiah Joe has been the steadiest day after day after day after day," Musselman said. "Performance, attitude, everything."
Sills averaged 5.3 points last season, but he started the last eight games and averaged 10.1 points over that stretch, including 15 at Kentucky and 18 at Indiana.
"We had the players all vote on who worked the hardest," Musselman said. "We had three different categories -- leadership, working hard and who got in [the most work] off hours, and Desi graded out the highest amongst his peers.
"That was not anything with myself or the coaches. I had the guys vote on that. So I would say Desi had a real good offseason as well."
Junior guards Mason Jones, who averaged 13.6 points last season, and Jalen Harris, who averaged 7.6 points and 5.6 assists, are returnees along with Joe, Sills, Bailey, Chaney and Henderson.
Newcomers along with Vanover and Iyiola are graduate transfers Jimmy Whitt and Jeantal Cylla, and transfer JD Noate.
Whitt, who is back at Arkansas after playing for the Razorbacks as a freshman, averaged 12.3 points and 6.4 rebounds last season at SMU. Cylla averaged 13.7 points and 4.6 rebounds at North Carolina-Wilmington, Noate, a transfer from Jacksonville, will sit out this season and then have two seasons of eligibility.
"We've been really pleased with the buy-in, the effort, the energy, the enthusiasm that our guys have shown up to this point," Musselman said. "Now it starts to become a little bit of a grind.
"This training camp segment when you really don't play a game for an extended period of time, mentally you've got to have some toughness to get through it, because there's a lot of stuff we have to accomplish between now and our first game."
The Razorbacks play their Red-White game on Oct. 5 in Barnhill Arena. Their regular-season opener is Nov. 5 against Rice in Walton Arena. Dates for two exhibition games haven't been announced.
"Now we're going to start going live a lot more than what we have," Musselman said of scrimmage work. "Even though we've put in a lot of our offensive and defensive philosophies, a lot of that stuff has been non-contact.
"As you prepare for a season, you've got to have a lot of contact, and it's going to be physical and it's going to be taxing, both mentally and physically going forward from now until the week before our first game."
Sports on 09/25/2019