LAS VEGAS — It’s gone viral - photos and videos of Arkansas Head Coach Eric Musselman ripping his shirt off after No. 8 Arkansas upset No. 1 Kansas last Saturday.
For Arkansas fans, it's not uncommon to see the coach take his shirt off in celebration.
The trend of a shirtless celebration continued Saturday when Arkansas beat Kansas 72-71 which paved the way for Arkansas to head to Vegas in the Sweet 16 championship.
Arkansas fans seem to enjoy the celebration from their head coach and 5NEWS sat down with his wife, Danyelle Musselman, who says she too enjoys the celebration.
“It just shows that he has a playful side and he has a fun side. We need to be able to celebrate these wins and get our fans hyped up and just really have fun," she said.
Since Musselman came to Arkansas in 2019, there have been several occasions where he was captured taking his shirt off after a big win but It didn’t start in Arkansas.
“It started years ago whenever we were at University of Nevada and we won our first conference title. He wanted to put on the t-shirt that said 'Conference Champions, so he took his shirt off, and he was trying to put it on, but the team just grabbed him into the celebration. So we just kind of went with it and started celebrating with the shirt off,“ she says. “It just became a thing where every time you celebrate, you take your shirt off and I think it's so fun that he continues that here at Arkansas.”
As for the 2022 – 2023 Arkansas Men’s Basketball season, Danyelle says its been an incredible journey so far.
“Everyone who has been watching the Razorbacks all season know that there's definitely been lows and there have been highs. It’s just a team that we knew had the potential to kind of put it all together. To see them here in the Sweet 16 is just amazing. I'm so proud of them,” she added.
It’s common to see Danyelle Musselman on the sidelines cheering on her husband but this trip to Nevada will have even more Coach Musselman fans with his mom and sister in the stands.
Danyelle says her nerves will start kicking in the closer the teams gets to tip off.
“I feel pretty good until maybe like an hour before tipoff and then I get nervous like I'm fine the whole day and then I'm like 'okay, here we go'."
Eric and Danyelle married in 2009 while he was coaching in the NBA’s development league. Danyelle was a national sports broadcaster for ESPN, Fox Sports and NFL Network.
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