Eric Musselman evaluates Arkansas' adjustments after losing Trevon Brazile to injury
Despite losing star scorer Trevon Brazile to a knee injury early in the week, Arkansas still managed to put up 88 points on Saturday in a 10-point win over Oklahoma to improve to 9-1. In the game, four different Razorbacks scored double figures to contribute in the win. After the game was over, Arkansas coach Eric Musselman shared how his team was able to have such an impressive outing, despite not having Brazile.
“We changed our schedule,” Musselman admitted. “Usually, we practice at home and then travel. That’s been the way we’ve done it since I’ve been at Arkansas. We did not do that. We left at noon yesterday and decided to practice here without having a practice at home so that they could get a little bit more rest, rather than getting in at 10 in the morning, practicing and coming here. And then Thursday was really our only real prep day. When you ride a bus two hours and you come straight here, you’re not going to do a whole lot except mental reps. So, in a one-day practice, I thought we did a really good job against a really good team, against a team that’s really well-coached, against a team that’s got an explosive, explosive scorer in Sherfield. So, that’s a really good team, Oklahoma, and they’re really well-coached as well.”
Leading the way in the win was Ricky Council IV. Playing all 40 minutes for Arkansas, Council put up a game-high 26 points on 10-of-15 shooting from the field. Nick Smith Jr. also contributed over 20 points, scoring 21 on 8-of-16 shooting. Makhi Mitchell and Jordan Walsh were the other two Razorbacks who scored double figures in the win.
Brazile leaves a huge hole to fill for Arkansas
Brazile came to Fayetteville this summer after spending last season at Missouri. He started his college career averaging 6.6 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 1.9 blocks on 53.4% shooting for the Tigers. Brazile then hit the portal and has flourished with the Razorbacks as he averaged 11.8 points and a team-high six rebounds off the bench.
With this coming off the heels of Smith’s injury, Musselman felt disheartened at the fact that now his team will never truly be 100% healthy this season. However, he says this unfortunate news for Brazile is now an opportunity for someone else to step up. All he can do now is hope that they will as Brazile begins his rehab.
“When we built the roster, he was a big part of how we wanted to play with his versatility. It’s obviously a huge blow to us. But these things happen in athletics and we’ve got to figure out how we move forward,” Musselman said. “It’s a shame that this ball club will only really have one game together that it was fully healthy. That’s not going to change. That’s just going to be a fact for the entire year.”
Sam Gillenwater contributed to this report