Eric Musselman reveals how Arkansas will offset the loss of Trevon Brazile

As Arkansas goes through the rest of its season, the Razorbacks will be without Trevon Brazile after he tore his ACL. That means it’ll be next man up for Eric Musselman’s group.

It’s not the first time Musselman has needed other players to step up, though.

“I looked at last year’s box score against Oklahoma,” Musselman said. “Trey Wade hardly played. He ended up being a starter for us. Stanley Umude came off the bench that game. He ended up being a starter and a go-to player for us. It’s ever-evolving. We just want to continue to try to — who we are Saturday, it’s a new ball club.”

Although Brazile was a key player for Arkansas after transferring from Missouri — he averaged 11.8 points and 6.0 rebounds per game before his injury — Musselman said it won’t be just one player who’ll need to help fill his spot. It’ll take a team effort, and that was his message to the team.

“‘TB’ was a leader for us way back when we went and played the four games overseas,” Musselman said. “He’s been a go-to player and a guy that we’ve relied on offensively, defensively, blocking shots, versatility. There’s going to be an adjustment. There’s no doubt about it.

“Like I mentioned, just other guys that are going to get an opportunity. I don’t think there’s one particular player. There’s 25 or 26 minutes that are now available that probably were not available up until that injury.”

Eric Musselman compares Trevon Brazile injury to a big injury at his previous stop

Before he took over at Arkansas in 2019, Musselman was the head coach at Nevada for four seasons. While there, he recruited Lindsey Drew, who became the Wolf Pack’s starting point guard. But late in the 2017-18 season, he suffered an Achilles injury, meaning Musselman had to make some lineup changes.

That’s when he put his starting power forward at the point guard spot. He told that story to show players might have to take on new roles in the wake of Brazile’s injury.

“Earlier today, I did an interview and I talked about at Nevada, Lindsey Drew was the first player I recruited and was a starter,” Musselman said. “He and I couldn’t have been on more of the same wavelength as a point guard and a head coach. He tore his Achilles and we moved our power forward, Cody Martin, to the point guard spot, which was unheard of at that particular time to move Cody from where we did to the point. We ended up being a basket away from being in the Elite Eight or 10-15 seconds away from getting one more stop and going to the Elite Eight.

“When Lindsey got hurt, quite frankly, I didn’t know if we’d be able to win a game because we relied on Lindsey so much. So I just used that as an example with the team. Roles, positions, they’re going to change.”