Eric Musselman says Makhel Mitchell will get X-ray, evaluation
Arkansas coach Eric Musselman is still waiting on news for big man Makhel Mitchell, who exited late Saturday in a 69-57 victory against Ole Miss with a foot injury. Speaking postgame, Musselman revealed that Mitchell will undergo an X-ray to determine the severity of the injury.
“He’s gonna get X-rayed and evaluated,” the coach said. “But he played great. We’ll have to see when the medical report comes back, but he played great basketball.”
After seeing limited time off the bench over the first half of the season, Mitchell started the two games prior Saturday. Although he returned to a bench role against the Rebels, Mitchell still made an impact defensively in 21 minutes to finish with four points, five rebounds, two blocks and two steals.
All of Mitchell’s defensive stats came within the first 10 minutes of the second half, as he was huge in helping Arkansas turn a 32-29 halftime advantage to 53-39 across that span.
“We started him in the second half and I thought he gave us a real defensive presence with the two blocks as well as the two steals,” Musselman said. “Again, a lot of nights there’s matchup things. Ole Miss has two, really three bigs in (Robert) Allen, (Josh Mballa) and (Theo Akwuba). Then you add in the fact that (Jayveous) McKinnis is a big guy and you’re talking about four guys that eat up space and are really good around the rim.
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“I thought Makhel did a phenomenal job, because they would platoon those four bigs and he guarded four different guys in the second half depending on who they had in the game.”
So far this season, Mitchell is averaging 3.5 points, 2.2 rebounds and one block across just 8.9 minutes per game. However, those numbers have increased to 5.6 points, 3.7 rebounds and two blocks in 20 minutes per game over the past three contests.
Arkansas will hope the injury to Makhel Mitchell isn’t that serious, as he has clearly started to prove his value to the team lately. Saturday’s win snapped a four-game losing streak for the Razorbacks, who will next face LSU on Tuesday.