Trevon Brazile returning to Arkansas for 2024-2025 season

Trevon Brazile will return to Arkansas for the 2024-2025 season, the program announced via social media on Tuesday. This will be Brazile’s fourth year with the Razorbacks after beginning his college basketball career with the Missouri Tigers.

A nice addition for head coach John Calipari after having to build his roster from scratch after a mass exodus. Now, a familiar face will be back in Fayetteville with Brazile while Calipari brings in a lot of new players this offseason.

“Re-energized. Re-focused. I’m all hog. Run it back,” a graphic posted by Arkansas Men’s Basketball’s X account said.

RUN IT BACK pic.twitter.com/C71P2tXV8s

— Arkansas Razorbacks Men’s Basketball 🐗 (@RazorbackMBB) June 4, 2024

This past season, Brazile made 24 appearances and 21 starts. The 6-foot-10 forward averaged 6.6 points and 5.1 rebounds per game while shooting 53.4% from the field and 33.3% from beyond the arc.

Injuries have been a big issue for Brazile during his time at Arkansas, playing in nine games two seasons ago before a season-ending knee injury and struggling to stay healthy at times during the past season.

Brazile originally declared for the 2024 NBA Draft following Arkansas’ season and earned a spot at the NBA Combine. Just about a month later, the forward decided to protect himself and enter the NCAA transfer portal before the window closed. In a scenario where Brazile returned to school, his options would be wide open.

Arkansas was going through changes itself, with Eric Musselman leaving in favor of the open USC Trojans job. A big hire was needed by athletic director Hunter Yurcheck and he delivered by bringing Calipari in. The shaping of the roster began immediately and at the time, nobody from previous squads was expected to be a part of the plan.

However, right before the deadline to withdraw from the draft, Brazile decided to do so, officially putting himself on the open market on May 27. One week later, this announcement comes and Arkansas will have one of the more experienced players in the SEC coming back for the 2024-2025 season.

Before the Brazile news was announced, On3’s James Fletcher had Arkansas as the No. 22 team in his way-too-early top 25 rankings, version 9.0. There will be a chance for the Razorbacks to move up and hopefully gain some traction on their SEC counterparts.

Expectations were always going to be high in Calipari’s first season in charge but Brazile’s return only heightens them.

On3’s Andrew Graham contributed to this report