The [autotag]Arkansas basketball[/autotag] team will see their first action against an opposing team on Friday night, and a familiar face is expected to make his long-awaited return.
Multiple sources confirmed the news to Razorbacks Wire, which was first reported by Jon Rothstein, that forward [autotag]Trevon Brazile[/autotag] has been fully cleared to resume basketball-related activities and that he is expected to see action in Arkansas’ exhibition game vs. UT-Tyler on Friday. This will mark the junior’s first game action since suffering a season-ending ACL injury in December of last year.
The team is taking things slowly with Brazile’s workload, and there is still a chance that he doesn’t play on Friday, according to [autotag]Eric Musselman[/autotag]. However, the Arkansas head coach did mention during SEC Media Days on Wednesday that Brazile will definitely play in the exhibition game against Purdue one week from Saturday and will be ready for the season-opening game against Alcorn State on November 6th.
Brazile transferred to Arkansas ahead of last season, after spending a season at Missouri, and immediately became one of the most exciting and important players in Eric Musselman’s main rotation. Unfortunately, his season ended prematurely during the December 6th game against UNC-Greensboro when he tore his ACL early in the first half, requiring season-ending surgery.
The Hogs really missed Brazile’s skillset down the stretch last season because of his elite athleticism and unique ability to stretch the floor on the offensive end while also protect the rim at the defensive end. Through nine games last season, he was averaging 11.8 points on 48.1% from the field and 37.9% from three, 6.0 rebounds, 1.0 assists 1.2 blocks and 1.0 steals in 27.1 minutes per night.
If Brazile is able to get close to replicating that output this season, Arkansas’ ceiling should remain sky high.