If there wasn’t enough hype already surrounding the upcoming Arkansas basketball season, the Razorbacks took expectations to new heights following Saturday’s preseason exhibition win over No. 3 Purdue.
The 81-77 overtime victory for No. 14 Arkansas was an encouraging performance against one of the best teams in the country. Bud Walton Arena was sold out, with Purdue head coach Matt Painter calling the environment ‘a hornet’s nest’ despite the lack of regular season ramifications.
“Twenty-thousand people before Halloween. I don’t know many places that can do that. I really don’t,” Arkansas head coach Eric Musselman said. “Yeah, I think there’s a lot of anticipation.”
With all that anticipation coming to a head — Arkansas opens its season Monday at home against Alcorn State — here are five bold predictions for the upcoming campaign.
A bench player leads Arkansas in scoring
Things can change, either through injury or scheme, but Khalif Battle looks set to be the Razorbacks’ sixth-man this season. Battle came off the bench in each of Arkansas’ two exhibitions, averaging a team-high 13 points per game.
That preseason trend will continue into the games that count.
Battle averaged 17.9 points a game last year at Temple. He comes to Arkansas labeled as an elite scorer capable of doing damage as a spot-up shooter and attacking the basket. He’s also hyper-efficient, doing damage from three and at the free throw line, shooting 89.8% last season from the charity stripe.
It will be a constant competition for minutes in a crowded backcourt, but Battle has the type of explosion Arkansas can’t let go to waste. He will do damage against second units and be a viable option in closing time. Those ingredients have all the makings of leading scorer.
Trevon Brazile is a lottery pick
Brazile’s NBA Draft stock was on the rise last season before an ACL injury ended his season. Now, the redshirt sophomore returns as the Razorbacks’ top prospect.
Brazile played 31 minutes against Purdue on Saturday, showing off his shooting stroke. The 6-foot-10 forward is the type of prospect NBA teams covet, serving as a stretch-four who could also play center in small-ball lineups, constantly creating space.
Coming off an injury with limited minutes played over the past 12 months, Tankathon.com has Brazile as the 27th-ranked prospect for the 2024 Draft. What makes Brazile such a highly-touted NBA prospect is his athleticism, and when that returns, the big-man will once again see his NBA Draft ceiling raised.
Three-point percentage improves, but not drastically
Long-distance shooting was the Achilles heel of last year’s Arkansas team. The Razorbacks ranked 318th in the country, shooting 31.3% from three-point range.
Musselman went into the transfer portal and found some added shooting, but the improvement in that category has looked marginal in the preseason. Arkansas shot 33.3% across its two exhibition games, and that percentage would have ranked 204th last year.
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Jeremiah Davenport and Joseph Pinion are the Razorbacks two best three-point shooters, but it remains to be seen how many minutes those two get on a night-to-night basis. Fans might be expecting a significant uptick, but the identity of this Musselman team will remain defense and physical guards.
Arkansas enters final three games in SEC title race
The Razorbacks were an after thought for a conference championship last season. Arkansas started league play 1-5 and had to focus more on making the tournament than hanging an SEC banner in Bud Walton Arena.
That will change this season, with Arkansas firmly in the mix before a season-defining three-game stretch at the end. The Hogs will finish the campaign with games at Kentucky, home against LSU and at Alabama.
The Wildcats and Crimson Tide figure to also be SEC title contenders this year, and those games will determine if the Razorbacks win the league.
The highest NCAA Tournament seed of Musselman’s tenure
Arkansas has made the second weekend of March Madness in each of Musselman’s three tournament appearances. This season, the Razorbacks will have an easier road to that destination, breaking through as either a No. 1 or No. 2 seed.
Arkansas was a No. 3 seed in 2021, but this is Musselman’s deepest and most experienced squad. Regular season slip ups will be less likely with all of the talented seniors on the roster.
The SEC is a gauntlet, but the final result will be one of the best regular seasons in Arkansas history. The Hogs were last a top-two seed in 1995, when they went all the way to the National Championship and lost to UCLA.