HawgBeat - Notes and quotes from Arkansas basketball practice
HawgBeat provides notes and quotes from Arkansas basketball's practice on Thursday.
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Head coach Eric Musselman and the Arkansas basketball team allowed the media to view around 40 minutes of practice and meet with them following the action on Thursday afternoon.
The Razorbacks started official practice this week in preparation for the 2023-24 season, which will begin on Monday, Nov. 6 against Alcorn State. Before that game, the Hogs will play their Red-White Showcase next Wednesday and a pair of exhibitions against UT Tyler on Oct. 20 and Purdue on Oct. 28.
Here are some notes and observations I had from Thursday's practice, plus quotes from Musselman and select players.
Trevon Brazile coming along well
After tearing his ACL on Dec. 6 of last year, Brazile has had a long road of recovery but he said Thursday that he's felt 100% for a good bit now despite the fact that he isn't a full-go at practice.
"I do everything in practice," Brazile said. "I do my own little live second after practice or before practice. The start of next week I'll start getting back into live. I've been feeling 100% for a couple of weeks now. Now it's just putting the last finishing touches on it."
Brazile might have the highest ceiling and best NBA Draft potential of any Razorback on this year's roster, so getting him healthy and ready to go by the first game is a big deal.
"He's going to have an adjustment period probably the first month of the season," Musselman said. "I don't think we can expect a guy who has been out that long to just come in and have three and a half weeks before your first game. He's going to be a guy just like our team we hope come March he's taking it up another level. We'll see with each month him getting better and better, and he's already pretty good."
From what I saw Thursday, Brazile was moving well but did look maybe a little timid on the knee. To be honest, he doesn't look like he should have any holdbacks when he's able to fully participate, though.
Conditioning
Musselman-coached teams are known well for their ability to run the floor with anyone and this year's team will have that same expectation. To this point, Musselman isn't pleased with his team's conditioning, though.
"I think we've got some guys that need to get in a lot better shape to play at the pace that we want," Musselman said. "Even going live today, I've never seen a team struggle so bad to get the ball in-bounds as an in-bounder. You can bet tomorrow or the next time we get together, there will be a lot of in-bounding drills because we want to run.
"But I think fatigue - when we go back and watch a little bit of today, we'll probably see a lot of guys fatiguing. When that happens, execution goes down."
I noticed Temple transfer Khalif Battle bending over and looking gassed after the five-on-five live ball portion of practice and I asked him about it after.
"If y'all seen what we were doing from Monday and last week and the week before that and the week before that," Battle said. "I feel like we've just been working so hard that our bodies are kind of tired. But we're getting better from it, because we're able to push. During the season, it's going to be just like this so we're just being wired to keep up with it."
Naturally, senior Devo Davis was the only name that Musselman said doesn't need to improve in conditioning.
"Devo runs on batteries, he’s bionic so I'm not really worried about Devo," Musselman said. "I just think as a whole other than him, we’ve got to get in better shape, we really do."
This team can shoot
It was pretty clear that this Arkansas team has some shooters during Thursday's practice. The two names to know are sophomore Joseph Pinion and Cincinnati transfer Jeremiah Davenport.
Musselman said a knee injury in high school made Pinion's freshman season in 2022 a little tough, but he's overcome the injury mentally now.
"His shooting has been incredible," Musselman said. "He's still got some things that we want him to try and focus on defensively. He got beat backdoor the other day in a situation where - we're not a deny team. But certainly, he's been a real pleasant piece for us since we've been together."
Davenport was shooting the lights out of the ball and he made back-to-back threes on both sides of the court during the five-on-five live ball portion.
"Yeah, he’s streaky," Musselman said. "JD’s got great, great range. We’re really talking about him trying to square his shoulders up. He shoots a lot of off-balance shots. The great thing about him is he’s able to make high degree of difficulty shots.
"But along with those, sometimes that’ll cause some inconsistency. So the more we can work with him about trying to square up and not shoot off-balance shots, I think it’ll help his percentage."
Other guys like Brazile, Davis, Battle, Ellis, etc. will also be able to help out with shooting the ball at a high clip. Even forwardnMakhi Mitchell told me he's improved on his outside shooting.
"Extending my range from the 3-point and hitting that 15-footer," Mitchell said. "I started throwing flashes towards the end (of last season). But I want to show more of that this upcoming season, that I can hit the three at a high level and expand my game."
Freshmen
Four-star freshman guard Layden Blocker was not at today's practice as he was having his wisdom teeth removed. Four-star center Baye Fall was there and he looked like he has a much higher motor than I expected.
Fall runs the court very well and he doesn't shy away from contact. Sure, Musselman was probably calling Fall out for more things than any other player, but he's a freshman and that's expected.
"Baye has great agility, great movement," Musselman said. "I think that some of the schemes are a little different than he’s used to. He’s got to continue to look at the playbook and watch what we’re doing and pick up second and third reads.
"But, today, altered shots, ran the floor really hard. Has got to add body weight and get stronger, but certainly has had a great work ethic as well and is really trying hard."
Jalen Graham
If you watched Arkansas basketball last season, you know that Jalen Graham is about as hot and cold as they come. One moment he can be putting his lethal spin move on display and dominating in the paint and the next he could just miss a defensive assignment and give up an easy layup.
What I saw out of Graham today was encouraging. He was running the court as smooth and quickly as I've seen him with the Hogs and he just seemed to be commanding the floor better.
"I think that Jalen Graham’s practice habits have improved for sure," Musselman said. "We all know, Jalen can really score the ball. Comes down to loose balls defensively. Physicality, those are the things that will allow him to have an expanded role and then with Khi, he’s a really underrated passer. I mean, when we back and watched a lot of the film, he’s a willing passer too."
Checking in at 6-foot-10, 210 pounds, Graham told me he added good weight over the offseason.
"Just getting more stronger and more faster to get ready for SEC play," Graham said. "Just working for that also on the defensive end. Moving better laterally, just being more quicker on defense, getting to spots and stuff like that."
