HawgBeat - Tramon Mark's status unknown for Duke game
Arkansas guard Tramon Mark's status for Wednesday's game against Duke is unknown.
arkansas.rivals.com
FAYETTEVILLE — The last time the Arkansas Razorbacks (4-3) stepped on the hardwood, junior guard Tramon Mark led the team with 34 points in an 87-72 loss to North Carolina in the Battle 4 Atlantis at Imperial Arena on Paradise Island, Bahamas.
With 1:12 to play in the second half, Mark went up for a layup, fell down hard and hurt his back. He eventually had to be taken off the court on a stretcher and he was taken to a local hospital, where he was later released Friday.
Mark was able to travel back with the team Saturday, but it sounds like it wasn't the easiest travel day.
"Left the hotel at roughly 6 a.m., got back at roughly 3:00," head coach Eric Musselman said Monday. "That’s a long travel day that should have been a three-hour flight but turned into, we could have gone to Europe and Stockton. For whatever reason, to-and-from, we got to Maui quicker. Let’s put it like that, both days traveling.
"But T-Mark was in a wheelchair on the travel day. Danyelle and I went and visited him Sunday night just to check on him. He’s gotten tests done. MRIs done. Obviously he had the stuff done in The Bahamas, but he’s still being evaluated."
A team spokesperson mentioned Monday that Mark's status for Wednesday's matchup against Duke is truly up in the air. He's not doubtful, probable, in, out or anything of that nature. He's just still being evaluated at this point in time.
"There’s a spine specialist coming in today at 2:00," Musselman said. "Tried to get him in the underwater treadmill just to get him to walk a little bit and get a little loose. I just gave you everything that I can give you. We don’t question at all that whenever he’s able to play, whenever that is, he’s going to be anxious to play. As soon as his body is able to play, I have no doubt that he’ll be in uniform, whenever that is."
Mark leads Arkansas with 18.4 points per game through seven games this season. He's also averaging 2.7 rebounds, 1.1 assists and 0.9 steals per contest.
A transfer from Houston, Mark has been a bright spot in a rather not great start to the season for Arkansas offensively.
"Obviously we know what he can do," forward Trevon Brazile said Monday. "We’ve seen what we can do in the early season. It’ll be tough but we’ll game plan and whether he can play or not we have to play the game, so we’d love to have him but if he can’t play we’ll have to go play without him."
Arkansas could really use Mark's services for Wednesday's showdown with No. 7 Duke in the ACC/SEC Challenge. ESPN analytics give Duke a 52.3% chance to win the game, while KenPom has the Blue Devils winning by three.
Wednesday's contest inside Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville will tipoff at 8:15 p.m. CT and it will be televised on ESPN.
