This year’s Arkansas men's basketball roster is full of new faces, as first-year head coach John Calipari has assembled a team with seven transfers and five high school signees who will look to get the Hoop Hogs back in the NCAA Tournament. There is just one returner from last year’s squad — junior forward Trevon Brazile.
HawgBeat will profile each of the key parts of the Arkansas roster ahead of the season, and we're taking a closer look at Brazile and what he can bring to the table for the Hogs this season.
Brazile's career has been a bit of a roller coaster ride since he transferred to Arkansas from Missouri ahead of the 2022-2023 season. He got off to a strong start that season before an ACL injury against UNC-Greensboro sidelined him for the rest of the year just nine games into the season.
Named Preseason First Team All-SEC last fall, Brazile had been hyped as a first-round pick by some for the 2024 NBA Draft, but his season didn't go as expected. He missed several games due to injury and struggled to play at a consistently high level.
After last season, he entered his name into the draft, but after talking with Calipari, Brazile withdrew his name and announced his return to Arkansas.
"I wanted to go (test out the NBA draft)," Brazile said July 29. "I kept in contact with coach Cal and the staff. What they do is, you already know what they do. So coming back, it was a no-brainer for me.”
Calipari said over the summer he was surprised by how good Brazile is.
"Trevon is better than I thought he was," Calipari said July 29. "So I’ll just, a story: He’s in there laying on his back and I said, you’re better than I thought you were. He looks at me and says ‘I told you’. But that’s the confidence that I want him to feel, but he’s got to get into wars and be comfortable in those situations."
