FAYETTEVILLE — Khalil Garland will be a student assistant next basketball season, a UA spokesperson confirmed Thursday.

This is the first significant news about the guard from Little Rock since it was originally announced two years ago that he couldn’t play because of an undisclosed medical condition.

Garland will still be on scholarship, but not count toward the NCAA-mandated limit of 13. He is still not medically cleared.

Former head coach Mike Anderson maintained a level of optimism that Garland would eventually be able to play for the Razorbacks, but now entering what would be his redshirt sophomore season, that has become less and less likely.

His absence was a significant blow to Arkansas the last two years, as the 6-foot-5, 198-pound guard was a highly regarded three-star prospect coming out of Little Rock Parkview. He turned down offers from Alabama, Baylor, LSU, Memphis, Oregon, Texas A&M, UConn and others to stay home.

By not counting toward the basketball team’s scholarship limit, this move - coupled with the departure of Justice Hill - opens up another spot for a potential transfer or late addition to the 2019 class.

Considering new head coach Eric Musselman’s history and that Arkansas is continually being mentioned as a possibility for other transfers, that would be the likely route.

The Razorbacks have already landed Jeantal Cylla from UNC-Wilmington, JD Notae from Jacksonville, Connor Vanover from Cal and Jimmy Whitt Jr. from SMU.

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