Transfers Ellis, Mark to play pivotal role for Razorbacks
Looking back through head coach Eric Musselman’s tenure at Arkansas, there’s been no shortage of quality guard play from transfers.
Names that immediately come to mind include JD Notae (Jacksonville), Jalen Tate (Northern Kentucky), Stanley Umude (South Dakota), Au’Diese Toney (Pittsburgh) and Ricky Council IV (Wichita State).
Heading into the 2023-24 season, the Razorbacks yet again have a crop of talented transfer guards at their disposal — two of which are from some of college basketball's most storied programs in Houston transfer Tramon Mark and Louisville transfer El Ellis.
The lead-man for a bad Cardinals’ team, Ellis averaged 17.7 points, 2.6 rebounds and 4.4 assists per game. His most impressive feat came in a four-game stretch against No. 19 Miami, No. 7 Virginia, Clemson and Duke, where he averaged 25.8 points per game on 36-of-65 shooting (55%).
There’s no question that Ellis can score, but the next step in his progression as a basketball player needs to come in the areas outside of putting the ball in the basket, according to Musselman.
“Now, how do you become a more well-rounded player?” Musselman said Tuesday. “I think El is excited to play around pieces that he can deliver the basketball to and guys can either catch-and-shoot or make plays. His growth of growing into more of a true point guard I think is something that he wanted, and something that we want.”
Things seem to be on the right track, as Ellis notched six assists with only one turnover in Arkansas’ Red-White Showcase. He also added four assists with zero turnovers in the blowout exhibition win over UT Tyler last Friday.
One of the top defenders for a Houston basketball team that ranked No. 3 nationally in defensive rating (89.4) last season according to Warren Nolan, Mark has seen his fair share of good point guards throughout his career. He gave credit to Ellis’ ability to play in the role.
“Yeah, he’s quick,” Mark said Tuesday. “He can shoot the ball off the dribble. He can catch and shoot. He can penetrate the defense and kick out to the open player. He’s just a good point guard, a high-IQ point guard who knows how to play the game. Just having one of those high-IQ point guards on my team is really good for us.”
Mark averaged 10.1 points, 4.9 rebounds and 1.8 assists for the Cougars last season and is expected to fit right into Musselman’s style of gritty defense and high-effort play.
“T-Mark is aggressive, physical, confident,” Musselman said. “Played for a great coach in Kelvin Sampson. Probably as good of a defensive program in the country. Their defensive schemes are a little bit different than ours, so he's still in a growing, learning, development stage of how we want to play team defense. But I think as an individual defender, he's as good as anybody in the country.”
One of 20 players around the country to be named to the Jerry West Shooting Guard of the Year Award watch list on Tuesday, Musselman believes there’s another gear for Mark to turn on offensively.
"We feel like he can rebound a little bit better than he has in the small sample size we have so far,” Musselman said. “Really, really excited about the offensive growth we've seen throughout the course of the summer as well. I think he's a much-improved shooter based on his individual player development stuff that he's done on his own since the time he got on campus."
If the Hoop Hogs want to compete for an SEC Championship and potentially a national championship, they'll need Mark and Ellis to take the necessary steps in their player development to reach the height of their potential.
Based off Musselman's elite track record with transfer guards, don't be surprised to see either of these two playmakers' names in the same conversation as former All-American JD Notae by the time they're done in Fayetteville.
Arkansas fans will get their first taste for what Mark and Ellis can do against elite competition Saturday, when the Razorbacks will welcome the No. 3 Purdue Boilermakers into Bud Walton Arena for a charity exhibition. The game is set to tipoff at 3:00 p.m. CT and it will stream live on SEC Network Plus.