After suffering a severe sprained ankle late in a Dec. 4 win over Furman, Arkansas forward Trevon Brazile somehow managed to play in Saturday's 79-70 loss to Oklahoma, but now his availability for this Saturday's game against Lipscomb might be up in the air.
The standout redshirt sophomore played a little more than 15 minutes and he added zero points, one rebound, one assist, one turnover and two steals. He checked out at the 15:47 mark in the second half and didn't see the floor again, although it wasn't really competitive while he was on the bench.
Head coach Eric Musselman said he didn't know if he was going to have Brazile until right before tipoff Saturday against Oklahoma.
"I met with the doctors I think at, I don’t know, whenever I had to turn in the starting lineup," Musselman said after the loss to the Sooners. "He did everything he could. I mean, he was rehabbing at all hours of the day. He and Matt (Townsend) the trainer did a great job.
"Obviously he wasn’t his normal self, but he sacrificed for the team and tried to give us some minutes. That’s not why we lost. I mean, he played on a bum ankle for the betterment of the team, which is, you want guys to be that team-oriented."
Brazile has not practiced at all this week due to the ankle injury, according to Musselman.
"TB has not practiced," Musselman said Wednesday. "He has not practiced on Monday or Tuesday. He’s been with the trainer. We’ll see how he is later today when we’re about to practice. I would anticipate him jumping in and doing some stuff today. Probably, we'll not probably, won’t do anything live. So if most of our practice is live, that means he won’t involved in much."
Brazile is averaging 10.2 points and 7.1 rebounds per game on 33-67 shooting (49.3%) and 14-31 three-point shooting (45.2%) this season. The 6-foot-10, 220-pound forward has played in all 10 games this year.
Arkansas (6-4) and Lipscomb (7-5) are set for a 5 p.m. CT tipoff Saturday inside Simmons Bank Arena in North Little Rock. The game will be streamed live on the SEC Network+.
