Arkansas improved to 2-1 on Wednesday with a 65-49 victory over Troy, but the Razorbacks have some lingering injury concerns in the aftermath with front court pieces Trevon Brazile and Jonas Aidoo.
Brazile earned his first start of the season and appeared to be well on his way to a breakout performance before rolling his ankle underneath Arkansas’ basket midway through the first half.
The 6-10 redshirt junior — who had 4 points, 5 rebounds, 2 blocks and 2 steals in just 9 minutes — was helped off the floor and eventually returned to the bench in uniform, but he was ruled out for the second half.
“It was his ankle,” head coach John Calipari said after the game. “They said it did swell a little bit and they weren’t comfortable with him going in, because I did ask, can you give us three minutes so [Zvonimir Ivisic] doesn’t have to play all 20?
“And then I said, okay, Z has a problem, we play war games. Who’s going to play the 5? We said Adou. Then we had Billy and Karter, you’re still pretty big. But, you know…”
The reason Arkansas was down to only Ivisic in the front court after Brazile went down is because All-SEC big man Jonas Aidoo remains on the mend himself.
Aidoo played the final four minutes of the first half, but he, too, was ruled out for the second half after looking noticeably limited in his small sample size on the floor.
According to Calipari, Aidoo is on the other side of a lower body injury that cost him significant time in the preseason, but he is still working himself back into comfortable and effective playing shape.
“He’s all healed, but you’re going to have to play for the first time in a while, and you’re going to have some pain,” Calipari said. “But, you’ve got to go through it and have pain, and is it too much for you to play?
“Prior to the game, he didn’t have a uniform on, I said, dude, put the uniform on. I may not play you at all. I’m not planning to, but what if I need you for five minutes. Then what did I play him for? And at the end, it was like two too many. It’s where he is right now. He’s probably 70, 75%.”
Arkansas will be off on Thursday and have three days of preparation before returning to action Monday night against Pacific in Fayetteville.
Calipari mentioned potentially adding a zone defense to help with the short bench and is prepared to experiment with small-ball lineups featuring Adou Thiero at the 5 and Billy Richmond or Karter Knox at the 4 to get by if needed in the immediate future.