Arkansas Basketball: 2022-23 season preview for the Razorbacks

With only one starter returning, there will be a lot of new faces

With so many new additions to the roster, it can be hard to parse out how the minutes will be distributed, but even though the faces are new, there is no shortage of talent in Fayetteville. In the backcourt, Davis is likely to man the shooting guard spot after putting up eight points per game in each of his first two seasons with the Razorbacks. But, with the long ball not much of a factor in Davis’ game he’s going to have to rebound a bit next season as both his field goal and free throw percentages took a dip in his second season.

The guy joining Davis, likely as the starting point guard should be Nick Smith who may be the best freshman in the country. The Arkansas native can do a little bit of everything, he can put the team on his back offensively or he can take a back seat and drop dimes to everyone else on the floor.

The frontcourt is a little trickier, one spot should go to Anthony Black, who even at 6’7 has the ability to play point guard, so putting him at the small forward gives Musselman two freshmen with an elite ability to facilitate the offense. I think the final two starting spots will be a battle between three guys that are 6’9 transfers, Jalen Graham who played last year at Arizona State averaging just a tick under 10 points and 4.6 boards.

It is likely he gets one of the spots and the other will go to one of the Mitchell twins, Makhei and Makhel who transferred from Rhode Island. Not only are they twins biologically but also production-wise too, Makhel scored 0.8 more points per game but Makhei grabbed 1.7 more rebounds and 0.2 assists and their field goal percentage is separated by just 2 points and their free throw percentage is nearly identical, both shooting 52%.