NCAA Basketball: Arkansas, Michigan suffer devastating season-ending injuries

Injuries are an unfortunate reality of sports. And for Michigan and Arkansas, they’re now having to deal with a loss of a key player each.

Considering how “wide open” it feels when it comes to teams that can actually contend this season in college basketball, being as healthy as possible is going to be so important in the next few months. Of course, that’s not going to happen for everyone but at least, you don’t want to lose key players for significant amounts of time.

In the past few days, though, some big injuries, unfortunately, got national attention. Both Arkansas and Michigan, a pair of preseason top-25 programs, are now having to deal with missing a key piece the rest of the way.

Arkansas loses 6th Man Trevon Brazile

Of the four frontcourt transfers the Razorbacks brought in, Brazile is the only one currently averaging in double figures at 11.8 ppg, while also leading the team with 6.0 rpg and tied for blocks at 11 total. He comes off the bench but if on the court in crunch time and next to Nick Smith is arguably the best overall athlete on the team.

https://twitter.com/RazorbackMBB/status/1600604941638193152

An ACL injury is just brutal for the sophomore breakout player whose two-way ability made Arkansas a legit Final Four contender. The good news is that the team has the ability to survive his absence in the frontcourt due to the depth they already had. Center Makhi Mitchell will continue to start but look for his brother Mahkel, ASU transfer Jalen Graham and senior reserve Kamani Johnson to have more of a role in the rotation.

Another option is to play exclusively “small ball”, going with four-guard offenses. Both 6’7 Jordan Walsh and 6’6 breakout star Ricky Council IV are capable of playing there and there’s the backcourt depth to make that happen, thanks to five-star freshman Nick Smith recently making his debut and Davonte Davis having returned from a personal absence.

Michigan loses starting point guard Jaelin Llewellyn

After coming over from Princeton, the senior guard has struggled running the Wolverines‘ offense, averaging 7.0 ppg and 2.8 apg while shooting just 31% from the field and 19% from deep. But in a backcourt that’s very inexperienced and unproven outside of him, the hope was that he’d turn it around and make the 5-3 roster good enough to compete at the top of the Big Ten.

While Llewellyn may not be as good as Brazile in terms of impact so far, it’s a brutal blow to lose a veteran that was tasked with running the offense. The options to replace him are slim, with freshman guard Dug McDaniel not slated to take over. He hasn’t shown much offensively but is a good defender. Look for Kobe Bufkin and freshman wing Jett Howard to also help with the ball-handling duties.

The Wolverines don’t have the same margin of error as Arkansas, nor the pieces on the bench to really make up for losing a starting point guard. While Hunter Dickinson has continued to play at an All-American level, it might not be enough this time around to make up for the inconsistent supporting cast, now down one key player.