Arkansas Basketball: Razorbacks can handle loss of Keyon Menifield for 2023-24

One of the many guard transfers for Arkansas Basketball this offseason won’t play next season. How do the Razorbacks move without Keyon Menifield?

Outside of Davonte Davis, Arkansas Basketball had essentially lost its whole backcourt this offseason. Three of them (Anthony Black, Ricky Council IV, and Nick Smith) ended up getting drafted into the NBA. But credit goes to the coaching staff, who landed five of the top perimeter players out of the transfer portal to replace them.

One of them was Keyon Menifield, the lone freshman transfer of the group. In his lone season at Washington, the 6’1 point guard averaged 10.0 ppg and 3.1 apg on 41% shooting from the field and 33% from three-point range. His highlight performances include 26 points against Utah Tech, as well as a season-high 27 points and seven assists in overtime against Oregon.

The hope was that Menifield would serve as depth in the new backcourt, one with three more years of eligibility. However, it’s now being reported that he’ll sit out next season and redshirt. It’s a blow for the Razorbacks since he’s such as explosive athlete that could’ve been due for a breakout season.

The good news is that the team still has plenty of depth behind him. Temple transfer Khalif Battle (17.9 ppg) and former Louisville starter El Ellis (17.7 ppg) were two of the top scorers in the entire portal, while Tramon Mark was one of the top shooters back at Houston. and remember, Davis is more than capable of running an offense, back for his senior year.

The biggest “winner” of this situation may be Layden Blocker, a top-40 incoming point guard. There was a question as to how he’d work in the rotation with so many incoming veteran transfers on the roster. A case can be made that he’s the lon true ball-handler on the roster so look for him to make a case for for minutes.

This ultimately could work out as a blessing in disguise for Coach Eric Musselman. It was going to be hard to make everyone happen when it came to minutes allocation. Now, you can play the veterans as much as possible, give Blocker enough playing to not want to transfer next offseason and have Menifield for sure on the 2024-25 roster no matter what.

There are going to be more situations like this throughout the offseason with playings sitting out next year for various reasons. And for some teams, it’s going to hurt them. Luckily for Arkansas, this not only isn’t going to hurt them much at all but probably helps them a bit in the depth chart situation.