Arkansas was ranked 10th in the preseason Associated Press Top 25 poll despite losing eight of the top nine scorers from last season's roster that advanced to the Elite Eight of the 2022 NCAA Tournament largely because of a recruiting class that ranked second nationally and Eric Musselman's track record of turning a lot of newcomers into quality teams seamlessly. Two months into this season, it's fair to say he's done it again -- under less-than-ideal circumstances.
Nick Smith Jr. has only played five games.
Trevon Brazile is done for the season with a torn ACL.
That means Arkansas is 12-2 even though its leading scorer and most-heralded prospect (Smith) has been, and continues to be, sidelined with a knee issue while the Razorbacks' third-leading scorer and second-best transfer (Brazile) recovers from knee surgery. Is the ceiling on the Razorbacks now lowered a bit? Perhaps, if only because teams don't often remain the same when two of their top three scorers aren't in the lineup. But this is still a high-level team that just this week beat the Missouri team that just last week smashed the Kentucky team that was the preseason SEC favorite. So it's reasonable to assume Arkansas can still compete for the league title even without Brazile and Smith, the latter of whom remains out indefinitely while industry sources openly wonder if he'll ultimately decide to just shut it down in advance of the 2023 NBA Draft.
Arkansas remains No. 17 in Saturday morning's updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings. The Razorbacks will play their third SEC game of the season Saturday night when they visit Auburn in a contest scheduled to tip at 8:30 p.m. ET on the SEC Network.
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Top 25 And 1 rankings
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January 07, 2023 at 10:54PM
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College basketball rankings: Short-handed Arkansas standing tall in Top 25 And 1 - CBS Sports
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