By Kevin McPherson

LITTLE ROCK — The Arkansas Razorbacks have been on a break that began roughly a week ago once the final summer limited practice concluded on Wednesday, Aug. 2, and they’ll reconvene on campus in Fayetteville soon enough with 2023-24 fall semester full session classes set to begin on Aug. 21.

It was a quiet 8-week run of limited on-court practices (4 hours per week), quiet relative to previous June’s and July’s when more video and photos from practices were published by the men’s basketball program, and on Monday, Aug. 7, Head Hog Eric Musselman released a “Summer Recap” video (linked here: https://twitter.com/EricPMusselman/status/1688577032974725121?s=20).

– With the July announcement that sophomore transfer guard Keyon Menifield, Jr., would be a non-scholarship redshirt in ’23-24, it marked the first Hog since the ’19-20 campaign (JD Notae, Connor Vanover, and “Baybe” Iyiola) to be on a path to redshirt for an entire season.

– Three Razorbacks on the ’23-24 roster did not have full participation during any portions of June and July limited practices — Trevon Brazile (6-10 sophomore forward), Makhi Mitchell (6-10 senior forward / center), and Chandler Lawson (6-7 grad-transfer forward). A source told Hogville that Mitchell and Lawson are expected to be available to practice when the team resumes on-court work in August with Brazile (knee rehabilitation) — he was limited to mostly side work during the summer — still on schedule to make his full return no later than sometime in September. All 13 scholarship players are expected to be fully available for the ’23-24 season that begins with exhibition games in October.

– Arkansas has made at least three additions to its men’s basketball staff, but there still has been no announcement regarding a bench assistant coaching hire or promotion to replace the departed Gus Argenal (he left in the spring to accept a Division II head coaching position). The new staffers are: 1) Tommy Abdenour has been hired as an “assistant to the head coach.” His father, Tom Abdenour, previously worked for Musselman & Hogs assistant coach Keith Smart at Golden State in the NBA. 2) Ryan Witthoff has been hired as a “coordinator of creative content” for the team’s social media platforms. Witthoff had the same role at Florida State spanning the last 4 seasons. 3) Matthew Musselman, the youngest of head coach Eric Musselman’s two sons, is now listed as a graduate assistant on the team’s official website (arkansasrazorbacks.com).

– On Thursday, Aug. 3, the Hoop Hogs and coaches took part in the FORE The Players Classic-Arkansas golf event at Shadow Valley Country Club in Rogers (photo linked below). The entire team was present, several played in the event, and the special guest of honor was former Razorbacks coach, program icon, and Naismith Hall of Famer Nolan Richardson. Pro Hogs Isaiah Joe and Dusty Hannahs were among others who took part in the gold outing.

– Our Hoop Hogs notebook published on Tuesday, Aug. 1 (linked here: https://forums.hogville.net/index.php?topic=757084.0) was a deep-dive on the team’s limited summer practices with quotes from Musselman and new transfer Razorbacks guards Tramon Mark, El Ellis, and Jeremiah Davenport.

– Our Hogville analysis piece published on Saturday, July 29 (linked here: https://forums.hogville.net/index.php?topic=756969.0) was an in-depth look at Musselman’s most experienced squad since arriving at Arkansas. With seven players out of the transfer portal bringing a collective 21 years of Division 1 playing experience combined with the five Hog returnees’ collective 14 years of D1 playing experience, it means that Arkansas’ roster will boast a total of 35 years competing against D1 competition entering the ’23-24 campaign.

– For a full accounting of Arkansas’ ’23-24 roster, click the link: https://forums.hogville.net/index.php?topic=756999.0.

– With only one more exhibition game and one more non-conference game left to be announced as well as the dates, times, and television designations for the team’s 18 SEC contests, here’s everything that has been confirmed or reported so far regarding Arkansas’ ’23-24 schedule (click the link: https://forums.hogville.net/index.php?topic=756493.0).

* Razorbacks recruiting

– 2024 Hog offer and national Top 50 / 4-star prospect Rakease Passmore (6-5 wing, Combine Academy in N.C.) will take an official visit to Arkansas on Oct. 6, according to a source. Passmore, he was offered a scholarship by Arkansas in early July, is set to take at least three official visits in September (Mississippi State, Miami, and LSU).

– Arkansas hosted highly regarded 2024 in-state target K. Annor Boateng (6-5 wing, Little Rock Central, 17U Arkansas Hawks, On3.com‘s national No. 9 / 5-star prospect) on an official visit on Friday, July 28, and Boateng came away impressed (for more on his thoughts on the visit and other teams in the mix in his recruitment, click the link to our Hogville article published on Sunday, July 30: https://forums.hogville.net/index.php?topic=756934.0). Boateng and his 17U Arkansas Hawks’ teammate — 2025 Hog target Terrion Burgess (6-9 combo forward, Benton, 247Sports national No. 27 / 4-star prospect) — took part in the Adidas All American Camp in greater Los Angeles that ran Aug. 1-4). Boateng had a 28-point scoring outburst (on 10-of-13 field goal shooting) in his first game at the event, while Burgess capped his camp play with a 21-point, 8-rebound performance.

– Counting Boateng’s OV, Arkansas coaches managed to host seven high school prospects on visits in the span of six days just prior to the NCAA’s recruiting “dead period” (Aug. 6-20). Taking unofficial visits last week were 2026 Hog offer JaShawn “JJ” Andrews (6-5 guard, Little Rock Christian Academy, ESPN national No. 25 / 4-star prospect); 2025 Hog offer Isaiah Sealy (6-6 guard, Springdale, ESPN national No. 43 / 4-star prospect); 2026 Jordan Harris (6-7 forward, Maumelle, Team Iso Joe grassroots program); 2026 Tristan Jahnke (6-7 forward, Joe T. Robinson, Team Iso Joe grassroots program); 2026 Micah Moore (5-9 guard, Joe T. Robinson, Team Iso Joe grassroots program); and 2025 4-star prospect Jordan Lowery (6-2 guard, Winston Salem, N.C.). All seven visitors got to take in Hoop Hog practices at the basketball performance center.

– A pair of senior-to-be prospects recently included Arkansas on their top schools lists. 2024 national Top 50 / 4-star prospect Jaeden Mustaf (6-4 guard, Carmel Christian in Maryland) has the Hogs (he picked up his Arkansas offer in late May) along with Indiana, Maryland, Florida State, North Carolina State, and Georgia Tech as his finalists with a target date of Sept. 14 to announce his commitment choice. 2024 national Top 75 / 4-star guard Jared Harris (6-3 guard, Silsbee, Texas) is yet another hooper from the Lone Star State who has Arkansas among his top schools, a list of 10 programs that also includes Kansas, Memphis, Illinois, Alabama, LSU, Mississippi State, Texas A&M, Colorado, and DePaul.

* Pro Hog updates

– Prior to FIBA World Cup play later this month, Pro Hog Bobby Portis and Team USA will play a handful of showcase games, which began against Puerta Rico on Monday night in Las Vegas (twitter links below contain BP game highlights). Final official boxscore had Portis finishing with 11 points (4-of-6 field goals, including 0-of-1 from 3, and 3-of-4 free throws), 3 rebounds, 1 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, and a boxscore plus-16 in 10 minutes in a 117-74 win for Team USA (linked here are multiple Portis game highlights that were posted to Twitter: https://twitter.com/Bucks/status/1688763949162881024?s=20 … https://twitter.com/NBA/status/1688759338792312832?s=20 … https://twitter.com/ARHoopScoop/status/1688766760961388545?s=20 … https://twitter.com/ARHoopScoop/status/1688760555761221632?s=20 … https://twitter.com/ARHoopScoop/status/1688745324167254016?s=20).

– Pro Hog Mason Jones is one of the featured players in a new documentary entitled Destination NBA: A G League Odyssey that was recently released on Prime Video (trailer linked here: https://twitter.com/nbagleague/status/1689003764819300353?s=20). Jones, an undrafted free agent in 2020 with 36 games of NBA experience (26 contests with Houston and 6 with Philadelphia as a rookie two-way player in ’20-21, and 4 outings with the Los Angeles Lakers as a two-way player in ’21-22), has played the vast majority of his three seasons as a pro in the NBA’s developmental G-League, including all of the ’22-23 season with the Mexico City Capitanes. His hopeful journey back to the NBA is among the handful or so stories that are highlighted in the two-hour documentary.

– Reminder that former Arkansas star and Oklahoma City Thunder guard Isaiah Joe will host his first “Shooters Shoot” Camp on Saturday, August 12, at the Summerwood Sports complex in Alexander, AR (registration info linked here: https://isaiahjoe.com/).

– As witnessed firsthand by this visitor on Tuesday, Aug. 1, Pro Hog Isaiah Joe put on a shooting clinic during his workout at his alma mater of Fort Smith Northside high school (Twitter video highlights are linked here: https://twitter.com/ARHoopScoop/status/1686871264311349248?s=20 … https://twitter.com/ARHoopScoop/status/1687238081580056577?s=20 … https://twitter.com/ARHoopScoop/status/1686531531647447040?s=20).