FAYETTEVILLE -- The first time the University of Arkansas men's basketball team played Kentucky this season, Trevon Brazile watched from the bench at Walton Arena.
Kentucky's 63-57 victory over the Razorbacks on Jan. 24 was the first of seven consecutive games Brazile missed because of knee soreness.
When Arkansas has its rematch against No. 16 Kentucky on Saturday at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Ky., Brazile figures to play significant minutes.
It will be the third game of Brazile's return. The 6-10 redshirt sophomore played four minutes without recording a stat in the Razorbacks' 88-73 victory over Missouri last Saturday and had 7 points, 6 rebounds and 1 blocked shot in 17 minutes before fouling out with 22.9 seconds left in Arkansas' 85-82 loss to Vanderbilt on Tuesday night.
"Obviously, the fouling out in a short amount of time, we want him to be able to play a little bit more," Arkansas Coach Eric Musselman said Thursday. "But that was his first extended minutes [in more than a month].
"So he's still working his way into shape. He's still working his way into rhythm. All those things are still a work in progress.
"It's hard on a team when a player comes back from an injury. It's hard on the individual player. It changes rotations and makes that a little bit more complicated for everybody involved."
But Brazile, a first-team preseason All-SEC pick in voting by the coaches and members of the media, is too talented not to play if he's healthy.
Musselman said Brazile "did a great job range rebounding" against Vanderbilt.
"Meaning rebounding out of his area, and I think that's something we've really missed," Musselman said. "He can just go up and get rebounds that maybe other people don't have the ability to do because of his length, his reach and his athleticism.
"I think he's looking forward to trying to get back in the flow as well."
Musselman said senior forward Jalen Graham will also be available to play at Kentucky and sophomore guard Keyon Menifield could be ready to return. Graham (shoulder) missed the past four games and Menifield (groin) missed the past three.
"Graham has done a great job rehabbing," Musselman said. "He for sure will be available against Kentucky. Keyon is still progressing. I'm assuming he could be available as well on Saturday."
Arkansas has gone with a four-guard lineup in recent games without Brazile and Graham.
"I think we'll end up playing a little bit bigger down the stretch than the four guards," Musselman said. "That happened out of necessity.
"I think we played well in some games, but certainly we went with a little bit bigger lineup when we made that run late game [against Vanderbilt].
"We'll try to get T.B. more involved in the next few games. So I think we'll have a little bit more of a traditional look. It doesn't mean based on the way a game is going, or the matchups, that we won't go back to four guards."
Brazile. averaging 8.4 points, 6.2 rebounds and 25.9 minutes per game. has had some big games against high level competition.
In Arkansas' most notable victory of the season, Brazile had 19 points and 11 rebounds to help the Razorbacks beat No. 10 Duke 80-75 on Nov. 29 at Walton Arena in the ACC/SEC Challenge.
The previous week at the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas, Brazile had 14 points and 17 rebounds in 46 minutes in the Razorbacks' 77-74 double-overtime victory against Stanford, and 13 points and 10 rebounds in their 84-79 loss to Memphis.
When No. 11 Auburn beat Arkansas 83-51 on Jan 6 at Walton Arena in the SEC opener, Brazile had 11 points and seven rebounds.
Despite being limited to playing in 21 of 28 games, Brazile's 95 rebounds and 25 blocked shots rank second on the team. Tramon Mark leads Arkansas with 99 rebounds and Makhi Mitchell has a team-high 35 blocked shots.
Brazile is shooting 46.8% from the field (59 of 126), 35.8% on three-pointers (19 of 53) and 68.4% on free throws (39 of 57).
"He can add offensive rebounding to our team, which is an area we've lacked," Musselman said. "I think he can be a perimeter threat for us from three. He's got the ability to tip dunk.
"He can get some easy baskets in transition based on his ability to run. He can add shot-blocking to us as well from a defensive standpoint, and he's one of our better defensive rebounders."