FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas ’ basketball program, under a dark cloud since the announcement Aug. 8 that Patrick Beverley won’t play this season, got some rays of sunshine with the news that Courtney Fortson officially was certified by the NCAA clearinghouse Wednesday.

That means Fortson, a freshman point guard expected to start and run the team, will be academically eligible to play for the Razorbacks this season.

“This is great news, but we never really anticipated any problems,” Arkansas Coach John Pelphrey said in a statement released through the sports information office. “There was a process he had to go through.

“ It took some time, but he and his family did all the right things. We are looking forward to having Courtney as a Razorback.”

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Fortson, 5-11, 175 pounds, averaged 25 points, 7 assists and 6 steals last season at The Patterson School, a prep school in Lenoir, N. C., leading the team to a 34-2 record.

As a senior at Montgomery (Ala. ) Jefferson Davis High School two years ago, he averaged 23. 7 points, 7. 1 rebounds and 4. 2 steals and was named the state’s Mr. Basketball by the Alabama Sportswriters Association.

“He’s a tremendous penetrator and distributor of the basketball who is tough as nails,” Pelphrey said about Fortson earlier this summer.

Fortson gives the Razorbacks nine scholarship players who are academically eligible for this season.

Arkansas is still awaiting word from the NCAA clearinghouse regarding Jason Henry, a 6-6 freshman forward from West Memphis who played at Cincinnati Harmony prep school last season.

Beverley, a junior guard who started 67 of 70 games the past two seasons, won’t play for the Razorbacks this season, but Arkansas has offered no other details and cited student privacy laws as to why coaches and administrators wouldn’t comment.

Beverley is listed on Arkansas’ roster in its 2008-2009 prospectus with an asterisk noting he will not compete this season.

Beverley might have the option of returning to Arkansas next season after sitting out a year and is considering that, his mother, Lisa Beverley, told the Chicago Tribune. But his mother also plans to meet with representatives from three sports agencies to explore Beverley’s options for turning pro and playing overseas this season, then entering the 2009 NBA Draft.

Without Beverley and six seniors, Arkansas has lost 87 percent of its scoring and 77 percent of its rebounding from last season’s 23-12 team that beat Indiana for the program’s first NCAA Tournament victory in nine years.

Fortson leads a contingent of six signees who will try to offset the heavy losses from last season. The class has been highly ranked nationally, including 11 th by ESPN. com, 13 th by CBSSports. com, 16 th by Rivals. com and 24 th by Scout. com.

The leading returning scorer from last season is now junior guard Stefan Welsh, who averaged 5. 3 points. Junior forward Michael Washington is the leading returning rebounder (3. 9 ) and the second-leading scorer (4. 3 ).