FAYETTEVILLE — After Jalen Graham averaged 2.0 points in the University of Arkansas basketball team’s four exhibition games in Europe in August, the 6-9 senior transfer from Arizona State on Sunday looked more like the All-Pac-12 player the Razorbacks recruited.
Graham scored a game-high 25 points and hit 10 of 11 shots, including his only three-point attempt, to lead the Red team to a 64-59 victory over the White team in the Razorbacks’ intrasquad game in Barnhill Arena before 5,147 fans.
“I just want to compete,” Graham said. “I felt like I had something to show coming into this game for my teammates and the coaching staff.
“Just trying to show that I want to be here, I want to play hard and be out there.”
Playing 24 of the game’s 32 minutes, Graham scored on spin moves, drives, jumpers and dunks and hit 4 of 8 free throws. He had 2 rebounds, 2 blocked shots, 1 assist and 1 steal.
Last season at Arizona State, Graham averaged 9.9 points and 4.6 rebounds and earned all-conference second-team honors.
“The thing with Jalen Graham is you’re talking about an all-conference player in a Power 5 league,” Arkansas Coach Eric Musselman said. “He played today much like some of the video [evaluations] where he was a really great spin-dribble drive guy. A guy that you can isolate.
“We have felt for quite some time that he shot the three pretty well in practice. Not that we want him shooting it all the time, but I do think he can keep the defense a little bit honest at times.
“We would like him to rebound the ball a little bit more. But he is a really good passer and a really willing passer. Once he gets the ball and the defense gets congested, he does a really good job of finding people.
“For sure, this was good for his teammates to see him play well, and I think this is good for his confidence as well.”
Freshman guard Anthony Black had 9 assists, 9 rebounds, 4 points and 3 blocked shots for the Red. Freshman guard Joseph Pinion scored 12 points and junior guard Ricky Council, a transfer from Wichita State, added 10.
The White team was led by freshman guard Nick Smith’s 22 points. Trevon Brazile, a 6-10 sophomore transfer from Missouri, had 13 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists.
Senior forward Kamani Johnson had 8 points and 9 rebounds for the White.
Twins Makhel and Makhi Mitchell — senior forwards who transferred from Rhode Island — combined for 14 points, 10 rebounds and 5assists. Makhel Mitchell had 8 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists for the White, and Makhi Mitchell had 6 points, 5 rebounds and 1 assist for the Red.
“I thought the environment was great,” Musselman said. “It was a great crowd.
“With the students being out on [fall] break, we didn’t really know what type of crowd we would have, but we all walked in and we were really surprised in a good way.”
Junior guard Davonte “Devo” Davis didn’t play as a precaution because of what Musselman called “just got a little bit of discomfort” in his knee. Musselman stressed it’s not a serious injury,
“That’s not of a concern to anybody,” Musselman said. “But there was no reason to let him play today.”
Graham said he was surprised by the crowd.
“Walking into the arena, I was like, ‘Wow, this is a big crowd with a lot of people here,’ ” Graham said. “That’s always exciting.”
Fans had to be excited getting their first in-person look at Graham.
“When Jalen plays like he does today, it helps us a lot,” Black said. “His 25 points, we needed all of that. Could’ve had more rebounds, but he was doing his thing on offense.
“In practice, he’s picking it up since the Europe trip. … It kind of woke him up.
“He was obviously really good at Arizona State, but we have five pretty good bigs. He’s going to have to keep picking it up and keep playing like he did today. He’s on a good track.”
Graham said there’s plenty of competition among the big men for playing time with himself, the twins, Johnson and Brazile.
“Everybody wants to play,” Graham said. “No one knows that they’re going to play.
“In practice everybody is trying to compete and that just helps the team get better every day. When you have four bigs that are transfers, one that’s been there, it’s hard.
“You don’t know what’s going to happen. So we’re just competing for every spot and every opportunity.”