It has been awhile since we’ve gotten to talk to Arkansas men’s basketball coach John Pelphrey.

Actually, it has been four months if my math is correct. Wow. That’s a long time.

But Pelphrey was the guest speaker at the Northwest Arkansas Razorback Club banquet at Rogers Heritage High on Tuesday night, giving us a chance to check in with the coach. He took questions from the media for five minutes, then spoke to club for roughly 3o minutes, then spoke to the media again for another three or four minutes after it was all over.

Here are three highlights:

• For starters, Pelphrey said freshman forward Marshawn Powell will be ready when preseason practice begins Friday. Powell has been slowed by a broken left hand, something he sustained in a pickup game a little while back. Pelphrey said Powell missed individual workouts because of the broken hand, but still managed to lose 25 pounds since arriving on campus. He said Powell is in great shape.

“I wasn’t too alarmed when it happened,” Pelphrey said of Powell’s broken hand. “I was glad it happened when it did. He’s worked very hard to maintain his conditioning. We’ve been very, very cautious.”

• This also was the first chance we’ve had to talk to Pelphrey since he doled out the suspensions for players involved in the frat house incident in late August. Pelphrey wouldn’t say much when asked Tuesday night. He said he would discuss the situation further when he met with the media Thursday during a press conference set to preview the start of practice. But we did get a little bit out of him.

“I think it’s not one of those days you look forward to having, but sometimes in leadership roles you’ve got to deal with stuff like that,” Pelphrey said about the incident. “I’m sure somewhere along my career, if I can stick around long enough in some form or fashion, we’ll have other things we’ll have to deal with and we’ll certainly try to deal with them in as timely a fashion as we can.”

• Now for something completely different. … Pelphrey said he’s entertaining the idea of playing a game in Barnhill Arena sometime down the road. The idea really started to sink in when he attended an Arkansas volleyball game in Barnhill recently. There have been no serious discussions regarding Pelphrey’s idea. He said it would probably be difficult, but likes the thought of filling Barnhill for basketball.

“I don’t know if it’s possible,” Pelphrey said. “It would have to be a separate ticket and they may not let us do that. But being over there to watch that volleyball game the other day, it got loud in there a couple of times.”

There was much more said tonight and I’ll do my best to get some more hoops info up in the next few days.

There will be plenty more Thursday, too, when Pelphrey does meet with the media in Bud Walton Arena.