Welcome to the dog days of summer, folks. The “big three” American sports of football, baseball and basketball are all in the offseason and it’s about a million degrees outside. Brace yourself.
The Paris Olympics have provided some solace, as bored sports fanatics can sift through NBC’s broadcasts to scratch their itch with niche sports like fencing and dressage, narrated by none other than Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart. The global games have been great fun, but Sunday’s closing ceremony will put a bow on the festivities. Then what?
To make it through the rest of August, Razorback fans will have to resort to two offseason pastimes – using fall camp clips to proclaim the Hogs will win 10 games this fall, and scouring social media to browse through the “way-too-early top 25” lists in college basketball that nearly every outlet puts out.
Arkansas basketball has made quite a few appearances high up in those since head coach John Calipari took the job.
New-Look Hogs in College Basketball Top 25 Polls
From the blank canvas that was the Arkansas basketball roster a few months ago, Calipari has had quite the task trying to paint that picture while also assembling a staff and organizing an inaugural schedule. The result of the roster-building process appears to be complete after filling in the last few spots with some walk-ons.
We finally know what the Hogs will look like on the court next year, and some are higher than others on the squad Coach Cal assembled. ESPN’s Jeff Borzello put out his most recent top 25 list earlier this week, slotting the Razorbacks at No. 14. Interestingly enough, the three teams directly ahead of Arkansas are fellow SEC foes in Tennessee, Texas A&M and Auburn. Alabama joins them in the SEC’s “ahead of Arkansas” club, slotting in at No.2 in the country behind only Kansas.
Calipari’s previous destination, Kentucky, slots in well behind Arkansas at No. 23 in the rankings after new head coach Mark Pope assembled a solid group of transfers.
Fox Sports’ John Fanta, however, is a lot more hesitant on the Hogs with his list. He ranks Arkansas at No. 22, a new addition to the top 25 from the last time he made his projections in late May. The time in between those rankings was when DJ Wagner committed to Arkansas, which likely tipped the scales and led Fanta to finally include the Hogs.
Fanta said he doesn’t doubt the importance of key transfers like Johnell Davis, a “clutch playmaker who knows what winning at the highest level looks like and is a really tough-minded guard,” and Jonas Aidoo, a “double-double type of veteran.”
Big Question with Arkansas Basketball
“My big question that determines if Arkansas can go from being a solid team to a top-three squad in the SEC is just how much of a leap will we see from sophomores DJ Wagner and Zvonimir Ivisic, along with junior wing Adou Thiero?” he asked. “All three players showed flashes this past year, with the 7-foot-2 Ivisic, known as ‘Big Z,’ showing some intriguing upside with his frame and versatility.”
It’s a fair thing to put an asterisk next to. Arkansas’ roster looks excellent on paper, but it remains to be seen how this almost entirely new group of players will fit together. There’s also the matter of Calipari’s recent shortcomings in March, which Fanta also touches on as a concern.
The restraint he exercises on Arkansas is understandable, especially after he predicted Arkansas to win the national championship last year before the Hogs went on to post a losing record. We’ve all fallen victim to preseason hype before – it happens to the best of us. The spurned Fanta is clearly not too trusting of the Razorbacks anymore, and they’ll surely want to exceed those modest expectations this season.
He has Arkansas as the sixth-highest ranked SEC team, behind the Crimson Tide, Tigers, Aggies, and Volunteers as well as Florida, who slots in at No. 16. Year one of the Coach Cal era in Fayetteville has some big question marks next to it, but it’s also a roster with an incredibly high ceiling.
That high ceiling is reflected by some tremendous optimism in the Hogs’ chances in the upcoming season, with some lesser-known media voices putting Arkansas in much higher standing than ESPN and Fox’s finest.
JJ Metz, a young, albeit credentialed reporter for FAU, lists the Razorbacks at the very top of his preseason top 25:
Arkansas slots in at No. 1, just ahead of Alabama and alleged exhibition foe Kansas. This is certainly an outlier projection, as you’d be hard-pressed to even find an Arkansas basketball fan who thinks the Hogs have the best roster in the country.
They certainly stack up with the rest of the pack in the SEC, aside from Alabama’s loaded on-paper squad, but putting them ahead of Kansas and UConn at this point feels optimistic, to say the least.
It’s clear Metz is high on the Hogs from his experience covering Davis when he was at FAU. The senior transfer being a dominant lead guard will be a major key to success for Arkansas this season. The young journalist also, unsurprisingly, keeps his hometown Owls in the top 25 (at No. 22) despite Davis’ departure.
These predictions support what Arkansas fans already intuited: these Razorbacks have the pieces to be contenders. Few are expecting them to win the national title in year one, but they certainly have the dogs – Hogs, to be more accurate – to compete with anybody.
John Calipari’s Experienced Big Fish High in Transfer Rankings
A lot of attention was paid to the highly-touted recruits and Kentucky players Calipari convinced to follow him from Lexington to Fayetteville. A trio of both high school signees and Wildcat transfers joining Coach Cal at Arkansas means two-thirds of the Razorback roster is composed of devotees to the 65-year-old. Those high-schoolers make up the No. 3 recruiting class in the country, per 247 Sports.
Ironically, it’s the other section of the roster that’s making the most headlines and preseason hubbub.
Jeff Goodman’s media network, Field of 68, ranked its top 25 “impact transfers” for the upcoming college basketball season. Davis and Aidoo are the two Razorbacks making the list. From zero-star recruit to Final Four star and AAC Player of the Year, Davis has had quite the ride from FAU to Arkansas. A sort of junkyard dog type of guard, he will feature in a key starting role for one of the most talented squads in the country this season.
As for Aidoo, he’s more than familiar with the grind of the SEC, garnering both all-conference and All-SEC Defensive Team honors as a junior in 2023-24. Soon, the 6-foot-11 paint beast will serve as Arkansas’ enforcer, something the Hogs have lacked for the last few years.
Not only is Davis listed as Field of 68’s top impact transfer, he’s ranked No. 2 by NCAA’s Andy Katz – behind only Kansas State forward Coleman Hawkins, whom Arkansas pursued at one point.
Calipari has built a brand on his elite recruiting of five-star high schoolers, but the evolving college game has put the emphasis on experience and physical toughness rather than youthful skills.
The fact that the two additions getting the most preseason attention on the roster are Davis and Aidoo, two incoming seniors bringing a wealth of experience from winning programs, shows how Calipari really has adjusted his roster-building model to better suit the modern era and improve on his recent Kentucky teams’ shortcomings.
That is an excellent sign for hopeful Razorback fans – and young student reporters from FAU.
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John Calipari on Johnell Davis, UA Bigguns
“Nelly lives in that gym,” Calipari said during a press conference a couple weeks ago. “He’ll work out two, three times a day. He can really shoot it. What I love is making him uncomfortable, because when he’s uncomfortable, he’s uncomfortable and you can see it. I can say to him, this is what you have to overcome. We’ve got to make you comfortable being uncomfortable, because now you can be an attack dog. I don’t want him standing out there shooting threes.”
When it comes to the Hogs’ biggest players, he added that he’s focused on paring down Zvonimir Ivisic’s shot selection to only two-point attempts. No more threes for Big Z. He also wants Trevon Brazile to attack the basket with more regularity than he did last season.
With Jonas Aidoo, the biggest issue seems to be conditioning and mechanics: “We’re trying to work on his wheels, I want him to run better, run smoother, but he’s still a beast. Shooting the ball better, but getting his legs.”
Aaron Torres breaks down Calipari’s post-summer presser:
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