The recent addition of Kentucky transfer guard Kareem Watkins put Arkansas at 15 total players – 13 scholarship players and two walk-ons. This seemed to mark the end of the roster-tracker portion of the offseason for fans and insiders alike.
New Arkansas head coach John Calipari may have other plans, however.
After receiving a waiver to play his fifth season of college basketball, Northern Illinois transfer David Coit has been connected to Arkansas as a potential late addition to the roster. College basketball insider Jon Rothstein reported that Coit was drawing interest from Texas A&M and Villanova along with the Razorbacks.
You might be wondering how that’s possible if Arkansas’ roster is already full. Before we dive too deeply into that, it’s worth remembering that just last season, former Razorback head coach Eric Musselman found a way around the typical roster construction to take on Keyon Menifield as a “non-scholarship redshirt” for the first half of the season while maintaining 13 scholarship players and two walk-ons.
John Calipari Working Magic
If Eric Musselman can find a way to get everyone he wants on a roster while skating the typical roster limitations, there’s no reason John Calipari can’t work the same magic, moving scholarships around across the roster like a game of Tetris. He is essentially the face of college basketball, after all.
His new mentality of grabbing 9-10 high-quality players before filling out the roster with players closer to walk-on caliber, or at least less recruited than the high-profile guys, also makes it a lot easier for him to move one of those players to a true walk-on position.
The injury to Lawson Blake (Achilles) makes it even more likely that Calipari could move him off of the official roster – though he’d likely still be with the team in some capacity – to open up an extra spot for a player like David Coit.
Newest transfer Kareem Watkins also seems like a likely candidate to fill this sort of role after totaling 28 minutes across four seasons at Kentucky. Incoming freshman Jaden Karuletwa would be the other most likely candidate given his fellow lesser-recruited freshman, Casmir Chavis, initially signed with Washington before getting out of his NLI in the wake of the Huskies firing their head coach.
Arkansas isn’t the only team in this situation, though. Both of the other teams listed on Rothstein’s early list of those interested in Coit are relatively full for the upcoming season as well. Villanova is listed with 14 total players, leaving the door open for a similar work around to the one mentioned with Calipari. Any of those 14 players could be moved to a walk-on designation in order to make room for Coit.
Texas A&M is listed with 13 scholarship players here, meaning they would be stuck in a similar juggling act as both Arkansas and Villanova if they’re serious contenders for Coit.
Of course, in the age of NIL, there’s nothing stopping a school from bringing in a player as a walk-on and an outside source – like a school’s NIL collective – paying for his scholarship. That makes this conundrum easier to manage.
David Coit Player Breakdown
Don’t let his 5-foot-11 frame fool you: David Coit is a certified bucket. His numbers speak for themselves, as he averaged more than 20 points last season. True, those numbers came at a mid-major program playing a mid-major schedule, but that type of scoring talent can translate at the college level – potentially to the pro level to some extent even if he never earns a full-time NBA contract due to height and defensive limitations.
Coit has a lightning quick first step that allows him to get past defenders into the paint where he’s a capable finisher and willing passer when dump-offs to big men present themselves.
While he’s a capable scorer in nearly every situation, several of Coit’s 3-pointers come off the dribble. His elite first step extends to his step back move that gives him plenty of room to get off his smooth jumpshot, both from long range and from the mid-range.
Coit is a very complete offensive player with good speed, good elevation on his jumpshot, good finishing ability, a high IQ in pick-and-roll situations and good vision to find lob opportunities.
The transfer guard’s biggest deficiency is, naturally, his size. He generally has enough quickness and elevation to get shots off offensively, as you can see in the clip below, but he’s not immune to being swallowed up by bigger, better defenders.
His smaller frame also leaves the door wide open for potential issues on defense. He has the speed to be an effective on-ball defender and a pest in the passing lanes, but he posted a negative Defensive Box Plus/Minus – essentially an estimate of defensive points per 100 possessions above a league average player – in each of his last two seasons. For reference, only Keyon Menifield had a lower Defensive Box Plus/Minus for Arkansas last season.
Potential Fit with Arkansas Basketball
John Calipari capped his likely rotation at nine players this offseason before Coit entered the picture, so him joining the team could push the actual core group of guys out to 10 instead of nine. The guard rotation specifically consists of Kentucky transfer DJ Wagner, Florida Atlantic transfer Johnell Davis and incoming freshman Johnuel “Boogie” Fland.
Wagner started 28 of the 29 games he played for Kentucky last year, and Davis was widely considered one of the top three – if not the best – transfers in the portal this offseason. Fland is also the highest rated recruit headed to the Hill next season and a potential first-round draft pick in the 2025 NBA Draft.
In other words, Coit joining the squad would make him likely the fourth guard in the rotation.
Could he move up in the pecking order past someone like incoming freshman Billy Richmond? Sure, it’s possible, but it might not matter given the positional differences between the players. Continuing this specific example, Richmond’s size and defensive ability could prove to be more useful to this team’s needs than Coit’s scoring ability.
Some might argue that the Hogs could use an insurance policy similar to Coit, but at the center position. Capable big men don’t grow on trees – but neither do 20-plus point per game scorers. Adding another dynamic offensive playmaker to the squad would be far from a bad problem to have.
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Check out some highlights of David Coit:
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