Decision day for top Arkansas basketball target Meleek Thomas is just one week away, Best of Arkansas Sports has confirmed.
News that the five-star guard will officially announce his college destination next Monday, Nov. 11, has also been reported by On3’s Joe Tipton and HawgBeat’s Jackson Collier.
Thomas is down to a top three of UConn, Pittsburgh and Arkansas.
The 6-foot-5 shooting guard has already received multiple insider predictions to join the Razorbacks across different recruiting services, including from Arkansas’ own Connor Goodson of HawgSports.
If he does, in fact, choose to play at Arkansas, he’ll join top-ranked point guard Darius Acuff to form one of the more formidable backcourts – at least on paper – for the 2025-26 college season. With his combination of size, scoring ability, and competitive fire – fully illustrated in the below tweet – he could be a problem for opposing backcourts alongside Acuff.
UConn Basketball Not Exactly a Real Option?
In a video released Monday eve, college basketball analyst Aaron Torres made a strong case for why he thinks Thomas will soon call those Hogs.
First of all, he understands why Pittsburgh and its head coach Jeff Capel would make the short list – the Panthers are, after all, Thomas’ hometown program. But he can’t imagine that a program which has made all of one NCAA Tournament appearance since 2016 would actually land a top 10 talent.
And it’s not as if Pittsburgh is on the up and up with multiple high-level recruits coming in, like the situation at Rutgers coming into this season. On top of that, its NIL resources are nowhere near the same level of an Arkansas.
This summer, UConn basketball was a strong contender. But the Huskies head coach Danny Hurley backed off the recruiting of Thomas in the last couple months and ended up taking other guys instead.
Most notable is Darius Adams, a combo guard from New Jersey. “I think once they took Darius Adams and certainly Braylon Mullins from Indiana, Jacob Furphy from overseas in Australia, there’s just only so many scholarships to give out,” Torres said on his recent podcast show. “So I don’t believe UConn is actively recruiting him anymore.”
Apparently, however, Thomas still feels like highly enough about the Huskies and Hurley to give them the extra bump in prestige that comes along with making his short cut.
That kind of consolation is something John Calipari used to despise as the head coach of Kentucky.
Calipari took zero pride in the prospect of finishing second or third in the running for a recruit’s signature on signing day. He would say “We don’t just want to be a hat on the table,” according to Aaron Torres. “We want to be in the mix for these kids. And if we’re not, we’re going to just remove ourselves from that recruitment.”
“We don’t want to be the team that finishes whatever” place.
Assuming Thomas actually does end up choosing Arkansas, it may be that Hurley doesn’t mind the extra “free” attention for UConn basketball over the course of the next week.
Meleek Thomas Scouting Report
Meleek Thomas can score with the best of the best, especially other prospects around his age. He’s got a smooth, locked-in jumpshot and a high IQ when it comes to getting to his spots and taking the best shot available to him.
Unlike a lot of high school prospects with great scoring talent, Thomas does a good job of not settling for tough shots – though he’s capable of making a few when he needs to. He doesn’t waste movements or play with his food when being guarded straight up in isolation situations.
Sure, he has a notable bag of dribble moves at his disposal, but if a quick first step or a one-dribble pull-up will get him an easy look, that’s the shot he’s going to take rather than trying to dribble the air out of the ball in an attempt to embarrass his defender.
This type of understanding from a scoring perspective is rare amongst recruits of his age, and when combined with his shot-making ability from all three levels, it’s not a surprise that he’s ranked in the top 15 by all major recruiting services, including No. 7 on Rivals and On3, No. 9 on ESPN and No. 11 on 247Sports.
There are plenty of young prospects who can put the ball through the hoop, however. It’s the other areas of Thomas’ game that truly set him apart as a top-10 player in this class and potential star at the next level.
His high IQ that allows him to make the easy plays as a score-first guard also helps him easily identify open teammates, both in transition and in half-court offensive sets. He’s a willing and unselfish passer despite being best described as a score-first shooting guard. You can see both showcased in the below video:
- at 7:00 – exceptional offensive IQ shown driving and essentially using a missed layup attempt as an assist for his big man
- at 5:00 – great feel on a drop-off pass
Thomas may not start with the ball in his hands as the primary facilitator at the collegiate level, but his ability to spot open teammates and deliver timely passes makes him an even more dangerous scoring threat.
The defensive side of the ball is where he takes the most pride in his game, though.
“I take pride in defense,” Thomas told the Pittsburgh Union Progress. “The more you get into the season, the harder the games become. The atmosphere becomes bigger. Everything just gets more serious, more intense. So, if I lollygag around on defense, I would be viewed as a completely different player.”
Standing at 6-foot-5, Thomas has the tools to be a great defender at the next level. He lacks the raw, explosive athleticism of previous John Calipari-taught guards such as Malik Monk or De’Aaron Fox, but he does have a certain bounce to his step on both ends of the court driven by his competitive nature and natural lateral quickness.
He has good timing on both help-side blocks and off-ball steals that can create fast break opportunities – which Thomas also thrives in. He plays with great speed while rarely losing control of the ball or his body in transition scenarios, making quick decisions that usually end with either himself or a teammate getting a quality look in the paint or an open 3-pointer.
His biggest weakness at this point in his development is one very common among high school recruits – muscle mass. Thomas has a relatively thin frame, but that has not held him back as a scorer or defender in the slightest thus far. He’ll need to continue to build upon his frame – as virtually all high school recruits do – to become a truly impactful defender.
Thomas’ consistency as a scorer already sets him apart from most other recruits in his class. Expanding upon his game as a playmaker for others and as a lead defender will make him a dangerous weapon both at the collegiate and pro level.
Potential 2025-26 Arkansas Basketball Roster
Arkansas currently has plenty of players on the 2024-25 roster who are capable of returning next season – such as the freshman duo that has started both exhibition games of Boogie Fland and Karter Knox. Most of them, however, likely have their sights set on the 2025 NBA Draft.
Fland in particular showed flashes of his full potential against Kansas and could very well be on his way to the league after one collegiate season. Wagner also showed that he could have NBA potential, though it’s perhaps not as much of a sure thing as Fland at this point. For now, we’ll assume neither come back next season.
That leaves the door wide open for both Darius Acuff and Meleek Thomas to join the team as Day 1 starters in the backcourt. This can be scary for a college team, especially with how older teams have shown their strength in recent tournament runs, but it’s important to remember that 2024-25 is the final season of players getting an extra COVID season.
So, it’s reasonable to think that next season freshmen could go back to having a bigger impact as a whole on teams than they have for the last several years – including how they used to impact Calipari’s more successful teams at Kentucky.
Arkansas still has its sights set on a few more freshmen for the 2025 class, though it’s likely Calipari won’t take more than four total given his newfound strategy of having older teams.
Other potential options for the Class of 2025, as well as where they’re ranked in the 247Sports Composite:
- PF Nate Ament: 6-foot-9 | No. 4
- PF Caleb Wilson: 6-foot-9 | No. 8
- PF/C Chris Cenac Jr.: 6-foot-10 | No. 10
- G/F Shon Abaev: 6-foot-7 | No. 30
- F Miikka Murrinen: 6-foot-10 | No. 12 in 2026 class (candidate to reclassify)
If the Razorbacks do land Thomas, it could also help them with one of those prospects — if you read into social media interactions:
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Watch Torres’ full breakdown of Thomas, UConn and Arkansas basketball here:
Check out some more clips of Meleek Thomas here:
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More coverage of Meleek Thomas and Arkansas basketball from BoAS…
