Championship-caliber teams aren’t built in a day, and Arkansas coach John Calipari still has a long way to go before his Razorbacks basketball team has the rotation capable of winning the final game of the 2024-25 season.
While the foundation laid by Arkansas’ first seven scholarships is extremely strong — three top-25 high school prospects and four highly regarded transfers will make it — putting the cherry on top of the Hogs’ set of fresh faces will require landing a few key pieces. .
For starters, Arkansas still needs an experienced point guard. Kentucky transfer DJ Wagner visited Fayetteville over the weekend and is expected to join the group in the coming days. His potential addition will help with the transition process and ensure some continuity for Calipari.
After that, securing a striker who can stretch the floor is certainly ideal. Fortunately for the Razorbacks, South Florida transfer Kasean Pryor is trending heavily toward the Cardinal and White and the 6-foot-10, 35% three-point shooter fills exactly that role.
Once these two needs are met, things start to get interesting. At that point, Arkansas will have a total of nine scholarship players on its roster — four fewer than the 13 teams receive. But according to Calipari’s his recent appearance on the Ways to Win podcastThis could be exactly what he’s looking for.
“You might think I’m crazy, but I told my team I only want eight or nine guys,” Calipari said. “They’re leaving anyway, and why would I develop a guy for someone else? Why would I do that? But, one injury and now we have seven or six. I coached six when I was at UMass. Then the other piece becomes — you put that together and now I’m hearing a lot of guys say eight or nine guys, if there’s a tenth guy, he knows he’s the tenth.
It’s probably safe to say that Arkansas won’t be down to just eight or nine players on its roster, but we can extrapolate from Calipari’s words that the latest offseason additions won’t be major game-changers.
Other than a lead guard and a stretch-four, the only outlier needed is a wing who can shoot him. Names like Miami’s Wooga Poplar and Washington State’s Jaylen Wells have been linked to the Hogs in one way or another, but it’s uncertain how possible any of these additions actually are – especially if the tenth guy should know that “he It’s the tenth.”
Arkansas is already viewed as one of the best programs in the country with its current roster half full, and adding any combination of the aforementioned names will only add to the preseason excitement for the Razorbacks.
Assuming Calipari will use all 13 spots for next season, fans should expect players, redshirt prospects, or even unknown prospects who would normally be assistants to fill the final 2-4 spots. Defensive lineman Lawson Blake — the only holdover from Eric Musselman’s regime at Arkansas — has an outside shot at earning a scholarship, depending on how the next few months play out.
Clarity on the Hogs’ status will come soon and things should be nearly finalized once Arkansas’ first summer session begins on May 28. Be sure to follow The Trough’s premium message board for updates on all the off-season action.
