John Calipari’s press conference Monday morning will hopefully make some sense of whirlwind of building roster.
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — It’s perfectly fine if you haven’t been able to keep up with all the new names for Arkansas basketball this off-season. When John Calipari took over in April, he didn’t even have enough players to have a meeting with.
Now, we know he has one. Trevon Brazile took his name out of the NBA draft to come back for another run. Calipari was glad to have at least one returning that knows where to direct people in the basketball facility and Bud Walton Arena.
That might start to get sorted out a little Monday. We have a press conference with Calipari just before noon. The names will take a little while to settle in. For some of us that take photos we’ll have faces and everything sorted out by the first of the year.
We know Calipari has recruited some of the best players, including a lot of highly-ranked guys he was coaching at Kentucky. Those recruiting classes with the Wildcats weren’t bad, either. The Razorbacks went from nobody when the coaching changeover happened in April.
He landed three five-start players in Boogie Fland, Karter Knox and Billy Richmond have a high upside. Considering some of the transfers he’s rounded up, they are going to have to really good to get much playing time.
Getting three of his players at Kentucky (DJ Wagner, Adou Thiero and Zvonimir Ivisic) plus one from Tennessee in Jonas Aidoo, there is a lot of height and quality. None of them ranked below the four-star level. Now it’s up to Calipari to do what he’s done in the past and get them to play.
Considering some of the yapping from Kentucky fans who were upset over getting bounced so quickly in the NCAA the last couple of years, he still gives the Hogs a shot at getting back to Elite Eights and maybe even reach the Final Four for the first time in some decades.
Leave room to keep adding to that roster, though. There’s still some additional names likely to be added … whenever we find out that schedule starts.
