In Eric Musselman's three years as head coach Arkansas has been to the Elite Eight 2 times. His best player, J D Notae is going pro. Next best player, Jaylin Williams, is exploring his draft options but has not hired an agent so he may be back. Other than that the only returning players (one starter) will be Devo Davis (17 starts , averaged 12.3 ppg, 6.7 rebounds and 17 assists in SEC/NCAA playoffs) and Kamani Johnson, who did not contribute significantly last year. So the Pigs will have a completely different team next year.
Not to worry. Arkansas has the # 2 ranked recruiting class for next year, way behind # 1 Duke but significantly ahead of # 3 Kansas with two 5 *, three 4 * and one 3 *. Then add four significant portal transfers (all bigs) 6' 9" all Pac 12 forward Jalen Graham from Arizona State, 6 ' 9" forward Trevon Brazile from Missouri, 6' 9" Makhi Mitchell (high school 4 *) and his 6'10" twin Makhel, the leading scorer for Rhode Island who also had 74 blocked shots this year.
What the hell is going on at Arkansas? Is it NIL? Is it Musselman? I think it is Musselman...if you saw the Pigs in action this year with Mussleman's coaching and enthusiasm you can understand why players want to play for him.
Musselman leaned hard on the transfer portal the past couple years. Now he is combining that with a powerful recruiting class. Twice fired as an NBA head coach, Musselman built a very solid program at Nevada prior to being hired by Arkansas. If he can get all of these studs to play as a team it will signify Kentucky is no longer the basketball power of the SEC, it will be Arkansas.
My point is: if Arkansas can do this, why can't Florida? Keeping Castleton is a good start and hopefully it will be the foundation for future portal transfers and recruiting for Golden. One can only hope....
Not to worry. Arkansas has the # 2 ranked recruiting class for next year, way behind # 1 Duke but significantly ahead of # 3 Kansas with two 5 *, three 4 * and one 3 *. Then add four significant portal transfers (all bigs) 6' 9" all Pac 12 forward Jalen Graham from Arizona State, 6 ' 9" forward Trevon Brazile from Missouri, 6' 9" Makhi Mitchell (high school 4 *) and his 6'10" twin Makhel, the leading scorer for Rhode Island who also had 74 blocked shots this year.
What the hell is going on at Arkansas? Is it NIL? Is it Musselman? I think it is Musselman...if you saw the Pigs in action this year with Mussleman's coaching and enthusiasm you can understand why players want to play for him.
Musselman leaned hard on the transfer portal the past couple years. Now he is combining that with a powerful recruiting class. Twice fired as an NBA head coach, Musselman built a very solid program at Nevada prior to being hired by Arkansas. If he can get all of these studs to play as a team it will signify Kentucky is no longer the basketball power of the SEC, it will be Arkansas.
My point is: if Arkansas can do this, why can't Florida? Keeping Castleton is a good start and hopefully it will be the foundation for future portal transfers and recruiting for Golden. One can only hope....
