John Calipari is very content with where the Arkansas basketball roster currently sits ahead of next season. The second-year Razorbacks head coach was in Little Rock on Wednesday night as part of the week-long ‘One Razorback Roadshow’ event, and arguably the most popular topic was Calipari’s roster for the 2025-26 season.
As things stand right now, the Hogs are bringing in the No. 6 recruiting class in the country comprised of four freshmen. Two of those four freshmen are consensus five-star guards and McDonald’s All-Americans Darius Acuff Jr. and Meleek Thomas. The Hogs also added four-star small forward and Springdale native, Isaiah Sealy as well as Karim Rtail, a 20-year old Lebanese forward with experience playing in Lithuanian professional leagues.
In addition to the incoming freshmen class, Calipari signed two veteran big men out of the transfer portal in Malique Ewin (Florida State) and Nick Pringle (South Carolina). Arkansas also returns three players from last year’s Sweet 16 team as Trevon Brazile, Billy Richmond and DJ Wagner have all confirmed intentions to return.
Karter Knox is currently going through the NBA Draft process, but he’s expected to make a return to Fayetteville next season. Including Knox, Arkansas is at nine potential rotation players for the 2025-26.
“I like what we have. I like where we stand right now,” Calipari said. “We have the ability to do more if we choose. Sometimes less is more like last year. We ended up playing six guys, seven guys, and all of a sudden, we’re as good as anybody in the country. So, we’ll see how it plays out. We’re ready for whatever happens.”
On Tuesday afternoon, Arkansas freshman guard Boogie Fland formally withdrew from the NBA Draft in the middle of the combine in Chicago, opting to return to school. Back on April 22, Fland entered the transfer portal shortly before it closed, meaning a return to Fayetteville was unlikely even if he came back to college.
Now that the 6-2, 175-pound guard is officially returning to college for a second season, all signs are pointing to Fland ending up with the defending national champion Florida Gators. When asked about Fland potentially coming back to Arkansas, Calipari didn’t completely shut the door on but didn’t offer much more than that.
“Yeah, we always said I’ll have his back. Whatever he needs from us and me,” Calipari said. “I love coaching him, so we’ll see how it plays out.”
Adou Thiero is another Razorback currently going through the NBA Draft process with the chance to potentially return. On Wednesday afternoon, Thiero told 247Sports’ Isaac Trotter that the door on a possible college return was nearly closed. When asked about Thiero later Wednesday night, Calipari made it known that he believes the Arkansas forward is as NBA-ready as anyone.
“Adou is still healing. Adou’s one of those– if you watch the NBA Playoffs, it is so rough you better be built like Adou Thiero,” Calipari said. “If you’re not and you’re a younger player, you’re not playing in these playoffs. He is physically ready right now and athletically, hits his head on the rim right now. He’s got to heal, but I think he’s in pretty good shape.”
As he was continuously asked about the current roster, Calipari shed light on what he and the Arkansas coaching staff set out to do. Retention was the priority, high-level freshmen were a must and experienced size via the transfer portal was a focus.
“Let’s retain four. Let’s bring in more freshmen,” Calipari said. “Let’s have two transfers, size preferably because older players are bigger, stronger. They can impact the game more than a young, bigger players. So, that’s where we kind of want to be.
“We have coaches saying, ‘I will not recruit a freshman. I’ll recruit older players.’ Well, the success my teams have had have been a mixture of veteran players with good, talented freshmen. And now we’re able to add a few others in the transfer portal for us. Both Nick and Malique really add to us, but TB, come on now. By the end of the year, he was as good as any big guy. And then you throw in Billy and what he was able to do. I mean, Billy is maybe the most unique guy in college basketball.”
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