SPORTS

By Robby Edwards | Photos courtesy of Razorback Communications

Calipari Welcomes Nation’s Top Recruiting Class as Razorbacks Reload

In last year’s three NCAA Tournament games, junior guard Billy Richmond III tied for third on the team in scoring with 12.7 points a game, was second with 7.3 rebounds and led the club with a .630 shooting percentage

Looking ahead to the regular season, a potential advantage for the Razorbacks is the strength of its recruiting class. As usual, Calipari has stockpiled talent, with ESPN and 247 Sports listing U of A’s recruiting class No. 1 in the country. In order of player rankings, incoming freshmen include:

6-2 guard Jordan Smith Jr. from Washington, D.C., consensus national high school player of the year, McDonald’s and Nike Hoops Summit All-American, averaged 26.6 points, 6.3 rebounds, 5.6 assists as a senior at St. Paul VI Catholic High School
6-5 wing Abdou Toure from Connecticut, rated as high as No. 9 overall (On3/Rivals) and the No. 3 shooting guard, Allen Iverson High School Player of the Year, MaxPreps All-American, averaged 24.6 points, seven rebounds, three assists as a senior at Notre Dame High School
6-6 wing JJ Andrews of Little Rock, listed as high as No. 12 overall (247 Sports) and the No. 5 wing, McDonald’s and MaxPreps All-American, averaged 30.7 points, 16.9 rebounds and 3.1 assists as a senior at Little Rock Christian Academy
6-2 guard Davion Thompson from Illinois, rated as high as No. 22 overall (247 Sports) and the No. 5 point guard, reclassified from the Class of 2027 to the Class of 2026 this summer, and made the USA Basketball Men’s U18 National Team
6-11 forward/center Caleb Ourigou from New York, ranked as high as No. 32 overall (On3/Rivals) and the No. 5 center, participated in the National Basketball Players Association top 100 camp, and also reclassified from the Class of 2027 to the Class of 2026 this summer
7-0 wing/forward Miikka Muurinen from Finland, didn’t play in the exhibition games due to eligibility questions, five-star recruit by ESPN and 247 Sports, averaged 6.6 points for the Finland national team in the FIBA EuroBasket Championship while earning the Rising Star award

In addition, there’s 7-0 freshman forward/center Maper Maker from Australia, a four-star recruit in Arizona who played for AUNZ Prep in Australia, and 7-0 freshman forward/center Ilia Frolov from Russia, who played two seasons in the Real Madrid organization and was named the 2025-26 EuroBasket All-Spanish Under-22 League Center of the Year. Another returnee is 7-1 forward/center Paulo Semedo, who redshirted last season.

Roster turnover is nothing new in today’s collegiate landscape, and University of Arkansas Basketball Head Coach John Calipari has made a career of successfully retooling, restocking and reloading from one season to the next. This season is no different — except for one potentially major advantage.

Seven of the top eight players, including four starters, are gone from last year’s team that went 28-9, won the Southeastern Conference Tournament and reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.

The top three scorers were all NBA Draft selections.

The only key returnee is 6-7 junior guard Billy Richmond. He averaged 11.2 points, 4.3 rebounds and two assists per game. Over the last 13 games of the season, he scored in double figures 10 times and averaged 15.2 points. Isaiah Sealy saw action in 19 games and averaged 2.9 points and 1.3 rebounds.

After rebuilding his roster, Calipari took a squad of two incoming transfers, nine freshmen and his four returnees to the Bahamas for four summer exhibition games.

The Razorbacks handled the Bahamas National Team (106-59), Carleton University (98-58), Toros del Valle (91-49) and the University of Calgary (105-48).

While not the most competitive assessment, Calipari and his staff typically have to wait until November exhibition games to get an idea of how a mostly new team is coming together.

John Calipari, entering his third season at Arkansas, is a Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame coach who has led six teams to the Final Four; in his 34 years as a collegiate head coach, he owns a 905-286 (.759) career record

Freshman JJ Andrews, the 2025 and 2026 Gatorade Arkansas Boys Basketball Player of the Year, is the son of Shawn Andrews, a two-time All-American offensive lineman for the Razorbacks who earned NFL All-Pro honors with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2006 and 2007

Freshman Jordan Smith was the consensus 2026 national player of the year, earning top honors from Gatorade, MaxPreps, Naismith, Sporting News and USA Today

If that isn’t enough, the Hogs brought in transfer portal additions Cooper Bowser, a 6-11 senior forward/center from Furman, and Jeremiah Wilkinson, a 6-1 junior guard from Georgia.

Bowser was Furman’s second-leading scorer, averaging 13.8 points a game. He also added 5.9 rebounds and 1.8 assists while shooting 76.6% from the field. Bowser earned Southern Conference All-Tournament honors after leading Furman to the championship. He scored in double figures 20 times and had at least five rebounds in 18 games.

Freshman Abdou Toure, the 2025 and 2026 Connecticut Gatorade Player of the Year, led his high school to a 74-6 record and two state championships in three seasons

Freshman guard Davion Thompson helped Team USA win the silver medal at the 2026 FIBA (International Basketball Federation) U18 Men’s AmeriCup, averaging 9.8 points and a team-best 3.2 assists in five games

In three seasons at Furman, 6-11 senior forward/center Cooper Bower made 71.3% of his shots

Wilkinson has scored 1,024 points in two college seasons and has been in double figures 51 times in 63 games. As a sophomore, he led Georgia and was ninth in the SEC with 17.4 points per game. He was also seventh in the league in 3-pointers per game (2.6), eighth in 3-point percentage (.357) and eighth in steals (1.6). As a freshman, he played at California and was named the Atlantic Coast Conference Sixth Man of the Year. He was the second-leading scorer for the Bears (15.1 ppg), and scored in double figures 25 times.

“I told them, ‘You’re at a place now where (individual) numbers don’t matter, just play the right way,’” Calipari said in recapping the summer trip. “One game (in the Bahamas) it was Jeremiah, one game it was Jordan, one game it was Davion, another game it was JJ. That’s when you have a good team, and you don’t care. If someone gets it going, you keep giving them the ball. Numbers don’t matter. You’re being evaluated by how you play, how you fight. Do you compete? Are you a battler? What else do you do to help the team win when you’re not making shots?”

In the exhibition games, the Razorbacks averaged 100 points a game, shot 51.4% from the floor, 34.5% on 3-pointers and 73.4% on free throws, and averaged 21.5 assists and 10.8 turnovers.

“Great team-building,” Calipari said. “We learned about our team; they learned about each other. One thing I learned: We’ve got really good guys. We care about one another. We’ve got some guys who are in growth mode, and I have to be patient.”

In the four games, Andrews shot 63% from the field (27-43) and 50% on threes (5-10), and averaged a team-best 18.0 points and a team-high tying 7.5 rebounds.

Toure shot a team-best 67% from the floor (26-39), and averaged 14.8 points, five rebounds and 2.3 assists.

“I loved JJ getting more comfortable,” Calipari said. “He wasn’t comfortable early on. And Abdou is probably the X-factor.”

Smith shot 48% from the floor (26-59), and averaged 17 points, 4.5 rebounds and a team-best 5.8 rebounds, and recorded a triple-double of 20 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists in the win over Carleton.

Thompson averaged 11 points, 2.3 rebounds and 2.8 assists, and Richmond 8.3 points, 2.8 rebounds and 3.0 assists.

“Davion is probably more ready to help us than I thought he would be,” Calipari said. “Jordan, I can say he’s even better than I thought. Billy is Billy. I wanted him to shoot more, but he was good. Jeremiah was good.”

Wilkinson shot 50% overall (14-28), a team-best 41% on threes (7-17), and averaged 10.5 points and 3.3 assists.

“Our bigs, Cooper, Caleb and the others, we have to get a couple of them to step up into who they are,” Calipari said. “We still have to come up with some balls. If you want to be a great rebounder, you have to rebound outside your wingspan.”

Bowser took just 11 shots, making six, and averaged 4.8 points and 5.0 rebounds. Ourigou made 52% of his shots (14-27), and averaged 7.8 points and 7.5 rebounds.

“What I thought coming in is, we’re going to be really good defensively,” Calipari said. “What I found is, we should be really good defensively. We’ve got some things we have to do. Teams are going to try to beat us shooting threes. We have to contest the three better. We have to leave our feet when they leave their feet.”

In the exhibition games, opponents shot a combined 30.1% from field and 25% on 3-pointers, and the Razorbacks forced 22 turnovers per game.

After recording three points and four rebounds in the first summer exhibition game in the Bahamas, freshman forward/center Caleb Ourigou averaged 9.3 points and 8.7 rebounds over the last three contests

Junior guard Jeremiah Wilkinson, who had highs of 32 points against Ole Miss and 31 against Auburn last year for Georgia, made 79 3-pointers last season, the ninth-best season total in UG history

“There are some offensive things that I know now that we have to have in that we didn’t, so we just played with what we had,” Calipari said. “But we’re skilled, and this was without Miikka (Muurinen). When you put him in this, now we have one more shooter. With the guys we have, we can spread the court a little bit and still get to the basket.”

In August, ESPN’s Jeff Borzello listed Arkansas No. 10 in his preseason national rankings, while Jon Rothstein at FanDuel has the Hogs at No. 13.