If you think the expectations for Arkansas will be tempered a bit just because the 16th-ranked Razorbacks start their 2024-25 campaign a few days later than other programs, you’re dead wrong.
Arkansas, with John Calipari now at the helm, begins its season Wednesday against Lipscomb in Fayetteville, Ark. Anticipation already was high for success, and hopes were further elevated by the Razorbacks’ dominant exhibition win over top-ranked Kansas on Oct. 25.
“These guys have got to come together,” Calipari said. “It normally takes my programs two or three years to really get stuff established the way you want it. You are responsible for you, then we bring this team together and they care about one another so much that it’s amazing when they accomplish stuff.”
The Razorbacks massively underachieved in 2023-24, finishing 16-17 overall and 6-12 in Southeastern Conference play under Eric Musselman. That group was an assemblage of portal transfers that never really came together and was quickly scattered to the wind when Calipari took charge.
The coach kept one player from Arkansas’ rotation last season: forward Trevon Brazile. He brought three players with him from Kentucky in guard D.J. Wagner, forward Adou Thiero and big man Zvonimir Ivisic.
Joining them are grad transfer Johnell Davis from Florida Atlantic (18.2 points per game last season while shooting 41.4 percent from beyond the arc) and forward Jonas Aidoo, who racked up 11.4 points and 7.3 rebounds per game with Tennessee in 2023-24.
Arkansas also followed the Calipari blueprint by signing three prep recruits ranked in the top 27 in the nation: guard Boogie Fland (22nd nationally) and wings Karter Knox (25th) and Billy Richmond III (27th).
The early predictions for a starting five will be Brazile, Wagner, Davis, Aidoo and Fland. Davis and Fland were part of a 20-player group named last week to the Jerry West Award watch list, given annually to the top shooting guard in the country.
“All I know is when you have really good guards, you usually have a really good team,” Calipari said.
Into this storm heads Lipscomb (1-0), which was picked to finish first in the Atlantic Sun Conference’s coaches and media preseason polls. The Bisons went 20-12 overall and 11-5 in ASUN play last year before losing to North Alabama in the quarterfinals of the league tournament.
“We understand that we will be exposed every night we take the floor, but we choose to look at this as an opportunity to grow as we move towards our ultimate goal of playing our best basketball in March,” said Lipscomb coach Lennie Acuff, who begins his sixth season with the program.
The Bisons opened the season with a gritty 77-72 win at Duquesne on Monday behind 30 points and 10 rebounds from Jacob Ognacevic. Will Pruitt added 15 points and Gyasi Powell had 12 for Lipscomb.
Lipscomb is led by a pair of ASUN preseason team choices — senior forwards Ognacevic (who scored 17.7 points per game in 2022-23 before missing all of last season with an injury) and Pruitt, who racked up 15.1 points per contest in 2023-24.
Air Force transfer Kellan Boylan also will be relied upon this season despite undergoing surgery on a torn labrum in April.