John Calipari has new-look roster while trying to get No. 12 Arkansas over Sweet 16 hump

The 12th-ranked Razorbacks go into their third season with coach John Calipari with a new-look roster after making the NCAA Sweet 16 each of his first two seasons. There are nine freshmen and two transfers. The only significant returner is 6-foot-7 junior wing Billy Richmond.

Richmond started 19 of the Hogs' 37 games last season while averaging 11.2 points and 4.3 rebounds a game, and was one of the SEC’s top defensive players. ... Junior guard Jeremiah Wilkinson, a transfer from Georgia, will serve as a steadying force in the backcourt. He was ninth in the SEC in scoring last year at 19.4 points for the Bulldogs. ... Freshman guard Jordan Smith Jr. should score plenty, too, as a consensus top-five recruit in the country and the latest in Calipari’s notorious one-and-done style of recruiting elite high-school talent.

Smith and Wilkinson are the two new arrivals expected to make the most immediate impact, but the Razorbacks are loaded with newcomers. … At 6-foot-10, Miikka Muurinen is more of a perimeter player than an inside force, and also was a top-10 recruit coveted by just about every school in the country. … Freshman wings JJ Andrews and Abou Toure and guard Davion Thompson should be key rotational pieces, if not starters. … Cooper Bowser, a 6-foot-11 senior transfer from Furman, will play plenty of minutes as Arkansas’ only experienced interior player. He averaged 13.8 points and 5.9 rebounds last season.

Calipari has a challenging schedule for his young team even before getting into Southeastern Conference play. The Razorbacks, who open Tuesday night by hosting Arkansas-Pine Bluff, will play back-to-back games against No. 6 Michigan State on Thanksgiving and North Carolina on Dec. 1. There are also games against Indiana and No. 5 Arizona before SEC play begins. In the SEC, Arkansas plays both No. 8 Tennessee (Jan. 16) and No. 7 Texas (Jan. 23) on the road, but does get preseason No. 1 Florida at home Feb. 27.

In Calipari’s first season with the Razorbacks, they also returned just one scholarship player and made the Sweet 16. … Arkansas has made the Sweet 16 in five of the last six years, including two trips to the Elite Eight in 2021 and 2022 with coach Eric Mussleman. … Fixing some road woes would help. Arkansas was 6-7 outside of the state’s borders last year.

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