The buzz surrounding the hire of John Calipari has barely begun to quiet down in Fayetteville, Arkansas. It started with his hire in early April, when he saw that virtually all the players had transferred or declared for the NBA draft, he noted, “I met with the team. There is no team,” now through to today with 7 players signed for the Hogs for 2024-25. Normally, a roster number like that would indicate a lot more recruiting work ahead to reach the scholarship limit of 13, but Calipari has stated he wants a roster of only “either or nine” scholarship players.
John Calipari Leads the Way on Adjusting to Transfer Portal Realities
Starting from scratch has turned out just fine for Calipari, as the Hogs are rated at the top or near the top in all the team transfer rankings for this recruiting season based on their four signees, in addition to snagging three Top 30 high school recruits who were originally headed for Kentucky. With the roster sitting at 7, Hogs now await one or two more commitments to round out the roster if John Calipari means what he says.
Calipari expressed his unique take emphatically, “You may think I’m crazy, but I told my staff I only want to have eight or nine guys. They’re leaving anyway, and why would I develop a kid for someone else? Why would I do that?” Calipari also indicated that he’s discussed the strategy with other coaches who see the logic.
The outlook is heavily influenced by the fact of the transfer portal and a plethora of NIL opportunities across the college sports landscape. It’s not uncommon now to see a player transfer to their fourth school in as many years. No matter where a player is in the lineup or the player’s team in the rankings, there’s almost always another place to land, so the incentive to develop players over the course of an entire college career is now conceivably eliminated.
Regardless of the final roster numbers, the core rotation is mostly complete. The high schoolers who switched their commitments from Kentucky to Arkansas are 6’6” wing Karter Knox, 6’5” athlete Billy Richmond, and 6’2” point guard Boogie Fland. All were highly sought after and all look to make a mark early.
The top-ranked transfer class includes a couple of Kentucky Wildcats in Zvonimir Ivisic and Adou Thiero, as well as top-rated transfers in Jonas Aidoo from Tennessee and Johnell Davis from Florida Atlantic. This alone is enough to be highly competitive, but Calipari says his assistants have warned him of the possibility of depth problems because of injuries. This has not dissuaded him, responding that he played with a consistent 6 players at UMass.
As for just having sufficient numbers for team drills in practice, another key practical concern, he cited graduate assistants, saying he wants them “to have played in Europe or just got done and can still play. We can use them in practice. The women’s programs have five guys they call ‘managers,’ but that’s who they scrimmage against.” He continued, stating that he’ll have “…some walk-ons … and if there is a 10th guy, he knows he’s the 10th guy.”
Nevertheless, the Hogs are still only at 7 scholarship players so far; a remaining walk on from the Musselman era in Lawson Blake technically makes 8 roster wise. Several prospects remain on the board after versatile interior threat Kasean Pryor chose Louisville. A key remaining piece the Hogs are waiting to come in is DJ Wager, who played for Kentucky under Calipari and would round out the backcourt, but who has kept Razorback fans on pins and needles for weeks while he entertains all his options.
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