How Will John Calipari Fill Arkansas Razorbacks Basketball’s Open Roster Spots?

Championship-caliber teams aren’t built in a day, and Arkansas head coach John Calipari still has a ways to go before his Razorbacks basketball team has the rotation capable of winning the final game of the 2024-25 season.

Though the foundation laid in Arkansas’ first seven scholarships is extremely strong — three top-25 high school prospects and four highly-regarded transfers will do that — putting the cherry on top of the Hogs’ set of fresh faces will require landing a few key pieces.

For starters, Arkansas still needs an experienced point guard. Kentucky transfer DJ Wagner visited Fayetteville over the weekend and he is expected to enter the fold within the coming days. His potential addition will help the transition process and ensure some continuity for Calipari.

After that, securing a forward that can stretch the floor is certainly ideal. Fortunately for the Razorbacks, South Florida transfer Kasean Pryor is trending heavily towards the Cardinal and White and the 6-foot-10, 35% three-point shooter fills that exact role to a tee.

Once those two necessities are dealt with, things start to get interesting. At that point, Arkansas will have nine total scholarship players on its roster — four fewer than the 13 that teams are allotted. But according to Calipari from his recent appearance on the Ways to Win podcast, that may be exactly what he’s looking for.

“You may think I’m crazy, but I told my staff, I only want to have eight or nine guys,” Calipari said. “They’re leaving anyway, and why would I develop a guy for someone else? Why would I do that? But, an injury and now we have seven or six. I coached six when I was at UMass. Then the other piece becomes — you put that together and now I’m hearing a lot of guys are saying eight or nine guys. If there is a 10th guy, he knows he’s the 10th.”

It’s likely safe to say that Arkansas won’t be running with just eight or nine players on its roster, but we can extrapolate from Calipari’s words that the final few offseason additions won’t be major game-changers.

Other than a lead guard and a stretch-four, the lone outlier position of need is a wing that can shoot it. Names like Miami’s Wooga Poplar and Washington State’s Jaylen Wells have been tied to the Hogs in one way or another, but it’s uncertain how possible either of those additions truly are — especially if the 10th guy is supposed to know that “he’s the 10th.”

Arkansas is already viewed as one of the best programs in the country with its current half-filled roster, and adding any combination of the aforementioned names will only skyrocket the preseason hype for the Razorbacks.

Assuming Calipari will use all 13 spots for the upcoming season, fans should expect role players, redshirt candidates or even under-the-radar prospects that would normally be walk-ons to take up the final 2-4 slots. Forward Lawson Blake — Arkansas’ lone holdover from the Eric Musselman regime — has an outside shot of earning a scholarship depending on how the next few months pan out.

Clarity on the Hogs’ situation will come soon and things should be close to finalized once Arkansas’ first summer session starts on May 28. Be sure to follow along at The Trough premium message board for updates on all the offseason action.