Arkansas men’s basketball has six open scholarships remaining for the 2024-25 roster, but that does not mean first-year head coach John Calipari plans to fill them all.
The Razorbacks currently boast a formidable seven-man haul that features five-star incoming freshmen Boogie Fland, Karter Knox and Billy Richmond, Kentucky transplants Zvonimir Ivisic and Adou Thiero, and highly-touted transfers Johnell Davis and Jonas Aidoo.
Arkansas will host former Kentucky guard DJ Wagner for a weekend visit and is also in the market for a starting 4-man — Kasean Pryor and Coleman Hawkins come to mind, among others.
What comes next after what feels like a couple more pending impact additions?
Well, maybe nothing if Calipari’s comments on the Ways to Win podcast with Craig Robinson are any indication.
“You may think I’m crazy, but I told my staff I only want to have eight or nine guys,” Calipari said on the most recent episode last week.
“They’re leaving anyway,” Calipari said. “And why would I develop a kid for someone else? Why would I do this?
Calipari’s quotes can be viewed through multiple lenses.
In the current landscape of college basketball, keeping an open scholarship or two is common practice. Not filling out a two-deep with scholarship players feels a bit extreme on the surface.
On one hand, the Hall of Fame head coach has a point when it comes to keeping a short bench with everyone having a role and minimizing the potential for unhappy faces that impact team chemistry.
On the other, a thin roster leaves the team increasingly vulnerable in the event of injuries that could potentially occur throughout the season.
“Injury, okay, now we got seven or six. I coached six when I was at UMass,” Calipari said.
What about having sufficient bodies for practice and a scout team to work against during game prep?
That is where walk ons and a unique approach to filling out a staff of graduate assistants comes into play.
“I want to have GAs, the guys behind the bench,” Calipari said. “Guys who have played in Europe or just got done playing 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.
“We have some walk-ons, we have some GAs, we have eight or nine guys, and that’s it. And if there is a 10th guy, he knows he’s the 10th guy.”
Time will tell if Calipari’s roster vision becomes reality, but the approach would not be a foreign concept in Fayetteville.
Arkansas had nine eligible scholarship players in Eric Musselman’s first season in 2019-20, but the roster was filled out with three sit-out transfers and a pair of walk ons.
Calipari is a wise coach. I’ll trust him until he proves otherwise.
It honestly reminds me of the movie 300 where they have a few highly trained men as opposed to thousands of average guys.
And those men – they’re dangerous.
I’m in.