Hardwood Hogs Have High Ceiling in Year 2

Feature photo, top: Coach John Calipari is counting on freshman Darius Acuff and senior Trevon Brazile to lead the Hogs back to the second weekend of the dance and beyond. (Photos courtesy of Arkansas Athletics)

AS SEC PLAY DAWNS, BIG PICTURE COMING INTO FOCUS

As John Calipari’s Arkansas Razorbacks — it still feels a little strange to type those words in succession — enter the grind of another SEC slate, the big-picture view is starting to come into focus.

The Hogs were 11-3 and ranked 14th following a critical win at home against No. 19 Tennessee in the SEC opener. That win, in which Hog freshman point guard Darius Acuff Jr. laid down his early bona fides for SEC Player of the Year with 29 points, softened the blow of a competitive, neutral-court loss to No. 8 Houston in December. UH coach Kelvin Sampson would tell reporters that Arkansas was the best team his squad had faced so far this season, and the Cougars lost to Tennessee in November.

The Hogs’ three losses (as of Jan. 5), were to ranked teams on the road or on a neutral court (though Hog fans made each one feel a little less neutral): by three to Michigan State on the road; by nine (after leading a big chunk of the game) to Duke in Chicago; and then by nine to Houston in Newark.

The Hogs notched a pair of early high-profile wins: 89-80 over then-No. 6 Louisville at Bud Walton in which the Hogs led big and a 93-86 redemption win in Dallas over Texas Tech, the team that nipped them in overtime in last year’s Sweet 16.

The current Hogs are the first team ever to face every member of the previous season’s Elite Eight in the regular season. Having already faced half of the 2024 tournament’s quarterfinal field in Michigan State, Duke, Louisville and Houston, the Hogs await defending national champ Florida, Alabama and Auburn in SEC play after opening the league slate with Tennessee in Fayetteville on Jan. 3.

The Tennessee win gave the Hogs a 2-3 mark against the 2025 Elite Eight, and it did two other things, as well. It eased Hog fans’ concerns about another slow league start, and it propelled Acuff firmly onto the national radar.

In Cal’s first year on the Hill, the Hogs dug themselves a 0-5 SEC hole before finishing strong, sparked by a huge win at Kentucky, and earning a 10 seed on the way to the second weekend of the tournament, the program’s fourth Sweet 16 run in five years. Following Tennessee, the Hogs were looking at a run of Ole Miss and Auburn on the road (tough but winnable games) before returning to Fayetteville to face South Carolina. The SEC remains very good — though not as ridiculously good as 2024-2025, when 13 league teams went dancing and national media called that version of the league the best college hoops conference ever — but the Hogs started January off looking like legit league title contenders.

What the big picture was starting to reveal as the calendar turned is that the Hogs will go as far as Acuff will take them. Cal’s second crew at Arkansas is arguably one of the most talented teams ever on the Hill, and Acuff is the best freshman/ point guard the program has ever seen. That last point is not up for debate.

To realize its ceiling of competing for SEC and national titles, Arkansas will need the following:

• A SportsCenter Top 10 version of Trevon Brazile to stick around, stay healthy and stay out of foul trouble.

• Big men Malique Ewin and Nick Pringle to provide gravy on offense but, most importantly, consistent resistance under the glass on defense (and Ewin to continue knocking down free throws). Both are experienced seniors who previously were important contributors at Florida State (Ewin) and Wofford, Alabama and South Carolina (Pringle).

• Karter Knox and Billy Richmond III to be “dogs.” Each of the 6-6 sophomore guards looks and plays like Nolan’s big, harassing frontcourt monsters from the ‘90s. (Knox seems to have been in his own head too much early this year as roles evolved, but he can drop 30 on a given night.)

Hogs Billy Richmond (24), Meleek Thomas (1), Darius Acuff Jr. (5) and Nick Pringle (23) celebrate during a break in the action against Louisville.

• Freshman phenom Meleek Thomas to let the game come to him. His smooth stride and stroke is reminiscent of former Hog great and then-future hall-of-famer Joe Johnson. Thomas has not been as consistent as his freshman classmate Acuff, but his stroke is as pure as it gets, and he seemed to break out of a minislump with 28 dropped on James Madison in late December and 18 against the Vols.

• D.J. Wagner to be the experienced, calming and crafty influence the team needs. Wagner can be trusted with the ball in crunch time, and though he is no longer a focal point of the offense, he can drop 20-plus easily — and he will win a game (or more) for the Hogs down the stretch.

Guard D.J. Wagner drives against Texas Tech

• And, of course, Acuff to stay healthy. The 6-3 pit bull of a player is a four-time SEC Freshman of the Week, as well as a Dick Vitale Diaper Dandy Freshman of the Week. Over the six games heading into the JMU contest, Acuff averaged 21 points, eight assists, had an assist-to-turnover ratio of four and shot 43.8 percent from three. He put up 21 points on Duke, 17 (with 10 assists) against Louisville, 17 on Fresno State, 20 on Texas Tech, 23 against Queens (10 assists) and 27 on Houston.

Of course, another March run will have to be free of the “zones of silence” in which the offense has occasionally been mired, and opponents are getting to the rim much too easily, but there have been times when the Hogs play lock-down D. By the time March rolls around, players — great players — like Duke’s Cameron Boozer and JT Toppin of Texas Tech, each of whom tormented the Hogs inside, will not benefit from refs swallowing their whistle on travels and hooks.

Could the Hogs use an extra big? Sure, but the ingredients are there as is for a healthy Arkansas to make another run. As of Dec. 29, the Razorbacks ranked in the top 50 of all 360-something DI schools in 11 of 17 statistical categories. The Hogs were 32nd nationally in scoring offense at 89.5 points per game; 49th in scoring margin at +14.6; 31st in 3-point field goal percentage (a preseason concern) at 38.3 percent from range; 39th in free throws attempted per game at 25.4; 31st in FTs made per game at 19.2; 16th in assist-to-TO ratio at 1.8; 44th in assists per game at 17.7; 27th in turnovers a game at 9.8; 40th in bench points per game at 33.7; and, finally, this team’s bread and butter, fourth nationally in fast break points per outing at 21.4.

Other notable numbers — heading into JMU, the Hogs were 59th nationally in FG percentage at 48.7 percent; 58th in 3-point FG defense at 30 percent; 63rd in FT percentage (75.4 percent); 57th in blocks per game (4.5); and 60th in effective FG percentage at 56 percent. (The last category takes into account the additional difficulty of 3-point shots.)

Improvement will have to come in a few areas, most notably scoring D. As of late December, the Hogs ranked 218th, giving up 74.9 points a game. Arkansas will also need to pull down more offensive rebounds (11.3 per game for 190th), and a bit surprisingly, turnovers forced were not where they could be (11.9 a game for 235th).

Lots more positives than negatives though, and these stats represent just 12 games. When the Hogs are running, good things happen — SportsCenter dunks, kick-outs for rainmaking 3s or free throws.

Sports are not scripted (we’re pretty sure, anyway), so one can never be sure what to expect, but heading into the new year, Arkansas is a consensus inclusion among the SEC teams to beat. The SEC may not have a truly great team over the first half of the season, but it has several very good ones, a few of which may end up being great by March.

As a program, Arkansas can boast a national title, two title game appearances, six Final Fours, 11 Elite Eights, 15 Sweet 16s, 31 conference titles, 33 all-Americans, 37 NCAA berths, four Naismith hall-of-famers and 49 NBA draft picks, a number sure to rise by two (Three? Four? Five?) this summer. Is it a Kentucky, Kansas or Duke? Of course not, but Arkansas is at a level just below those historic bluebloods. Why shouldn’t Hog fans expect Sweet 16 — or deeper — runs?

Following 15 years or so of mediocrity (and I hate to include the great Mike Anderson’s run here, but numbers are numbers), Hog fans were not just hungry but desperate to climb back to the college hoops penthouse. Eric Musselman took ‘em back, and now the legendary Coach Cal appears to be carving out a suite once again for Arkansas in that elusive club.