Feature image above: Coach John Calipari is set up to build on the success of his first season on the Hill. (Photos provided by UA)
Arkansas basketball is back on the national stage, and it looks like the Hogs may be ready to stay for a while.
If the program’s recent run of Sweet 16s and Elite Eights is not enough evidence to suggest that Razorback roundball is back among the higher echelon of college basketball, then look no further than the return of Primetime at the Palace. The event officially kicked off the 2025-2026 season and introduced the new team to fans on Oct. 3 inside Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville, much like the much-ballyhooed Midnight Madness practices of old.
Arkansas may ultimately be a football state in terms of what matters the most to fans, but basketball is a very close second, and second-year coach John Calipari is continuing the resurgence begun under Eric Musselman.
Coach Cal’s first year on the Hill may have started slow, something Hog fans had grown accustomed to under Musselman, but the Hogs finished strong and in the Sweet 16 for the fourth time in the past five years. Several key players return from that 22-14 squad that won four of its last five regular season games in what many consider to be the toughest conference slate in college hoops history to secure a spot in the Dance.
Arkansas earned a 10 seed and proceeded to bounce Kansas and 2-seed St. John’s before dropping a one-possession overtime thriller to Texas Tech in the round of 16.
D.J. Wagner
The Hogs lost a couple of go-to scorers in Johnell Davis and Adou Thiero to the draft, but back for Cal are 6-4 junior guard D.J. Wagner, who followed his coach to Fayetteville from Kentucky; 6-6 sophomore swingman Karter Knox; 6-6 sophomore wing Billy Richmond III; 6-10 senior forward Trevon Brazile; and reserve guards Ayden Kelley, a 5-10 redshirt freshman, and Jaden Karuletwa, a 6-4 sophomore.
Karter Knox
Calipari needed some time to get to know his team last season. Although a couple of his UK players ended up following him to Fayetteville through the portal, when the hall-of-fame coach arrived on the Hill, he had but one player on the roster. That was Fayetteville walk-on Lawson Blake, who then abruptly ruptured his Achilles tendon in practice. Other players from Muss’ final Arkansas team had either exhausted their eligibility or entered the portal.
This time around, the head Hog is not starting from scratch.
“We kind of know each other a little bit,” Calipari told reporters Oct. 1 about his squad, “at least the five guys that came back, and then you add the guys to them, less anxiety. We’re like, ‘OK, we have an idea of what we want to do,’ and I’m talking staff, players, everybody.
“Walked in [last year], and when I said, ‘Let me see my team,’ there was no team. We had [Blake], who blew out his Achilles two days later. We had nobody, and we had to start all over. This year, we had a great summer, great fall conditioning. The guys have really competed at a high level. I feel really good about the team.”
Wagner’s return was a big get for Cal. Wagner was the floor general for most of the year after the injury to freshman phenom Boogie Fland. He averaged 11 points and 4 assists a year ago — but is capable of big scoring bursts — and will be expected to handle the point once again.
Fan-favorite Knox contributed 8 points and 3 boards a game and was a major factor throughout the Hogs’ late run. Richmond, another fan favorite for his dive-on-the-floor, gritty play reminiscent of the Nolan Richardson era, averaged 6 points and 3 rebounds and was a spark off the bench. Brazile, meanwhile, spent most of last season finding his footing after multiple injuries over the course of his Arkansas career but has always been a SportsCenter Top 10 highlight ready to explode.
Trevon Brazile
Late last season, something seemed to click for the up-and-down, would-be breakout star. Brazile averaged 7 points and 5 boards for the year, but his game was elevated in March, especially, when he started every game in the SEC and NCAA tournaments and was a major factor in the Hogs’ postseason run.
Cal’s reputation as an elite recruiter remains intact after his move from Lexington. He and his staff signed Darius Acuff, a top 5 recruit out of Detroit and IMG Academy. Considered perhaps the most dynamic freshman guard in the country, he can man either backcourt spot.
Darius Acuff Jr.
The 6-3 playmaker averaged 24 points and 4 assists in the 2024 Nike Elite Youth Basketball League spring circuit and was named the 2025 Allen Iverson National Player of the Year and a 2025 McDonald’s All-American while earning a host of other national awards and accolades.
Joining Acuff in the prep recruiting class is another 5-star, 6-5 shooting guard Meleek Thomas out of Pittsburgh and Overtime Elite. Also a McDonald’s All-American, he averaged 20 points in the 2024 Nike EYBL.
Other incoming freshmen are 7-1 Angola native Paulo Semedo, 6-7 wing Karim Rtail from Lebanon, 6-7 wing Isaiah Sealy out of Springdale and 5-9 guard Amere Brown from Pittsburgh. Each is expected to be role or depth pieces.
Nick Pringle
Cal’s portal class includes a big get in 6-10, 230-pound senior Nick Pringle from South Carolina, who spent two seasons at Alabama (where he was part of the Crimson Tide’s first Final 4 team in 2024) before transferring to the Gamecocks. He has played in 117 D-1 games, averaging 6 points and 4 rebounds with 53 blocked shots while shooting 63 percent from the field.
He will be expected to anchor the Hogs’ admittedly thin frontcourt alongside Florida State senior transfer Malique Ewin, 6-10 and 240. He averaged 14 points and 8 rebounds last year for the Seminoles while shooting 60 percent from the field, the latter of which led the ACC.
To help bolster the frontcourt, Cal brought in 7-0, 285-pound freshman Elmir Džafić from Bosnia.
As is his custom — and as if the SEC slate is not hard enough — Calipari has not shied away from competition in the nonconference schedule. The Hogs 2025-2026 schedule is a beast.
Arkansas will face 18 teams that earned 2025 NCAA bids, nine conference champions from last year and a total of 22 opponents that won 20 games last year. As if that is not enough, the Hogs will suit up against all eight teams that advanced to last year’s Elite Eight.
Most notably, Arkansas will face all four teams that advanced to the 2025 Final Four and 11 of the 2025 sweet 16 teams.
The Hogs will open with two high-profile exhibition games, the first in Fayetteville Oct. 24 against Cincinnati and the second on Oct. 27 against Memphis at the FedExForum in Memphis. The St. Jude Tip-Off Classic presented by Bad Boy Mowers will not count in the win-loss ledger, but it will renew a heated basketball rivalry. Plus, Cal coached the Tigers from 2000 to 2009 before landing at Kentucky. He led Memphis to a 252-69 record, including a national runner-up finish.
The season opens in Fayetteville Nov. 3 against Southern, which won the SWAC last year, then the Hogs travel to East Lansing to take on Tom Izzo and Michigan State on Nov. 8. Next up are four straight games in BWA against UCA, Samford, Winthrop and Jackson State before the much-anticipated game with Duke on Thanksgiving Day in Chicago’s United Center.
Arkansas hosts Louisville in the SEC-ACC Challenge Dec. 3, plays Fresno State in Little Rock Dec. 6 and, in a Sweet 16 rematch, takes on Texas Tech in Dallas Dec. 13.
“We are excited to return to Dallas. Our experience last year in the American Airlines Center was first class, and our fans and alums in the Metroplex helped make it great too,” Cal said. “Dallas has traditionally been good to the Razorbacks, and we expect nothing different this year. The Arkansas-Texas Tech rivalry means a lot to both fan bases and, if recent history holds true, this game should be a great matchup. We like our team and have great respect for Coach [Grant] McCasland. This game will help prepare both teams for another NCAA Tournament run.”
Queens University of Charlotte comes to BWA on Dec. 16; another neutral site matchup is set with Houston in the Never Forget Tribute Classic on Dec. 20 at the Prudential Center in Newark; and James Madison rolls into Fayetteville Dec. 29 to close the noncon slate.
Calipari said the team is excited for the chance to play Houston, one of the sport’s most dominant teams over the past five years under coach Kelvin Sampson.
“Razorback nation proved last year that they will show up for games like this that are played in elite facilities at destination cities,” Calipari said. “We look forward to facing a top-level program led by one of the best coaches in the country. Kelvin and I have been friends a long time. He has built an incredible program with a great culture at Houston. This game will be a great measuring stick for us as we wind down the nonconference part of the schedule and start to turn our attention to the SEC schedule.”
Cal and his Hogs do not ease into what promises to be another grueling SEC slate. Arkansas hosts Tennessee to open league play Jan. 3. Other conference home opponents are South Carolina, Vanderbilt, LSU, Kentucky (on Jan. 31), Auburn, Missouri, Texas A&M and Texas. SEC road games will take Arkansas to Ole Miss, Auburn, Georgia, Oklahoma, Mississippi State, LSU, Alabama, defending national champ Florida and Missouri.
Before the season started, the Hogs returned to Hot Springs for the Razorback Tip-Off Scrimmage at Bank OZK Arena Oct. 12.
“Last year was a tremendous success for all involved,” Cal said. “We are excited to return and grateful to those in Hot Springs for making this possible. This is a great chance for people in that region to interact with this year’s team. The returning players had a great experience last year, and we have a lot of new players on this team who will do the same this time. The trip will also be important to those new guys so they, too, get to know a different part of Arkansas and to know the passion for the Razorbacks throughout the state, not just northwest Arkansas.”
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