← Eye On College Basketball
Eye On College Basketball
’25 Summer Shootaround: Few teams have as large of a gap between their ceiling and floor like Arkansas
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- [00:00]
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- [01:34]
Matt Norlander
Foreign parish welcome back to the CBS Sports Ion College Basketball Podcast where we sometimes discuss camel fighting dodo birds in leaky black. Matt Norlander is here with me. If you watch it on YouTube, you know what to do to that. Like button shouts to Brandon Davies. And if you haven't yet subscribed to the CBS Sports college basketball YouTube channel, please also do that while you're here. Let's get into it. Today we are continuing our summer Shoot around series here on the Ion College Basketball Podcast. And we're going to do it with me and look at that Northlander. It's going to be me and North.
- [02:10]
Parrish
Look at the new guy together.
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Matt Norlander
How you been? How you been? How you been?
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Parrish
I've been, I've been good through a journey of guests, as you have as well. It's actually just the way the schedule broke. We have not, we have not done this in close to three weeks. It's been, it's been a minute. But I've been, I've been good. And I'm sure for many of our viewers and listeners, it's like, it's like an old warm blanket to see us back together. So don't get used to it too much. The next, the next show is scheduled to have another guest, but then we're here together for most of. Most of the stretch of the offseason. But I've been good. I know you've been good. We've gotten our vacation time in and yeah, check in here. It's still the depths of the off season, so the summer shoot around continues.
- [02:51]
Matt Norlander
You, you ever hear about those married couples and sometimes, you know, life just gets too busy and the husband's working like non stop and. And maybe the wife is working nonstop and, you know, everybody's running around with the kids and it's soccer practice over here and basketball practice over there. And at some point somebody looks at the other person and says, hey, I don't think we're taking time for ourselves. We need to take some time for ourselves and maybe get away and spend some time together, some alone time. And I feel that that's what we're.
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Parrish
Doing here, going on right here.
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Matt Norlander
Yes, we had. We needed to get back together. I mean, I've been sitting around watching you talk to Mark Pope, C.J. moore. I was sure you're gonna leave me for one of them three man weave guys. I didn't know which one exactly, but I thought for sure you're gonna try to replace.
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Parrish
You think I didn't notice the chemistry that you and Fanta were rocking? Okay. You think I didn't peer and leer through the curtain window as I saw Evan Miyakawa just hanging out with you in the dining room? You think I didn't see that?
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Matt Norlander
It's tough to watch, isn't it? It's all good, actually. They're talking to Matt Painter and you're like, he used to talk to me like this.
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Parrish
Or.
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Matt Norlander
Or it looks like he's listening to what Matt Painter says. I know he doesn'.
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Parrish
You were locked the hell in, that's for sure.
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Matt Norlander
I was so locked in on the Painter discussion.
- [04:02]
Parrish
In all sincerity, like, we were asked to kind of spruce it up and I think there have been some benefits. But I know our audience also appreciates when we're back together. So we appreciate that. It's just a quick little experiment. You know, most shows are still going to have me in gp. Don't worry, we're not changing up the formula on you. And look at us now. We're back talking about, oh God, John Caliperi again in this Arkansas Razorbacks lay out what the people need to know about this team GP all right, before.
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Matt Norlander
We look ahead, let's get a quick recap of last season. You know how much I like to do that. The Razorbacks went 22 and 14 last season, including 8 and 10 in the SEC. Finished high for ninth in the league standings. Seven games back of first place Auburn. They got a 10 seed in the NCAA tournament. Upset Kansas Round to 64. Upset St. John's this was a big one in the round of 32, then lost to Texas Tech. It was 8583 in overtime in the Sweet 16 from that team. Each of the top three scorers are gone, most notably a dude arrow. But D.J. wagner is back. So is Carter Kno, so is Trev in Brazil. Each of those guys started a double digit number of games last season and they'll be joined by what is described as the fourth ranked recruiting class in the country according to 24. 7 sports. That's among the reasons I got Arkansas ranked 20th in the top 25 and 1. We're going to see what Norlander thinks about that next. But first let's go ahead and do it for old time's sake. Let's get a word from our partners.
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Matt Norlander
Whoa, when did I get here?
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Matt Norlander
I swear it was just moments ago that I accepted a great offer from Carvana Online. Must have time traveled to the future.
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Parrish
It is the future.
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Matt Norlander
It's all good. Happens all the time.
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Matt Norlander
A top 20 team heading into the season. Do you love it or do you loathe it?
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Parrish
I think I like it.
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Matt Norlander
I didn't hear Jim Root hit you with that question.
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Parrish
No, he did not. I think I like it. I'm going to pick door number three because the more I look at the roster, the more I think I love it. But I don't want to drift too far from what I think is going to wind up being Arkansas's reality. So Hogs fans, come on in, sit down. We got a lot to talk about here and I know you're super excited about your team and I think there's a lot of reasons to be excited about your team. But I wonder if this Arkansas team will find itself afflicted with some of the things that afflicted the team last year and some of the things that afflicted Calipari's teams in this final three four seasons in Lexington. You know, we'll keep it moving forward, but just as a quick, you know, reminder, Arkansas was a bit adrift for the first two months and change last season. It was when they went into Kentucky and Cal one at UK and that was February 1st that the season really began to turn in a significant way. But you said it before, I mean they finished 8 and 10 in the league. They were 14th in offensive efficiency. In the SEC, they were 12th and 3 point accuracy. They were, they were 13th in offensive rebound percentage. In general, they were not, they were not an above average rebounding team. They were pedestrian as a shooting team. How much is that going to improve this year? I think it can, I think it probably will. But is Trevin Brazil going to make a big jump? D.J. wagner's offensive capabilities, we know that he can be a really, really good high level, probably their best. He'll probably be the best defensive player in the backcourt that they have. Kevin Knox, what will be his ceiling? How will he improve from a shooting perspective? They're bringing in some freshmen and we'll run down the roster here in just a second. The good news is some new faces coming in can be good three point shooters and can make an impact there. But I'm wondering how big the jump will be and if you were relying on freshmen to be your primary perimeter contributors, how much of that is going to work? Overall, this incoming class according to 247 sports is ranked fifth in the country. I could see Arkansas Parish as having a ceiling as 8, 9, 10 in the country. I think is probably the ceiling with this roster. And I could see their floor being similar to last year, 10 seed overall. I think the SEC will be a little bit worse. How could it not be? I mean it was insane last year. So SEC could still rate as the best conference in the country, maybe not be quite as difficult this upcoming season. So I like your 20th ranking. They should be a top 25 team. There's a lot of talent that's still here. I'll leave it to you to run down the roster of who's who's, who's here. But just as a reminder, Theo's gone. Boogie Flan gone to Florida, Nelly Davis college career is done. They lost Big Z, he goes to play with his brother at Illinois and Jonas Adu is gone as well. So I, I do wonder about their ability to immediately click and hit big and, and have an impact. Or are you and I faded on this podcast to talk about this team a dozen times this season, about, you know, good win. Ah man lost three or four, you know, that kind of stuff. Can they avoid the pitfalls? I, I kind of think they, they won't. I think they're, they're going to be due for a couple of down spells here. But even with all of that, I do like a lot of what is on the roster and considering everything they left, everything, everyone that left gp, I still think they've got enough to be, to be an impactful team in the sec. But I do not think this will be a top three team in that league.
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Matt Norlander
I technically don't either. I mean if you look at the top 25 and 1, I would have them finishing fifth in the SEC behind Florida, Kentucky, Alabama and Auburn. At torvik they are 16th in the country behind in the SEC, only Florida, Tennessee and Kentucky. So at least relative to that algorithm I'm a little low. But top 20 ish seems in the in the proper range and I guess I would hesitate to call them a national championship contender, although I would never put that ceiling on them because you know, two years ago I would have probably hesitated in the preseason to call or three years ago rather to call UConn a national championship contender. But like you know, they won it and then they won another one. We're wrong about this stuff sometimes, but if you made me like put money on it, do I think we will spend March talking about Arkansas as one of the five or six teams in the country that can win six games in the bracket and cut nets in Indianapolis?
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Parrish
No.
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Matt Norlander
I'd be surprised. But I'm not ruling it out because though this isn't anything close to one of his great Kentucky rosters, the backcourt is ridiculously talented. I mean when I just go through a four guard rotation, however you want to do it of Darius Akov, D.J. wagner, Carter Knox and Malik Thomas, that's pretty strong. You know, Darius is a projected top 10 pick one and done player in Cal Boone's latest draft, mock draft, he's got him going seventh overall. Carter Knox is also a projected first round draft pick. D.J. wagner is a third year college player who hasn't lived up to the hype that was attached to him entering college. Based on where he was ranked, based on his last name but like he's still a 64 double digit score 3rd year of college like you know who was a former five star prospect and then Malik Thomas is, you know, a first year five star prospect who if he comes off the bench and that's how I would assume he's going to start his college career, is the type of prospect who is capable to come in and you know, score 8 of 14 for you pretty quickly, like dynamic, you know, guy score in that backcourt like that's pretty talented. You know, I don't know where it ranks among tell me the best four guard combinations in college basketball. You probably need to have a conversation about Purdue near the top of that list. But Arkansas's got some of the best guards in the country and I even if it is a little up and down for them, I don't think it'll be as up and down as last season was because it was down for a while. I don't think they're going that again. At least I'd be surprised if they go through that again. Questions in the front court, I guess. But the difference between this team and last season's team, there's more roster continuity almost by definition there had to be, but there's more roster continuity and you know, Boogie Flan did miss a lot of time last season. Hopefully for Arkansas's sake at least that's not the reality this time around.
- [14:31]
Parrish
Arkansas had a spell last season where it dropped five in a row. Anything's possible. Hard for me to figure this. The team lose five straight games and it really lost seven at one point. Could I see it as I mentioned before, like you know, dropping three or four. Yeah, of course. I mean given the SEC schedule, like that's certainly going to be something that's on the table there. A lot of talent and how like a cuff will run. Acuff is going to start at point guard as a freshman right away. And then Wagner who played some lead guard last season, like he'll play more off ball but how those two play with each other. I agree. Thomas will come off the bench. You've also got Billy Richmond who is not a primer oriented wing, but he's a wing then that you know he's going. He really had some nice moments toward the end of last season as well. So he comes back. The continuity I think is major that you hitting on this is why I think Arkansas needs to be considered strongly in the top 20 conversation is because Caliperi has been benefited with having back four players who made significant contributions. And I was there in Providence, I saw them, you know, upset St. John's and really it was statistically the worst three point shooting performance by two teams collectively in one. Instead of a tournament game ever. There had never been a game where two teams shot more and missed more three pointers than Arkansas's win over St. John's and in some ways you know how Arkansas won that game was a lot of it was poetic and we talked about that when it, when it happened in the moment. But, but Brazil, Knox, Wagner, Richmond, you get those guys back to pair with, you know, a couple of really, really talented freshmen. They've got a couple of foreign born players that are coming in. There's a wing named Isaiah, Isaiah Seeley who's like a top 120 guys outside the top 100 at, at 247. I don't know how much burn he'll get or not. This feels like it'll be. Knowing Cal, I would think this will be like an eight man rotation. The transfers are Malik Ewan from Florida State who averaged 14 points a game last year but, you know, did so in obscurity. And then Nick Pringle, who's just taken the SEC tour. He just, he just is, he was at South Carolina, Bama before that and, and here he comes on over to Arkansas. But both those guys don't take threes. I mean, Pringle is, is, is going to be in his fifth season of college and he has over four in his career from beyond the arc. He's 610 leaky and 611 doesn't take him. Are we going to have this issue again with Arkansas and its lack of three point accuracy and aggressiveness? And if that's the case, how do they overcome it? Again, the rebounding is going to be massive. Maybe those two transfers I just mentioned can help them overcome it. I think this is going to be. I really didn't want to settle on this take Parish, but I am, I am here right now and I'm going to be here until the season starts. Then let's get, you know, a month in the season and I'll change my tune. I think that there are going to be hallmarks of this Arkansas team that are going to remind people for good and for frustration. A lot of previous Cal teams, a lot of talent, some plays and some stretches and games that make you go, man, this is just one of the most entertaining teams to watch in the sport. And then there will be stretches and games and there will be defeats where you're like, they had just little business losing that game. Like, what are they doing out there? I think it will lead to that in part because I need to see the proven perimeter attack, given the coaching in that league. Wait till we get to the schedule. Oh, by the way, the teams that they are playing, they are going to need to have some real dynamism in their offense. And maybe Acuff comes in, maybe he comes. We are having awesome freshman class Parrish, maybe he does come in and is one of the three or four best freshmen in the country. But if that's the case, he is going to be phenomenal. And if he can be that that way, then yeah, that'll change some things about what I think about Arkansas. But Cal distributing, you know, responsibilities with all of his guys there, it's, it's an intriguing mix. I have a lot of fascination with how this is going to go. I think it's going to be a good team. But I do think it's going to be a team that that leaves us just a bit frustrated because it's gonna, it's gonna leave a few things out there on the table. It's going to take a few losses that it probably shouldn't. That's just my projection for now.
- [18:37]
Matt Norlander
Let me get your thoughts on this because I think you and I agree Talented roster, but not the most talented roster. No, not the most talented roster John's ever had. Not the most talented roster Arkansas's ever had. Not like the rosters he used to consistently have at Kentucky. We got into a habit when John was at uk. We could debate the quality of the team, but the amount of talent on the roster was usually inarguable. It was like that is the best roster in the country or one of the two or three best rosters in the country. We said it in 2010 with John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, 2012 with Anthony Davis, 2015 with Devin Booker, Carl Anthony Towns. I don't have it all in front of me, but I'm confident there are way more years than that or at least additional years where you looked at UK's roster under John Caliper and you said that's the best roster in the country. I don't know what it'll do from a win loss perspective, but that's the best. That's the best roster in the country for two to three years at Arkansas. You haven't been able to say that or even like suggest it. They do have the fourth ranked freshman class in the country according to 24.7Sports. But only one top 10 prospect from the class is enrolled at Arkansas. Last year, zero top 10 prospects in the class of 2024 enrolled at Arkansas. That means over a two year period they enrolled only one top 10 high school prospect. And though that is there are years at Kentucky, I went and looked where they did enroll just one top 10 prospect in a class. You're not going to find too many examples where it's two years in a row, only one. Combine the two years pick them. 2010, 11, 14, 15, you pick them only one top 10 prospect in that in that two year window. But that is the reality so far at Arkansas. They also didn't like kill it in the transfer portal the way say St. John's did, Louisville did, some other schools. Have has anything changed? Listen, it's still a good roster. It's still got multiple projected first round picks. I still haven't ranked top 20 in the country, but has anything about John Calipari's recruiting or his ability to recruit at the tip top of the sport. Has any of that changed? Obviously things have changed. Nil. Revenue sharing, transfer portal.
- [21:07]
Parrish
Sure.
- [21:08]
Matt Norlander
Waivers. I got that. But like we went about a decade plus where it was. You could reasonably assume without knowing anything that guy's going to have one of the most talented rosters in the country, if not the most talented. And it's just not true right now. And oh, by the way, this is maybe something close to similar. You know, Bill Self in Kansas, they're going through a similar. Like Kansas does not have one of the best rosters in the country right now. And you know, for a long time you assume that they would.
- [21:33]
Parrish
Yeah. Although coming off that Kansas shooter on episode, if you haven't listened yet, please go do that. C.J. moore offered some great insight there. I have talked myself into Kansas more than I thought I would. Sometimes that's just a virtue of doing these shows. Okay, so good. Tee up. Good thought experiment. Couple thoughts. One, yes. The very nature of how rosters are built now, it's not what was there from 2009 to 2021 with, with Calipari, obviously he's also not at a program with as much prestige.
- [22:03]
Matt Norlander
Right.
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Parrish
Those are, those, those are two factors. And then also I, that the collective talent that he's assembling has dropped off a little because I would still say ACUFF Thomas is 13th in the country in this class. Wagner, Knox, Richmond. I would still say talent wise. This is a. Off the top of my head, I still feel talent wise. This is definitely a top 12 ish, 15 at worst roster for Calipari, like more years than not talent wise. He was top three. Now he's in the winter of his career. So like to have that run and then to like lose it a little bit. There's also, and I'm not saying you're saying this, but for our listeners, like, it's not a, it's not a knock on him. Like the fact that he even did it as long as he did is incredible. It's insane. So there's also like, there's some of that as well. Sure, I get all of that. And, and I think it's like, it's like two things happening at once. The, the, the distribution of money in college basketball has led to situations where just certain players are going certain places that just wouldn't have happened five years ago. That's just an undeniable fact. But at the same time, I'm very confident in saying that over the past two years combined, if you took this year's portal cycle, you know, bank account the amount of money that Arkansas could spend and last year and combined it, Arkansas would rank in the top five unquestionably in the sport and how much money they were putting out there for players to go and play for them. So it was. So Caliperi theoretically still had the money to justify bringing in what would be a top five roster talent wise. It just hasn't equated to that. I think some of that forces at play there. I, I, I still think there's enough here that he hasn't lost his fastball but it is, it is what you're bringing up is definitely true that it's not at the level that it used to be and a lot of forces have led to that. Not a Kentucky, more people paying for more players all around the sport. You're going to just, you're going to lose a guy here that you wouldn't have otherwise lost. And, and some of the lack of success in his final few years I think also has just, you know, slight impacts on the edges. Maybe you'd have gotten one of the. If, if Cal was killing at Kentucky and didn't have her have to leave like I think he'd still have a pretty damn strong roster there. So I think, I think a lot of that factors in.
- [24:23]
Matt Norlander
Yeah. To be clear, like we are only discussing this relative to the insane bar that he himself set. Right. He's being judged against himself.
- [24:34]
Parrish
Right.
- [24:34]
Matt Norlander
And the best.
- [24:36]
Parrish
I want to be clear about this. He is the greatest recruiter in the history of college basketball.
- [24:39]
Matt Norlander
I don't.
- [24:40]
Parrish
He is the greatest. I don't, I don't think it's arguable frankly. There have been other really, really good ones on the whole. John Calipari is the greatest recruiter in the history of the sport.
- [24:49]
Matt Norlander
So and I'll co sign that and so this feels a little bit like sitting around going I don't know what year it would have been. Just play along and you're going man, remember when Tiger woods used to win every third tournament he was in. Now he only wins every fifth tournament he was in. Like what's going on there? And you're like well it's still kind of like that pretty.
- [25:06]
Parrish
Tiger woods though won the tournament.
- [25:08]
Matt Norlander
Yeah. But you get, you get the point, you get the point. We are like it's still one of the, you know, 15, 10 to 15 to 20 best rosters in America. It's just, I just sort of looking at it Noticed it doesn't quite pop the way I would argue most if his Kentucky roster has popped over the years and take it for whatever it's worth. You want to run us through the schedule?
- [25:35]
Parrish
Yeah, let's do it. How? Okay, so this has not been officially announced yet and hold on. You know what I gotta do? I gotta just get a little, a little bit of, A little bit of a music background for the schedule here. Oh, that's what I like to hear. Okay, five big non con games. Now what's interesting is the SEC is in an 18 game league schedule. So if they're I, I gotta think Arkansas's got a sixth notable non con game lingering out there. But if it's out there, it's not been determined, hasn't been released, hasn't been leaked, hasn't been reported. None of it. That said, you ready for this trivia time?
- [26:13]
Matt Norlander
Okay, let's go.
- [26:14]
Parrish
Auburn, Michigan State.
- [26:17]
Matt Norlander
Yes.
- [26:17]
Parrish
Florida.
- [26:18]
Matt Norlander
Sure.
- [26:18]
Parrish
Texas Tech, Duke, Alabama, Houston, Tennessee. I'm going to say that one more time. Faster. Auburn, Michigan State, Florida, Texas Tech, Duke, Alabama, Houston, Tennessee. What two things do those eight teams have in common?
- [26:33]
Matt Norlander
They all have coaches.
- [26:35]
Parrish
What three those eight teams have in common?
- [26:38]
Matt Norlander
They all have coaches and point guards. Argue against that. Argue against what I just said.
- [26:46]
Parrish
Number one, I won't. Number two, they were all in the elite eight last tournament.
- [26:54]
Matt Norlander
All about that. Good for them.
- [26:56]
Parrish
Number three, every single one of those teams, Auburn, Michigan State, Florida, Texas Tech, Duke, Bama, Houston, Tennessee is on Arkansas schedule this season. I don't know if this has ever happened in the history of college basketball where you not only have every team coming off an elite eight that you will play, those are all going to be preseason top 25 teams. This really might be a first. So I say that to say if, if they only have five and the five games are just outrageous, then that would be understandable. But typically now you see high major coaches trying to get at least normally 6 notable non con games and the rest are buys. Right Now I've got five with Arkansas. Here's the order. November 8th at Michigan State. So that's a two year series. They'll return to Fayetteville next year. But this year it's November 8th, first weekend of the season going against Tom Izzo. November 27th, Thanksgiving against Duke in Chicago. CBS, we love it. Then December 3rd they host Louisville. December 13th against Texas Tech and Dallas and then December 20th against Houston in Barclays. So yes, if you're keeping track, I don't know why Caliper is a masochist. He scheduled Oakland last year after getting, not having Greg Campi and Jack Golke and his Kentucky career. But that went okay for him. They won by 30. Arkansas gagged away the Sweet 16 game against Texas Tech in overtime. Should have won the game, lost it and, and he said, yeah, what the hell, let's go, let's go play Texas Tech in their home state a year later when they're going to have maybe the preseason player of the year. I'm just wowed by Caliperi. He's not afraid. More power to you, Cal. But those are the five biggies. Michigan State on the road, Duke in Chicago, Louisville at home, Texas Tech and Dallas. And then Houston might be the preseason number one. Played them December 20th and Barclays. Here's your SEC schedule. Two plays. Auburn, LSU, Missouri. Those are home and away only home Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Texas A and M and Vandy road only. Bama Tuffy, Florida Tuffy, Georgia, Ole Miss. Could be tricky. Mississippi State and Oklahoma. So how many wins for the Arkansas Razorbacks, which you have? 20th heading into the season. That's as strong of a five game slate as you're going to find, I think, in terms of opponents. I, I don't know what the hell you're going to say on this number. I, I, you could tell me six different ways that you go with this and I believe it. So what's your number?
- [29:25]
Matt Norlander
All right, I count backwards. You know how I can, you know.
- [29:27]
Parrish
How I do this? Not only that, I informed guests on the show. I called it the Parish method.
- [29:32]
Matt Norlander
So, yes, you guys just count backwards. So what number am I working with? 31 or 32?
- [29:37]
Parrish
31. 31 for this season. It'll be 32 when we do these a year from now.
- [29:41]
Matt Norlander
Okay, I'm working, working for 31. I'm gonna give them four non league losses. The Texas Tech game in Dallas, Houston, Michigan State and Duke.
- [29:50]
Parrish
Duke. So you've got. So just to reset if we don't have a six notable game, Paris has Arkansas entering the SEC slate with one good win overall.
- [30:02]
Matt Norlander
Just, just that's where we're at.
- [30:04]
Parrish
So we're set. So if that happens a lot we talked about, the beginning of this episode will have come to fruition in my opinion.
- [30:11]
Matt Norlander
I got him losing four. All right, then in the league it's 18 game league schedule. I've got them projected to finish fifth.
- [30:25]
Parrish
That's right.
- [30:31]
Matt Norlander
I'm gonna go 12 and 6 in the SEC. I'm gonna have 10 losses going into the SEC tournament. I'm 21 and 10 in the regular season.
- [30:42]
Parrish
Norlander, can they be a 21 and 10 team and be top 20 in the country? That's the question.
- [30:49]
Matt Norlander
I think so. I think so with the right losses.
- [30:53]
Parrish
I agree with you. And this is the third consecutive shoot around that I have agreed with the exact number. I have Arkansas at 21:10 heading into the SEC tournament. Arkansas, if you're curious, was 19 and 12 last season. So this is a two game improvement which I think is completely reasonable for Calipari's team. Arkansas fans, I give you 21 and 10. Or do you, or do you chance it and go and take it up?
- [31:21]
Matt Norlander
I, I think they hate this and they're throwing Tyson chicken nuggets at us. They hate this and they're throwing frozen chicken nuggets.
- [31:28]
Parrish
They're gonna chance it. They're gonna chance it. I would understand if you want to chance it. I think Arkansas's variants of all of our shoot around episodes, Arkansas's top three in team variants. I, I do genuinely believe what I said earlier on the show. I think this team could have a ceiling of 8, 9, 10 in the country. I do. If it all comes together, if Acuff is brilliant, if Wagner jumps, if Brazil gives us, you know, if he, I guess he's put on a little bit of bulk in the off season, if he can have that perimeter jumper back, like all of it comes together. Yeah, then look the hell out. I think Arkansas's got a real chance. But we cannot put out of the realm of possibility that we have another one of these seasons where it's just up and down, up and down, up and down. We'll split the difference. You and I agree, a 21 team going into the SEC tournament in year two for Cal at Arkansas and this is his 34th year overall in coaching.
- [32:25]
Matt Norlander
Also worth noting because I'm assuming we have an Arkansas audience here. It's an exhibition, so not part of the schedule. But John is going to bring the Razorbacks to Memphis to FedEx forum in October on a Tuesday night. The date's going to be October 28th. It hasn't been publicly officially announced yet, but that's the date. October 28th inside FedEx forum. And that will be the type of thing I imagine you, you see on Sports center that night.
- [32:52]
Parrish
Yeah, man, I wish it was a game. I'm not gonna get too picky. I just wish it was a regular season game, that's all. It's gonna be an awesome thing. I just Wish it was November 7th, November 17th.
- [33:01]
Matt Norlander
That's all I Do too. But I guess you take what you can get and it's going to be designed to raise money for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, which John has worked with in a variety of ways for decades. You know, John still has real friends and real connections and spends real time in Memphis. I know that Memphians were hurt when he left, and those feelings were intense for a while and in some places they still are. But broadly speaking, like, people are ready to move on and celebrate what was the best era of Tiger basketball in history. And I talked to John about it very briefly at Peach Jam and like I was, you know, I was just like, how you feel about it. And he feels good, like he's comfortable. And I don't know that he would have been comfortable three years ago or 10 years ago, but he's comfortable now. And they have the University of Memphis extended invitations to literally every player who ever played for John at Memphis. And they are offering to fly them back if they need to fly back, put them up if they need to put them up. But John, one of his conditions on this was don't just make it about me, like, let's. I want everybody back. And that could mean, you know, everybody from Derrick Rose to the Walk on from the 2002 team. And so it should be like a neat night where hopefully that, you know, that building was filled up, filled up for years and you know, 18, 000 people adored that man. He was a God in that city. And obviously when he left, it went another direction. But hopefully all that can be put to aside. That'll be a special night not just for John and the former players, but honestly, like for John's family. Like his daughters grew up here. You know, it's, you know, and Aaron went to White Station High School, like this is their home on some level and they haven't been comfortable here for a long time. And hopefully that changes on. On October 28th. So that'll be a neat night for Arkansas fans, for Memphis fans and. And for John specifically.
- [35:00]
Parrish
Yeah, that's, that's really cool. Also a good little scoop from you there. I don't have it up in front of me, but I believe that also John has entered into like a multi year, four year agreement with Central Arkansas, I want to say.
- [35:17]
Matt Norlander
So that's just so I like stuff like that.
- [35:19]
Parrish
That's good on him. I can check myself in real time here, but I'm almost positive I saw that. Normally we just mentioned the high majors because it's just the most notable games, but when you've got a situation where you have schools that are willing to play mid majors in state, I think that's, I think that's an amazing thing. And yeah, I'm almost positive someone told me about this. I don't know if this has been reported yet but I thought that it was central. I think it was central Arkansas in state that there, you know, Kansas doesn't play Wichita State and a lot you can go down the road, there's plenty of these and on a lot of levels they're understandable. But man, for those communities when you can have the way that it is purely from a scheduling standpoint, the way that it was way more often than not from the 1940s until the 1990s when a lot of this stuff, you know, tended to change for obvious reasons. It's just, it's good to see there and give it to Cal. He's. There's some ambitious creative scheduling. This is reckless speculation by me. I'm just thinking off the top of my head. I don't know this or not, but having and then five games. I just wonder. He scheduled that six game series with Gonzaga. Gonzaga hasn't released a schedule. I just wonder if he's working on something with Few or not. He might not be. He might not. But Call and Mark Few are very, very close. Conspicuously only have five games yet. So I wonder if there will be a sixth if it will be Gonzag and if not this year at the year after that. But anyway that's just harmless speculation.
- [36:54]
Matt Norlander
I understand when coaches don't want to take their big brands to smaller brands within the state. Like I, I get it. I don't agree with it but I understand it. But I always appreciate when the coaches will do it. Roy Williams would do it every once in a while at North Carolina. Like you just see the Tar Heels playing in a building and you're like what are they doing there? And sometimes it would be to take a senior home or something like that. But he wasn't scared to take his brand into places other people might not take his brand. I was on the sideline a few years ago at James Madison when Tony Bennett took Virginia to James Madison. Like I like, I like and like you just, you can tell what that means. Like the people who were in the building that night. I don't even remember much about the game other than James Madison won. But like the people who were in that building, they'll never forget that. Remember the night Virginia came here?
- [37:47]
Parrish
Tony Bennett cream did this with IPFW remember and Indiana lost not to. But yeah, sometimes it can go that way for you. But man, it's just, it's an all time memory.
- [37:59]
Matt Norlander
It's just a cool thing to do. Take take. I I know John Shire subscribes to this At Duke, I think Tommy Lloyd, some of the newer coaches at Arizona, Tommy at Arizona, I think some of the newer coaches who have taken over some of our sports best brands actually understand not that it's their obligation or duty, but that there's something to be gained by taking your big brand into places it it maybe has never been or otherwise wouldn't go. And so I I'm glad you brought this up. I hope that it's true.
- [38:38]
Parrish
Someone can pass it along to me. If it's not whatever, it's a.
- [38:41]
Matt Norlander
If it's not whatever, the point stands. Regardless. I'm always happy to talk about examples like this because I'm a believer in giving credit where credit's due and when you you could make a difference on somebody else's campus and create real memories for people by just doing nothing other than agreeing to play a basketball game in a certain place when you're in control of of a brand like yes, Duke, Arkansas, Arizona, so on and so forth. And if John is doing that in this case, then they definitely play this.
- [39:13]
Parrish
Upcoming season, November 11th. At bare minimum, they've got that game happening, which is good stuff, I think. You know what? I think that's true.
- [39:21]
Matt Norlander
All right, let's get done with it then. Shouts to Devin Downey. Shouts to Chester, S.C. shouts to Terry Teagle. He's a legend. Huck Larnell. Thank you guys once again for watching listening to the I Own College Basketball podcast. You're not subscribed. Please go subscribe anywhere you subscribe to podcasts. Apple, Spotify, more of us than there are of them. That should be reflected in the comments. Do it and we'll talk to you again real soon. Till then, take care.
- [39:53]
Parrish
Paramount Podcasts Talk about stepping up.
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Matt Norlander
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