Who Let The Hogs Out?

An Arkansas Razorbacks Season Preview

The Arkansas Razorbacks are in year one of the John Calipari Era. Coach Cal came to Fayetteville with a plan to overhaul the basketball program. The plan seems to be bringing over his Kentucky team, and commits, while also focusing on big men and guards.

I want to look at the most likely top 8. After that, I will make the argument for who I think should be the starters.

The Bigs

There are three Bigs that I feel like create the Razorbacks identity this year.

Zvonimir Ivisic

Big Z is entering his second NCAA year. The Croatian big man is an excellent shooter for someone who is 7’3. The 21-year-old shot 37.5% from 3 last season but was limited to only 15 games and 176 minutes by the NCAA’s inconsistent eligibility standards. This coming year he will be a huge change of pace big for Calipari while his NBA future might be murky I think in college he will have a significant impact with a Bol Bol like highlight reel.

Trevon Brazile

Brazile might be from a rival high school in the Springfield area (Who may or may not have destroyed my high school every year in football) but man the dude is athletic. The 6’10 stretch big is both an athlete and a decent 35.4% shooter on a college career with 130 attempts. He has some ability to switch on defense and fits the ideal small ball mobile 5 archetype every NBA team wants. Think Larry Nance Jr. He is a jack of all trades master of none type of guy who really does need to show an elite skill in order to get drafted. However, he could definitely be the guy in this Arkansas frontcourt.

Jonas Aidoo

The 6’11 big man was the starter for rival Tennessee. His main thing is his rim protection, with an absolutely insane 3 blocks per 40-minute number. One has to wonder if he was promised the starting spot to transfer to the hogs.

Guards

Boogie Fland

Cerebro has 89 games as the sample size for Fland’s high school career. He put up 6 three balls a game! While his percentage is suspect it goes up significantly when in an actual team context instead of all-star games. The 6’3 guard is the most talented player on the roster but that did not make Calipari start Devin Booker or Reed Sheppard. It could be that Boogie runs the second unit like those two and still is the best player on the team. Ironically the closest comp I have for him is a famous super sub for my favorite team in Jason Terry. JET had the ability to take over with his scoring off the bench while also keeping the offense going, that would be a great role for Boogie at Arkansas and moving forward.

Johnell Davis

The small wing who can score from basically anywhere on the court. At 6’4 Davis averaged 18.2 points per game for Florida Atlantic. I think he’s going to be the leading scorer for the Razorbacks as well. While I don’t think the 23-year-old has a huge NBA upside I think his ability to score will keep the Hogs in games sometimes that they could lose.

DJ Wagner

Wagner is looking to be the first player whose father and paternal grandfather both played in the NBA. The problem is his last year at Kentucky was… well it sucked. He started all but one game and his comp for me was a less athletic JR Smith… then his shot completely abandoned him last year. He's such a streaky shooter that it’s going to be his swing skill. He is not quite good enough at defense or with ball handling to be the guy he wants if that shot won’t fall. At 6’4 he also isn’t able to play the small forward consistently.

Forwards

Adou Thiero

Like DJ having his dad Dajuan play for Coach Cal Adou’s dad Almamy also played for Calipari in Memphis. In fact, Dajuan and Almamy only missed each other by one year. Now their kids will play for Calipari at two separate schools. Thiero is basically a 6’6 defensive stud who is a great driver. Think Lu Dort. He can guard 1-4 and is going to be a lock to start here. Interesting fact he’s eligible to play for Mali in FIBA play so maybe he could get Bilal Coulibaly to play for Mali as well and they could make them an actual Olympic Contender.

Karter Knox

Karter was following his brother Kevin to Lexington before the big coaching change. The 6’6 wing is not as highly regarded as his brother was but maybe that means he won’t have such unrealistic expectations for his talent level. I think Karter will get a lot of minutes but I don’t think he’s going to be a one-and-done the more I look into him. He’s a good athlete like his brother and can score from outside but also like his brothe, it isn’t efficient enough.

So, who starts?

Ok, now for the hard part. I think first of we have three clear locks to start. Johnell Davis, Adou Thiero, and Jonas Aidoo. Aidoo and Thiero will set the actual tone as the defensive heart of the team there will be no easy layups against them. Davis will be the offensive engine for the team.

If it were up to me, and it is most definitely not, I would want the shooting of Ivisic between the 2 defensive studs (and his rim protection would also just make it impossible for teams to score inside) and I would want Fland to be the quarterback of this offense since I don’t trust Wagner in that role.

However, I think that DJ and Trevon were promised starting roles this year. This isn’t a horrible decision since Brazile can be the more mobile big man and his decent shooting will still be a plus in the lineup. DJ is going to have to be a better decision-maker this year for this to work but the flashes are there.

That would make the starting lineup DJ Wagner at the Point, Johnell Davis as the off-guard, Adou Thiero as the wing, Trevon Brazile as the power forward and Jonas Aidoo at the pivot. The advantage of this lineup is clearly defense. The paint will be almost a no-fly zone.

This also lets a bench attack of Boogie Fland-Zvonimir Ivisic pick and pops with Karter Knox being a good cutter off those actions and a lot of mix and matching of pieces for Calipari to work with.

While I don’t expect the Razorbacks to win the NCAA tournament this year I do think the SEC is definitely in play as well as a final-four finish.