John Calipari’s first roster at Arkansas is quickly coming together.
Since taking the vacant coaching spot with the Razorbacks a month ago, the former Kentucky coach has brought in Wildcats transfers Adou Thiero and Zvonimor Ivisic, FAU star guard transfer Johnell Davis — who was the No. 1 player in the portal — and Tennessee big man transfer Jonas Aidoo.
Calipari’s efforts to rebuild the Arkansas roster, which he famously said had no one during his introductory news conference, ranks No. 1 on 247Sports in terms of rosters built within through the NCAA transfer portal.
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During a recent appearance on former Oregon State head coach Craig Robinson’s “Ways to Win” podcast, Calipari provided insight on how he intends to build his rotations for the upcoming 2024-25 season — an answer that is familiar about a Calipari-led team.
“You may think I’m crazy, but I told my staff, I only want to have eight or nine guys,” Calipari told Robinson. “They’re leaving anyway and why would I develop a kid for someone else? Why would I do that?”
At Kentucky this past season, Calipari used about six players — Antonio Reeves, Rob Dillingham, Reed Sheppard, Tre Mitchell, D.J. Wagner and Justin Edwards — on any given night. The NCAA allows teams to have up to 15 players on its roster, of which 13 of those spots are taken up by scholarship players. It is up to that respective team, and coach, whether all those spots and scholarships are used.
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On top of the four transfers that Calipari has brought in this season, he has brought three of his Kentucky commits with him to Arkansas: Boogie Fland, Karter Knox and Billy Richmond. That leaves a total of eight roster spots, six scholarships, for Calipari and Co. to use.
As for how he plans to use those spots, Calipari told Robinson with walk-ons as he plans to take a part out of the women’s game where non-scholarship players and graduate assistants help out in practices.
“I want those (graduate assistants) to have played in Europe or just got done playing and can still play,” Calipari said. “We can use them in practice. The women’s programs have five guys that they call ‘managers,’ but that’s who they scrimmage against. Maybe I do it that way. We have some walk-ons, we have some (graduate assistants), we have eight or nine guys and that’s it. And if there is a 10th guy, he knows he’s the 10th guy.”
This article originally appeared on Fort Smith Times Record: Arkansas going with ‘eight or nine guys’ in Year 1 of John Calipari Era
