Arkansas Basketball: Razorbacks now with top recruiting class in the SEC

Kentucky basketball has dominated SEC recruiting in recent years and that is unlikely to change. Yet, Arkansas basketball currently has the best class.

Last season, Mike Anderson and the Razorbacks ended their season with a controversial loss to the eventual National Champions in the North Carolina Tar Heels. The defeat was the end of the careers of Dusty Hannahs and Moses Kingsley, two players who helped make the program relevant in the conference.

By the time this season is over, they’ll have to replace at least five more players, including Jaylen Barford, Daryl Macon and Anton Beard. There will be a new batch of faces for Anderson to develop, and he’s finished up most of his work already.

On Oct. 8, Arkansas picked up the commitment of Jordan Phillips, a three-star player out of Arlington, Texas. The No. 168 recruit per 247sports, Phillips is 6’5″ and has the ability to play just about any position. Phillips chose the Razorbacks over Fresno State, SMU and Virginia Tech.

https://twitter.com/J22Phillips/status/917171237075537921

With the pledge from Phillips, that makes five players coming to Arkansas for 2018. He joins four-star players Ethan Henderson (No. 126) and Keyshawn Embery (No. 130) and three-star players Isaiah Joe (No. 144) and Desi Sills (No. 301). While Arkansas wasn’t able to prevent local product Malik Monk from leaving the state to Kentucky, they’ve been able to keep the top two players in the state to stay this year.

Next: Arkansas basketball season preview

As of right now, Arkansas currently has the 16th best recruiting class in the country for 2018, and No. 1 in the SEC. Of course, that’ll change once the five-star Wildcats start to come in, but it’s a good sign to see the program do the majority of their work in the summer and not have to scramble for players in the spring. There were fears that the departure of current Chicago Bulls player Bobby Portis would set the school back, but they seem to be just fine.