NCAA Basketball: Reevaluating preseason top 25 power rankings of 2022-23 season

10. Arkansas (22-13, 8-seed, Sweet Sixteen)

There’s a lot to process with these Razorbacks. Eric Musselman has led this program to back-to-back Elite Eights but saw nearly all of the roster turnover in the offseason. A sea of transfers and highly-touted freshmen replenished the roster and had Arkansas with heavy expectations again. No matter what Arkansas lost last year, they were excited to see what freshmen Nick Smith Jr., Anthony Black, and Dylan Walsh could do.

Arkansas lost a key transfer in Trevon Brazile early in the season and played for a few months without Smith, but survived those injuries. Their only loss before SEC play was against Creighton at the Maui Invitational, though they got off to a 1-5 start in conference play. The Razorbacks would bounce back in the coming month but did finish the regular season on a three-game losing streak against the conference’s top 3 teams. Even after falling to Texas A&M in the conference tournament, they still secured an 8-seed and a chance to make postseason magic again.

Ricky Council IV, a transfer from Wichita State, has been a godsend for the Razorbacks and was impressive in a 10-point win over Illinois in the first round. Arkansas reached its full potential over the weekend by upsetting top-seed Kansas, the defending champions. They’ll face another uphill battle with Connecticut later this week, but the Razorbacks are playing in the second weekend for a third straight season under Musselman, certainly accomplishing what this mostly new roster set out to do in the preseason.