Alabama Crimson Tide – Grade: B
The overall number 1 seed in the NCAA tournament was one of the teams who didn’t live up to their huge expectations they had heading into the NCAA tournament. Alabama lost a good amount of talent from that roster with Brandon Miller becoming a lottery pick and watching Nimari Burnett, Jaden Bradley, and Jaden Quinerly entering the transfer portal. Head coach Nate Oats knows he is never going to replace the production he got from Miller, who is likely going to be one of the top two players taken in the NBA draft.
An Oats-coached team is going to have active guards who can shoot and score in a variety of ways and they are always going to have great defenders at all levels. Aaron Estrada who is arguably the most explosive scorer in the portal, committed to Alabama. The hope is Estrada can take over the offense and be the first option on offense. Latrell Wrightsell Jr. from Fullerton is a combo guard who is a fantastic defender and great shooter. He is another dynamic scorer who fits perfectly into what Oats is trying to do.
Arkansas Razorbacks – Grade: A+
We all know that Arkansas reaches out to every player in the portal, and while that is true and it does seem like coach Eric Musselman doesn’t have a clear plan for how he wants to build his roster, one thing is always true about his teams. The Razorbacks are always loaded with talent and have a lot of players who have positional flexibility. Arkansas is never a team you want to see in March and they are going to make the second weekend again because that is what coach Musselman does.
Arkansas had a productive first start of the offseason when they added Khalif Battle from Temple, Keyon Menifield from Washington, Tramon Mark from Houston, Jeremiah Davenport from Cincinnati, and finally El Ellis from Louisville. Every one of those players can shoot the ball from deep, everyone of them offers the positional flexibility that Arkansas desires, and the staff was able to add these players while only losing role players from last year’s team. It has been a fantastic offseason for Arkansas as they look to make their first final four under Musselman.