NCAA Basketball: Ranking the 8 teams in 2023 Battle 4 Atlantis Tournament
1. Arkansas Razorbacks
2022-23 season record: 22-14 (8-10 SEC)
In what’s become an annual occurrence for Coach Musselman, the Arkansas roster has completely changed. Four of the top five scorers are gone, including 1st round picks, Nick Smith and Anthony Black, as well as leading scorer, Ricky Council. Yet as expected, the program went crazy in the transfer portal, landing seven newcomers. One of them (Keyon Menifield) will be redshirting next season.
Among those who will play are Khalif Battle (17.9 ppg at Temple), El Ellis (17.7 ppg at Louisville), and Tramon Mark (10.1 ppg at Baylor). Cincy transfer Jeremiah Davenport adds backcourt depth, while Davonte Davis returns as a double-digit scoring guard and veteran of the system. Plus, top-30 point guard Layden Blocker will likely get some of the minutes that Menifield was going to get.
In the frontcourt, the Razorbacks will be happy to get Trevon Brazile back after a season-ending injury. One of the Mitchell twins is gone but Makhi Mitchell, who started last season is back. Five-star freshman Baye Fall gives them depth as an athletic forward, while Danijay Harris was a late pickup for the program after producing 8.9 ppg and 5.6 rpg at Southern Miss.
Next. 10 biggest recruiting battles for 2024 class. dark
As always with completely revamped rosters, there’s going to be some growing pains for Arkansas while they figure out everyone’s roles. But once it starts to gel, it’s going to be hard for opposing teams to beat them months from now.