One of the quietest names in Arkansas’ mix this season is also one of the most intriguing. Paulo Semedo, the 7-foot-1, 225-pound sophomore big man, is back in Fayetteville after redshirting and spending his first year with the Razorbacks on the margins.
Semedo arrived late in the 2025 recruiting class and never got onto the floor in the regular season, but his resume before college still carried weight. A native of Luanda, Angola, he played at West Oaks Academy in Orland, Fla., where ESPN listed him as a top-50 prospect and the No. 6 overall center in his class. He also produced on the PRO16 circuit, averaging 16 points and 12 rebounds per game with Team Scoot.
Arkansas landed him over Arizona State, Miami and Florida State, and the offseason questions around his future got some clarity earlier this spring when former Arkansas assistant coach and current radio commentator Matt Zimmerman explained why the staff viewed him as a development project.
"Paulo was here for a portion of the summer, and I think that coming in, they felt like, this is a guy that, with what we have coming back, we're probably going to red-shirt and we're going to develop him," Zimmerman said. "He was a young guy.
He had reclassified. He's a young dude.
"So they felt like a year here, he can get bigger, he can he can eat better, he can get all the attention with our strength coach, Dave Richardson, and he can practice against Trevor and Nick and Malik Hewitt every day, and he can get better."
Zimmerman also said an injury slowed Semedo’s freshman year and pushed much of his work away from the normal practice setting.
"He could do some drills," Zimmerman said. "He could do some things, but really, toward the end of the season, his development became individual workout sessions with the assistant coaches, more so after practice, before practice, getting extra work, whether it was at night time. It wasn't as much in practice anymore because we were moving on down the road with trying to win this championship."
That championship pursuit is the backdrop for everything Arkansas is doing now. John Calipari made that plain last Wednesday at SEC Media Days.
"We have a group that thinks they can, but they have no idea what that would take," Calipari said. "That's part of what my job is, teaching them how to win, how to play in tough games."
The question for Semedo is where he fits in a crowded rotation. Calipari said he expects to play nine or 10 guys, and Arkansas has plenty of names in the mix. Jordan Smith Jr., Billy Richmond III, Jeremiah Wilkinson, Miikka Muurinen and Cooper Bowser are all likely starters, while JJ Andrews and Abdou Toure could push for larger roles.
That leaves Davion Thompson, Caleb Ourigou, Maper Maker, Ilia Frolov and Semedo competing for what may be just two or three remaining rotation spots.
Semedo does bring tools that can matter. His legitimate 7-foot-5 wingspan gives Arkansas a defensive weapon who can affect shots and hold up against multiple positions. If he can rebound, protect the rim and stay steady on defense, he could force his way into more minutes.
For now, he’s still the forgotten big man in a program built around bigger goals. After a year of watching from the bench, Semedo’s next step is proving that his development is ready for a team chasing championship expectations.
In Other News...
Arkansas Suddenly Has A Real Opening In The SEC Chaos
The SEC has already turned unpredictable in a hurry, and that has created a very real opening for Arkansas. After some recent improvement, the Razorbacks are suddenly in the kind of spot where even the doubters have to take a longer look at what comes next, especially with a conference slate that can change fast when rankings start shifting and favorites keep getting knocked off.
Arkansas does not need the league to be orderly to make noise, and this season has made that point clear. With chaos spreading nationally and in the SEC, the Razorbacks have a chance to turn a tougher stretch of the schedule into something bigger if they can keep building on what they have shown so far, even if plenty of people still expect the next upset to happen to someone else. [Read more 🡒]
Arkansas Has Three Bright Spots Fans Should Be Watching Closely
Amid a season that has put a premium on finding positives wherever they appear, three Arkansas players have started to separate themselves in ways that matter beyond the box score. Smith has emerged as the teams tackling leader and has piled up defensive stops, while Oke has given the interior of the defensive line a steadier presence. On the other side of the ball, Lockwood has grown into a dependable option in the passing game, giving the offense another target it can lean on.
What makes those individual gains even more notable is the development behind them, particularly the work being done by tight ends coach Morgan Turner. For a program still sorting through bigger-picture issues, these are the kinds of progress points that can shape how the rest of the season feels, and Arkansas fans will have reasons to keep a close eye on whether these trends hold. [Read more 🡒]
Arkansas Bye Week Puts One Razorbacks Question Front And Center
Arkansas has spent the last stretch of the season looking more competitive after the kind of rough start that can swallow a team whole, and now the bye week arrives with a chance to reset before Missouri comes to Fayetteville. For Ryan Silverfield, it is also a chance to keep pushing a bigger message, because the on-field progress matters not just for the standings but for everything that follows around the program.
Silverfield has been working through the realities of inherited issues and budget constraints, two pressures that tend to linger far beyond one bad month in the fall. If the Razorbacks can keep showing real improvement against a Missouri team known for its offense and notable playmakers, it could strengthen the case for more support moving forward, which is why this pause in the schedule feels bigger than a simple breather. [Read more 🡒]