John Calipari got a comfortable win in Arkansas’ Bahamas opener, but the box score still pointed to the same old issue.
The Razorbacks rolled past the Bahamas National Team 106-59 on Friday in the Baha Mar Hoops Summer League, and plenty of the new faces showed up right away. Jordan Smith Jr., Billy Richmond III, and Abdou Toure all had strong showings. Even so, the most familiar question from last season followed Arkansas to Nassau: who is going to own the center spot?
That’s the piece Calipari still hasn’t fully solved.
Last year’s Arkansas team was one of the most entertaining in recent memory. Darius Acuff Jr., the SEC Player of the Year and First Team All-American, led an offense that could run teams off the floor, and with Meleek Thomas, Trevon Brazile, and Billy Richmond III alongside him, the Razorbacks pushed to the Sweet 16 before Arizona knocked them out 109-88.
But for all that firepower, the middle of the floor remained a problem. Nick Pringle and Malique Ewin gave Arkansas useful minutes, yet top-end frontcourts still gave the Hogs trouble. Arizona exposed it in the final game, shooting 64% from the field and piling up 60 points in the paint while Ewin, Pringle, and Brazile dealt with foul trouble.
That made adding a dependable big the clear offseason priority. Caleb Ourigou’s reclassification helps, but he’s still a raw four-star freshman, not the kind of instant centerpiece that Acuff or Jordan Smith Jr. represent on the perimeter.
Calipari has long carried the label of a guard whisperer from his Memphis days - and even from UMass - though that reputation has always felt a little unfair given the big men he’s developed, including Anthony Davis, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Bam Adebayo. Still, the Bahamas trip offered the first real look at whether he had patched the most obvious flaw on the roster.
The early signs were mixed at best.
Arkansas’ four bigs - Caleb Ourigou, Cooper Bowser, Ilia Frolov, and Maper Maker - combined for 13 points and 18 rebounds in 65 minutes. That’s not the kind of production that jumps off the page, even in a game the Razorbacks controlled from start to finish.
Bowser started and finished with four points and three rebounds in 19 minutes. Maker also scored four points and grabbed six rebounds.
Ourigou had three points and four rebounds, while Frolov added two points and five boards. None of them took more than two shots, even though Arkansas scored 66 points in the paint.
To be fair, this wasn’t the kind of game that demanded a bruising low-post scorer. The Razorbacks won by 47 points, and they were getting easy offense everywhere else, including 42 fast-break points and 28 combined layups and dunks. SEC play won’t look like that.
That’s where the concern lives. Calipari still needs someone in the middle who can protect the rim, rebound against elite size, finish through contact, and avoid foul trouble.
If that group can do those things, Arkansas will be fine. If it can’t, the Razorbacks may have assembled one of the nation’s most talented rosters around the same weakness that ended last season.
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