John Calipari has made a habit of trusting freshmen, and Arkansas looks ready to lean back into that formula.
After initially moving away from that preference when he arrived in Fayetteville, Calipari appears to be building around a group of true freshmen again, following a season in which he helped shape Darius Acuff and Meleek Thomas into two of the country’s top young players. This time, the headliners are five-star signees Jordan Smith Jr., JJ Andrews, Abdou Toure and Miikka Muurinen.
Smith is drawing the brightest spotlight. He is tied with Kansas freshman Tyran Stokes at No. 1 nationally in projected Bayesian Performance Rating at +7.1, according to Evan Miya’s analytical data, a metric intended to estimate overall impact on team performance. Three Arkansas freshmen are ranked among the nation’s top 30 incoming players in that projection system.
The ranking makes sense if you look at Smith’s résumé. He arrives as the reigning Gatorade National Player of the Year and helped lead Paul IV Catholic School to the Virginia High School state championship. As a senior, he averaged nearly 27 points, six rebounds, six assists and three steals per game while shooting 56% from the field, 37% from 3-point range and 72% from the free throw line.
But Smith keeps coming back to the same thing: winning.
"If you want to win and you're going to be competitive, that's been the biggest thing," Smith said on Tuesday. "I've always had that since I've been playing basketball ...my competitive nature has always brought my teammates up.
"I know it's a different level and it's not the same as high school, but for us to win a national championship, for us to be the best that we can be just for us to have fun on the court together, you know, we all have to be competitive and I wouldn't say it starts by me, but part of it starts with me and just [being] the leader of the team, we've just go to be competitive and [winning] is going to come."
Smith knows his role goes beyond filling a stat sheet. He said his biggest priority is becoming the kind of leader Arkansas needs, especially on a roster where some teammates have far more college experience.
"My biggest focus, honestly, is just to be a better leader and a better teammate," Smith said. "In high school, I did a decent job at leading my teammates.
I feel like I could have done a better job. But you know in college you know it's different with grown men.
"I always say that but I mean we're all grown men but... and just to be more vocal and lead by example have been my biggest focus. Obviously, I just wanted to develop my skills as a point guard, get people involved, and just make everybody better around me."
Smith isn’t the only freshman Arkansas brought in with real buzz. Andrews, a 6-foot-6, 235-pound guard, brings a powerful frame that lets him attack driving lanes, but he’s also capable of contributing at all three levels. He can help handle the ball when Smith needs a breather and has the skill to create offense, while his transition finishing stands out as especially forceful.
Toure may be the most intriguing wildcard in the group. The athletic wing can change a game in a hurry, knock down shots from the outside, explode vertically and hound opponents defensively. He could also be a more polished offensive version of Billy Richmond III, who came to Arkansas as a five-star recruit with a reputation built largely on athleticism and defense.
If Calipari gets all three of these freshmen rolling early, Arkansas could have the kind of season its fan base has been waiting for.
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For Ryan Silverfield, it is the kind of matchup that can shift the mood around a program in a hurry. Arkansas is still looking for its first home SEC victory since 2024, and with Missouri bringing a ranking into town, the Razorbacks have an opportunity to turn an encouraging result on the road into something much bigger in front of their own fans. [Read more 🡒]