Transfer Portal Closes... What Now For Arkansas?

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]The call of the Hogs can be heard all the way to San Francisco.

[00:00:04]>> You're listening to Pod at [music] the Palace with Curtis Wilkerson on Inside Arkansas.

[00:00:11]>> Good morning everybody. Happy Wednesday.

[00:00:13]Welcome back to the Pod at the Palace.

[00:00:14]I'm your host Curtis Wilkerson with Inside Arkansas. Shout out to the coffee club. Congratulations. It's over.

[00:00:22]Halfway at least. The transfer portal is officially closed for business. Thank God. tired, boss. But to be honest with you guys, it it went out with a whimper.

[00:00:33]What a pathetic end to this thing.

[00:00:37]So, we're to the point now you can come out, but you can't go in in terms of the portal. So, outside of a few paperwork stragglers the next day or two here, what you see is what you can get by way of the transfer portal at least. and and we'll talk about that. But man, usually you get excited for the last couple days because there's just a flood of of new guys coming available. Nope, not the case in this one. Um, what a lot of things that we're going to get into today, honestly.

[00:01:09]Like I I I'll tell you this right now, it's going to be a shorter show because I planned on having an entire segment for a bunch of new names that we could get excited about. That's just that it's not a thing. It was underwhelming. Malik Yuan's out of here. you've been listening to this show, you knew that was probably coming. Expected, yes, uh it's a business decision from both parties, but it does still impact things for sure because the potential of having him kind of gave you a false sense of security, I think, and Arkansas really needs to add, I think, three bodies now to that front court. And and I think they will. As crazy as that sounds, I guess we're beefing with Dusty May now.

[00:01:47]It's crazy. I kind of like the guy, but he's got to stay away from Arkansas's recruits. He is the fly in the serum as it comes to the Razerback's pursuit for uh for a couple known legit big men here. So, we're kind of all over the place. Let's get this show on the road and uh see how far we can get before I crash out here because I waited for this thing to close tonight before I got ready to start recording. And I need to go to sleep, man.

[00:02:13]I tell you what, sometimes you sleep and uh you sleep a little bit more peacefully if you know that you're protected up top. Storms, it's that season, man. They can hit unexpectedly.

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[00:02:53]Portal's closed. Um here is uh let's start with this. Here's the list of the last minute the last day entries that excite me.

[00:03:05]Okay, moving on. We're done. Seriously, nothing burger. It's crazy, man.

[00:03:08]Massively disappointing. Uh, waited around all night specifically to have a a full segment on this because I just thought there's no way we're not going to have at least a couple names that we could uh get excited about for the potential some surprises, whatever. Um, no, not the case. So, when you pulled up this episode and before you hit play and you went, "Dang, this is like 15 minutes shorter than usual." Well, this is why.

[00:03:34]This is part of the reason why. The other part of the reason is I'm expecting some movement here on Wednesday and I don't want to waste too much time on certain things that are going to be irrelevant soon because this is this is the time where things are really going to start speeding up here.

[00:03:47]Now, uh like there was a there was a one big one, Tandefu from Baylor entered and he's really really good, but he plays the one position Arkansas has too many of that's the wing. So, they're not going to be involved in that sweep stakes. Sounds like Mark Pope might get lockered again by Mick Cronin, which would be interesting. But like outside of that, Malik Euan may have been the the biggest name to enter. And he doesn't even have eligibility, which you know, we're not going to do the whole thing again here. You guys have heard my spill on this already on this show. Uh you heard on Inside Arkansas Live. You heard it again when we went live to talk about the news when he did enter the portal earlier on on Tuesday. uh this was the logical move for both parties here. If if his waiver didn't get approved or denied one way or the other, then nothing else made sense other than for him to to enter the portal at the deadline.

[00:04:42]So, I I I don't think it is as closed of a door as usual with Cal with with a guy entering the portal here. But based on some of the feedback I got Tuesday, I I I would say I'm not necessarily expecting him back at this point.

[00:05:00]But, you know, not even being able to pencil him in as a TBD in the front court, which we've at least been able to to kind of do like tentatively, oh, okay, we just put him in here. That makes us feel a little bit better about how this two deep looks or whatever. Not having that, I think, has a lot of Razerback fans out there looking at this front court on April 22nd going, "The heck is going on? What are we doing here?" So, here's the reality of the situation for Arkansas. Um, this this is a a surface level view, folks, at least, but this is this is true. The portal, transfer portal has opened and closed.

[00:05:40]Well, actually, let me start elsewhere.

[00:05:43]Arkansas has known since May, for 11 months, they have known that when the offseason came, they were going to have to get a starting power forward, starting center, and possibly replace their only rotation piece. Their entire front court would need to be revamped.

[00:06:03]They didn't sign a high school freshman during the uh during the season. The transfer portal has now opened and closed. Two weeks have gone by and all John Caliperry has done at the four and the five is trade Malik Euan for Cooper Bowser.

[00:06:21]That's it.

[00:06:23]And the pickings are pretty slim out there. If you go look at the portal, man, like two of the top 10 centers in the portal are still available. That's uh Masama Jop and Mustafa Cham. Uh, only two of the top 20 power fords in the portal are available. I'm Chilovich from Iowa State and Alan Graves from Santa Clara. There's a couple jumbo wings out there who fit the description, but you get the picture.

[00:06:51]And now there's just some more finality to that list because like the the lock is turned, the key thrown away on the portal. You you can come out, but you can't get back in.

[00:07:02]Maybe if if we're if we're fortunate, there will be there'll probably be I'd say there'll be 10 12 more names that that enter the portal over the course of the next couple days because all you got to do is submit your intentions before the deadline and then I think compliance offices have 40 up to 48 hours to submit the paperwork. But out of those guys, maybe two or three who are like notable entries and then who's to say they would even be at at the positions you need, you know? So 99 5% of the uh the players in the portal are the ones that are going to be there.

[00:07:44]That is the pool you have to work with at the time where you have one front court player from the SoCon and another who has not played a second of college basketball.

[00:07:54]If that makes you nervous, I don't blame you because it's real now. There's no more, well, more names will will come available. You know, it's it's still early. No, that's no longer the case.

[00:08:10]We're talking optics here. And by the way, hear me out before you get mad. Uh, it feels like this entire process has been a mess. Those are the optics that are out there based on the, you know, the the return so far and the level of secrecy they keep over there. I think, you know, amplifies it probably. And I know it leads to a lot of uncomfortable thoughts and questions. We talk about it all the time. It's like we can be quick, but you know, are the hogs really cooked this time? Is the bacon crispy now?

[00:08:40]What's going on? Is John Caliperry asleep? Do they have a plan? Why is he stubborn? Are we broke? It's frustrating.

[00:08:48]It has been for me, too. But hang in there.

[00:08:53]Hang in there. I don't say that as like a a rahrrah speech or whatever because I want you to keep listening to the show.

[00:08:59]I do, but I say that as a guy who's going to get better sleep tonight than I have recently because of a couple conversations with sources that I trust that I had Tuesday night.

[00:09:11]and one of which more of a state of the union what's going on type of chat where transparently uh I kind of left it feeling stupid for actually starting to allow myself to feel like this might be a disaster for Arkansas.

[00:09:28]I'm glad that I feel that way now because I was starting to worry. Uh the other a little bit more related to where things stand with some of these glaring holes out there that we talk about daily as player after player after player after player comes off the board and Arkansas's just kind of again on the surface sitting there hands up.

[00:09:50]Let me just put it this way. If you are in the trust cow bro club, you might consider digging your heels in and staying there because you just might get your victory lap after all.

[00:10:04]I'm going to be excited to explain this more at some point. I know I'm going to have that opportunity. Today is not that day, but I will. Uh there there there's a reason we all feel the way we do and it's not because the Hall of Famer is washed and it's not because the staff doesn't know what they're doing. There is a plan. There are some good and interesting probably a good and interesting. It's probably a fair way to put it things that are in the works behind the scenes which we hoped was the case, didn't we? I mean, our deepest fears really were that, you know, they were being lazy or Cal has drawn this line in the sand and he really just won't pay anybody NIL or uh that they really felt like Coupe and [clears throat] and Paulo is all they needed up front. I didn't want to believe that was the case, but I couldn't really vouch for that earlier given just the way that things looked. Uh, but I can confidently tell you now that there is a vision and my bloodbank guarantee of a filled out front court stands and an upgraded front court. It will be filled out. It will be upgraded. I'm telling you that right now.

[00:11:12]Some of it uh expected like the names we keep talking about the same couple every single day on this show. Um, they are real targets. That is the thing. Some of it I think we're going to be surprised by. It's the gist that I got. So, of course, uh, got to get it all across the finish line. We know that, man. Like, nothing is done until it's done. So, sure, there's a level of all right, believe it when we see it. I get it. Uh, but what they are trying to do, they are still on target for, so I'm told. And I got nothing else to go on besides that. So, I'm riding with it. No panic over there. I'll tell you that right now. for Arkansas.

[00:11:56]There's not I was feeling panicked earlier in the day. Like I I'm I'm quite a bit more optimistic about the way this is going to shake out than I was midafter afternoon. That's for sure. If uh if you're in our Discord, you could probably tell that my mood had soured quite a bit on all this. That's no longer the case. I'm good. They're going to be all right. Plan is in place. I'll leave it at that. You can you can take it, leave it, spit on it, throw it back, ripe your end with it, do whatever you want. But uh I'm I'm I'm chilling. I'm comfortable. And I needed that because what did I say? I was going to wait until this portal closed before I hit the panic button. And if you just look at it at the surface level that there's there's no reason to not hit it at this point. But I'm not. So try to hang in there. And uh again, I'm not going to ask anybody to be patient because I I feel like that ship is kind of already sell. But um there will be reasons to be happy sooner rather than later. Now the plan will Mustafa Cham or Oena Akezy be part of that plan? The hope would be for one of the two. I think that's what we're looking at here. I and I think Arkansas's got a a really good shot to add one of the two. I don't think they're gonna get both based on where it seems like things are trending here, but I think they're gonna get one of the two. The fly in the serum, like we said, could be Dusty May and Michigan. Like, we already knew that with Cham and now the visit with Oenna Ake, which we said, hey, let's not let's not worry about that too much unless it actually gets scheduled and is happening. Well, it's happening now and it's this weekend.

[00:13:44]What is Dusty May's deal, by the way?

[00:13:46]Like, dude, you've got more bigs than you know what to do with. Go away.

[00:13:49]What's your problem?

[00:13:51]You you you have some You have like a vendetta with Arkansas now. Why are we all a sudden connected to all the uh dudes you're trying to get? Why are you trying to get all the guys we're trying to get? Uh but it's actually a good problem to have because he's like the big man whisperer, the real one. And um you know I I guess if you're recruiting against someone for bigs and you want to know that they're quality or they're good ones, you want to be in battles with I like Dusty May. Now you just got to win one. And that's kind of where we're at.

[00:14:18]So first of all, I we pretty much based on everything I gathered Tuesday, we nailed it with our conversation on Mustafa Cham yesterday. Uh, I'm told that he did not commit on his visit to Michigan, which that's obvious at this point because he's been gone all day. Um, I'm told that the money for him is is there or that it's a it's it's solid equal to or potentially the highest bid that he has on the table so far. Um, but the role that they are selling is probably not as appetizing as some other opportunities that he has out there.

[00:14:58]And that matters. Like there there's absolutely a role to be had at Michigan, but he is a he is a piece who's looking to be more of a featured piece. Like he can uh he can be a guy in Michigan's front court, but he can't be the guy.

[00:15:13]Now, that hasn't really mattered for Dusty May and folks that I've talked to still feel like they that like Michigan could absolutely get across the finish line here.

[00:15:25]as of right now, they would probably be your favorite. Now, that makes sense because he's coming off of a visit there. But, um, it is not done and there are some some questions about that. Some things that have to get resolved there.

[00:15:36]Point is, Arkansas has a window of opportunity here, but Cal would need to get aggressive in a hurry. Chime has to come to Fagville next, and it can't be something that is put off anymore. You just can't. You got to get it done now.

[00:15:53]It's been like two weeks and it's it just it needs to happen. So, uh Jeremiah Wilkinson, by the way, is is coming to town today actually for a visit, which you know, it's about getting the lay of the land, the photo shoot, all that good stuff, which is great. People are like, "Why would he do that?" Well, he's already he's already committed. He's already signed. Why would we come here? Well, he's getting ready to live here for a year, so why wouldn't he? Um, I'd say if you can get a guy like Chaman here while Wilkinson is in town, that's great.

[00:16:26]You want that. Um, there's there's a lot to sell there for Wilkinson. Say, bro, I'll be the guy throwing you lobs and I'm also going to be chucking up a bunch of shots for you to go rebound. Let's get it. You know, [laughter] um, now it's not just as simple as Arkansas versus Michigan, though, with Ch. Like I I have a really good Kansas source that is spoton over there. Um the one who told me that Dolls was committing to Kansas and was not going to be taking that Arkansas visit last week. Uh he told me that maybe um even though Paul and Beia is coming back, who is their backup big man this year and even though they've had both Anton Bon and Christian Reeves over there on visits the last couple days that they are very much still engaged with Chomp like they're they're still trying to get in there and make that move, but same time nothing was scheduled on the visit front as of later in the day on Tuesday.

[00:17:25]So, it's kind of just like last week all over again. Rinse and repeat. You got to beat them to the punch.

[00:17:31]Got to beat them to the punch. Um, I still have one person who's telling me just keep an eye on Texas Tech trying to make a push there. They've been oddly quiet. Weird because you know how much money they have. They they've added some guards and I'm guessing since the portal window has come and gone that they have negotiated terms with Christian Anderson who was one of the rumored late entries.

[00:17:56]So that's that's probably beneficial for him. But um the thing is though like I hear encouraging things on Cham and man I'd love to have him. I like the idea of experience the sheer size in there. Um there there's a lot to like, but in the back of my mind, I can't help but feel like this is one of those recruitments that Cal could eventually just choose to bow out from because it it there it seems like there is bidding war type of vibes involved.

[00:18:28]and um what about his coach, you know, his his his buddy that he wants to bring along and the price is just going up and up and up and this just seems like the one that typically Cal doesn't do. Now he he has in the past he did with Jonas when you're trying to get him away from Baylor and North Carolina and it's like there there are situations where that's happened. They upped the bag for Malik Euan last year to keep him away from Mississippi State and Auburn. So, he'll play ball, but like at some point there's just certain things that he doesn't want to deal with. And it feels like the further along we get with him, uh, the more and more he's he's kind of letting his frustrations with the state of college basketball show to the point where I'm I'm wondering how many freshmen he's going to sign next year. I think it might be a huge class. It's one thing I want to talk about more tomorrow, uh, pending, you know, the type of news or whatever we get the rest of the day. But um I will say this, I it is very important that Cham winds up at either Arkansas or Michigan because if that happens, you know, like you either have your guy or you're in a much better position to add another one because despite Tuesday's events, I still remain confident in Arkansas's position with Oeneaz.

[00:19:51]And it seems weird because it feels like things are more complicated because now Michigan is in there. Um, but look, we know he is not playing on the EBL this weekend. The smoke is heating up that a reclass is in his future. That it's all great news. Awesome. Um, what's not great is that the Michigan visit is actually happening and it's this weekend and they're also trying to sell him on being a part of that front court rotation over there and uh and going for a repeat. It's appealing that and you know I would say this probably makes sense given that one is coming off of a Michigan visit and the other is coming off of an Arkansas trip.

[00:20:27]Right now I would give Michigan an edge for CH as we wait for Arkansas to be able to to hopefully get its turn at the table finally. Um and I'd take Arkansas as the favorite with a CH were to pop and commit for Michigan.

[00:20:44]I'm getting close to crystal ball type territory for a to Arkansas. It's kind of where it's at here. Like the these dominoes um are going to coincide with each other. I do believe. Now, worst case scenario would be Cham goes and visits Kansas and they sign him while he's on his visit and then Michigan goes all in on a Kazy and then you're just in an allout war and uh and you you're in a position where you can't you might not get either one of them and that's not where you want to be.

[00:21:15]So, also based on some of the feedback I got Tuesday night, I I think I think either could work and they would obviously take either, but Azy is is the the better fit for what Arkansas is looking to put together in its front court, I believe. And this is not really a hot take, but I also think Cal would prefer the youngster.

[00:21:40]Uh, I think the timeline is the thing here. Like if if if Oenna is if he's really trying to take his sweet time, Arkansas probably shouldn't pass on Cham if they can get him, right? Um although I'd be less freaked out by that than I was earlier today. But I I I hope what happens here is that Cham visits Fateville at the same time or around the same time that Oena is at Michigan and then we get some real, you know, like some actual resolution here ASAP.

[00:22:10]That would be ideal. The longer it drags out, man, the more there's potential for bad things to happen. Um, at the four, I don't know. I I I do not know. Um, I feel better about the five after some of my conversations on Tuesday, but I I truly have no clue what's going to happen here at a spot where you're losing Trevan and you don't have anything really there aside from a red shirt freshman in Paulo. Uh Sebastian William Williams Adams who we talked to yesterday has already committed to Vanderbilt. That was a tamper. Uh Kendall Sanders visit rumors were flying around. Who is that? Doesn't matter.

[00:22:48]Don't think that's actually a thing.

[00:22:51]Dwayne Aristo makes a lot of sense from Arizona.

[00:22:55]Too much sense really. But uh man, I keep digging around. I I personally have not been able to find a connection with him in Arkansas. Uh all I found so far is is LSU and uh and SMU. That's after Auburn had a bunch of smoke early, but they they've made a bunch of additions and I I think probably gone in a different direction.

[00:23:14]So, and then I just I really don't think there's any need to dive deep on all the other options, right? Like we we know the names by this point. I'm Chilovich and Graves or highly unlikely grand slams.

[00:23:28]Um Jaylen Reed, I think, is very intriguing from LSU. He's he's, you know, if he's on track from a health standpoint, I don't know.

[00:23:36]Taylor Bul Bowen, but he's getting ready to to pop for Oregon. Lewan Watts, we haven't really heard anything at all about from Texas Tech.

[00:23:44]I I feel like if this comes from the portal, they would probably want to go high major.

[00:23:51]Um especially after already adding Bowser from from a mid- major. That's just the second mid- major guy that Cal's added since he uh since he got to Arkansas. Nelly was the other one. Um, Ma, yeah, maybe. Um, could you demand that Paul Osarooi reconsider reclassifying? How much fun would that be to get the the top two bigs in the uh 2027 class to reclassify?

[00:24:18]You or get Mika or whatever and just really lean into the old school John Kelliperry freshman, sophomores, and Billy Richmond, you know, kind of thing. uh would be would be pretty interesting.

[00:24:33]Um could they just add another big wing and just try to play a bunch of small ball depending on how it shakes out there at the five? Are they going to get enough to where they could just go double bigs?

[00:24:47]Could they be versatile enough to do that? I don't know. I I really don't. So I I I think there's more clarity for the pathways there at the five than there are the four. It's uh kind of an interesting deal there. So, we'll see. I think now that the portal's closed and and things are are going to start slowing down, it'll allow us more time to lock in on a handful of specific guys every day and try to dig and get a bunch of intel. When everything's so free flowing and there's new names every day in and out and it's just ever changing, ever flowing, it's like I don't know, you feel like you just got to do a bigger overview every single day. Now, I think we're going to have the luxury of being able to be a little bit more specific. um and see what the plans are.

[00:25:29]So, there you have it. Um okay, I think I'm going to get out of here for the night. I you know, again, just fully expected to have a lot more from today's portal entries. So, I like to go at least a half hour. Uh and and I know sometimes we're we're pushing an hour there, but I kind of got robbed of a full segment. I gotta be honest with you. And I I don't even So, let me think about this for a second, actually, and then we'll uh we'll call it a day.

[00:26:00]I'm trying to think of who I was maybe waiting for that didn't enter, you know.

[00:26:06]And hell, maybe they will like tomorrow or something with with the paperwork deal. But, uh Jordan Burks was one, you know, from UCF, played for Cal. Uh we thought that he was going to come to Arkansas with Cal when when DJ and Adoo and Z did, but he didn't. He wound up going to Georgetown. It didn't work out.

[00:26:21]He went to UCF and he balled out. It's really good. Uh but it sounds like he's going to stay put, I guess. Um yeah, the the Henry Visar thing it never I know there there was a lot of smoke there, but it seemed like to me the thought process was he's either going to go back to North Carolina or he's just going to enter the draft and he'll probably do do both, like enter and and maintain his eligibility. Um, is there anybody else who could have been lured out? I I did wonder. I put this in the the Discord the other day, but like with everything going on at Kentucky, just kind of the mad you guys see their governor that like put out a statement or something. That was really weird. But I know, you know, Pope's having a hard time over there. The optics are weird. I was kind of wondering if if uh Moreno might just be like, I don't know, man. I'm not I'm not liking what's going on over here. Uh but he's also a local kid, you know, like it's it's makes sense for him to stick around and he did. Uh you know, Nolan Winter was a name we brought up yesterday. I heard Isaac Troder from CBS Sports talking about him, the Wisconsin big man who would have been a major addition had uh had he popped and he didn't. So like he he he stayed in uh Wisconsin there. Christian Anderson from Texas Tech was a name that a lot of folks thought was going to be in there late. Tyler Tanner from Vanderbilt was a name that people thought might go and so if he's sticking around that Vanderbilt team, you know, shoot man, uh, with Sebastian Williams Adams and Bangot Dak, some of that they got the big fella from Nebraska. They've, uh, they've put together a pretty good squad there.

[00:28:06]Again, they're they're not going to be short on size and length like they were the past couple years. That's that's a fact. I don't know if they'll be quite as good in the back court. Um, but if Tanner's there, you know, it should be a pretty formidable squad again. Uh, was there anybody else that we were kind of waiting on? Uh, not maybe the Florida guys, but it kind of seemed like they were going to be pro or state. They're all going to come back, which is crazy. I can't believe Thomas Hawk is going back to Florida. The dude's probably a lottery pick, but he just loves college, man. So, he's going back. Chinoo is in the draft, but he he'll probably wind up coming back.

[00:28:45]Conan's going back, so they're still gonna have that same damn front court.

[00:28:48]So, if you're an Arkansas fan, you're like, can they just figure something out, please? As it, you know, can you just get some guys to be able to match up with that? Um, yeah, I know. I think that's about it.

[00:29:01]So, all right, I'm gonna get out of here. Um, hope everybody has a good rest of your day. And again, I I just this is not like a premonition of, "Hey, we'll be on the lookout." But I mean, we all hear the same things like, "Hey, they're they're going to be having some visitors on campus this week." We know Wilkinson's one of them, obviously, but uh they're they're trying to get this stuff wrapped up here. They're working.

[00:29:24]So, I'm just anticipating that we'll uh we'll have a little bit more clarity throughout the day. That'll give us something cool to talk about for tomorrow's show. But, uh if not, I got some other things planned. You got to keep some meat on the bone. just in case, you know. But, um, anyway, I hope you guys enjoy the rest of your day and I appreciate everybody for rocking with us throughout the course of Portal season. It's been crazy here. And again, um, has it been the, uh, the grand slam type of offseason that many of us hope for?

[00:29:52]You know, like just go throw John Tyson's money around like crazy and uh, you know, go get the the highest rated big man out there and everything. No, it hasn't. It's fallen short of that. And yep, it it's uh it's it's a little bit alarming looking at it right now, but just there there's a vision. There's a plan. I I I have every reason to believe that now. And uh let's just see how this thing plays out. Try to hang in there the best you can. Talk to you later.

[00:30:17]Kurt Orson, Inside Arkansas, Pot the Palace. See you tomorrow.