New Arkansas Razorbacks head coach John Calipari is set to partake in his first college basketball season away from the University of Kentucky in over a decade. And it certainly seems like one of his biggest coaching skill sets has already translated over to his new job.
Calipari’s greatest quality as a coach in the eyes of most fans has been his ability to bring in high-end talent over the years. Whether it be the likes of Karl-Anthony Towns, Devin Booker, John Wall, or Demarcus Cousins, Coach Cal has consistently been able to bring in high-end talent to whatever team he has coached.
On Wednesday, Calipari landed perhaps the best player in the transfer portal, former FAU guard Johnell Davis. Davis shared on his Instagram page that he had officially decided to transfer to Arkansas.
Davis is perhaps best known to the college basketball world for being the best player on an FAU team that reached the Final Four in the 2022-23 season. And individually, his numbers only improved this past season, averaging 18.2 points, 6.3 rebounds and 2.9 assists in the 2023-24 season.
Calipari will essentially be starting over at his new program, as no scholarship players on the roster decided to stay once he took the Arkansas coaching job. So bringing in someone like Davis is certainly a big deal when it comes to the overall success of Arkansas in Calipari’s first year with the team.
Coach Cal was also about to convince the likes of five-star guards Boogie Fland and Karter Knox and five-star forward Billy Richmond to join him at Arkansas, which is big because all had previously committed to Kentucky when he was there.
Don’t look now, but Calipari could be building a team to watch in the SEC next season.
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.