HawgBeat - Calipari reveals notable schedule details for Arkansas
Arkansas head coach John Calipari said the Razorbacks' non-conference schedule is almost done.
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Arkansas head coach John Calipari revealed new schedule details for the Razorbacks while speaking with reporters Wednesday at the SEC Spring Meetings in Destin, Florida.
The new Head Hog did not disclose any opponents for the Razorbacks 2024-25 non-conference schedule, which remains a mystery, but he did mention a few locations. According to Calipari, Arkansas will play in Dallas, North Little Rock and potentially at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
"Most of the stuff is done of who we're playing, and then there may be one team that I try to do a home-and-home with," Calipari said. "But we're going to play in Little Rock. We're going to play in Dallas. You need national games. You've got to play in Madison Square Garden.
"Look, we want to recruit Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, St. Louis — we do. But you know we're going to recruit nationally. The only thing is, we're not going to take 6-7 freshman. Now, it'll be 3 or 4. Hopefully retain a few, get a couple transfers and that is the formula today."
As of now, the Razorbacks do know their 2024-25 conference opponents at home and on the road. Arkansas will have home-and-homes with LSU, Missouri and Texas, plus they will host Alabama and Oklahoma while taking trips to Kentucky and Tennessee, among others.
"Right now, some of the games I've scheduled, you get calls from ESPN, different events, CBS — Can you do this? Can you do this?" Calipari said. "Until I get the rest of the roster, I probably won't fully do the schedule, but we're in good shape right now. I'm juiced about it. Like, let's go."
In recent years under former head coach Eric Musselman, the Razorbacks took trips to the Maui Invitational in Hawaii and the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas. The Hogs have also played a neutral site game against Oklahoma, which is now set to be an SEC opponent, along with Texas.
"Both in football and basketball what they add, it just keeps separating (the SEC)," Calipari said of Oklahoma and Texas. "And we didn't have to change the footprint. You start going east-west and time zones and all that. We've been able to do this and stay within the footprint of what we're doing. My guess, they won't change that."
Arkansas currently has eight scholarship players for the 2024-25 roster with the recent addition of Kentucky transfer DJ Wagner. Click here for HawgBeat's Arkansas basketball roster tracker.
