With a nine-man freshman class it doesn’t matter how talented those kids are, they can’t teach each other how a system works.
Somebody who’s already lived it has to do that. For Arkansas, that somebody is Billy Richmond, and it’s worth asking what this roster would look like without him.
John Calipari’s third Arkansas team is almost unrecognizable from his first two, at least in terms of experience.
Richmond is the only major piece back from last season, and he’s one of just three rotation players who’ve played meaningful college minutes anywhere.
That’s not a typo. That’s the roster Calipari is working with this fall.
You’d think that thin margin would worry him. Instead, during Monday’s open practice, he sounded almost relieved to have Richmond back on the floor doing a job that usually belongs to an assistant coach.
“It’s nice to have Billy back because he practically is coaching on the floor,” Calipari said. “I’ll be honest, he’s half coaching the team right now, and I’m fine with it. I mean, he’s talking to them, telling them where they should go, shooting the ball way better.
When you talk about a player like that being, I hate to say this, the one player you have returning — he’s a pretty good player to have returning.”
One voice can only cover so much ground
That last line is the whole thing, honestly.
Calipari isn’t saying Richmond is his best player. He’s saying Richmond is his only translator between what’s in his head and what a room full of teenagers needs to hear.
You get the sense he wouldn’t mind a second or third guy just like him. He doesn’t have that luxury, so he’s leaning hard on the one he’s got.
Richmond earned that role the hard way.
He averaged 11.2 points, 4.3 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.1 steals last season while shooting 56.3% from the floor and 78.4% at the line across 37 games and 19 starts.
That’s the kind of season that gets you NBA interest, which Richmond had before he decided to come back.
Senior center Cooper Bowser is technically the oldest player on the roster, but age isn’t what Arkansas is short on right now. Institutional knowledge is.
And Richmond’s the only one carrying much of it into a season where nine freshmen are trying to figure out where to stand.
We’ll get our first real look at how that mix holds up Friday, when the Hogs open exhibition play against the Bahamas National Team at 6 p.m., streaming on FloSports, the first of four games at the Baha Mar Hoops Summer League.
Key takeaways
- Arkansas returns only one major contributor and just three rotation players with prior college experience
- Calipari describes Richmond as functioning like a coach on the floor for a roster full of freshmen
- The Razorbacks open exhibition play Friday against the Bahamas National Team
