Hogs ranked in Top 25 of ESPN’s ‘way-too-early’ ranking for next season

We get these things at the end of every season so now that the college basketball season has suffered a forced premature ending, ESPN has wasted little time ranking next season.

And it was interesting to see Arkansas in that ranking, which hasn’t happened in awhile.

The Razorbacks come in at No. 20 in the poll, talking about the No. 7-ranked recruiting class coming in along with getting guard J.D. Notae and 7-3 Connor Vanover finally on the floor in a game.

“(Eric) Musselman has done the rapid-rebuild thing before at Nevada and he’s on his way at Arkansas,” Jeff Borzello wrote in the story.

To put that in a little perspective, a ranking in the Top 20 means they are easily an odds-on bet to make the NCAA Tournament in Musselman’s second season and to at least win one game.

The Hogs haven’t won an NCAA game since the 2016-17 season and haven’t been to the Sweet 16 in about a quarter of a century. Getting picked to be there before we even know who the players are is partly due to some strong recruiting and a little bit of Musselman’s reputation.