Arkansas locks up multi-year series with Arizona for Sweet 16 rematch
Arkansas isn’t waiting long to face Arizona again.
The two programs have verbally agreed to a multi-year series, with the opening act set for Dec. 19 in Phoenix.
The game will be played at Mortgage Matchup Center, the home of the Phoenix Suns, as part of the Naismith Hall of Fame Series. SMU and UNLV will follow in the nightcap.
It’s a matchup that carries some extra weight. Just a few months ago in San Jose, Arizona knocked out Arkansas in the Sweet 16 by a score of 109-88.
The Wildcats then advanced to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament. That lopsided margin gives the Razorbacks plenty of motivation heading into the 2026-27 season.
The overall history between the two programs still favors Arkansas. The Hogs hold a 6-3 advantage in the all-time series, though this’ll be just the 10th meeting between the two schools.
Series extends through Tucson with possible fourth game
The Phoenix matchup is only the first leg of what could be a four-game run. Arizona will make the trip to Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville during the 2027-28 season.
The following year, the Hogs head to McKale Center in Tucson.
There’s also an option for a fourth game in 2029-30 at a neutral site that’s geographically closer to Arkansas, though those details haven’t been worked out yet.
It’s a well-constructed series that gives fans on both sides multiple chances to see this rivalry grow.
Playing near Arizona’s home base this December while securing two future home-court advantages is a solid scheduling formula for the Razorbacks.
This game also isn’t the only notable non-conference date on Arkansas’ calendar.
The Hogs are scheduled to face Michigan State in Detroit on Thanksgiving, which is the second game in a separate multi-game series with the Spartans.
Both rosters are going to look different this December
Don’t expect either team to look much like it did in that Sweet 16 blowout.
Arkansas is nearly starting from scratch.
John Calipari’s Hogs are set to return just one key contributor from last season’s rotation in Billy Richmond.
That said, the Razorbacks hold the No. 2-ranked recruiting class in the country, featuring four five-star freshmen: Jordan Smith, JJ Andrews, Abdou Toure and Miikka Muurinen.
The Hogs also added former Georgia guard Jeremiah Wilkinson and former Furman center Cooper Bowser through the transfer portal.
Arizona isn’t rolling out the same lineup either.
Tommy Lloyd returns big man Motiejus Krivas and forward Ivan Kharchenkov from last year’s Final Four team.
Redshirt freshmen Bryce James, the son of LeBron James, and Mabil Mawut are back but likely won’t be counted on heavily.
The Wildcats brought in five-star guard Caleb Holt and four-star wing Cameron Holmes in the recruiting class, and added four transfer portal players including former North Carolina guard Derek Dixon and former Washington point guard JJ Mandaquit.
Arkansas faces transfer portal reality with 2027 roster rebuild underway
The final out hadn’t even settled into a glove before the clock started ticking.
Arkansas lost to regional host Kansas 13-10 on Sunday night in the Lawrence Regional, and by Monday morning the transfer portal was open for business.
That’s college baseball these days. There’s no pause between the pain of elimination and the pressure of roster construction.
It wasn’t long ago that the transfer portal barely registered as a factor in college baseball.
Football coaches were scrambling to manage the chaos years before most baseball programs felt the real weight of it. Now it’s at the center to how every program in the SEC survives the offseason, and Van Horn knows it better than most.
“If you want to compete in the Southeastern Conference, it’s a full-grown man league,” Van Horn said Sunday night after the season-ending loss to Kansas. “It’s hard to win with three freshmen in the lineup and a couple of freshman pitchers that you depend on every weekend.
“It’s just not going to happen. You got to get guys that have some experience, and so we’ll be in the middle of it. It starts tomorrow. We all know it.”
Portal timing now competitive weapon
That last part hits differently when you look at what’s happening around the sport.
The Super Regional round tips off this weekend, and those programs that are still playing are already at a disadvantage in the portal.
It’s not a consolation prize to not be going to Omaha, even if you can start recruiting sooner. Like every other sport it never really stops.
Van Horn laid that reality out plainly.
“When you’re in Omaha, teams are getting a jump on you,” he said. “They’re getting kids in immediately. Kids are taking it, and that’s where they go, and when you play a couple weeks in on that thing, it’s late June, and a lot of the good ones are gone.”
He didn’t add he’d probably still rather be in Omaha playing games.
It’s a cruel irony of the modern game. The further you go in the postseason, the further behind you can fall in the portal cycle.
That dynamic didn’t exist five years ago. Now it shapes roster-building strategy for the rest of the year.
That point is reinforced by what happened across the sport in 2026. Every single team that reached Omaha last year watched their 2026 season end without reaching another College World Series.
UCLA, the No. 1 overall seed, got walked off by Saint Mary’s. LSU, last year’s national champion, didn’t qualify for the postseason at all. The talent drain through the portal and the draft cycles faster than ever.
Holes to fill before Fayetteville can compete again
For the Hogs, the math on the roster is hard to argue with.
With 23 players eligible to return and 12 incoming newcomers, the Razorbacks already sit at 35 before adding a single portal piece — and the roster this past year carried 39.
More departures are coming. Exit interviews started this week, and the list of players heading to the pros or exploring other programs will grow before it shrinks.
The losses at the top hurt. Shortstop Camden Kozeal hit for big power and drove in 70 runs this season.
Catcher Ryder Helfrick developed into one of the most complete offensive catchers in the conference. Lefty ace Hunter Dietz was the anchor of the rotation.
All three are widely expected to begin professional careers.
Van Horn didn’t hide the emotions after Sunday’s loss when discussing what Kozeal and Helfrick meant to the program.
He described Helfrick as the type of player who reminds him of former Razorbacks who’ve reached the big leagues, noting that his bat and his power came on in a big way.
Omaha, Nebraska native Kozeal earned his way to shortstop midseason and delivered as a leader both on and off the field.
Center fielder Maika Niu is out of eligibility, and third baseman TJ Pompey is projected to hear his name called in the MLB Draft, which runs July 11-13.
Infield depth is the most pressing need Van Horn’s staff must address through the portal.
Portal spending will define offseason
Newly named general manager DJ Baxendale takes the lead on the financial side of this roster rebuild.
Arkansas is believed to sit in the top 10 to 15 programs nationally in NIL and revenue sharing, but Van Horn wants more for his support staff and more for the players he’s trying to bring in.
Two players have already announced they’re headed to the portal in utility man Tyler Holland and infielder Cayden Mitchell. More will follow.
The coaching staff typically doesn’t lose many players who weren’t asked to consider other options, since every roster spot matters more than ever with the limit dropping to 34 for the 2027 season.
The freshman class coming in has some interesting pieces.
Catcher Max Holland is regarded inside the program as the backstop of the future, and the staff believes he’s more polished than the national recruiting rankings suggest.
Outfielder Judah Ota brings raw athleticism from Hawaii, and two-way player Ty Burnham gives Van Horn flexibility.
Counting on true freshmen to carry the load in the SEC is exactly the trap Van Horn described when he talked about why portal additions aren’t optional anymore, they’re essential.
The roster he puts together this summer will show whether Arkansas baseball got the resources to compete for a title next year.
Or whether it’s another year of building toward one.
Bud Light Morning Rush Podcast: 06-01-26
Tye and Tommy try to make sense of the end of Arkansas’s baseball season and how to cope with the hopelessness surrounding football.
Guests: Matt Grissom – College Baseball Central
Calipari’s center search drags into summer with roster hole still unfilled
John Calipari’s been in college basketball long enough to have seen just about everything.
But heading into his third season in Fayetteville, he’s staring at a problem that doesn’t have an easy fix.
The calendar isn’t doing him any favors, either.
The Razorbacks still don’t have a proven starting center. Not one.
While the offseason isn’t technically over, the window for finding a quality answer in the middle is closing faster than anyone in Hog country would like to admit.
This isn’t a minor roster tweak. It’s a significant structural problem for a program trying to build on last season’s Sweet 16 finish.
A frontcourt held together with hope
What Arkansas has at the five spot right now is a collection of developmental players and question marks.
Cooper Bowser, added earlier this offseason from Furman, was never the intended solution at center. He was meant to be part of a bigger frontcourt picture that still hasn’t come together.
The rest of the big men on the roster are either freshmen, injury-impacted redshirts or raw projects who need time to develop.
Asking any of them to step in as a reliable starter against SEC competition would be a huge gamble. The SEC doesn’t hand out participation trophies, and teams like Alabama, Tennessee and Auburn will expose a weak interior in a hurry.
Calipari more or less acknowledged as much — indirectly — when he danced around about making another addition at SEC meetings in Florida last week.
According to Connor Goodson at HawgSports.com, the messaging from the program has been consistent all offseason that the Razorbacks are still actively looking for a starting center.
Dancing in late spring is one thing. Still searching in the heat of summer is another thing entirely.
The portal isn’t what it used to be
The transfer portal’s best options moved fast and moved early. The elite big men who were available in the spring are long gone, tucked away in practice facilities across the country.
What’s left this late in the cycle is a much thinner menu.
That’s not unique to Arkansas because every program scrambling for frontcourt help right now is dealing with the same shrinking pool.
It does make Calipari’s task considerably harder. He’s working with a shorter list of options that includes players with eligibility questions, developmental prospects and international targets.
All of them carry a lot of major baggage with them, as Goodson details in his full breakdown of the Hogs’ current center candidates.
None of those paths offer the clean, comfortable solution Arkansas needs.
Time isn’t standing still
Fall practice arrives whether a team’s ready or not. The SEC schedule doesn’t move for anybody.
Right now, the Razorbacks are heading toward both without a definitive answer to the most important roster question of Calipari’s second season in Fayetteville.
It’s not panic time yet. Calipari has pulled rabbits out of hats before and the offseason isn’t done.
But it’s nothing like a confidence boost for fans that are getting used to going fairly deep in the NCAA Tournament.
After two straight Sweet 16 trips, Calipari may have reset the bottom line. Having an unresolved center situation this late in the summer isn’t exactly a confidence booster.
The Hogs need a center. They know it. The league knows it.
In this game of musical chairs, folks are just waiting to see if Calipari finds something before the music ends.
Why Arkansas fans shouldn’t expect a huge leap from the 2027 class
Every weekend during official visit season, Arkansas fans see the headlines flood in from every corner of the country.
This school landed a four-star defensive end. That program flipped a five-star quarterback.
College football buzzes with optimism, and fans convince themselves their team just took a program-defining step.
After the Razorbacks’ first major visit weekend of the current cycle, the commitments that came rolling in for the Razorbacks were a punter and a kicker.
That’s not a misprint.
There’s nothing wrong with needing a punter and a kicker. Special teams matter. Plenty of games hinge on a blocked punt or a missed field goal.
But when everyone else is posting commitments from the kinds of players that make fan bases lose their minds, and Arkansas is adding Declan Hamm and Rocco DePrima, you’ve got to step back and honestly assess where this program’s 2027 recruiting class actually stands.
Right now, it doesn’t stand in a place that suggests a dramatic leap is coming. The explanation will be it’s still early.
That’s probably true to a certain point. At least fans hope so.
The 2026 class wasn’t built for splash
Before we get to what’s lining up in 2027, it’s worth understanding where Silverfield’s foundation sits.
His first recruiting class finished No. 36 nationally with 23 commitments after starting at No. 86 when he was hired.
Credit where it’s due because that’s a meaningful climb given how little runway he had. He came aboard in late November, hit the ground running during a chaotic early signing period and salvaged what could’ve been a disaster.
But let’s not kid ourselves about what that class is. It’s not a class built to go into the SEC and immediately move the needle.
The transfer portal class ranked No. 25 nationally, addressing needs across the board, but it was stacked with depth pieces just as much as starters. That’s fine for a first year.
That’s also the reality of what Silverfield inherited. The roster he walked into had gone 2-10 in 2025, and it was going to take more than one offseason to fix it.
Silverfield might survive one 2-10 season. Stack another one behind it and things may get rather dicey. It did for the last coach to end up there.
The harder truth in the transfer portal era is that development players rarely develop for you. You build them up, they get their feet under them and then they bolt to the next program that offers them a starting job.
That’s the cycle. It’s not unique to Arkansas, but the Hogs aren’t immune to it either.
The 2027 class doesn’t yet have a “wow” name
Arkansas currently sits at nine commitments in the 2027 class and ranks 33rd nationally and 12th in the SEC. In late May.
That’s the starting point, not a finished product. The problem isn’t the number. It’s the profile of the class so far.
The two most recent commitments before the visit weekends were Marion running back Jeremiah Dent and Alabama receiver Darion Moseley, both pledging on the same day in early May.
Moseley is rated as a three-star by the 247Sports Composite but carries an ESPN four-star grade and caught 68 passes for 1,128 yards and seven touchdowns as a junior at Thompson High School in Alabaster, Alabama.
Dent is a talented in-state back out of Marion. Those are quality additions. Quality additions and difference-makers aren’t always the same thing.
In-state focus is the right strategy, but it has limits
Silverfield’s recruiting philosophy is built on keeping top Arkansas talent at home.
He’s said it out loud, and his early moves backed it up. His first recruiting swing as coach landed four major in-state commitments including Cross County defensive lineman Danny Beale, the state’s top-ranked player.
Bryant four-star athlete Terry Hodges flipped from Missouri to come home. That’s real recruiting. That’s building program identity.
He needs about 20 more players like those guys and folks will start talking.
For 2027, Sheridan offensive lineman Bradley Sturdivant was the first commitment, Valley View defensive lineman Eli Thornton is on board and linebacker Will Caston out of Fayetteville has pledged.
Sturdivant, Thornton, Caston and Dent represent an in-state core that gives Arkansas something to build around. The problem is the SEC doesn’t care where your players are from.
It cares how many of them can play at that level right now.
The in-state talent pool simply doesn’t produce enough Power Conference-ready prospects every cycle to fully stock an SEC roster. Silverfield knows that.
That’s why he’s got a legitimate visit pipeline forming with prospects from Texas, Oklahoma, Georgia and Louisiana on the schedule for upcoming official visit weekends.
The visit schedule real, but commitments not there yet
Four-star quarterback Colton Nussmeier and four-star receiver Jabari Watkins are scheduled for visits on June 5. Receiver Jordan Christie headlines the June 12 visitors.
The June 19 weekend looms as potentially the most important recruiting weekend of Silverfield’s tenure so far with four-star receiver Miguel Whitley, who’s been linked to LSU among others, potentially coming to Fayetteville.
These are legitimate targets. This isn’t smoke. But visits aren’t commitments, and commitments aren’t signings.
Silverfield himself has promised the best recruiting class the Razorbacks have ever signed is coming in 2027. That’s a bold statement, and he’ll be measured against it.
The bottom line
None of this means the players currently committed won’t make Arkansas better. Some of them absolutely will.
Fans looking at the 2027 class right now and expecting a roster that’s going to walk into Fayetteville and immediately compete at the top of the SEC are setting themselves up for disappointment.
Wide receiver coach Larry Smith’s work in landing Moseley is a positive sign.
Targeting four-star offensive lineman Okaefe Oruru out of Jenks, Oklahoma, shows the staff isn’t content staying inside state lines. The pieces of a better class are theoretically out there on the board.
But right now it’s hard to see the dramatic program shift Silverfield is talking about. In fairness, he never gave a timeline.
With a punter and a kicker as the most recent additions, with the class sitting 12th in the SEC and with the transfer portal waiting to gobble up every developmental player who figures himself out, a lot of us don’t see the path yet.
The next few official visit weekends will tell us far more than anything has to this point.
Until commitments start coming in from the bigger names on that visit list, this is still a class that needs a whole lot of work.
Arkansas burned seven pitchers, blew a 5-0 lead and lost to Kansas
Arkansas’ season is mercifully over, and not too many fans are going to spend the summer mourning it.
It was that kind of season and you could see it coming back sometime in March. About the only thing consistent was being wildly inconsistent.
The Razorbacks came into Sunday’s regional final already having beaten Northeastern on Sunday and needing a win over host Kansas just to stay alive.
Then they would have need to beat the Jayhawks again. It was a tall order, and the pitching staff made it nearly impossible to fill.
That’s before anyone can get around to asking who would even be available on the mound Monday if they had won.
Ryder Helfrick gave Arkansas an early lift with a solo home run to left in the bottom of the first, putting the Hogs in front 1-0 before the Jayhawks had settled in.
Damian Ruiz and Camden Kozeal pushed the lead to 4-0 in the second inning on back-to-back singles.
Maika Niu drove in another run in the third to stretch it to 5-0, and for a moment it looked like lefty Ethan McElvain might actually have enough breathing room to work with.
He didn’t.
Pitching carousel couldn’t stop Kansas surge
Kansas started chipping away in the fourth inning, and that’s when the wheels started coming off.
Dariel Osoria launched one to left to get the Jayhawks on the board. Singles from Jordan Bach and Dylan Schlotterback followed, and then Brady Ballinger singled to score another.
Cole Gibler came on to replace McElvain, but the damage wasn’t done. Max Soliz Jr. singled in a run, and then Tyson LeBlanc hit a two-run shot to center that flipped the scoreboard.
Kansas led 6-5 just like that, and a five-run cushion had evaporated in a matter of minutes.
Gibler stuck around into the fifth, but the sixth inning turned this game into something the Razorbacks couldn’t realistically climb back from.
LeBlanc doubled to lead things off, and after a wild pitch and a hit batter, Josh Dykhoff hit a three-run homer to right that pushed Kansas to 11-5. Manning West had come in to try and stop the bleeding, but he couldn’t do it either.
By the time Riane Ritter took over in the sixth, Helfrick’s two-run shot in the bottom half felt more like a footnote than a turning point.
Then came the eighth. Peyton Lee entered and promptly walked the bases loaded before James DeCremer took over.
DeCremer couldn’t find the strike zone either. Bach walked to force in a run, and then Cooper Dossett entered with the bases still jammed. A sacrifice fly from Schlotterback scored another, and Kansas had pushed it to 13-7 heading to the bottom of the eighth.
The Hogs used seven pitchers in total across the day — McElvain, Gibler, Fisher, Lee, DeCremer, Dossett, and Mark Brissey — and none of them could keep Kansas off the scoreboard long enough to really matter.
Late push wasn’t enough to change the story
Boede Rahe replaced Ritter to start the eighth, and Zack Stewart gave the Hogs something to cheer when he hit a two-run homer to center to make it 13-9.
But the comeback math never quite worked.
Niu hit a solo shot in the ninth to cut it to 13-10, but Brissey retired Kansas in order in the top half of the ninth, and the Arkansas lineup went down swinging to end it.
Christian Turner and TJ Pompey both struck out to close the book on the Razorbacks’ season.
It’s a finish that fits this year’s club.
Zack Stewart’s homer and Helfrick’s two home runs on the afternoon showed Arkansas can hit.
The lineup had its moments throughout the tournament, including a dramatic 10-9 win over Northeastern on Saturday where Reese Robinett went 3-for-5 with two home runs and four RBI while Nolan Souza chipped in a homer and five RBI.
But the pitching staff’s inability to strand runners or get through an inning clean has been a theme, and Sunday in Lawrence was one more chapter in that same book.
A season that’s hard to feel too bad about ending
Kansas advances to the program’s first-ever Super Regional, and there’s something fitting about that.
The Jayhawks played on their home field and made the most of it, getting contributions throughout the lineup to knock off a Razorbacks program that came in as the No. 2 seed in the regional.
Arkansas finished the season at 41-21, and while that record carries some respectability, the way this team went out giving up 13 runs in a regional final, watching the lead disappear inning by inning, cycling through arm after arm hoping somebody could get three outs is about as honest a summary of what this season’s been as anything else.
The Hogs showed they could hit. They also showed they couldn’t consistently prevent the other team from doing the same thing.
The offseason questions are going to start fast.
They always do when the calendar flips to June and the roster starts looking uncertain.
For now, Arkansas’ season ends in Lawrence, Kansas, where a team that couldn’t find enough pitching to finish what its offense started ran out of chances on a Sunday afternoon.
But, as I said earlier, no one’s probably really surprised this team didn’t make it to June despite the high expectations in February.
How to Watch: Razorbacks Get Second Chance at No. 1 Seed Kansas
The Razorbacks are still dancing … barely.
After surviving one of the more nerve-wracking elimination games of the NCAA Tournament earlier Sunday, Arkansas now turns right back around and faces the No. 1-seeded Kansas Jayhawks in the Lawrence Regional Final at 5 p.m. Sunday evening.
It’s win or go home for the Hogs and they’ve done it the hard way to get here.
The second game of Sunday’s doubleheader at Hoglund Ballpark in Lawrence, Kan., will stream exclusively on ESPN+.
The Road to Game 6
Arkansas entered this NCAA Tournament as the No. 2 seed in the Lawrence Regional with a 41-21 overall record and a 17-13 mark in SEC play.
The Hogs started the weekend with a 9-5 win over Missouri State on Friday before dropping a 5-3 decision to Kansas on Saturday.
That loss sent the Razorbacks to the elimination bracket, where they faced No. 4-seeded Northeastern on Sunday.
That game against the Huskies was a wild one.
The Hogs came from behind to win 10-9 in a game that featured multiple lead changes and a tense ninth inning.
Zack Stewart and Reese Robinett both homered in the top of the ninth to push Arkansas ahead 10-6, but Northeastern rallied for three runs before the Razorbacks held on to win by one.
The victory keeps Arkansas’s season alive and sets up the rematch with Kansas.
What’s at Stake Against the Jayhawks
Kansas has been the class of the regional.
The Jayhawks entered Sunday’s action undefeated after beating Northeastern 6-3 on Friday and topping Arkansas 5-3 on Saturday. The Jayhawks carry a 44-16 record and went 22-8 in Big 12 play under fourth-year coach Dan Fitzgerald, who’s now 143-88 in Lawrence with a 65-49 mark in conference games.
The all-time series heavily favors the Razorbacks, who hold a 17-7 edge over Kansas in 24 meetings dating back to 1994. None of that history matters much Sunday evening.
Kansas won the most recent meeting just a day ago.
If the Jayhawks win again, they’re headed to the Super Regionals and Arkansas is done for the year. If the Hogs win, it forces a winner-take-all Game 7 on Monday.
The starting pitchers for Sunday evening’s matchup had not been announced as of this writing.
It’s worth noting that the Razorbacks have already played through an enormous amount of pitching on Sunday alone.
Getting through at least nine more innings with a taxed bullpen is a huge challenge.
How to Watch, Listen and Stream Arkansas-Kansas
- Who: No. 2 Arkansas Razorbacks (41-21, 17-13 SEC) vs. No. 1 Kansas Jayhawks (44-16, 22-8 Big 12)
- When: Sunday, May 31 | 5 p.m.
- Where: Hoglund Ballpark | Lawrence, Kan.
- TV/Stream: ESPN+
- Radio: Razorback Sports Network statewide and online in select broadcast markets at HitThatLine.com
- Fort Smith: ESPN Arkansas 95.3
- Hot Springs: ESPN Arkansas 96.3
- Harrison-Mountain Home: ESPN Arkansas 104.3
