Seven talents from the Natural State’s 2024 strong in-state class have already gotten offers from Sam Pittman and
the Razorbacks in 2025, and the state is off to a respectable start this year.
Here’s a summary of the most recent trends in Arkansas broken down by offers, visits, and signees—as we do with
every state in the Hogs’ recruiting footprint:
The South Carolina Tar Heels (14-3, 2-2 SEC) will visit Bud Walton Arena on Saturday at 12:00 (CST). The Arkansas
Razorbacks (10-7, 1-3 SEC) will be looking to build on their 78-77 home victory against Texas A&M on Tuesday after
a concerning 0-3 start in SEC play.
The Gamecocks are led by second-year head coach Lamont Paris and have a number of new players in crucial
positions, making them one of the SEC’s most improved teams. This season, South Carolina has already won more
games than it did the entire previous one, when they finished 11-21 overall and 4-14 in conference play.
“They’re connected when you watch them play,” Arkansas head coach Eric Musselman remarked. “They interact
more when they play. It appears that they have a goal for this year, and that goal is to win.
“Super impressed with their guys,” he commented. “I believe that their coaching staff has performed extraordinarily
well, not just well. This year’s culture appears to be extremely robust
Like most modern college basketball teams, four of the top five players for the Gamecocks were players at other
universities during the previous campaign. Meechie Johnson, who transferred from Ohio State following the 2021–
2022 season, is the lone player that did not. Johnson is currently in his second season at Columbia.
Although Johnson, 6-2, 184, is classified as a junior, he is in his fourth season of collegiate competition after playing
two seasons at Ohio State and the last two at South Carolina. He is averaging 17.3 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 2.4
assists per game, making him the Gamecocks’ man to watch. In addition to shooting 43.8% from the field, he has
made 35 of 97 3-pointers (36.1%). Aside from that, his assist totals are slightly lower than they were a year ago, but
overall, he has greatly increased his numbers.
“Meechie Johnson is a returning player who quite frankly is playing as well as any guard in our league,” Musselman
stated. “I believed that not enough had been spoken about him before the year began. Well, he’s the talk of the town
right now.”
Johnson, a 2020 class member who was formerly ranked among the top 100 players, has improved each year in
college. He just had a 19-point, 4-rebound performance in Tuesday night’s 74-69 loss to the Georgia Bulldogs. That
came after he had the poorest performance of the season, managing just 5 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists in 28
minutes of play during a 71-69 overtime victory over Missouri.
B.J. Mack, a 270-pound senior who is 6-8, is matched up poorly by the Razorbacks. He’s not hesitant to take an open
look from downtown and can hammer down low. This transfer from Wofford is averaging 13.6 points, 5.1 rebounds,
and 29.7% from three point range (22 of 74). He recently had two of his greatest performances of the year, scoring 21
points against Missouri and 16 against Georgia. In addition, he shoots 81% of free throws.
Ta’Lon Cooper, a 6-4, 200-pound senior guard who transferred from Minnesota, can pack a score, putting up 9.2
points, 4.5 rebounds, and 4.5 assists a game on average. Having made 22 of 57 3-pointers this season (38.6%), he is
the team’s greatest 3-point shooter.
Guard Myles Stute of South Carolina is now anticipated to miss two to three weeks after suffering a left shoulder
injury against Georgia and leaving the game. For the 14-3 Gamecocks, the 6-foot-6, 209-pound transfer from
Vanderbilt has started all 17 of their games thus far. In a game, he averages 9.9 points, 3.9 rebounds, and 1.2 assists.
Tramon Mark, a 6-6, 185-pound junior guard, was the Razorbacks’ most reliable player throughout the season and
put forth an excellent performance last time out. Against Texas A&M on Tuesday, he scored 35 points, grabbed five
rebounds, and blocked three shots.
The Razorbacks won the game 78-77 thanks to a short pull-up jumper that Mark made with 1.1 seconds remaining
after taking the inbounds pass with 7.8 seconds remaining, driving into the lane, and crossing half court.
After the game, Mark remarked, “Coach drew it up, and I just went out and executed.” “I could see they were
manipulating me. I went to get a good look because I assumed they would play me tighter, but instead they kind of
let me get a full head of steam.”
Trevon Brazile, a redshirt sophomore forward, has not scored 20 points in a game this season and has not scored in
double figures in any of the previous three contests. But his most impressive performance came in a 19-point, 11-
rebound game against Duke in November. That was after he went the entire 20 minutes of a game against North
Carolina without scoring. This season, Brazile is averaging 9.6 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 1.4 blocked shots per game.
El Ellis has struggled most of the season in Fayetteville, following a season in which he averaged 17.7 points per game
for Louisville. He did not play a single minute in the first three SEC games and was a non-factor. However, Ellis
played 31 minutes, scored 15 points, and pulled down six rebounds in Tuesday’s 78-77 victory over Texas A&M. From
the free throw line, he made 8 of 8 shots. If Ellis can help the Razorbacks qualify for the NCAA Tournament this
year, they certainly need to see more of that from him.
Everything has been more difficult to anticipate than Mark, with the exception of which Razorback players will
appear in each game. Against Florida, Jalen Graham finished with 10 points and 5 rebounds. He then played against
Texas A&M and finished with 0 points and 0 rebounds. Keyon Menifield put up 32 points against UNC-Wilmington
five games ago. In the last three games, he has only totaled three points. After leading the Hogs with 14 points
against Florida, Layden Blocker played less than a minute and failed to score in the following game versus A&M.
Before being sent off for kicking an Aggie player in the groin, Davonte Davis had 7 points and 6 rebounds against
Texas A&M after having 0 points and 0 rebounds against Florida. It’s up to speculation.
Arkansas: With 6.7 blocks per game, the Razorbacks top the country in this category. This season, they have blocked
114 shots. The crazy thing is that even though Trevon Brazile leads the team in blocks per game—1.4—he only ranks
sixth in the SEC. However, at 1.2 blocks per game, Makhi Mitchell and Chandler Lawson are tied for ninth place in
the SEC with Alex Condon of Florida. The only SEC team with three players ranked in the top ten is Arkansas.
South Carolina: The Gamecocks rank 12th out of 14 SEC teams in terms of points per game (72.7), 11th in terms of
field goal percentage (43.4%), 10th in terms of rebounds (103.9), 12th in terms of blocks (3.4), and 14th in terms of
thefts (4.9). This season, they have only attempted 239 free throws (ranked 13th), and their field goal percentage
defense (41.1%) is merely mediocre. They are still 2-2 in SEC play and 14-3 overall.
Both the Razorbacks’ home game against NET 31-75 and the Gamecocks’ road game against NET 76-125 are Quad 2
contests.
Arkansas (107), South Carolina (69) in the NET Rankings
KenPom: South Carolina (71), Arkansas (90).
Torvik: South Carolina (71), Arkansas (105).
South Carolina (NR), Arkansas (NR) in the AP Top 25
Coaches’ Top 25: South Carolina (NR), Arkansas (NR)
