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Arkansas basketball under John Calipari: Transfer portal news, 2024 roster, recruits, targets by insiders

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Arkansas basketball under John Calipari: Transfer portal news, 2024 roster, recruits, targets by insiders


After missing the NCAA tournament last year led to Eric Musselman leaving for USC, the Arkansas Razorbacks wasted no time making a huge splash in college basketball. They poached John Calipari from Kentucky and have pledged resources to Arkansas basketball moving forward to try to build a championship-caliber program. Now, Calipari and the Arkansas NIL collective are flexing their muscles and quickly rebuilding an Arkansas basketball roster that was decimated by the college basketball transfer portal.

Not a single scholarship player returns to Arkansas next season, but Calipari has used the college basketball transfer portal and Class of 2024 to quickly add talent to the Arkansas roster. Zvonimir Ivisic and Adou Thiero have already followed from Kentucky and D.J. Wagner is expected to follow, as have incoming freshmen Boogie Fland and Billy Richmond. If you love the Razorbacks, or just want the latest roster updates and college basketball transfer portal news, be sure to see what the proven team of insiders are saying at HawgSports, the 247Sports affiliate that covers Arkansas.

The team of insiders at HawgSports.com are providing up-to-the-minute scoop on the latest intel surrounding the Arkansas basketball coaching transition and roster changes. Launched in 2002, HawgSports has established itself as the top source for insider Arkansas basketball coverage. Trey Biddy, Danny West and Connor Goodson have a combined 30 years of experience covering the Razorbacks professionally. And right now, HawgSports is offering 30% off the first year of an annual subscription*, so now is the time to sign up.

The team at HawgSports has full coverage of who is coming and who is going on the Arkansas basketball roster. Head to HawgSports now to see all the insider info.

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Arkansas basketball roster departures 

Seven of Arkansas’ nine-leading scorers from last season are seniors, so Hogs Nation expected there to be several new faces for the 2024-25 Arkansas basketball roster. What it didn’t expect was that leading scorer Tramon Mark (16.2 points per game) would take his talents elsewhere. The native Texan, who began his career at Houston, is heading back to the Longhorn State as he joined Texas from the transfer portal.

Meanwhile, Trevon Brazile, who was the top underclassmen scorer for Arkansas last year with 8.6 ppg entered the 2024-25 college basketball transfer portal on May 1. He had previously declared for the NBA Draft as well and indicated that a return to Fayetteville was not in the cards. With other departures, that leaves the number of holdovers from last season’s team at just two players — Cade Arbogast and Lawson Blake — both of whom made the team as walk-ons and combined to play all of seven minutes last year. Join HawgSports to see the latest on all of Arkansas’ roster changes. 

Arkansas basketball news, roster

With seven of the top nine players on the Arkansas roster last year listed as seniors, the Razorbacks were always going to see heavy roster turnover this offseason. However, the losses of Tramon Mark and Trevor Brazile left them with two major holes to plug. Luckily, Calipari was able to call in reinforcements from Kentucky that should help stem the tide.

In addition to the several Kentucky players and commitments he was able to flip, Calipari secured commitments from Tennessee center Jonas Aidoo and Florida Atlantic guard Johnell Davis. Aidoo was second-team All-SEC for a Volunteers squad that made the Elite Eight last season while Davis was the AAC Player of the Year and led the Owls to the Final Four in 2023. Fland, Richmond and fellow Class of 2024 four-star Karter Knox have all signed their national letters of intent as well. Join HawgSports to get the latest on all of Arkansas’ roster additions. 

How to get insider Arkansas basketball roster updates

Calipari has already been in contact with multiple transfers from power-conference teams, so be sure to join HawgSports to see who they are and get the rest of the insider roster news. 

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Who are the top names Arkansas basketball is pursuing under coach John Calipari, and which power-conference transfers could land in Fayetteville? Go to HawgSports to see their insider information, all from a team of reporters with years of experience covering the Razorbacks, and find out. And reminder, HawgSports is offering 30% off the first year of an annual VIP membership*, so subscribe now before it’s too late.

*Terms: This offer is only available for new members who sign up for a HawgSports annual subscription. After the first year, subscription will re-bill on an annual basis at the regular rate. 247Sports.com reserves the right to alter or cancel this promotion at any time. Please write support@247sports.com with any questions you may have.





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Arkansas lithium boom hits milestone with first buyer; 8,000 tonne-a-year deal signed

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Arkansas lithium boom hits milestone with first buyer; 8,000 tonne-a-year deal signed


A major milestone has been reached in Arkansas’ highly anticipated lithium boom—its first customers.

Smackover Lithium has secured the first binding offtake agreement with a commercial client for lithium extracted in Arkansas.

“So this lithium from Arkansas will find its way into global markets, ex China,” said Jesse Edmondson, Standard Lithium’s director of government relations.

Commodity trading firm Trafigura Trading has just signed a 10-year agreement to buy 8,000 metric tonnes of battery-quality lithium carbonate per year from Smackover Lithium’s South West Arkansas Project, a joint venture between Standard Lithium and Equinor, a Norwegian company.

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For context, the U.S. as a whole only produces about 5,000 tonnes of battery-grade lithium a year.

“The SWA project, once in full production, will produce 22,500 tonnes per year,” Edmondson said. “So this 8,000-tonne-per-year agreement is significant, right? That’s over a third of our annual offtake.”

Last year, Standard Lithium received a $225 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to advance lithium extraction from the Smackover Formation, a briny aquifer beneath southern Arkansas that many hail as what could be America’s best domestic source of the critical mineral.

Beating companies like Chevron and Exxon to the punch, Standard Lithium pioneered direct lithium extraction and since 2020 has operated a demo plant in El Dorado. The company is building a larger facility in Lafayette County that is set to begin operation in 2028.

“We’ve got the only proven technology that works in the Smackover that’s been done through our commercial demonstration plant in El Dorado since May of 2020. And really that has been the proving ground which has unlocked a lot of the federal opportunities for us. So we’re the largest recipient of a DOE grant in the critical mineral space in this hemisphere,” Edmondson told KATV.

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“So [we’re] really excited to bring lithium production to the state of Arkansas and really back to the United States. The U.S. used to be a leader in lithium production 40, 50 years ago. So it’s time to reclaim that status,” he said.

The market price of a tonne of battery-grade lithium is volatile, but has recently ranged between $10,000 to $12,000, so the value of what Standard Lithium alone is expected to produce could exceed a quarter of a billion dollars annually.

That’s not counting what Exxon, Chevron, and other companies may produce once they get up and running.



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Arkansas needs balanced strategy to address educator concerns about AI

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Arkansas needs balanced strategy to address educator concerns about AI


COMMENTARY: While AI can offer transformative support for students who need it, it also risks eroding the foundational skills we are trying to help them acquire. Arkansas needs a balanced strategy that prioritizes accessibility without sacrificing rigor.



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Congressional subcommittee to hold hearing in Little Rock on ‘failures’ of local housing authority | Arkansas Democrat Gazette

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Congressional subcommittee to hold hearing in Little Rock on ‘failures’ of local housing authority | Arkansas Democrat Gazette


Joseph Flaherty

jflaherty@adgnewsroom.com

Joseph Flaherty covers the city of Little Rock for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. A graduate of Middlebury College and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, he has worked for the newspaper since 2020.

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