Want to feel old? This upcoming college basketball season will mark 10 years since Jaylen Barford and Daryl Macon debuted as Razorbacks.

✍️ Mark your calendars 📅 bit.ly/HogsSchedule

\ \ EXPECTATIONS / / There’s been a lot of talk on the timeline about expectations the last week or so. From our own and from other fanbases. When Arkansas clinched its’ 5th Sweet 16 in 6 years, I had someone ask me if that was the standard. I wasn’t sure how to answer that. For one, things like that are above my pay grade to decide for the fanbase, but it did get me to thinking. Given the fluidity of college basketball, our NIL, our coach, our league, our brand, and our home recruiting base, what are reasonable and fair expectations? Here’s what I came up with and how I will view things every year going forward. It is viewed through 2 lenses: LENS 1: THE SINGLE SEASON (August-March) Every team has its’ own identity. Their own strengths and weaknesses. We all make our preseason predictions on paper based on the incoming players and the retention. We then quickly learn who they really are. We see those strengths and weaknesses. We learn their ceiling. We learn their floor. Next, we see the rest of the country and we see our league. As fans what should we do at that point? We set actual expectations for that team. You want your coach and players to maximize their potential and then anything above that is truly icing on the cake. Looking at the 2025-26 team, I felt in the preseason that a 2nd weekend NCAAT trip was likely the ceiling. I felt finishing in the top 3 in the SEC should be the expectation. Compete for a regular season title and hopefully set yourself up for a chance at the SECT title. Lastly, Selection Sunday came and went and gave the Hogs a nightmare matchup in the 2nd weekend. So the expectation and ask repeated itself from the preseason, “win 2 and see what happens.” A different draw may have left us asking for more. Draw a different 1 seed or earning the opportunity to play a 2 seed before a 1 may have changed our expectations. Yet, those things didn’t happen. Through this lens, the 2025-26 Arkansas Razorbacks met every expectation I had for them. A really good basketball team that performed to their potential. They severely lacked usable depth, they severely lacked defensive ability/scheme, and the frontcourt additions didn’t deliver on their evaluation or pay. LENS 2: THE BIG PICTURE(March-July) Given the brand/NIL/coach/league/fan support, the expectations are high here. Very high. With that said, the frontcourt that Arkansas assembled in 2025-26 was simply unacceptable. Yes, #23 may have had a nagging back injury that caused him to play at literally 50% of his production at every other stop. Yes, the other frontcourt addition that averaged almost 8 rebounds a game in another P5 league being a wet paper sack defensively and on the boards was crippling. Therefore, we know those 2 were not the Plan A. They didn’t play ball for Plan A and settled and it drastically lowered the ceiling and floor of the team. If the goals are lofty then settling isn’t the answer. Not after what we saw this year. In summary, I am very happy with this season individually. It was a lot of fun and the team truly maximized their ability and roster construction. However, I am not happy that with our resources, the frontcourt additions were what they were and the defense was what it was. As I said last night, we’ve seen a lot of really good teams recently. It’s time for an elite one. It’s officially portal season! What are your thoughts on these expectation lenses? Fair? Foul?

Just finished the first meeting with my team. I am glad, just as you are, to have Billy back on campus! This is a great group of guys who will play for one another (because thats who they are), ultra competitive, with a will to win. If we are not a great defensive team I haven’t done my job! We are physical, should be a great shot blocking team (at all 5 positions) and we have dogs! LETS GOOO

Let’s hear it… Arkansas vs Kentucky: Which roster would you RATHER have? 🔥⬇️