Loss of two stars leaves Arkansas poised for a fall next season
Had either sophomore forward Bobby Portis or junior guard Michael Qualls returned to school, Arkansas had a good chance to sustain last season’s success and compete for a second straight NCAA bid.
Instead the Razorbacks appear poised to take a big step backward next season after losing both to the NBA draft on back-to-back days.
Qualls’ announcement Wednesday evening that he will turn pro ensures Arkansas will lose four of its top five scorers from a 27-win team that finished second to Kentucky in the SEC and nearly toppled North Carolina in the NCAA tournament’s round of 32. Qualls, Portis and seniors Rashad Madden and Alandise Harris accounted for 65.1 percent of Arkansas’ scoring this past season and 58.9 percent of its rebounding.
For Arkansas to weather that roster attrition and still remain an upper echelon SEC team, it will need returning guards Anthlon Bell and Anton Beard and talented but enigmatic big man Moses Kingsley to each make a substantial leap next season.
Bell is a streaky 3-point shooter who averaged an impressive 7.9 points per game off the bench but shot only 37 percent from the field. Beard is a point guard who sparked Arkansas for a stretch during league play but faded terribly late in the season and went scoreless in the NCAA tournament. Kingsley is a former coveted recruit who has shown flashes of fulfilling his pedigree but has so far lacked the intensity or skill level on offense to become an impact player.
Arkansas will also need immediate contributions from its two top incoming recruits. Six-foot-9 center Ted Kapita and 6-foot-2 guard Jimmy Whitt both are top 100 prospects with the potential to help Arkansas make up for all that it has lost.
The frustrating thing for Arkansas has to be how close it was to having a preseason top 20 team next fall.
Portis reportedly strongly considered returning even though the SEC player of the year’s ability to run the floor and knock down mid-range jumpers makes him a likely mid-first-round pick this June. And Qualls arguably should have come back considering the high-flying 6-foot-5 shooting guard isn’t likely to be taken in the first round and would have greatly benefited from another year to improve his wayward jump shot.
Nonetheless, both turned pro, leaving the Razorbacks with plenty of holes to fill. That’s why another upper echelon SEC finish appears unlikely unless some of their unproven players make great strides this summer.
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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
