Amid a magical postseason run, coach John Calipari doesn't have the luxury of focusing only on this year's Arkansas basketball team.Instead, he and the rest of the Razorbacks' coaching staff — along with every other program still playing in March — must balance game preparation with offseason roster construction this week.Coming off the 75-66 NCAA Tournament victory over 2-seed St.
John's on Saturday, Calipari must turn his focus to the oncoming storm that is the transfer portal.RELATED: Social media reacts to Arkansas' win over St. John'sThe college basketball transfer portal officially opens Monday and won't close for 30 days, on April 22.
No team is safe from roster attrition, and the next few days will be critical in determining who may return for another year in Fayetteville."Monday, we're really preparing for a game and having individual meetings about are you coming back? If they put their name in the portal, they probably don't have an option to come back, but, you know, you care about the kids," Calipari said. "At the end of the year, it's all about them.
Whatever they choose. You want to go pro? You want to come back? You want to go somewhere else? It's their choice. I have always been that way, but it's getting harder to be that way.
"NOT A SUBSCRIBER? SIGN UP TODAY FOR ACCESS TO ALL OF HAWGBEAT'S PREMIUM CONTENT AND FEATURESThe timing of the portal opening doesn't come at an ideal time for Arkansas, which will play 3-seed Texas Tech on Thursday in San Francisco.
