FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Arkansas head coach John Calipari won't let his talented group of freshman rest on their laurels. Calipari and the Razorbacks boast the No. 1 recruiting class in the country going into the 2026-27 season that is made up of eight highly-touted freshmen: Jordan Smith Jr., Abdou Torre, Ilia Frolov, Caleb Ourigou, Maper Maker, JJ Andrews, Davion Thompson and Miikka Murrinnen. But with practices just kicking off and Arkansas yet to travel to the Bahamas for its four-game foreign tour, Calipari is pumping the brakes on calling his group of freshmen the best in the nation."We'll see," Calipari said Monday. "We'll see. They're going to have to perform to be that. Having the respect they do as players, that was what would happen. They gotta perform. I like my team, so I'll see. We got to play games."Arkansas' first game of the Baha Mar summer league will take place on July 31 at 6 p.m. CT. Calipari said that ensuring his young team sees live action was what inspired him to set up a foreign tour."You go down there and figure out, now they got lights on," Calipari said. "There's some guys who have really performed in practice, now let me see them in those situations. Whatever it is, it's a starting point. So I'm not like, 'We gotta do this.' No. We could be awful and say, 'Okay. This is where we are.' "This team should be a great defensive team. We should be a great shot-blocking team, which we weren't. We were at times, but it was from not the guys who are in there that need to be blocking shots. I think this should be a great lane touch, space the court kind of team. But you know what? May change. There's stuff that we worked on that I won't use this year because I won't like it."Arkansas Razorbacks guard JJ Andrews goes through drills during practice ahead of the Baha Mar Summer League in The Bahamas. | Nilsen Roman - Hogs on SIThis season is far from the first that Calipari will have a very young roster. The 67-year-old is now mostly on an island in college basketball when it comes to bringing in elite freshmen and building a team around them, as many coaches are leaning towards experience in an era of the transfer portal being wide open. "The other guy has 25 and 26-year-olds with two kids in the stands, and he's waving to his children," Calipari said. "And I got 18-year-olds. That's the downside. But you know what? I said this to them: If you're good enough, you're old enough."Sign up to our free newsletter, and follow us on Facebook, X (Twitter) for the latest news.Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow