Early leg work by the Arkansas' men's basketball staff led by assistant coach T.J. Cleveland has the Hogs in line to get a visit from highly-recruited center Kevin Samuel.
Samuel, 6-10, 225 pounds, is one of the more impressive physical specimens in the nation despite not seeing the weight room.
While playing for Houston-based All 4 Sports Dream Team during the spring and summer, he usually saw Cleveland or another member of the Razorbacks staff at his games.
The evaluation period for college coaches during the spring was on the weekends of April 15-17 and April 22-24.
"Coach Cleveland has done a good job recruiting him," All 4 Sports Dream Team Coach Orin Bailey said. "Coach Cleveland chased us in early April. He pretty much did his homework and reached out before the live period. Our first event was the Philly for a Hoop Group event and T.J. was there. He came and saw him and loved what he saw."
Arkansas Coach Mike Anderson and associate head coach Melvin Watkins have also been involved with Samuel.
"Coach Cleveland and Coach Watkins were really helpful, and even talking to Coach Anderson, it was great," Bailey said. "We had a good feel of what's going on and what direction the program is moving in."
Samuel, who's home-schooled and plays at Houston St Thomas Episcopal High School, averaged 12 points, 11 rebounds and 2 block shots per game for All 4 Sports Dream Team.
In no specific order, he lists Arkansas, Texas A&M, Southern Cal, Houston, Tulane, SMU, Texas Tech, TCU, Texas, Virginia Tech and Rutgers as his top schools after receiving 40 scholarship offers. Bailey said narrowing his list to 10 schools was needed.
"A lot of coaches are calling and we don't want anybody to waste their time," Bailey said. "It's a tough process to go through in eliminating schools because there's so many good ones, but it was just looking at coaching staffs, style of play and kind of where we fit into their recruiting board."
There has been a recent epidemic of transfers in men's college basketball. At least 700 Division I players transferred during 2015-2916 and the number was around 850 the year before.
Bailey said Arkansas' early contact and scholarship offer helped the Hogs make Samuel's cut.
"They asked about our process," Bailey said. "A lot of the schools we mentioned were people who that kind of got on the bus early as opposed to late."
"It's tough to build relationships late with kids. With the transfer rate being high, we were crucial about someone being in play multiple times and someone that has a good contact base with him and a good rapport with the staff and program."
Samuel has made unofficial visits to Houston, TCU, Southern Cal and UCLA. He's looking to set up official and unofficial visits starting in early September.
"Most people want official and unofficial visits during football games so they can kind of showcase the campus life," Bailey said.
While Arkansas will get a visit, Bailey said he is unsure if it will be an unofficial or official visit. An unofficial visit will usually be for a day visit and is where the recruits pays for all the costs of the trip while the school pays the costs of an official 48-hour visit.
Because Fayetteville is an eight- to 10-hour drive from the Houston area, Bailey said an official visit maybe the best option.
"If possible, we'll take an official there to kind of see it all," he said. "Get with the academic coordinators and see what degree plans are there and really spend time with the staff. Just really make the most of the visit."
Bailey also said Samuel wants a school that offers a chance at early playing time and the ability to develop him as a player and help him get to the next level.
"I would say Arkansas is a big-time program going back to the Nolan Richardson days," Bailey said. "Guys like Bobby Portis have come in and had success. So bigs have come through the program and got to the next level."
E-mail Richard Davenport at rdavenport@arkansasonline.com
Sports on 08/16/2016