Arkansas appears to be in good shape with two big men that could sign during the spring signing period and play for the Hogs next season.
Arkansas associate head coach Melvin Watkins visited Scotland Performance Institute in Pennsylvania in February to evaluate power forward Cheickna Dembele and center Aleksandar Zecevic.
Coach Jareem Dowling said both like the Hogs and official visits to Fayetteville are possible.
“They’re definitely, definitely interested,” Dowling said. “They’re not going to make any decisions on who they’re going to visit until after the season which is March 20. We’ll probably give them a week to relax and unwind and then start getting things figured out.”
Dembele, 6-10, 235 has scholarship offers from Iowa State, Missouri, North Carolina State, St. Joseph's, Charlotte and LaSalle. He arrived in the United State in September from Mali, a nation of more than 14 million people in Western Africa.
Zecevic, 6-10, 250 also arrived in September from Serbia and is drawing interest from Arkansas, Cleveland State, Hofstra and others.
Dowling said Dembele and Zecevic think well of Watkins.
“They really like coach and he’s really been working them real good,” Dowling said.
He’s not sure if the two take all five allotted official visits.
“I don’t know, you never know with those type of things,” he said. “You would think so, but you never know.”