Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Arkansas grabs Cal transfer big man Connor Vanover

California  v UCLA

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - JANUARY 05: Jalen Hill #24 of the UCLA Bruins tries to block a shot by Connor Vanover #23 of the California Golden Bears during the first half at Pauley Pavilion on January 05, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Katharine Lotze/Getty Images)

Getty Images

Arkansas has picked up a future big man on the transfer market as Cal transfer Connor Vanover pledged to the Razorbacks on Wednesday.

The 7-foot-3 Vanover is one of college basketball’s more unique talents thanks to his massive size and floor-spacing ability (35 percent from three as a freshman). During his freshman season at Cal, Vanover put up 7.5 points, 3.0 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game in only 17.5 minutes per contest as he was an effective player in limited minutes.

A native of Little Rock, Vanover will be moving much closer to home with this transfer as he’ll have to sit out the 2019-2020 season due to NCAA transfer rules. Vanover will have three seasons of eligibility remaining once he’s able to take the floor for Arkansas.

Although Vanover still needs to add more strength to compete down low, not many players in college basketball can be a natural rim protector and a three-point shooter at the same time as Vanover has intriguing long-term upside. Late in the season, Vanover started to figure some things out, including a 24-point performance against Stanford and 18 points against an NCAA tournament team in Washington.