Lebanese F Karim Rtail commits to John Calipari, Arkansas

Lebanese forward Karim Rtail has committed to Arkansas, On3’s Joe Tipton reports. After playing professionally in Lithuania, he will join John Calipari’s squad for the 2025-26 season.

Rtail committed to Calipari and the Razorbacks over Penn State, Butler and SMU. The 6 foot 9, 20-year-old previously played professional basketball in Lithuania. This past season playing for Neptūnas-Akvaservis in the NBL, he averaged 17.1 minutes for his club, scoring 8.3 points per game on a 31.4 percent 3-point average. His best performance of this past season saw him score 22 points in 26 minutes on Nov. 2.

Before his commitment to Arkansas, the Razorbacks were set to bring in the No. 4 overall recruiting class in the 2026 cycle as of this report. The group is headlined by a pair of five star recruits, guards Darius Acuff and Meleek Thomas. Joining them is four-star small forward Isaiah Sealy to round out the three-player high school class. Acuff spoke highly of his future head coach ahead of his commitment last July.

“Just how (Calipari) coaches his guards. All his guards go to the league,” Acuff told On3 of his interest in the Hogs. “You see it every year. Also, his resume speaks for itself. He’s one of the winningest coaches ever. He’s a great coach, a guard coach, if not the best.”

During Calipari’s career, he has won one national championship (2012), coached his teams to six Final Fours, 15 conference championships, 16 regular season titles, and an NIT Championship (2002). Over that stretch and Calipari has won 20 coach of the year distinctions across multiple publications over that span.

He also has a hand in putting college players in the NBA. Whether this reputation factored into Rtail’s decision is unclear, but can be expected to provide an instant boost to Calipari’s lineup next season.

This season, Arkansas finished the regular season with a 19-12 record. The Razorbacks went on to split its two games in Nashville at the SEC Tournament, but was able to stay within the bubble and qualify for the NCAA Tournament. They were one of 14 teams from the SEC to do so, a record for a single conference.

Arkansas lost its first five games to start conference play, but would go on to win eight of its final 13 regular season games against SEC competition. That final stretch, in the end, was enough for the selection committee to give the Razorbacks the nod.