Nick Pringle's SEC experience will prove valuable at Arkansas
New Arkansas big man Nick Pringle has been around the block a time or two.
At the age of 23, Pringle is one of the older players on Arkansas’ roster for the 2025-26 season, and in that time, he’s seen both the highest heights of college basketball as well as the lowest of lows.
Pringle started his career at Wofford in the COVID-shortened 2020-21 season before he spent two years with the Alabama Crimson Tide. There, he was on a team that was 14 points away from a National Championship in 2024. The Tide lost 86-72 in the Final Four to eventual champion UConn.
He then took his talents to Columbia, South Carolina, to play for the Gamecocks last season. That year went about as bad as it possibly could have, as South Carolina went a dismal 12-20 overall that included a 2-17 mark in conference play.
Ironically, one of those two SEC wins came against Arkansas, the team he now plays for. In that game, he scored 18 points and had nine rebounds in a 72-53 win over the Hogs that was so lopsided that Arkansas head coach John Calipari said he never even watched the film.
Now, Pringle is at Arkansas, and that experience will pay dividends for the Hogs as they hope to build off a season last year that ended in the Sweet 16.
“It’ll definitely help me and the team, because I can bring what I know from my previous years playing in the SEC,” Pringle said Wednesday. “I can talk to them about things I’ve seen, the physicality level, just knowledge about anything going on. How teams play, for instance.”
Speaking of that physicality, Pringle’s was on full display in the open practice on Wednesday afternoon. He showed immense strength down low, both defensively and offensively, and looked to be the enforcer that Arkansas missed at times last season.
Those battles down low on Wednesday at times featured redshirt senior forward Trevon Brazile on the other side. He said Pringle’s counterpart’s scouting report was that he’s physical and a strong rebounder.
“He killed us the first (game),” Brazile said of Pringle. “The scouting report the second time was physical finisher, elite offensive rebounder, veteran and he’s just been around. He knows how to play.”
Arkansas’ scouting report on Pringle
Brazile isn’t wrong in his scouting report, either. He basically echoed Arkansas associate head coach Kenny Payne said ahead of the SEC Tournament last season, when the Razorback took a 72-68 win over the Gamecocks.
“I think the first thing is matching his physicality and matching it early,” Payne said on March 10. “He’s a guy that fights for low post position. Well, if you let him get there and try to fight, you’re too late. He’s too big, he’s too strong. I think the way that he rebounds, you’ve got to him him early there and try to keep him off the glass. He runs the floor very well and they look for him in the post and they try to get him going.”
Thankfully for the Hogs, now they won’t have to go against Pringle. They’ll have him to rely on in a physical SEC.
