FAYETTEVILLE -- Hopefully the rims in the gyms in Spain and Italy where the University of Arkansas basketball team will play four exhibition games can handle Ricky Council's dunks.
Council, a 6-6 junior guard gearing up for his first season as a Razorback after transferring from Wichita State, bent a rim at the Eddie Sutton Practice Gym last week when he drove the baseline and dunked with authority.
For good measure, Council also slapped the bottom of the backboard as he was coming down from the dunk.
The rim was reset after being slightly bent down by Council.
"Ricky is unbelievable," Arkansas freshman guard Nick Smith, the USA Today national high school player of the year, said of Council's dunking ability. "Ricky is crazy.
"I haven't seen anything like that before. I've literally seen him walk under the basket and do a between-the-legs [dunk] ... Not even trying.
"I thought I was athletic -- until I saw Ricky."
Council celebrated his 21st birthday on Wednesday with plenty more impressive dunks at another practice open to the media, but he also hit shots from all over the floor.
"Ricky's a great athlete," Arkansas Coach Eric Musselman said. "He adds a dimension to our transition break as a three-man that can make a feet-set three and can also catch and finish lobs.
"He's a good basket cutter. He's a high-volume free-throw attempt player. Defensively, we want him to continue to improve and evolve. He has the tools to be a really good defender."
"Athletically, he'll be in the top percentile in our league for sure, and [the SEC] is as athletic as any league in the country -- probably the most athletic league in the country.
"So you're talking about one of the best athletes across the board collegiately right now."
Council, who is from Durham, N.C., was the 2022 American Athletic Conference Sixth Man of the Year when he averaged 12.0 points, 5.4 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.1 steals in 26.6 minutes.
"He's just a freak of nature," said Arkansas senior forward Jalen Graham, a transfer from Arizona State. "He's one of the bounciest guys I've ever played with in college.
"He hustles hard. He sprints in an open offense in every drill we do."
Council has been working out since June with the Razorbacks, who Wednesday had their eighth of 10 practices the NCAA allows for teams going on foreign tours.
Arkansas' European opener will be Tuesday against Valencia Seleccion.
"Ricky has at least one 'wow' moment every practice -- at minimum one," Musselman said. "It might be a dunk, it might be a finish in traffic. But he plays with an incredible energy."
Musselman said that in all the years he has coached -- in the NBA, CBA, G League and college -- he's never had a player run as hard as Council in a 5-on-0 fast-break drill.
"Maybe to some coaches, they just mention it in the staff meeting," Musselman said. "To me, it's going to factor into his playing time, that he runs that hard, quite frankly, and he's doing it in 5-on-0.
"Because what all this is about is who do you trust by how they conduct themselves daily in practice. I've got a lot of trust in Ricky, I can tell you that right now, just by how hard he's running, playing, doing the things that we want."
Council said he runs hard in every drill -- even when there's no defense -- because of the Razorbacks' uptempo offense.
"I know we like to play fast, so if I run the wing like that every time, the guys are going to find me," Council said. "I'm just focused on it right now so it can carry over into the season."
This is the second consecutive year the Razorbacks will have a transfer from Wichita State along with Trey Wade, who as senior forward became a starter and scored 15 points when Arkansas beat No. 1 overall seed Gonzaga 74-68 in the NCAA West Regional semifinals.
"Obviously, we had Trey Wade to bounce ideas off of how we could use [Council] and how Trey felt that he would fit in here," Musselman said. "But from an evaluation standpoint, I think you could see the quick first step off the bounce and the finishing ability in transition."
Razorbacks junior guard Davonte Davis was impressed watching video of a Council dunk from last season.
"His head was over the rim," Davis said. "I was like, 'Hold on now, is the goal lowered?'
"When I saw that, I was like, 'Oh, yeah. We're about to have a real good team.' "
Ricky Council