FAYETTEVILLE - Basketball transfers often fit a pattern, it seems.
Some start surprisingly fast. In part no doubt both because they haven't been much scouted with their new teams by nonconference opposition still experimenting with their own transfers and team trying to fit pieces for the looming conference campaign.
When the conference season begins these transfer surprises suddenly find themselves so scouted that their opponents know what they ate for breakfast since October.
Their performance often fades until on their talent and experience the good ones resurface.
On Coach Eric Musselman's 15-5 resurgent Razorbacks, 5-3 in the SEC after an 0-3 SEC start, the resurgence coincides with 6-6 graduate transfers Au'Diese Toney, Trey Wade and Stanley Umude re-surging.
It coincides but not coincidentally.
Like the melting pot so often once credited with making America great, forwards Toney, via the University of Pittsburgh, Wade, via Wichita State, and Umude via the University of South Dakota have blended their talents with senior guard JD Notae, himself a 2019-20 transfer to Arkansas via the University of Jacksonville.
Other than sophomore letterman center Jaylin Williams of Fort Smith Northside, it's an entirely transfer starting lineup transfusing the Razorbacks' 5-0 streak into today's SEC vs. Big 12 Challenge game vs. West Virginia at Walton Arena.
Wade, with some early Arkansas flashes faded to oblivion then resurgence, has seen the pattern in others during his stops at UTEP, South Plains Junior College and Wichita State before Arkansas.
"Yeah, that's usually how it works," Wade said. "Teams don't really know who you are, maybe because you transferred to a different conference and they're trying to learn you, but most stuff for me is just playing the right way. That's the best way to be efficient."
The "right way," includes Wade scoring 17 and 12 points in starts vs. Missouri and Ole Miss though that's more a bonus than gist of Wade's process.
"I definitely feel like the turnaround came on the defensive end," Wade said of himself and his team. "You know, we kind of found our identity defensively. And it's helped us a lot offensively."
That's what Musselman counted upon.
"Everyone talks about offensive rhythm but our transfers are in the best rhythm that they've had defensively," Musselman said. "Those guys have grown so much as individual defenders and as a group. We definitely have a defensive rhythm that we didn't have."
Toney, starting so hot as a small forward/power forward to be the Hall of Fame Classic MVP when Arkansas in Kansas City swept Kansas State and Cincinnati in November, reinvented himself in this new lineup after vanishing in early SEC play.
"Defense and he changed positions," Musselman said. "He went from a 3 slash 4 to playing the off-guard almost the majority of his minutes. Certainly his defense the last couple of weeks has been really good both on and off the ball."
Given recent results, Musselman's defensive praise applies upon them all on and off the ball.