When Bryan Hodgson left Arkansas State for South Florida, he was immediately accompanied by a the team’s top starters and recruits. It sucks, but what can you do, right? If there are rules governing such coincidences, they’re not being enforced. Fans, the funders of everything, are left waving a sad goodbye.
Enter Ryan Pannone, who at the age of 40 has accrued a lifetime of basketball experience. He’s served as an assistant coach for the Israel League. He was an NBA assistant for the New Orleans Pelicans. He assisted Nate Oates at Alabama. He was once the head coach of BC Prievidza of the Slovak Basketball League, and assumed head coaching duties for the Birmingham Squadron of the NBA G-League. I’m told that the SBL is the top-tier league in Slovakia. Early in his career, he moved to China to accept the assistant coaching job with the Foshan Long Lions of the Chinese Basketball Association. He later coached in South Korea. Ryan Pannone is also a distinguished citizen of YouTube, where he is the subject of videos with titles like Pass Fake Finishes and Creating Rim Pressure.
Pannone’s passport must appear as tattered as John Hinckley Jr’s copy of The Catcher in the Rye. How the world led him to Jonesboro is a question only Pannone himself can answer, but what we do know is that he arrived to Arkansas State with a lengthy LinkedIn page and an agenda to remake the Red Wolves in his own well-traveled image.
Players who Hodgson left behind in Jonesboro did not find a place in Coach Pannone’s gymnasium. Instead, the young coach did what the young people are doing these days, and that’s scour the transfer wire for talent. He hunted and gathered from all corner’s of the college basketball universe, creating a roster of players from a hodgepodge of places resembling Pannone’s own patchwork resume: Eastern Florida State College, Ole Miss, Gulf Coast State College, Florida State, UT Arlington, San Diego, Sacramento State, Missouri State – everywhere and anywhere.
It’s a different approach than the tact taken by Hodgson, who brought in a bevy of former four-star transfers, 3-star recruits and statewide names. Hodgson’s recruiting classes were ranked Top 40 nationally. Pannone’s transfer class is less flashy (still rated top in the Sun Belt), and his high school recruiting has, so far, been low key. Yet, Pannone’s Red Wolves are already receiving notice, with Field of 68 ranking them 23 in a Mid-Major Poll and is among those included on ESPN’s Early Bracketology.
Is Arkansas State a “mid-major” contender? Only the hardwood itself reveals, but the team Pannone has assembled is not without intrigue and ability. Shooting guard TJ Caldwell (Ole Miss 6’4″ 170) is a former 4-star recruit who appeared in 34 games for the Rebel Bears last year. Senior guard Chandler Jackson (Florida State, 6’5″ 205) was also a four-star recruit who hails from Memphis, Tennessee. Christian Harmon (Gulf Coast State, 6’6″ 205) averaged better than 16-points per game and was the 2025 Panhandle Conference Player of the Year and a Second Team All-American. Senior guard Matt Hayman (Stephen F Austin. 6’5″ 204) led the Lumberjacks last year with 14 points per game, and Fredy-Salam Sylla (Eastern Florida State College, 6’8″ 210) is a big Frenchman who averaged 13-points per game for the Titans.
Everybody else is, well, a bit of a mystery. The team has size (for example, Aly Tounkara out of Linwood is a seven footer), game experience, and it’s staffed with capable coaches. But the Red Wolves are also a team of unknowns, which may explain why Coach Pannone had such a difficult time completing the schedule – and cementing intriguing home dates. The out-of-conference slate includes six home games (including the MAC Challenge opponent), with a home opener against Christian Brothers on November 15 and a “multi team event” involving Jacksonville State, North Dakota State and UT Arlington. Presumably, fan choices like Arkansas and Memphis politely declined.
Still, the road will rest the Red Wolves mettle, with games at Saint Mary’s, SMU, Ohio, Stephen F. Austin, Missouri State and Rice. These games offer some NET benefits while hardening Arkansas State for all important conference play. Most importantly, perhaps we will learn something about Ryan Pannone’s Red Wolves, a team hand picked from the transfer portal, with nary a single returner to offer a veteran’s presence. It’s a new kind of basketball that can yield any kind of result. Considering Pannone’s unique set of experiences, you tend to believe that this young but heavily seasoned coach knows exactly what he’s doing.
IMAGE: AI monstrosity
Howlraiser 