Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Glasper happy to return to Arkansas
FAYETTEVILLE — RJ Glasper’s road to playing at Walton Arena has led him from Forrest City to Fayetteville to Russellville to Tulsa and back to Fayetteville.
Four years after Glasper began his college basketball career as a walk-on at the University of Arkansas in 2016, he’ll hear his name over the Walton
Arena loud speakers when he’s announced as a starter for Oral Roberts, which plays the Razorbacks on Sunday.
“I pretty much try to approach every game the same way — to just go out there and compete, play hard and have fun,” said Glasper, a 6-0 senior guard who joined the Golden Eagles this season. “But I guess I’m a little extra motivated to play this game.
“It’s going to be pretty cool to play in Bud Walton.”
After averaging 27.3 points, 8.7 assists and 5.5 rebounds per game as a senior at Forrest City High School and leading the Mustangs to the 2016 Class 5A state championship, Glasper drew NCAA Division I scholarship offers from the University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Mississippi Valley State and Alcorn State. He also considered Division II schools such as Arkansas Tech University and Central Oklahoma.
But Glasper couldn’t pass up a chance to walk on at Arkansas.
“Nothing was promised to me, but the coaching staff told me if I came up to Fayetteville and worked hard, I might have a chance to earn a scholarship,” Glasper said. “I wanted to give it a shot, but things didn’t go as I had planned.”
Glasper played in some exhibition games in the summer when the Razorbacks toured Spain, but before the regular season started, he injured his right shoulder in practice.
“To tell you the toughness of that kid, after RJ got hurt, he worked his butt off rehabbing for two weeks to be able to practice again,” said Matt Zimmerman, Arkansas’ radio color analyst who was a Razorbacks assistant coach at the time. “But when he came back, he reinjured the shoulder. We knew he needed to have surgery.”
Glasper missed the 2016-17 season and redshirted as a true freshman, then transferred to Arkansas Tech.
“Being hurt, I didn’t get a chance to show what I could do at Arkansas,” he said. “I wanted to go somewhere that would give me a scholarship and I knew I’d have a good opportunity to play.”
Glasper became a threeyear starter for the Wonder Boys and averaged 18.7 points and 5.5 assists over 82 games.
“Things went pretty well for me,” Glasper said. “But I felt like I’d done about everything I could at Tech.”
When Chad Kline was dismissed as Arkansas Tech’s coach after last season, Glasper put his name in the transfer portal.
“I thought it was time to see what I could do on the Division I level before I ended my collegiate career,” he said. “I wanted that chance.”
Oral Roberts Coach Paul Mills offered the chance to Glasper, who also received recruiting interest from New Mexico, Missouri State, Liberty, Sam Houston State and Radford.
“I talked to a lot of teams, but I felt like Oral Roberts recruited me the hardest,” Glasper said. “I liked the spot they had for me, and it was close to home also.”
Mills said Lee Mayberry, a former Arkansas and NBA player who is an assistant coach for Oral Roberts’ women’s team, gave Glasper a strong endorsement. Mayberry was a member of Coach Mike Anderson’s staff at Arkansas when Glasper was there.
“Lee just raved about RJ, who he is as a person, his work ethic,” Mills said. “Lee said RJ would have played for Arkansas had he not hurt his shoulder. Hearing all that, and then watching his games at Arkansas Tech, made it a pretty simple decision to pursue him on our end.”
Glasper has started every game Oral Roberts and is averaging 8.7 points, 2.7 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 23.4 minutes per game. He’s shooting 40.4% from the field (21 of 52) and 38.5% on three-pointers (10 of 26) along with hitting 9 of 9 free throws.
“I’ve had some decent games, but also some games I know I could have played better,” Glasper said. “I’ve played well in spurts. I know I can do more and do a better job of helping the team win.
“I’m getting more comfortable for sure. The first couple games, I really wasn’t sure what to expect. Now I know.”
Mills said Glasper has been a welcome addition for the Golden Eagles.
“I think RJ is getting used to the physicality, the speed that’s involved at this level,” Mills said. “He’s done a phenomenal job, and he’s only going to continue to add value as a player as the season goes on.”
Glasper, whose parents and younger brother live in Fayetteville, said he’s expecting to have about 30 family members attend Sunday’s game.
“Arkansas has a different coaching staff and different players than when I was there,” he said. “But it’s still exciting to come back home and play.”
Mills said he is confident Glasper will handle the emotions of playing Arkansas.
“Some guys can get caught up in being focused on things that they shouldn’t if they return to where they were previously, but I’m not worried about that with RJ,” Mills said. “He’ll handle all of this well. I have full trust in RJ.”
Zimmerman said he’s looking forward to seeing Glasper.
“RJ did everything right here, and I for one hated to see him go,” Zimmerman said. “He was a great kid for us, always respectful, good student, and he was in the gym all the time. He worked relentlessly.”