FAYETTEVILLE — Matt Zimmerman recalls the gym at Lakeview High School being a sauna.
It was at least 110 degrees when the team’s practice began one afternoon in September 2015. Sent by former Arkansas coach Mike Anderson, he traveled to Campti, La., six and a half hours south, to check in with an energetic prospect that the staff, after watching him play twice in Duncanville, Texas, and Las Vegas, believed was built for the Razorbacks’ style of play.
He arrived in the small town made up of mostly farmland in Natchitoches Parish a bit early that day, so he first paid a visit to Lakeview guidance counselor Fannie Holden to learn more about the teenager who had piqued his interest on the AAU circuit: Adrio Bailey.