The John Calipari era officially began with a victory Wednesday night, as Arkansas conquered the Lipscomb Bisons. The pesky mid-major certainly won’t be the most talented team the Razorbacks face this season, but their unique offensive style certainly provided a challenge for the new-look Hogs as they attempted to form some continuity in their first game together at full strength.
“That is a very, very hard game to play out of the gate,” Calipari said. “Because you’ve got to be disciplined, and you better be in shape, because [Lipscomb is] going to run you for 25 seconds… We had guys exhausted three minutes into the game.”
Despite the win, there were plenty of minor concerns and issues for the Hogs to address moving forward. They had their fair share of struggles early in the game, shot only 21.1% from long range as a team, and had plenty of miscommunications defensively that led to open looks for Lipscomb – all things to pay attention to moving forward.
The Razorbacks won’t have to wait long to test out any potential adjustments as the season kicks off in full swing. Their next game will be against No. 8 Baylor – their first official marquee matchup of the regular season, though their win over No. 1 Kansas in a preseason exhibition might count for something as far as confidence and bragging rights are concerned.
The Bears dropped their first game of the season to No. 6 Gonzaga by a resounding score of 101-63. A combination of hot shooting, defensive strategies and simply an off night for Baylor contributed to such a lopsided score, but it goes without saying it’ll be out for blood in the next contest.
The Arkansas vs Baylor game is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. CT Saturday at American Airlines Center in Dallas. It will be televised on ESPNU.
What to Expect from Baylor Basketball
The Bears reloaded this offseason, though not quite to the degree of some teams with high turnover rates like Arkansas. They return three players from a season ago, each of which scored at least 100 points on the season.
Jayden Nunn – a 6-foot-4 guard – led the way amongst the three returners with 367 total points, or 10.5 points per game, while shooting nearly 44% from long range last season. He opened the 2024-25 season with a rough shooting performance, though, going 0 of 5 from deep on his way to scoring just 6 points in 27 minutes.
The Arkansas guards can’t afford to let Nunn’s slow start lull them to sleep – this is still a more-than-capable shooter who shouldn’t be taken lightly. His size as a combo guard suggests D.J. Wagner could be the most likely matchup assignment for Nunn.
Junior forward Josh Ojianwuna is the returner who impressed the most in Baylor’s opening loss to Gonzaga. He tallied 10 points and 6 rebounds while hitting all three of his 3-point attempts in 24 minutes of action. The 6-foot-10 big man averaged less than five points and four rebounds a season ago, but clearly seems to have taken a step forward for Baylor this year.
Langston Love is the final returning player from last year’s roster, though it remains to be seen whether he’ll be healthy for the matchup with Arkansas. He missed the entirety of the 2024 NCAA Tournament with ankle issues after recovering from an ACL tear and eye injuries in previous seasons.
The junior swingman is looking to pick up where he left off to end the regular season in 2023-24 when he averaged 11 points, 3 rebounds, and 1 assist while shooting a blistering 48% from long range.
The Bears also landed a pair of highly touted ACC transfers in Norchad Omier and Jeremy Roach, who transferred in from Miami (Fla.) and Duke, respectively. Omier, who started his college career in Jonesboro, Ark., has developed into one of the game’s premiere big men with his strength and athleticism. The Nicaragua native put it all on display as he led Baylor in scoring with 15 points to go along with 9 rebounds, 1 steal and 1 block in 30 minutes in the season opener.
Roach struggled a bit from the field in his Bears debut, shooting only 22% overall on his way to 9 points and 3 assists, but he’s another player who can’t be judged off one down game. The point guard is still certainly a dangerous weapon, coming off back-to-back seasons averaging roughly 14 points, 3 assists and 1 steal on nearly 39% shooting from 3-point land.
Rounding out Baylor’s core rotation is a pair of talented freshmen in Robert Wright III – who finished with 12 points and 6 assists in his debut – and a potential lottery pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, VJ Edgecombe. The 6-foot-5 wing scored only 4 points on a rough 18% from the field in his debut, but the fact that he still got 11 shot attempts should say enough about the confidence his coaches and teammates have in him, and even the confidence he has in himself.
Detonations like this don’t hurt, either:
This could be a very interesting matchup for both Adou Thiero and freshman wing Karter Knox. The Razorback freshman has done a great job so far of letting the game come to him and plugging holes as he sees fit, but this could be a prime opportunity to show what he’s made of on the defensive side of the ball.
What to Expect from Arkansas Basketball
The Hogs played an overall good game against a tricky, disciplined team in Lipscomb in their first official contest, but they almost gave up a big double-digit lead midway through the second half, just like what happened in their final exhibition against TCU.
Arkansas basketball coach John Calipari noted postgame that finishing strong was a point of emphasis after the collapse in Fort Worth.
“You saw we finished the game a little different today,” Calipari said. “Because we had worked on it. Thank God we played TCU. Because if I let them try to finish the game [against Lipscomb], you know what? We would have shot balls, shot 3s, and all of a sudden, they come down and you lose this game. So we kind of ground it out, let’s finish the game off, and I thought the guys did a good job.”
A major part of Arkansas being able to close out the win was a huge 8-point stretch from 7-foot-2 center Zvonimir Ivisic. He hit a side-step 3-pointer, a tough layup through contact to earn another 3-point play, and capped off the run with another post up finish.
Big Z looked fantastic against Lipscomb, but his effectiveness against a stronger, more physical Baylor team on Saturday should be telling for how he holds up in SEC play. That, of course, will be helped by the return of Jonas Aidoo, who logged seven minutes in the victory. Calipari noted that Aidoo played at roughly 75% health in this matchup to get his feet under him.
The guard duo of DJ Wagner and Boogie Fland struggled mightily from the field in their first official game together. Though they combined for 24 points, it came on 10-of-25 (40%) shooting from the field and 1-of-9 (11%) from long range – Fland was 1 of 8 from distance on his own.
This atrocious efficiency wasn’t enough to be cause for concern against Lipscomb, but Baylor will be a different story. Their loss to Gonzaga was fueled in large part by the Zags’ ability to light it up from long range and capitalize on mismatches created by Baylor’s switch-heavy defense.
Fland, Wagner and even Big Z will need to be prepared to attack those mismatches if the Bears continue their strategy of switching – and hopefully hit slightly more than 11% of their long range shots.
Some of this shooting struggle was mitigated by Johnell Davis, who finally started to look more like his normal self after he struggled to score in each of the two exhibition games. He’s still recovering from an injury to his shooting wrist, but Davis remains one of the prime candidates to lead this team in scoring thanks to not only his skillset, but his immense experience at the collegiate level.
Billy Richmond had his best game – including the exhibitions – in a Razorback jersey with 4 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 block and 1 steal on 67% shooting from the field. The passing and rebounding are the most encouraging factors for Richmond, who is typically projected to play the fewest number of minutes among the core nine rotation players.
However, Calipari noted that Richmond surprised even the Hall of Fame coach himself with how well he performed as a facilitator in a recent practice, leading him to potentially earn a few more minutes moving forward.
“Two days ago, we were doing an open drill with middle pick-and-rolls up and down the court and I said ‘Billy, you be the point guard,’” Calipari said. “He was ridiculous. He was making all the right plays, he was getting by people, he was throwing (passes)… I’m like, ‘You know what? We just found a third point guard.’
“I was going to play him at point today. So, if you have him in with two point guards, the best teams that I’ve coached had three point guards on the floor. I think we found a third point guard.”
Richmond developing into a backup playmaking option for the Razorbacks would certainly be a surprising – but welcome – development that could change the entire dynamic and ceiling of the team.
What to Watch in Arkansas vs Baylor
Gonzaga essentially shot the Bears out of the gym in their first game of the season. Yes, Baylor’s defensive strategy of switching all over the place led to some easy buckets for the Bulldogs, but that wasn’t the only factor in the Zags hitting 42% of their long range shots and limiting Baylor to only 14% from distance.
Former Razorback Khalif Battle helped lay the potential blueprint to beating Baylor on Saturday by scoring 12 points and knocking down 4 of 8 attempts from 3-point range, basically picking up where he left off at the end of last season with Arkansas when he shot 36% from distance over the final seven games – including a stretch of going 10 of 20 in SEC play.
It remains to be seen if these Razorbacks have someone capable of lighting it up from deep like Battle. They struggled tremendously from the outside in their win over Lipscomb, and in the two exhibitions, so their ability to bounce back and be a legitimate threat from the outside could be a major key if they stand a chance at topping the Bears on Saturday.
Perhaps the biggest – literally – test for the Hogs in this game will be how their forwards handle the physicality of Baylor. The Bisons had very talented big men, but they were not nearly as strong or as athletic as what the Hogs are about to face in Game 2.
Omier and Wright III standing at 6-foot-7 and 6-foot-10, respectively, might force Calipari into more two-big lineups with some combination of Brazile, Aidoo and Big Z. Though it’s certainly possible he opts to match up Thiero – listed at 6-foot-8 – with Omier and task him with keeping the glass-cleaning big man in check on the boards.
Getting Aidoo a few days closer to fully healthy would be a huge step forward in dealing with that sort of physicality, but it is still a quick turnaround if the Tennessee transfer was truly only at 75% against Lipscomb.
Game Prediction
Arkansas is 96-49 all-time against Baylor, though it has lost each of the last three matchups – including in the Elite Eight of the 2021 NCAA Tournament while Baylor was en route to a National Championship. The last time these two teams met in Dallas was in January of 2008 when Arkansas claimed an 82-75 victory over the Bears.
The Razorbacks have a plethora of talent at the top of their roster under John Calipari, but they’ve made it evident that they’re not quite ready to be considered contenders until they iron out several wrinkles.
Baylor’s physicality and bounce-back mentality may be too much for the developing Hogs to handle.
Shooting will continue to struggle in a neutral environment for the Razorback guards, and Aidoo remaining limited physically will be felt against the Bears’ frontcourt – though neither factor should cause the game to get out of hand.
There’s no telling which of these teams ends up better come March, but Baylor likely has the upper hand this early in the season with their continuity, experience, physicality and desire to atone for the Gonzaga rout.
Baylor wins, 72-67
How to Watch Arkansas vs Baylor
Date: Saturday, Nov. 9
Location: American Airlines Center (Dallas, Texas)
Tipoff Time / TV Schedule: 6:30 p.m. CT (ESPNU)
ESPN BPI: Baylor has a 62.3% chance to win and is favored by 3.1.
KenPom: Baylor has a 51% chance to win, with a projected score of 77-76.
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Calipari knows what kind of challenge it is to play Gonzaga on the road, so don’t expect any false sense of confidence from him in light of the whuppin’ they put on Baylor.
“Two years ago, we made that trip and we got beat,” Calipari said of Gonzaga. “We were down big at half. We came back, made a little game of it, but they just ran us into the dust.”
Meanwhile, in order to get his battered team’s minds right for Saturday, Scott Drew referenced both the Hogs’ former and current head coaches in his coach’s show this week.
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