I doubt most Arkansas fans would have any idea what they were doing on March 22 of this year, but an event happened that changed all of our Razorback-filled lives. With three seconds remaining on the clock of a first round NCAA tournament game, 24-year-old Jack Gohlke grabbed a defensive rebound and sealed an 80-76 victory for the 14th-seeded Oakland Grizzlies over the John Calipari-lead and third-seeded Kentucky Wildcats. That game started quite a journey that comes full circle on Monday night when Arkansas faces Oakland.
If you’re anything like me, you cheered that the underdog won and beat “hated” Kentucky that day and then moved on with your life. I never realized that game would start a chain reaction that eventually led to Hall of Fame coach John Calipari becoming the head coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks. For Calipari, he moved to 1-4 in his last five NCAA tournament games. That brought out plenty of grumbling in Lexington and likely influenced his move away from the Wildcats.
The loss also affected Cal’s philosophy on one-and-done players. Instead of bringing in as many talented freshmen as he could, Calipari changed and brought in only three this year for the Hogs. He supplanted that with five upperclassmen transfers. “The lesson was you can’t do this now with seven freshmen,” Calipari said after Kentucky’s game with Oakland, “You’re going to hit a team that’s 25 years old on average, one was 26, and that team is physically going to get you.”
He also changed how many top flight players he brought to his team. “You may think I’m crazy, but I told my staff I only want to have eight or nine guys,” Calipari said on the “Ways to Win” podcast in May. “They’re leaving anyway, and why would I develop a kid for someone else?” This is a logical sentiment although Calipari has admitted he likely should have listened to his good friend, Bill Self, about this topic.
The Oakland Grizzlies
It’s still to be determined how Calipari’s philosophy changes will play out, but there’s little question that the age of that 2023-24 Oakland basketball team impressed him. The nine players who suited up for the Grizzlies that day in March had a combined 35 years of college basketball experience.
Like many mid-major programs, Oakland also had quite a few players who’d been in its system for a while. Gohlke, who had 32 points and was the star of that game, was actually in just his first year with the Grizzlies. He spent his first four years at Hillsdale College (yes, the same one Isaac TeSlaa is from). However, every other player who played at least double digit minutes in that game for Oakland was at least in their second year with the program.
Calipari can’t do much on that front considering he’s in his first year at Arkansas, but he does have a few guys who were previously in his system and have excelled so far. DJ Wagner, Zvonimir Ivišić and Adou Thiero all played for Calipari at Kentucky. Wagner is starting at guard for Arkansas and some have called he and Boogie Fland the best freshman and sophomore guards in the country. Ivisic leads the team in three-point percentage and blocked shots. Thiero has been arguably Arkansas’ best player, averaging about 18 points, 6 rebounds and 2 steals per game. Hopefully, the trend of keeping guys will continue.
Thankfully, this year’s Oakland team doesn’t feature many of the players from last year. Of the 80 points that the Golden Grizzlies scored against Calipari last year, only 12 returned this season and it’s shown in Oakland’s record. The Grizzlies are 4-9 with their best win being a one-point victory against Loyola-Chicago a team Bart Torvik ranks as the 119th best team in the country. The Grizzlies also have losses to Cleveland State (No. 255) and Eastern Michigan (No. 300).
Arkansas vs Oakland will be Arkansas’ last chance to produce an impressive crowd at Bud Walton Arena in the non-conference slate. Doing so has proven to be harder than expected so far. Even though the Razorbacks have traditionally had smaller crowds for non-conference games, the attendance this year has been down which is surprising considering the hiring of hall of fame coach Calipari.
There are differing opinions on why crowd size has been down at Arkansas. BoAS contributor Eric Bolin makes a good point about rising costs and others have talked about lack of entertainment value. Some see it as a difference in coach personalities – Eric Musselman was a rah-rah guy, John Calipari is not. I see validity in all of these thoughts. Mike Irwin said the fans that aren’t coming to games are just excuse makers and complainers. I don’t agree with that sentiment. There are two things I think that are more important than any of those ideas. One, Calipari has elevated Arkansas basketball to a “Yankees” like status. Two, the roster fluidity in the game has hurt fandom overall.
Arkansas Basketball as the Yankees
I’m going to take my reporter hat off for a moment to better make this point. You see, I’ve been covering the Hogs for two years now but have been a fan of the Razorbacks for 39.
As a fan, it’s been hard for me to feel invested in this team. When I go back to my thoughts of when Oakland beat Kentucky last year, I was happy. In fact, I’m always happy when an underdog beats a favorite unless, of course, said favorite is the Razorbacks.
Personally, I think cheering for the underdog is part of being a Razorback fan. In fact, I think it’s part of being from Arkansas, which is where I was born.
John Calipari, however, doesn’t coach underdogs. He’ll tell you he does, but that doesn’t make it true and we, as Razorback fans, can see that.
This year, Calipari added Tyler Ulis to the staff. The way Calipari tells it, Ulis was a scrawny kid who was being told by programs that he should go to college all four years because he wasn’t made for the NBA. However, Calipari won this underdog over by telling him his goal was to get him to the league as soon as possible.
It sounds like an underdog story, right? The problem is Ulis was a consensus five-star prospect. He was rated anywhere from 19th to 25th in his class. That is not an underdog.
As a Hogs fan, it’s been weird to root for a team made up of superstars. The Arkansas roster is filled with four- and five-star recruits. In fact, the Hogs lowest “ranked” player who is currently in the rotation is Zvonimir Ivišić, who ranked 50th in last year’s transfer portal class according to 247Sports. It feels uncomfortable not having a Kikko Haydar or Kamani Johnson to root for and I don’t think I’m the only one who feels this way. To use a baseball analogy, It’s hard to root for the Yankees when you’ve rooted for the Royals your whole life.
The Only Constant In Life is Change
The only constant in life is change, but change sure makes rooting for your team tough. This is the second reason I see that crowds are smaller. We all know NIL and the transfer portal are wreaking havoc on college sports and Arkansas basketball has been the epitome of change in Calipari’s first year.
Outside of Trevon Brazile, a player for whom fan opinion is split, the Razorbacks’ roster is brand new. It’s hard to care about people you don’t know, more or less, spend money on them and invest time in them.
As a sports journalist, I’m at least a little more in touch with players from around college sports, but for a lay fan like my wife, transfer players are a void. When we sit down to watch a Razorback game, it often turns into a game of 20 questions. “Now who is that again? Did he play for us last year? Where did he play last year?”
The lack of familiarity is disorienting, and what I see as the most troubling aspect of the first couple months of this new era.
Of course, fans aren’t going to be as invested in a guy that just came this year as opposed to guys they’ve known for three or four. There’s something to be said, too, for watching players grow and develop.
Seeing them mature bonds us to the player, but with brand-new players, you have none of that. However, the gap is being made up quickly. The emergence of programming like Hogs+ and player-focused podcasts gives us more exposure than ever to allow us to get to know players and this has likely accelerated the bonding process.
Winning is even more important. I already feel more involved with this team than I did early in the season and, after the Michigan game, it was hard not to get excited. However, it’s easy to feel burnt by these new avenues. When a player hops off the team after only a single season to join some other college program, the time spent caring about their story can feel like a waste of time.
My Prediction for Arkansas Basketball
I think John Calipari will continue to be successful at Arkansas, even if “success” in the hellacious SEC slate comes in the form of a .500 conference record. He seems to have learned from his mistakes and the man is a world-renowned recruiter.
But I also predict he may change Arkansas’ mentality. I know it feels weird now to root for a team of stars, but give it some years and we will all start to get used to it. Pretty soon it will start to feel normal to be in the national title contender conversation every year.
I wonder if this is what it felt like when Frank Broyles first started to turn the Razorback football program into a national contender. In that way, we in the media need to stop fretting about the numbers and just give it some time. Fans are already warming to the idea of being the front runner and the crowds will continue to grow especially with continued success.
As is often said, winning cures everything.
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