“We Fold Like a Cheap Tent”: Dishing Some Bracing Truths about Hogs Basketball

John Calipari
Credit: Craven Whitlow

You’re not going to find any Razorback fan who feels chipper after the Hogs took three mortifying SEC losses to start 2025. You might struggle to even find one that can summon optimism after a 76-52 shellacking at Tennessee preceded the Wednesday night 73-66 loss to Ole Miss which preceded Saturday afternoon’s 71-63 loss to No. 8 Florida.

Two home losses in a row. Ouch.

What you are not likely to find while surveying social media: a consensus on what’s wrong and who is at fault. On Saturday evening, Arkansas basketball coach John Calipari indicated that part of the issue is that when certain Razorbacks don’t play the minutes they want, they don’t stay as engaged as they need to.  “If someone doesn’t play well, they can’t get out of their own self’s way,” he said.

“You don’t even have to play good – just defend, dive on the floor, talk, be a great teammate, chest bump, get everybody going and you’ll bounce out of that,” he continued in the press conference. “We haven’t learned that yet. I’ve got to do a better job.”

A hell of a lot of Arkansas basketball fans are thinking the same as the program with reportedly the largest NIL budget in the nation stumbles out of the blocks in conference play. With the expectations heaped upon John Calipari’s first Razorback team, he’s certainly in the primary crosshairs.

John Calipari vs Musselman

One virtue that Calipari brings is his sideline approach. His predecessor Eric Musselman, to my dismay, spent a lot of his angsty moments on the bench, glumly staring at weak play and choosing to take timeouts back to the locker room with him sometimes. 

Calipari rarely sits; in fact, during a pivotal stretch of the loss to the Rebels, he was five feet onto the court during a Hog possession exhorting his troops, giving directions, and trying to coax something more that listlessness from them. What is he supposed to do if they simply do not listen? Or simply don’t make the gimmies, as Arkansas so agonizingly failed to do over and over on Saturday?

I also noticed Wednesday night that while Johnell Davis showed some spark and confidence, Jonas Aidoo conversely disappeared. In a seven-point loss, I pin some of that on the no-show from the senior post, frankly. When the Hogs needed paint points, nobody was there to deliver.

Fortunately, Aidoo bounced back on Saturday and played with more aggression than he had at any point this winter. It feels like he may finally be getting his mojo back after recovering from a lower-body injury months ago.

Davis took a ton of grief for his start of the Ole Miss game, but he’d played well enough to give me some temporary hope that he’s feeling better and more confident. Unfortunately, his shooting fell off a cliff against the Gators as he missed all eight attempts from the field in only 20 minutes while incurring some quite iffy prime burn from the masses.

Afterward, Aidoo said he hasn’t had to be a vocal leader before but he’s trying to that now. “He’s trying to do something out of his comfort zone and out of my comfort zone too because usually we weren’t really the leaders,” Aidoo said. “We just lead by example, so we got to be more vocal.”

The big problem is, at this point, Arkansas just needs him to produce a lot more by example, period. He can do it silently as Joe Johnson for all I care – but the production needs to come.

This nine-man rotation of Calipari’s is athletic beyond description. Ivisic is really the only regular player who can’t run the court for 30 minutes-plus per game. Karter Knox, Billy Richmond III and Trevon Brazile had contributed nicely off the bench, even if Richmond was a veritable no-show vs Florida.

Until Aidoo played much better vs Florida while David tanked, I would have advocated for a starting five consisting of Knox, Richmond, Brazile, Thiero and Davis. I would give Aidoo first crack off the pine and give Boogie Fland and DJ Wagner reaffirmation that this maneuver is not punitive but a way to coax more leadership from the elders on the roster. 

I rooted for Brazile to progress after all his struggles, and he has responded by playing more inspired and tougher basketball. I think Calipari was in the right to give the mercurial 6’10” senior the chance to use his length and his rebounding ability against Florida. He paid off nicely with a 7-point, 6-rebound, 3-steal and 2 block effort. 

What Arkansas Basketball Needs

Meanwhile, I hope Davis and Aidoo realizing that we are at the halfway mark of their last year of college basketball would help continue to light the needed fire from them.  

Arkansas needs to generate more easy points, and I think ramping up the backcourt pressure in the next two games – vs LSU and Missouri – will help achieve that. Some of Arkansas’ guards have forward-like wingspans, and the bigger guys are lean and well-conditioned. In Arkansas’s best years on the hard court, the Razorbacks could run with anyone and defend like few.

Certainly, in its lone signature win so far this season, Arkansas played defense in this way against Michigan. The issue, as former UA star Matt Jones pointed out on ESPN Arkansas’ “Hog Reaction” after the game, is that the Hogs can’t get the job done against teams that are as athletic as they are. 

They don’t out-execute teams on their own level, and – to Calipari’s point – they aren’t out-hearting folks, either. That’s why they lost to Baylor and Illinois earlier in the season, too.

Matt Jones, however, believes Arkansas will take care of business on the road against LSU and Missouri as two teams that shouldn’t make the NCAA Tournament. He’s even concerned that two straight wins may end up giving some Hog fans “false hope.”

Arkansas has now played six heavyweight type programs and they have failed the test five out of the six times. In those games, they held the biggest advantage athletically over Michigan.

As the former UA quarterback and forward sees it, the verdict so far is pretty damning: “When we play anybody good, we’ve proven we fold like a cheap tent.”

Evin Demirel contributed to the above

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