Arkansas basketball had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day against Tennessee on Saturday as the No. 1 team in the nation crushed the Hogs 76-52.
Not much went right for the Razorbacks in Knoxville, as they shot just 37.7% from the field, 20.7% from behind the arc and 46.2% from the free throw line. They were out-rebounded 51-29 and allowed the Volunteers to grab a whopping 24 offensive boards. You know it’s a rough day when your opponent has almost as many rebounds as you had points.
As if the on-court bludgeoning wasn’t bad enough, Razorback fans also had to deal with multiple off-putting quotes and actions from Arkansas basketball coach John Calipari. The Head Hog said postgame that his regret of the day was not hosting a shootaround before the game, attributing that to his team’s sluggish play and poor offensive performance.
“If I had to do it over again, we would’ve,” Calipari said. “We had three or four guys basically no-show. Basically, the guys slept, had breakfast and never really [got going].”
The Hogs had only two players in double figures in DJ Wagner and Boogie Fland, and five out of nine rotation players scored four points or less.
On top of that, Calipari caught a postgame flight to the Windy City to see the Chicago Bulls’ game – where Derrick Rose, an NBA MVP who played for him at Memphis, was having his number retired by the franchise.
Should Arkansas Fans Have a Gripe with Calipari?
Razorback fans were quick to express their frustrations with their head coach for his postgame excursion:
This is the same fanbase that just spent five years under the leadership of Eric Musselman, a high-intensity coach known for taking losses extremely hard. His postgame facial expressions were often so grim you’d think one of his family members had died. His wife, Danyelle, went so far as to say that the Head Hog had to sleep in the pool house after bad losses because he was in such a bad mood.
Judging by his postgame demeanor after USC lost to Michigan on Saturday, it appears the former Arkansas coach has taken his quick-tempered competitiveness with him to the west coast.
The optics of Calipari jetting off to Chicago are admittedly not the best, and they look worse given his predecessor’s irascibility. Still, this is a petty thing to criticize at the end of the day. Having your jersey retired by an NBA franchise, especially one as prestigious as the Bulls, is one of the sport’s great honors. It’s right below being inducted into the Hall of Fame. If you were having a huge graduation or a wedding, wouldn’t you want your mentor there?
And while the short-term public relations aren’t great coming off a blowout loss, the long-term outlook is much different. For recruiting purposes, it’s important for Calipari to continue building his reputation as the industry’s best developer of NBA talent. Showing his face at such a public event recognizing one of his great players is a perfect way to do that.
Look no further than Fland, who would have been in elementary school when Rose was entering his prime in the NBA. He also surely watched other great Calipari guards like John Wall and De’Aaron Fox when he was growing up. Their association with Coach Cal gave the legendary coach the street cred to try and recruit Fland to be the next in line.
With that forward-thinking outlook in mind, Calipari’s trip to Chicago isn’t anything worth complaining about – save for Tennessee and Kentucky basketball fans looking for an excuse to kick the Hogs when they’re down.
The fuss over Cal’s Chicago excursion jogs back memories of the outrage over former Arkansas football coach Chad Morris’ weekly trips down to Texas to watch his son’s high school games. Of course, this isn’t a like-for-like comparison. Even though everything’s bigger in Texas, an NBA jersey retirement is a lot more high-stakes than Friday Night Lights.
Morris’ travel was also a recurring thing that took him away from the program regularly. While Calipari might have more jersey retirement ceremonies to attend in the future for Wall or another star player, it’s not like this kind of thing happens every week.
Calipari didn’t lose to a cupcake team, either – they were playing the top-ranked team in the land. If the Head Hog was using his frequent flyer miles before or after losing to North Texas or Western Kentucky, it would be a different story. So unfortunately, Cal’s actions don’t exonerate Morris of his crimes against Razorback Nation. But admittedly, the optics are poor in both scenarios.
Kentucky Fans’ First “Told You So” Moment
On the topic of Big Blue Nation, Wildcat fans found themselves chiming in on the recent happenings in Arkansas’ world (as per usual). This time, however, it was because of Calipari’s postgame remarks that came across awfully familiar to BBN.
It turns out this isn’t the first time Coach Cal has lost to Tennessee on a cold shooting day after not having a pregame shootaround, as the exact same thing happened to Kentucky in the 2022 SEC Tournament.
“I’m really upset with myself about the Tennessee stuff. We didn’t do a shootaround.”
It looks like Calipari made the same mistake twice – ironically, against the same opponent. In that previous matchup against the Vols, Kentucky shot a dismal 34.4% from the field and just 2 of 20 from behind the arc in a 69-62 loss. Even though it was a much closer margin, that story sounds quite familiar.
When Coach Cal was hired at Arkansas, Kentucky fans were quick to offer their warnings to Razorback fans to be prepared for the same problems that were going on in Lexington – poor postseason results, not-so-good defense and sometimes getting out-coached against weaker opposition.
Saturday was the first true encounter Arkansas basketball fans have had with Calipari’s flaws that Kentucky fans espoused.
Bad Optics or Bad Coaching?
But did Calipari’s decision not to hold a morning shootaround actually cost Arkansas the game, or are things just being blown out of proportion by reactionary Hog fans and Kentucky folks eager to dogpile on Calipari?
It’s easy to side with the first explanation. The Razorbacks didn’t have a shootaround, and then proceeded to shoot 6 of 29 from behind the arc because they were unfamiliar with the gym, shot poorly and played sloppily. But a little context from a more neutral third party gives a lot more credence to the other side of the coin.
National college hoops reporter Aaron Torres offered his insight on the situation, clarifying that it is not at all unusual for teams to skip a gameday shootaround before an early tipoff.
“They lost because Tennessee is an elite team,” Torres said. “Not because of no shootaround.”
“It’s totally normal. Probably means getting your team up at 6 a.m. so they can get a meal at a normal time,” he continued. “I don’t know why he keeps saying it – it makes him look bad. But it’s pretty standard.”
Torres hits the nail on the head here. If it’s standard practice for early road tipoffs, then Calipari didn’t commit any coaching blunders. The Hogs’ poor shooting performance probably had more to do with the fact that Tennessee has the best defense in the country, according to KenPom. And the three-point shooting wasn’t even the biggest cause of defeat for Arkansas – that came on the glass.
But Calipari’s also under no obligation to disclose this information – and he needs to recognize that the optics of saying that publicly are pretty terrible. It makes it look like his team was unprepared due to his error, even though that really wasn’t the case.
It was also far from the first time Arkansas has struggled in an early road tipoff. Since 2011, Arkansas is just 4-22 in road games that start before 3 p.m. CT. For away trips that tip off at or after 3 p.m., that record jumps to 38-51. That’s nearly a 30% jump in winning percentage with tipoffs later in the day. So the Hogs sleepwalking through an early game on the road — especially against a team of the Vols’ caliber — is nothing out of the ordinary.
So no, the Hogs didn’t lose to Tennessee because Calipari was distracted or made a fatal coaching mistake. They lost because the Volunteers, spearheaded by North Florida transfer Chaz Lanier, are a damn good basketball team deserving of their No. 1 ranking.
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More from BoAS: Addressing the Johnell Davis Problem
Almost halfway through the season, albeit just one game into SEC play, plenty of questions surround Johnell Davis — Arkansas basketball’s Million Dollar Man.
The heralded transfer has come nowhere close to living up to the expectations that followed him from Florida Atlantic as a consensus top-3 player in the portal, with Saturday’s performance at Tennessee being the latest example.
The only statistic Davis recorded the first 15-plus minutes he was on the floor against the No. 1 Vols and their top-ranked defense was a personal foul. He ended up grabbing a couple of rebounds and committing a turnover, but finished with no points on 0 of 4 shooting in 25 minutes off the bench.
So what exactly is going on with the guy many expected to be a major key for Arkansas to make a potential NCAA Tournament run? Read about potential explanations here:
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Jeff Goodman and the Field of 68 crew talk Calipari and Arkansas vs. Tennessee, starting at the 16:50 mark:
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More on Eric Musselman and Arkansas basketball from BoAS:
