Calipari Puts Very Sensible Hard Limit on How Long He’ll Remain Hogs Coach

John Calipari, Arkansas basketball
photo credit: Craven Whitlow

After a disastrous 0-5 start to conference play, Arkansas fans’ hopes of a Calipari-led renaissance in Fayetteville have been squandered more quickly than anyone could’ve imagined. Saturday night proved to be a rinse and repeat of the previous four losses for Arkansas as the Hogs let Missouri shoot a jaw-dropping number of wide-open three-pointer attempts while seemingly repeatedly failing to execute any semblance of a crisp offense. The final result: 83-65.

For more and more Razorback fans, it might be time to have a conversation about the longevity of John Calipari after so many consecutive poor quarters against college teams with Tigers as their mascots. Before Saturday, it had been a horrendous finish against LSU during a Tuesday game in which Arkansas was favored to win on the road. It seems as though the wheels are starting to come off of this team, and many fans have already thrown in the towel on the 2024-25 season, and aren’t far from doing the same with Coach Cal himself.

It’s no secret that the 65-year-old’s coaching career is closer to the end than the beginning. Nevertheless, Calipari’s accolades at Kentucky gave him a lengthy leash coming into his inaugural season at Arkansas, but with doomsday seemingly looming for Arkansas basketball, some fans have their hands close to the collar. With 13 games left on the SEC schedule, Cal and Co. have a lot of work to do to get back in the good graces of the Razorback faithful.

Has Calipari Lost His Touch?

The ugly start to conference play has left Arkansas basketball fans searching for answers, wondering if maybe he’s lost his so-called fastball. After all, his last couple seasons in Kentucky weren’t exactly up to par.

Maybe he simply can’t keep up with the evolution of modern basketball, or maybe his adjustments to the game take more time to implement. Regardless of the reasons behind it, visions of Final Four appearances under Calipari are quickly melting into a dystopian nightmare of missing out on the NCAA Tournament altogether and admitting Kentucky fans were right, as John Nabors references here:.

Plus, if it’s become this bad in Year 1, with so much talent, who’s to say it’ll improve at all next year?

This is a far different tenor than back in December when Calipari discussed his position as head Hog and what that means to him on “Live With Coach Cal” with Chuck Barrett.

“I rent the position,” Calipari said. “It was rented by Eddie Sutton, it was rented by Nolan, rented by some other coaches, and now it’s rented by me.”

The whole vibe of this interview could be described as grateful and optimistic, with references to the greatness of the Arkansas program and culture, but if the exact same interview was held today, It’s unlikely that the topic of discussion would be anything other than how to fix this near train-wreck.

Calipari also gave us more context on how long he might stay for when he added, “I’m not gonna be here for 25 years – 20 maybe, but I won’t be here 25.”

Of course, we all know Calipari almost certainly won’t be “renting” for another two decades, but a decade might be feasible if the next few years really go well. The truth is, nobody knows just yet, despite the current disastrous start to SEC play.

However, if the next year or so of Arkansas basketball doesn’t start to look a whole lot different than it does now, Calipari’s landlord, if you will (the Arkansas fanbase), will most certainly be looking for a new tenant.

Discussion of Arkansas Basketball Tenure

John Calipari’s arrival brought with it plenty of similar speculation from experts from around the country. His lackluster final seasons at Kentucky and his age likely fueled the conversation for many.

Back in September, we took a look at what CBS experts Matt Norlander and Gary Parrish thought about the move to Arkansas, and how long each of them expected Calipari’s tenure in Fayetteville to last.

His contract at Arkansas covers five seasons, which was the consensus guess for each analyst. However, Norlander specifically added that “if it really doesn’t go well, I guess three is the shortest amount.”

Despite what many Arkansas basketball aficionados on certain social media platforms are saying after the Hogs’ poor start to conference play, the Calipari era is still far from the failure Matt Norlander mentioned just yet. It just may be awhile until that first SEC win comes. Arkansas will next get a home game on Wednesday vs No. 22 Georgia, and will almost certainly be the underdog according to odds on gamble-usa.com. After that, it’ a two-game murderer’s row of Oklahoma at home and then Kentucky on the road.

In turn, it’s highly unlikely that the Razorbacks’ borderline disastrous start is having any real effect on the strong psyche of someone with the success of John Calipari, who has been around the block a time or two. The big picture issue for him will not have an opportunity to fully present itself until next season, when he will have a full season to refer back to, and a fresh start to compare it with.

A History Of Self-Awareness

Being one of the most successful college basketball coaches of all-time is no strange coincidence – John Calipari knows when it’s time to pack it up and take the next step in his career. He did so in moving on to the NBA after his time at UMass, and again to Memphis when he saw that maybe the NBA wasn’t his jam.

He seems to have done it again in his move to Arkansas, although he may wish that he had done it sooner.

In an episode of the Hog Pod with Bo Mattingly in April, Calipari touched on the idea that 10 years in one place is really as long as he’d want to go. On his time in Lexington, Calipari had this to say: “I had an opportunity to leave at ten years and I probably should have… but again, you’re leaving players.”

In recent decades, for Calipari, it hasn’t been about the wins per se – they have just been a natural extension of keeping the focus on developing relationships like he has. But if the way Arkansas has gotten out of the gate in SEC play becomes the norm, the luxury of being able to choose to hang around after a good number of seasons won’t even be around. 

***

Did Willie Cauley-Stein Really Say That?

Some on the Kentucky side are making out things at Arkansas to be worse than it really is, and they are misconstruing-the words of one of their own to do it:

See our Arkansas vs Missouri post-game piece here:

YouTube video
YouTube video

More coverage of Arkansas basketball from BoAS… 

Facebook Comments