John Calipari’s return to Rupp Arena is still about a month away, but another raucous environment awaits a different homecoming in Arkansas’ SEC opener.
Big man Jonas Aidoo and the No. 23 Razorbacks are set to open their brutal conference slate with a road trip to Knoxville, Tenn., where they’ll face No. 1 Tennessee at noon CT Saturday.
The 21,678-seat Thompson-Boling Arena will surely greet the Volunteers’ former All-SEC forward accordingly as Rick Barnes’ squad puts its nation-leading 13-game winning streak on the line in the top-25 showdown.
Speaking to reporters Thursday afternoon, Arkansas assistant Kenny Payne said it was only “natural” for Aidoo to have a little extra motivation ahead of his return to Tennessee, where he spent the first three years of his career.
“He’s done a lot of great things at Tennessee and he’s going back home,” Payne said. “I’m sure that there’s emotions involved. I’m sure that the team is going to want to go at him some. I’m curious to see how he handles it.”
Despite averaging 11.4 points, 7.3 rebounds and 1.8 blocks, which earned him second-team All-SEC honors and a spot on the SEC All-Defensive Team, some Tennessee basketball fans weren’t sad to see him go.
Even some quasi-media types fell into that category, such as Caleb Calhoun on the Off the Hook YouTube show.
“I think Jonas Aidoo played soft against Purdue,” Calhoun said after Aidoo announced he was entering the transfer portal. “He got mentally taken out of the game and then he’s mentally soft, so he got wrecked on Vol Twitter. He saw Vol Twitter come at him and he couldn’t handle that Vol Twitter was coming at him, so he bolted in the portal. I think it’s that level of mentally weak.”
That’s some pretty harsh criticism, especially considering Aidoo’s worst game just so happened to be against Zach Edey, Purdue’s 7-foot-4 big man and the two-time National Player of the Year who is now the favorite to win NBA Rookie of the Year.
Of course, it’s important to note that not all Tennessee basketball fans felt this way. Take this appreciation post on Reddit, for example, in which a fan acknowledged Aidoo was one of the Volunteers’ “most reliable and best players” last season.
Still, there was enough negativity about him to provide plenty of extra motivation ahead of the Arkansas vs Tennessee matchup Saturday afternoon.
Aidoo’s Biggest Mistake?
It’s also worth revisiting another seemingly wild claim made on that particular YouTube show.
“I don’t know what his personal life is, I don’t know what he’s dealing with his family, but in terms of his professional prospects, Jonas Aidoo just made the biggest mistake of his life,” Calhoun said after Aidoo announced he was entering the transfer portal.
He and co-host Dave Hooker were in agreement, even bringing up Grant Williams – who starred with the Vols for three years before becoming a first-round pick – as an example of why Aidoo was making a mistake.
In their eyes, Tennessee basketball coach Rick Barnes was capable of developing him similarly and turning him into an NBA Draft prospect – something they didn’t think he’d get elsewhere, apparently.
That was before Aidoo landed at Arkansas, though, where he’s now playing for John Calipari – who has produced at least one first-round pick in a record 17 straight NBA Drafts – and assistant coach Kenny Payne, who has a reputation as a “big-man whisperer.” At the very least, the Durham, N.C., native didn’t take a step down in terms of mentorship.
The Razorbacks laid out a developmental plan that involved him becoming more comfortable all over the court, not just down low. That meant shooting jumpers from the elbow and the occasional 3, but also excelling in dribble-handoff situations by diving hard to the basket.
There have certainly been some flashes from Aidoo this year, but it’s hard to make too many sweeping judgments from the 13-game non-conference slate because he’s rarely been fully healthy.
“Jonas has had a hard time because he’s had injuries, so some of that has negated his development in those areas,” Payne said. “But we’re getting him healthy now. He’s better now. He’s a very, very vital piece to what we do and any success we have as a team, he’s going to be a major piece to that.”
In 10 games this season, Aidoo is averaging just 6.3 points, 4.0 rebounds and 1.0 blocks. Those numbers are skewed, though, by the fact he’s played just 15.8 minutes per game.
Since moving into the starting lineup, he’s put up 11.0 points, 6.2 rebounds and 2.0 blocks in 23.2 minutes – and even that includes the last game against Oakland, which he played through an illness and was limited to 16 minutes.
Impact on Arkansas vs Tennessee
John Calipari went so far as to say he probably shouldn’t have played Jonas Aidoo at all on Monday because he was “under the weather.”
That has raised the obvious question about whether or not he’ll be close to full strength for Saturday’s SEC opener, but Kenny Payne said he was continuing to get better and added he was curious to see how he looked in practice, which indicated he would at least participate in Thursday’s workout.
“We need him,” Payne said. “We need him 100%. We need his physicality, we need his scoring around the basket, we need his defensive presence. So we’re hoping that he’s feeling better and better and he can come out and help us fight for a win.”
Even if he’s not physically 100%, Aidoo should also help the Razorbacks from a preparation standpoint because of his familiarity with his former team. Just how much he’ll help in that aspect is up for debate, though, because Calipari and Barnes have been friends for a while and are already very familiar with each other.
“Jonas just brings an added plus because he’s coming from that program,” Payne said. “He knows it to a strong extent, and maybe a little bit better than we do. But we know how the game is going to be played. We know how good they are. We know what they’re bringing to the table.”
When it comes to the actual game, Aidoo will be tasked with playing within himself and not trying to do too much, but Payne sounded pretty at ease about that because of his experience at the college level.
Still, it will be an interesting balancing act to follow throughout the game, which will be televised nationally on ESPN.
“He knows he can’t be overhyped,” Payne said. “He knows that it’s going to be a physical brand of basketball. He knows that we need him on the court and he can’t get in foul trouble. So he will have to, in some regards, be disciplined about how he plays, smart about how he plays, but also aggressive about how he plays, at the same time.”
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