John Calipari saw it coming. He even warned his team ahead of the Arkansas vs TCU exhibition finale.
The legendary coach revealed as much in his pregame conversation with Matt Zimmerman for the UA radio broadcast, saying he felt the Razorbacks got a little “arrogant” after their blowout win over No. 1 Kansas and weren’t practicing with the same fire.
Even though he relayed that message to his players during a team meeting the day before, Arkansas squandered a 13-point lead Friday night and suffered a last-second 66-65 loss to TCU at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas.
The Horned Frogs ended the game on a 25-11 run that included the Razorbacks being held scoreless over the game’s final 3:28, as they were plagued by poor shot selection and stagnant offense.
The good news? Nothing that happened will count in the record books. It was an exhibition benefiting charity — and the two head coaches, Calipari and TCU’s Jamie Dixon.
“I got work to do, but the only way that I would know it is in a game like this,” Calipari said. “That was great for us and I think it was great for Jamie. That’s what this is supposed to be when you do these kind of things. … It’s the same with us and Kansas — you walk away knowing, ‘Okay, we have a chance, but these are some holes.’”
Both teams played sloppy basketball down the stretch, but Brendan Wenzel knocked down a 3-pointer with 18.8 seconds remaining to give TCU its first lead since Arkansas went up at the 6:13 mark of the second quarter.
While the Razorbacks still had a chance to answer, the Horned Frogs perfectly executed the end-game situation. TCU deflected a pass out of bounds with 5.9 seconds left and, after timeouts by both coaches, it committed the two fouls it had to give before reaching the bonus. Ultimately, Arkansas had to settle for a contested 3-point attempt by Boogie Fland at the buzzer, which was off the mark.
“We had every chance to win the game at the end,” Calipari said. “They made the plays and we didn’t. We took tough shots and they were trying to get fouled and get to the rim. … My challenge will be, ‘Alright, let’s learn how to win.’”
Here are a few other takeaways from the Arkansas vs TCU exhibition…
Is Depth a Concern?
John Calipari drew national headlines over the offseason when he revealed his plan to only bring in eight or nine rotational players and fill out the rest of his roster with walk-on types, while also bringing on graduate assistants with a playing background for practice purposes.
It is a great idea, in theory. All of the key players will get plenty of minutes, so there won’t be any locker room strife and Calipari won’t have to worry about developing a player just to have him transfer out and another program reap the benefits of that development.
However, there was always an underlying concern that the lack of depth might come back and bite the Razorbacks.
Sure enough, that seems to have happened Friday night. With Jonas Aidoo still out, Arkansas utilized an eight-man rotation. Those on the floor down the stretch appeared exhausted. That may have contributed to their sloppy play in the final three minutes, when they went 0 for 6 from the floor and committed two turnovers.
On the flip side, TCU went 12 players deep. Granted, two Horned Frogs were on the floor for about 2.5 minutes combined, but the other 10 each got double-digit minutes. Afterward, TCU basketball coach Jamie Dixon told reporters that he felt like like that depth helped his team.
It sounds like Arkansas is optimistic about Jonas Aidoo being ready to go for the start of the season next week, but the two exhibitions without him were a reminder of what could happen if even one player gets hurt.
The issue would be exacerbated with any kind of foul trouble, which wasn’t a factor Friday because the two teams agreed to unlimited fouls ahead of time. Otherwise, Trevon Brazile would have fouled out midway through the second half, leaving the Razorbacks with only seven players.
Arkansas’ lack of depth may have also contributed to its collapse in another secondary way, as several other players missed extended practice time with various injuries. That was on display during last month’s Tip-Off Tour events in Hot Springs and Pine Bluff, which were expected to be Red-White scrimmages, but turned into open practices because of a lack of bodies.
Not only has that cost the Razorbacks valuable time to mesh on the court, but it limited what Calipari was even able to implement in practice.
“We’ve had five guys practice until the last few days, so the situation and work we need, we haven’t done,” Calipari said. “I can’t blame the players. We didn’t look organized. We didn’t get the kind of shots you need to get to win a game. The ball didn’t go to where it needed it to go. We held (it). We didn’t pass enough.”
Say My Name
If you tuned into the exhibition via radio broadcast — which was the only official broadcast of the event with no television or streaming — you heard Adou Thiero early and often.
You also heard play-by-play man Chuck Barrett explain, on numerous occasions, that the correct pronunciation of Thiero’s last time rhymes with “hero,” according to a conversation he had with the Kentucky transfer.
It’s a good thing he got that clarification because Thiero was the best player on the floor Friday night.
After not being very involved in the win over Kansas, he came out firing against TCU and scored 11 of his game-high 20 points in the first quarter. He also tallied 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 blocks and 1 steal, and was plus-4 in his 37 minutes. That means Arkansas was minus-5 during his three minutes on the bench.
“We did some things for him to get him to where he can attack more,” Calipari said. “The only thing that I said, just go by the guy. Quit trying to do this or fake and go. Just go by the guy, you’re so physical.”
The other thing that stood out about Thiero’s performance was his sheer athleticism.
About midway through the second quarter, he “exploded through the paint,” according to Chuck Barrett, and threw down a dunk through contact. Early in the third quarter, Thiero stopped a TCU fast break with a two-handed block. Matt Zimmerman said on the radio broadcast that he used his “incredible athleticism” to nearly grab the ball.
There was also the time when he rebounded his own missed free throw and another when he made an impressive reverse layup that got him to 20 points.
Rough Day for Big Z
Most of the focus after last week’s win over Kansas was on the guard duo of Boogie Fland and DJ Wagner, but Kentucky transfer Zvonimir Ivisic also turned in a very good, well-rounded performance.
Still, John Calipari pointed out that he was far from perfect and needed to improve. That was even more evident Friday.
Ivisic grabbed 8 rebounds and notched 3 blocks, but scored only 5 points on an inefficient 2-of-8 shooting, including just 1 of 4 from deep — and the one make was banked in.
The other basket by Ivisic came midway through the fourth quarter and was a dunk out of a pick-and-roll and courtesy of an assist from Fland. He started the play with a hard screen that sent a TCU defender to the floor, prompting both UA radio commentators to declare it his best play of the day.
Outside of that, though, it was rough. Ivisic was whistled for a pair of lane violations on free throws, the second of which led to a second-chance free throw that the Horned Frogs converted — which is big in a game decided by that exact margin.
TCU also picked on him in pick-and-rolls. Ernest Udeh Jr. was the main benefactor, finishing with a team-high 13 points on 6 of 7 shooting while also grabbing 8 rebounds and blocking a pair of shots. At one point, after showing some particularly bad pick-and-roll defense, Calipari called a timeout and had some words for the 7-foot-2 Croatian.
Support for Arkansas Basketball
It may not have been played at TCU’s on-campus arena, but Friday’s exhibition was held inside Dickies Arena in Fort Worth.
Technically a neutral site game masquerading as a road game, it felt more like a home game for the Razorbacks. Despite being less than 10 minutes from the Horned Frogs’ campus, Arkansas’ DFW-based fans and alumni far outnumbered those in purple.
In fact, Chuck Barrett estimated that about 80% of the announced crowd of 4,407 was Arkansas fans.
There was enough support that during the fourth quarter media timeout, John Calipari actually got on a mic and answered a couple of interview-style questions from a stadium worker.
While there was no official television broadcast or online stream, Arkansas basketball fans got a glimpse of the action thanks to the efforts of social media influencer @pinto479. He streamed the entire game on Twitter and at the end of the game, more than 35,000 people were watching live.
Up Next for Arkansas Basketball
The next time the Razorbacks take the floor against an opponent, it’ll be for real. Exhibition season is over and the regular season gets underway against Lipscomb at 7 p.m. CT Wednesday.
It will be the second game of the year for the Bison, as they’re in Pittsburgh, Pa., for a road opener at Duquesne on Monday. Lipscomb is coming off a 20-12 season in which it lost to Arkansas by just 3 points.
Like most non-conference games at Bud Walton Arena, it will be streamed on SEC Network-Plus.
Other Arkansas Basketball Tidbits
- As was the case for the Kansas game, Friday night’s Arkansas vs TCU exhibition was played with four 10-minute quarters instead of the usual two 20-minute halves.
- After shooting an impressive 23 of 28 (82.1%) from the charity stripe in their first exhibition, the Razorbacks struggled at the free throw line this time around. They went just 6 of 11 (54.5%) against the Horned Frogs.
- In two exhibition games, Arkansas has shot just 13 of 48 (27.1%) from beyond the arc. Johnell Davis, who went 1 of 6 against Kansas, was the lone bright spot. He was 2 of 3, but did miss a potential dagger with about a minute left.
- For the second game in a row, the Razorbacks took care of the ball in the first half with only four turnovers, but let things slip away after halftime with 10 turnovers. Against Kansas, they had 3 first-half turnovers and 10 in the second half.
- Arkansas racked up 10 blocks and had only two of its shots blocked, with both of them coming in the game’s final three minutes. Adou Thiero led the way with four, followed by Zvonimir Ivisic with three, Karter Knox with two and Trevon Brazile with one.
- TCU starting center Ernest Udeh Jr. began his career at Kansas and played 5 minutes off the bench in the Jayhawks’ loss to Arkansas in the 2023 NCAA Tournament. He went scoreless and committed 4 fouls with 2 turnovers, 1 rebound and 1 block in that game, but was much better as a starter for the Horned Frogs on Friday. Udeh nearly notched a double-double with 13 points and 8 rebounds, plus had 2 blocks and 1 steal.
From from Calipari Postgame on Radio
“What I’ve got to do with this group is teach them how to win and how to finish off games. I mean, TCU gave us every opportunity to win the game. We missed layups, we missed free throws, we took a bad three. We gave up a rebound. We had another wide-open three that could have ended the game miss.”
“We had no daggers. And so we’ve got to figure it out.”
“They out-toughed us. In screening, they got people free, and it started breaking us down. Just that they were hitting us. And I knew it would this way. That’s why I said to you (to Matt pregame guess he means), I had this talk with these guys yesterday, because I knew … And again, this is what we need as a team, to figure out exactly what we are. We’re not quite as good as it seems and we’re not quite as bad as it seems.
Postgame Press Conferences
Arkansas vs TCU Box Score
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