After a college basketball coach endures a loss, he has two options when he takes the stand for the postgame press conference – much like The Matrix’s “red pill vs. blue pill” dilemma.
For all the criticism that Arkansas basketball coach John Calipari has faced in the wake of two brutal losses to start SEC play, there’s never been any doubt about which one he’ll choose.
His UCLA basketball counterpart, Mick Cronin, took the opposite approach in a scathing rant about his team after a blowout loss to No. 24 Michigan on Tuesday. The Bruins had entered the new year with a solid 11-2 record after an upset loss to New Mexico and a close defeat to North Carolina in Madison Square Garden. But they had also started Big Ten play 3-0 and earned an impressive victory over Gonzaga, vaulting them up to No. 22 in the AP Poll.
UCLA Basketball Issues
But then, UCLA took back-to-back losses, falling to unranked Nebraska on the road before getting boat-raced at home by the Wolverines. Cronin took the post-game podium with fury.
“We’re soft,” he said. “I have the most energy of anybody at practice everyday. I’m upset with everybody in that locker room, my assistant coaches and my players.”
“It’s really hard to coach people that are delusional,” Cronin continued. “The hungry dog gets the bone. We’ve got guys that think they’re way better than they are. They’re nice kids, but they’re completely delusional about who they are.”
Holy smokes. I live more than 1,500 miles away from Los Angeles, but I could feel Cronin’s bald-headed rage from here. It made me feel as if I’d done something wrong. The Bruins head coach said his team really needs a slice of “humble pie” moving forward, claiming there’s nothing more he could do as a coach.
“I don’t need to do anything else, I’ve almost got 500 [career] wins and I’m only 53. It’s a joke.”
Arkansas basketball coach John Calipari has endured a lot of criticism – both from Kentucky fans in the last few years and from national media outlets this season. But after a pair of brutal losses to start conference play, those critiques have racheted up a notch. In a Thursday morning article, Barstool Sports called Calipari’s start at Arkansas a “complete and utter failure.”
Yet amidst all of this negativity, the Head Hog has shown a style counter to that of Cronin underscoring what a true players’ coach should look like.
John Calipari Stays True to Player-First Approach
While Arkansas got off to a strong start against Ole Miss, the Rebels were able to begin picking apart the Hogs’ defense over the course of the game. In the second half, especially, Chris Beard’s squad was getting open looks at will.
Rather than completely blaming his team, Calipari clarified that those defensive mix-ups are something he’s “going to have to go watch the tape to say, ‘Alright, where did we screw this up?’”
That’s constructive criticism that leaves the exact culprits unnamed. For example, Coach Cal wasn’t too pleased with true freshman guard Boogie Fland’s shot selection, saying that he needed to “calm down” a little bit and find his open teammates more often. He pointed out a problem and offered a solution, rather than throwing Fland’s character under the bus.
“They’re all good kids and they’re all working,” he added.
In last Saturday’s postgame press conference after a 30-point blowout against No. 1 Tennessee, Calipari took a lot of heat for his admission that the Hogs had not done a shootaround prior to the game. Of course, that’s common practice for road games with an early tipoff. But Coach Cal said it anyways, and took a lot of criticism from fans and media for it. That’s OK, though. The 65-year-old coach has been through a lot in his career, and knows how to deal with the flak. His 18-22 year-old players, on the other hand? Not so much.
In this lens, Calipari’s seemingly foolish admission about the shootaround can almost be viewed as a strategic ploy to take some bullets for his team’s poor play.
“We just had a bunch of guys not play well and folks, these kids are not machines and they’re not robots,” he said on his Sassy’s radio show on Monday. “They’ll have bad games. It happens. How do we bounce back from them?”
That forward-thinking mindset seems a lot more productive than Cronin’s bashing of his guys. Calipari has certainly not gotten the kind of offensive output and assertiveness that he wanted from a few players on the roster this season as a result of injuries and a lack of confidence.
By far the player who’s taken the most heat for that has been senior guard Johnell Davis, who some fans have called a waste of $1 million and the worst player on the team.
Calipari, however, refused to name specific players when he talked about which guys needed to get going. Arkansas fans could assume who he was talking about, but it wasn’t a public callout. He even shouldered the brunt of responsibility for these unnamed players’ struggles, saying it’s his job to scheme up plays to get them good looks.
“We’ve got to get a couple guys playing better, and I’ve got to help them. But I can’t do it for them,” he said. “Part of it is the mental part of it. Some of it is putting them in different situations where it’s a little easier for them to get going.”
Coach Cal’s more gentle-handed approach seemed to do the trick with Davis, who broke out and scored 15 points off the bench against Ole Miss, going 3-7 from behind the arc and also showing more aggressiveness offensively, attacking the basket and going 4-4 from the free throw line.
With Davis and the team as a whole, Calipari deserves credit for staying true to his reputation as a players-first coach despite the rough start to SEC play.
How Calipari Compares to His Former Rival and His Predecessor
Calipari’s predecessor, Eric Musselman, was also quite critical of his players during his time at Arkansas – particularly in his last season, when the Hogs finished with a losing record and missed out on the NCAA Tournament. When asked about some people being optimistic about a midseason turnaround based on previous years’ results, Muss had a grim response.
“Completely different,” he said of the 2023-24 team compared to his other Arkansas squads. “There’s no traits that our past teams had.”
Coach Cal also appears to be taking the opposite approach to St. John’s head coach and college basketball living legend Rick Pitino. The two Italian stallions have had a longstanding beef for decades, though old age appears to have warmed up their relationship in recent years. Pitino and Calipari delivered Kentucky’s last two national titles in 1996 and 2012, respectively, and coached on opposite sides of the UK-Louisville rivalry for years.
Now at St. John’s – where he controversially succeeded former Arkansas coach Mike Anderson – the 72-year-old has been incredibly critical of his players after his return to the college ranks. At numerous points over the course of the season, he threw his players under the bus after tough losses.
“We are so unathletic that we can’t guard anybody without fouling,” he said after a defeat to Seton Hall. “For me, I’ve always enjoyed the first year. I’m not gonna lie to you, this is the most unenjoyable experience of my lifetime. This has been so disappointing.”
Similar to Cronin, Pitino also labeled his players as soft, saying that “they’re just not very tough.” He also went after the school’s administration, labeling the basketball facilities as “sh*tty.” Nice guy, huh? But you can also argue that he has a license to do all of that. After all, he’s big-shot Rick Pitino with two natties – how could he be the problem?
The same goes for Cronin and his nearly 500 wins. Calipari is certainly on a high enough pedestal to take on a similarly blazing-glory mentality. He’s a national champion, a Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame inductee and the NCAA’s winningest active head coach. But instead, he still chooses to shoulder the blame after losses.
Well, mostly. In the past, Coach Cal has been very critical of his teams when he felt like it was warranted. Coming off its national title triumph, Kentucky had a disappointing season in 2012-13, missing the NCAA Tournament field and losing in the first round of the NIT. Rather than bearing the burden for the team’s struggles, Calipari lashed out.
“We’ve got a couple of guys that are basically not real coachable,” he said. “You tell them over and over and over what you want to do, what we have to do, and they do their own thing.”
During a game against Tennessee, Calipari reportedly told UK guard and Little Rock native Archie Goodwin: “I can’t coach you.”
So he likely means what he says about this year’s Arkansas team. As long as his players are on board and being coachable, Calipari seems to give them the benefit of the doubt.
Arkansas’ 0-2 start to SEC play has been disappointing, and constructive criticism of the team’s coaches and players are warranted. At the same time, Calipari deserves some praise for being positive amidst all of this. There’s a long way to go this season, and it feels a bit early to hit the panic button.
Cronin’s harsh words might result in some reverse psychology motivation for his players that spurs UCLA to better results the rest of the season, but Calipari’s method has also shown it works well. At the least, it’s better for the morale of his players and Arkansas fans.
It’s a work in progress, and that’s okay – for now.
A Quick Note on the LA Wildfires
As you are probably well aware, the state of California has been devastated by a series of wildfires sweeping through the greater Los Angeles area this week. Suburbs like Altadena and the Pacific Palisades have been left devastated, with thousands of people’s homes being destroyed as the flames surge on.
To any UCLA basketball fans or California residents reading this story, we here at Best of Arkansas Sports offer our thoughts and condolences during this disaster.
For any Arkansans looking to donate to relief funds, visit the Red Cross, the LA Regional Food Bank or the verified GoFundMe page for California wildfire aid.
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Arkansas vs Florida
Heading into a Saturday game against the No. 1 rebounding team in the country, Arkansas has to be ready on the glass.
The Hogs showed a lack of presence on the interior against the Volunteers two games ago. Throughout most of that game, Arkansas played solid defense until the first shot was taken, but they gave up more offensive rebounds than they had defensive rebounds in the blowout loss.
As bad as the rebounding has been, though, that isn’t the number one concern one SEC basketball analyst has when it comes to Arkansas:
John Nabors talks Arkansas’ loss to Ole Miss:
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