The ‘Too-Young’ Excuse for Hogs Isn’t Only One Getting Old + More from Missouri Loss

John Calipari, Arkansas basketball, Arkansas vs Missouri
photo credit: Craven Whitlow

John Calipari’s first season at Arkansas has been one for the record books.

The Razorbacks are still searching for their first win of 2025, as their nightmare continued Saturday evening with an 83-65 loss to Missouri in Columbia, Mo.

With that result, the Hall of Fame coach did something not even Stan Heath or John Pelphrey accomplished during their disastrous tenures in Fayetteville: open SEC play 0-5. In addition to it being Arkansas’ worst start since joining the league more than three decades ago, the last time the UA lost its first five conference games was 1985-86, when it was still in the SWC.

Unlike the last three games, when Arkansas squandered hot starts, this one was over early. After making the first basket of the game, the Razorbacks missed 11 straight shots and the Tigers took control with an 18-0 run.

Arkansas eventually showed a little fight, cutting the deficit to nine a couple of times, but it trailed by double digits for the last 30-plus minutes of the game. The closest it got after halftime was 10 and actually had two chances to get it to single digits, only for Boogie Fland to miss a layup and Trevon Brazile to go 0 for 2 at the free throw line.

The latter of those was the last gasp for Arkansas, which saw its deficit grow to 20 before settling in at 18. It was yet another game the Razorbacks never really had a chance to win, as they’ve now had a second-half deficit of at least 10 points in four of five SEC games – two of which they never got closer than 10 after halftime. They’ve had a second-half lead in just one of them:

GameTime Led*Time Tied*Time Trailed by 10+*
Tennesseen/an/a20:00
Ole Missn/a0:293:24
Floridan/an/a4:30
LSU6:540:21n/a
Missourin/an/a20:00
TOTALS6:540:5047:54

*in second half

Dismissing the Excuses for Calipari

Some were hesitant to put Final Four expectations on this Arkansas basketball team, but no one questioned its ability to at least make the NCAA Tournament. The main issue seemed to be whether or not John Calipari could get past the first weekend for the first time since 2019.

At this point, though, it’s not even a certainty that the Razorbacks will qualify for the NIT. While the Calipari-haters are soaking it up, many Arkansas fans have coped by coming up with reasons for the poor showing.

One of the most common excuses is that this is his first season and there were no players on the roster when he took over last April, so “obviously” there will be growing pains. After all, that 1985-86 Arkansas basketball season, when the Razorbacks started SWC play 0-5, was Nolan Richardson’s first at the helm.

However, that was nearly 40 years ago. That explanation might have held water even five years ago, but not so much in the era of the transfer portal and NIL – especially so for a coach the caliber of Calipari. In fact, you hire a coach like him to avoid a “rebuilding” year.

There may not have been a team when he arrived, but the Razorbacks ended up signing the No. 4 recruiting class and No. 1 transfer portal class, according to 247Sports. This isn’t like the old days, when a new coach had to take what the previous coach left him and make it work.

Back in the mid-80s, Richardson had to implement his 40 Minutes of Hell style with inherited players recruited to play Eddie Sutton’s more methodical system. (The comparison also doesn’t really fit because he was an up-and-comer from a small school, Tulsa, while Calipari is a veteran, Hall of Fame coach coming from a blueblood he once led to a national championship.)

Plus, there are examples of new coaches in similar positions having more success than Calipari at Arkansas – even within the SEC. His replacement at Kentucky, Mark Pope, has led the Wildcats to a top-10 ranking and five wins over current top-25 teams, while Mark Byington – who was previously at James Madison – led Vanderbilt to an upset win over Tennessee on Saturday to improve to 3-2 in conference play.

Kentucky (0.0%) and Vanderbilt (2.8%) each rank behind the Razorbacks (8.2%) in KenPom’s minutes continuity stat, which essentially measures how much carryover a team has from year to year.

Some other teams behind Arkansas include Illinois, Louisville and West Virginia. The Illini are currently ranked No. 19 and cruised to a 13-point win over the Razorbacks on Thanksgiving, the Cardinals are 7-1 in the ACC after Kenny Payne’s Chad Morris-like two-year tenure, and the Mountaineers improved to 4-2 in the Big 12 after knocking off No. 2 Iowa State on Saturday.

It’s also worth noting that statistic doesn’t factor in Calipari bringing three players with him from Kentucky, so one-third of his main rotation has at least one season of experience under his leadership.

During the Missouri loss, the SEC Network broadcasters harped on another common excuse for the Razorbacks’ struggles: they are the youngest team in the conference.

While this is accurate – Arkansas is No. 232 in KenPom’s DI experience metric, which is nearly 100 spots behind the next-closest SEC team (Georgia, No. 140) – it shouldn’t be used as a crutch when it’s an annual characteristic of Calipari’s teams.

In 15 seasons at Kentucky, his teams ranked last in the SEC in this statistic seven times and were among the bottom three in the conference all but two years.

It’s probably a safe bet that this year’s roster construction – one-third freshmen (Boogie Fland, Karter Knox, Billy Richmond III), one-third holdovers (D.J. Wagner, Adou Thiero, Zvonimir Ivisic) and one-third high-level transfers (Johnell Davis, Jonas Aidoo, Trevon Brazile) – is likely to be close to Calipari’s formula moving forward, so it doesn’t seem like a valid excuse for what’s unfolded this season.

Three-Point Defense

When Kenny Payne met with reporters Friday afternoon, one of the first things he brought up about Missouri was its recent hot shooting. The Tigers averaged exactly 10 made 3s over their first four SEC games and the Arkansas assistant said it was their goal to hold them under that.

Even though Missouri eclipsed that mark by only one, the Razorbacks failed miserably. The Tigers went 11 of 23 (47.8%) from deep and did most of their damage in the first half, when they went 9 of 17 (52.9%).

The aforementioned 18-0 run that delivered the early knock-out punch included four 3-pointers, with Tamar Bates making three of them.

Arkansas did a better job defending the arc after halftime, limiting Missouri to 2 of 6, but that could at least partially be attributed to the Tigers not shooting as many with such a large lead.

Four of the Razorbacks’ five SEC opponents have shot at least 36% from deep and are a combined 46 of 122 (37.7%).

Fland’s Struggles & Injury

In his worst scoring performance of the season, Boogie Fland mustered just 4 points on a miserable 2 of 13 shooting against Missouri. He missed all four of his 3-pointers, marking just the third time he’s failed to make at least one

The freshman from the Bronx is the Razorbacks’ second-leading scorer at 15.1 points per game, but has struggled mightily with efficiency since the start of SEC play. Including Saturday’s rough day, Fland is now shooting 28.2% (22 of 78) from the floor and 27.6% (8 of 29) from deep against conference foes.

As a point guard, though, Fland has still been an excellent distributor. He had another 6 assists with no turnovers against the Tigers and now has 23 assists to only four turnovers in five SEC games.

Despite not appearing on any of the SEC availability reports, Calipari revealed after Saturday’s game that Fland has been dealing with a hand injury for the past week, since teammate Billy Richmond III inadvertently stepped on it during the Florida game.

“His hand is pretty bad,” Calipari said. “Don’t know what we’ll do going forward, but we’ve got to make sure that we get that thing right.”

Later in the interview, Calipari seemed to hint at the possibility of Fland missing games by saying “if Boogie’s out for a while,” the rotation shrinks from nine to eight players.

Up Next for Arkansas Basketball

While they do return to Bud Walton Arena for a pair of games next week, yet another challenge awaits the Razorbacks on Wednesday.

Arkansas is set to host Georgia for a midweek contest scheduled for 8 p.m. CT and that will be televised on SEC Network.

The Bulldogs are currently ranked No. 23 in the AP Poll, but they might drop out after an 0-2 week. However, those losses were to No. 6 Tennessee (by 18, in Knoxville) and No. 1 Auburn (by only 2, at home). They are now 14-4 overall with a 2-3 in SEC play.

Other Arkansas Basketball Tidbits

  • After shooting 45% from beyond the arc at LSU, Arkansas reverted back to its SEC shooting by going just 5 of 23 (21.7%) against Missouri. It has shot below 22% in four of five conference games and is 25.2% (28 of 111) overall from distance in SEC play.
  • The Razorbacks were just minus-1 in rebounding, but they surrendered another 11 offensive boards. Coming into the game, Arkansas had allowed an SEC-high 52 offensive rebounds. On Saturday, those second-chance opportunities led to only 13 points for the Tigers.
  • Arkansas made one tweak to its starting lineup, going with a two-bigs look that included Trevon Brazile playing alongside Jonas Aidoo. Brazile replaced freshman Karter Knox in the starting five.
  • The blowout nature of the game allowed Little Rock native Annor Boateng to make his second career appearance in an SEC game for Missouri. He played the final 1:11 and didn’t record any statistics.

Arkansas vs Missouri Postgame Interviews

YouTube video
YouTube video

Arkansas vs Missouri Box Score

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