FAYETTEVILLE — The Arkansas Razorbacks basketball program may have become accustomed to 0-3 starts to SEC play in recent years, but for first-year Razorback coach John Calipari the experience is a novelty. When Calipari first came into the SEC back in 2009 from Memphis, the country was in the throes of what became known as “The Great Recession” and the University of Kentucky basketball program which Calipari inherited was in a similar state.
Calipari — who was inducted into the college basketball hall of fame while still at Kentucky thanks also to prior history-making stints at Massachusetts and Memphis — quickly proceeded to restore the Wildcat program with an Elite 8 appearance in 2009 and a national championship the following year. But if Saturday’s 71-63 loss — Arkansas’ second in as many home outings to start the 2025 SEC slate — to the visiting Florida Gators (15-1, 2-1 SEC) at Bud Walton Arena is a key indicator, Arkansas (11-5, 0-3 SEC) is in desperate need their own Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) bailout right now.
Everything Coach Cal said after Arkansas' loss to Florida
'Target on our back'
“I mean, we're a new program,” first-year Razorback transfer power-forward Jonas Aidoo told the press after the game. “People wanna come for us. Like, (we had) a lot of top-rated players coming in. They just want to come for us. Like, what Cal has on his back, all of us have on our back too. We all have a target on our back, and we just have to fight every single game.”
"(The referees) tell you, ‘We're not bailing you out. You had no chance of making it.’ We're still doing that. That's more high school AAU stuff, but we'll get through it."John Calipari
Aidoo has fought to overcome injuries most of the season, and put up one of his better performances by nearly logging a double double with an 11-point and nine-rebound effort in the game. He was joined in double figures by Adou Thiero with a game-high 17 points and Boogie Fland’s 15.
Even with an refreshingly strong start to the game for the Razorbacks against power five competition, once Arkansas fell behind, they never retook the lead. The Razorbacks last led 17-16 with 7:53 to play in the first half thanks to good early defense that turned into points on the offensive end. The writing was already on the wall however as Florida had nearly twice as many rebounds at that point — by a 17-9 count.
Undeterred by the inclimate weather outside nor the team’s notoriously slow start to SEC play, the sold-out crowd at Bud Walton helped keep the Razorbacks in the game when Fland’s fade away from the foul line kept the Florida lead at 21-20.
By halftime the Gators managed a 28-25 advantage going into halftime (season-low point totals for both teams) but the recurring problems of missed shots from the free-throw line, the three-point line and poor rebounding did the Razorbacks in once again. Florida gradually capitalized and eventually built their lead up to double digits.
Lackluster Layups
“I mean, we really just missed layups,” Calipari said. “I think we were just expecting to get hit on a lot of our layups, and we would…adjust our bodies with layups. They had seven blocks, but I feel like we just gotta go strong into the basket. Just try and go up through their chest, put fouls on the base (of the body) like we did, but, like, we’ve got to do that from the jump. Let's do that early. Just go up knowing that you're gonna make the layup.”
As bad as Calipari thought it was, it may have actually been ever worse. A reporter pointed that the broadcast stat sheet listed Arkansas as going a mere two-for-16 in shots around at the rim. Whether that statistic proves accurate or not, there is no denying Arkansas shot just 18 percent from behind the arc and only 30 percent from the field as a whole.
“No way. There's no way a team goes 2-for-16 next to the basket,” Calipari said. “Won't happen. That's wrong. Okay. It's 2-for-10 maybe, not 2-for-16. No way.”
One thing Calipari couldn’t deny was that his team’s efforts to finish at the rim were in as much of a need of bailouts as the U.S. economy was back in 2008.
“I'm still trying to tell these guys, you cannot draw fouls when you're driving for layups,” Calipari said. “You have to make the layup. Don't avoid. Just go make the layup and hope they call foul. If you go in there to throw it, you're not making it and they're not calling it.
“And (the referees) tell you, ‘We're not bailing you out. You had no chance of making it.’ We're still doing that. That's more high school AAU stuff, but we'll get through it.”
Getting ready for LSU
Whatever the Razorbacks are going through, they are going to have to go through it on a short turn around. The Hogs go back on the road for their next two SEC contests — starting on Tuesday with an 8 p.m. tip off at LSU.
“Got a tough one coming up. I didn't even know when we play (Tuesday),” Calipari said. “I was hoping it was Wednesday, but I knew it'd be on the road because we've had two at home. And all of a sudden, (here) it is. So we gotta do something tomorrow. We’ve got to do something on Monday, travel, and go on the road and try to get this thing right.”
Two years ago, Calipari’s successor at Arkansas Eric Musselman faced a similar dilemma after starting out 0-3 in league play and facing a trip to the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge. Musselman had to opt out of the trip due to shoulder surgery and top assistant Keith Smart had to lead the team to a win with their backs against the wall.
That team went on to make the NCAA Tournament and a Sweet 16 Appearance. With only one quadrant one win on its record so far this season, this year’s team won’t do itself any favors by dropping non-quad one losses on the road this week at LSU and Saturday at Missouri.
“Just from here on now, it's every game is hard,” Aidoo said. “Like, you're gonna have to fight every single game. Nothing is gonna be given to us.”
No one knows that better than Calipari, but if he has strings he can pull to save his team’s chances of dancing in March, he’d best start pulling them now or the dance will be over before it even gets started. Calipari said his team has to embrace the challenge and not get too down on themselves.
“Why aren't you absolutely excited about playing? I think part of it is, if someone doesn't play well, they can't get out of their own self's way. But you don't have to play great. You don't even have to play good. Just defend, dive on the floor, talk, be a great teammate, chest bump, get everybody going, and you'll bounce out of that. We haven't learned that yet. I gotta do a better job, and we gotta make some shots.”
Unlike Musselman, Calipari will be making the trip to Baton Rouge. But who will be taking the court there for the Razorbacks, may be in question.
“Maybe that big lineup is the answer for us for a while,” he said. “You say, well, you won't shoot it as well. They ain't shooting it well right now…We just gotta figure stuff out, and, like I said, ‘I’m disappointed.’”