Arkansas basketball coach John Calipari says team has 'a ways to go'
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Two days after heading south for the Razorback Tip-Off Scrimmage in Hot Springs, second-year Arkansas men's basketball coach John Calipari, junior guard D.J. Wagner and senior forward Trevon Brazile ventured east Tuesday for the first half of SEC Media Days.
"I’m not going to say it was a debacle, but what would be the next word up from debacle?" Calipari said Tuesday of the scrimmage. "We’ve got a ways to go. I got a good group, but we’ve got a ways to go to be what people think we’re going to be."
Arkansas landed at No. 14 in the Associated Press preseason poll released Monday, and it will play an additional pair of scrimmages — against Cincinnati on Oct. 24 at Walton Arena and at Memphis on Oct. 27 — to prepare for a tough nonconference schedule.
The AP poll finally put numbers to the difficulty that’s been discussed for months, with tests against No. 2 Houston, No. 6 Duke, No. 10 Texas Tech, No. 11 Louisville and No. 22 Michigan State before reaching SEC play.
Arkansas opens the season at home Nov. 3 against Southern.
"I just hope it ends, obviously, with the national championship," Brazile said. "Every team is going to say that. But for me, it’ll mean a little bit more because I’ve been here for four years. I feel like I’ve been taking up space. These Arkansas fans are probably getting sick of me by now. So, just trying to give them something that they deserve."
Brazile is the only leftover Razorback from former coach Eric Musselman’s roster. Musselman took over at Arkansas in 2019-20, reached back-to-back Elite Eights at the NCAA Tournament and then departed for Southern Cal after the 2023-24 season.
Calipari, who stepped down after 15 seasons with Kentucky, was hired in his place prior to last season. He opened his tenure at Arkansas with a 22-14 record and a run to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament as a No. 10 seed.
"The first year [Calipari] came in, everything was kind of late," Brazile said. "Everything was like, kind of in a hurry. This year, things are more slowed down. We scrimmage a lot more than we did. Overall, I feel like the staff and also Coach Cal is more comfortable. When you’re with somebody for a year and you go through the things that we went through, it builds a good relationship."
Amid college coaching retirements such as Virginia’s Tony Bennett — who cited the new landscape in college athletics as a reason — before last season and Auburn’s Bruce Pearl passing the reins to his son, Steven Pearl, last month, Calipari was asked how long he’ll last.
Calipari, 66, replied that if he ever turns transactional as a coach, he will know it is time before anybody else.
"That’s why if someone put their name in the portal, I said, ‘You’re not coming back because it’s not going to be transactional,’" Calipari said.
But he has 25 to 30 more families to help, the coach said, including his son and assistant, Brad Calipari. Also entering his second season in Fayetteville, he joined his father’s staff at Arkansas as an assistant and director of on-court player development.
"Part of the reason I’m still doing this, my son is in coaching," Calipari said. "[Houston coach] Kelvin Sampson and I just talked. I said, ‘We’ve got to fix some of this stuff before we’re out for our own children.’
"I don’t mind kids transferring. You just can’t transfer four times because it’s not good for you. Four schools in four years, you’ll never have a college degree. But that last place they’ll really be loyal to you. You’re a mercenary. They’re not going to be."
Calipari’s opinion is players should be allowed to transfer once without penalty and sit out if they enter the portal again. The coach also wants stricter rules concerning players staying in school for a financial motive by enforcing a 5-year window to play 4 seasons of eligibility.
When asked about a September lawsuit by college athletes to extend that to 5 seasons of eligibility and not 4, Calipari cautioned he would need to know more before agreeing, in the case of a player suffering a severe injury twice.
"I’m not saying don’t transfer, but we’re doing a disservice to these kids the way it’s being handled right now," he said.
Arkansas acquired 6-10 forwards Malique Ewin from Florida State and Nick Pringle from South Carolina in the transfer portal to bolster its frontcourt depth. Arkansas is Ewin’s fourth school and Pringle’s fifth.
That duo will compete with Brazile for starting minutes, and Calipari expects Arkansas to be a terrific rebounding team on both sides. The Razorbacks ranked 12th in the SEC last season for rebounding margin.
"We did an intrasquad [scrimmage] and there were 15 clips where a shot was taken and not one guy went to rebound offensively," Calipari said. "Well, that can’t be who we are."
