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John Calipari says critics put Arkansas ‘in a coffin’ after 0-5 start, but ‘forgot the nails’
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John Calipari usually says exactly what’s on his mind, and the Arkansas head coach had a lot on his mind after Saturday’s thrilling victory over No. 25 Mississippi State.
The Razorbacks won by a single point in front of their home fans in Fayetteville, finishing off a solid stretch run that likely set the Hogs up for an NCAA Tournament berth. Calipari’s team once again won without leading scorer Adou Thiero, outlasting the Bulldogs to finish the regular season at 19-12 overall and 8-10 in the rugged SEC.
The conference record might not look outstanding, but when you consider the ridiculous depth of the SEC this season and you consider that Calipari’s crew started 0-5 in the league, well, the final regular-season numbers look mighty impressive.
Fittingly, Arkansas’s surge began on the first night of February, when Calipari took his new team into Lexington and beat his old team, Kentucky, in a nationally televised game on a Saturday night. From that point on, Arkansas went 7-4 to get to the precipice of a 20-win season and make that league record look so much better.
And on Saturday, as Calipari soaked up another win and looked back on a roller-coaster regular season, he let loose with a short but perfect summarization of the outlook on his team.
“Everyone put us in a coffin after 0-5 (in the SEC) … they just forgot the nails,” said Calipari.
As the SEC Tournament gets going, there is no coffin anywhere because Arkansas isn’t dead. In fact, Calipari has his Hogs very much alive as March Madness beckons.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
