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John Calipari shredded by SEC coaches as Arkansas starts 0-5 in league play
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John Calipari won 5 straight games against SEC teams to close down the 2023-24 regular season with Kentucky. Since, he has lost 6 straight to them.
Calipari went one-and-done at the SEC Tournament (and in the NCAA Tournament) to close out his Kentucky tenure, then jumped ship to Arkansas in the offseason and has the Razorbacks off to their first 0-5 start to conference play since the 1985-86 season.
Arkansas was handled by Tennessee on Jan. 4, then lost a trio of games by a few scores apiece, and was handled again by Mizzou on Saturday. The offense has been a disaster in league play, with the Razorbacks clearing 70 in an SEC game only once.
After boosters showed up big to bankroll Calipari’s move from Kentucky to Arkansas, the mounting losses have turned the mood sour in Fayetteville. Over the weekend, several coaches from around the league sounded off (anonymously) on Calipari and his team to Hoops HQ’s Jeff Goodman.
“They have a ton of individual talent,” one SEC coach said. “But none of their pieces fit. None of them.”
Three Wildcats followed Calipari from Kentucky to Arkansas: DJ Wagner, Adou Thiero, and Zvonimir Ivisic. Three more recruits flipped to Arkansas: Boogie Fland, Karter Knox. and Billy Richmond. He also signed one of the top-rated offseason transfers in former FAU guard Johnell Davis.
But Arkansas is 53rd in KenPom, dragged down by an offense that ranks 91st in adjusted efficiency.
“There’s just no fear now when I see him on the other sideline,” another coach told Goodman. “The game has changed and he is becoming archaic.”
Calipari was hammered after the loss to Mizzou. But this might just be the Razorbacks’ new reality. Some wondered if Calipari would take the move as an opportunity to remake himself. Instead, he told The Athletic in the preseason that he wasn’t changing his style and, “I don’t think I can if I wanted to.”
Nothing gets easier. As Calipari has gone in the opposite direction, the SEC as a whole has risen to the point of being able to swallow him whole. It’s the best league in the country, and Arkansas has 9 more Quad 1 games left over its final 13.
“This is a hard league,” Calipari said after the Mizzou loss. “We’re gonna have to figure stuff out.”
Georgia comes to town on Wednesday. Tip-off is set for 9 p.m. ET.
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
