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The Arkansas Razorbacks hosted rival Ole Miss on Wednesday night in SEC basketball action. The game represented the squad’s conference home opener, its first with new head coach John Calipari.
Despite the occasion, fans largely failed to come out and support. The Razorbacks eventually fell, 73-66.
Calipari took over the program this offseason after spending 15 years at Kentucky. With the Wildcats, he made four Final four appearances while taking home one national title. He’s hoping to recreate that success in Fayetteville.
Unfortunately, things have gotten off to a rocky start. Arkansas fell to 0-2 in SEC play following the loss to the Rebels.
The latest setback came after being embarrassed at Tennessee. While the Razorbacks stumbled in that league opener, they’d hoped to regain momentum upon returning home.
Assistant coach Chin Coleman, who followed John Calipari from Lexington, pleaded for Arkansas fans to show up loud and proud to Bud Walton Arena on Wednesday night.
“We need that building to feel like it’s felt the times that we’ve come in here [with Kentucky]. We need fans to support the Razorbacks the way we’ve seen when we were the opposing team. Now, we’re family… So, we want it to feel the way it’s felt when we’ve come in as the enemy.
“We need the building rocking. We need it turned all the way up to help our men feed off of that energy.”
-Chin Coleman
That wasn’t the case on Wednesday night. Images of an empty arena surfaced online showing a lackluster crowd about 10 minutes before the opening tip.
10 minutes before tipoff, where is everybody???? #WPS pic.twitter.com/U0qMCB2Grc
— Courtney Mims (@MimsCourtney) January 8, 2025
While it did fill in a bit later on in the action, it was far from a sellout. There are a few factors that contributed to the disappointing scene.
Firstly, students aren’t yet in town with the winter break still in session. Classes aren’t set to kick off for the spring semester until January 13th. Still, we’ve seen other students around the SEC return early to support their squads in conference action.
Secondly, the game tipped off at 6 PM on a weeknight. Traffic and work schedules certainly impacted the crowd size early on, though it was far from capacity in the second half.
Weather could’ve also turned fans away as the area braces for snow this week. With that being said, it was mostly clear and sunny on gameday despite cold temperatures.
Arkansas basketball fans largely failed to meet the coaching staff’s ask of creating a raucous environment. We’ll see if the atmosphere improves when the Razorbacks host Florida on Saturday.