Audio By Carbonatix
Hall of Fame college basketball coach John Calipari left Kentucky for the same job at Arkansas during the offseason after 15 seasons in Lexington. His first season with the Hogs is off to a rough start.
To make matters worse, it sounds like the rest of the SEC does not take him seriously.
Calipari, 65, won 410 games with the Wildcats. However, he has not reached the Final Four since 2015 and his teams often underperformed in the NCAA Tournament — especially in the last three years. Kentucky lost in the first round as a two-seed in 2022, the second round as a six-seed in 2023 and the first round again as a three-seed last year. A large portion of Big Blue Nation was ready to move on from Calipari even before he left.
Sure enough, their former head coach is struggling at his new school. The Razorbacks dropped to 11-7 on Saturday. Arkansas is winless in the SEC with a blowout loss to Illinois and a five-point loss to Baylor that was not as close as the score makes it seem.
Is it already time to panic in Fayetteville? Perhaps. The Southeastern Conference has never been more competitive and the Hogs’ remaining schedule does not serve them well. They could go 0-13 in their next 13 games. They (probably) won’t but they could.
- vs. Georgia
- vs. Oklahoma
- at Kentucky
- at Texas
- vs. Alabama
- vs. LSU
- at Texas A&M
- at Auburn
- vs. Missouri
- vs. Texas
- at South Carolina
- at Vanderbilt
- vs. Mississippi State
Is John Calipari washed?
Numerous college basketball coaches spoke with Jeff Goodman about Calipari on the condition of anonymity. Their opinion of the three-time Naismith College Coach of the Year has soured.
One SEC coach thinks Arkansas has “a ton of individual talent” but “none of their pieces fit.” That falls just as much on Calipari’s staff as it does roster construction. Chin Coleman, Brad Calipari, Bruiser Flint, Tyler Ulis, Kenny Payne and Chuck Martin deserve equal criticism for their inability to adapt.
They all do the same thing. They don’t have anyone innovative, they are outdated in how they do things.
— Anonymous SEC assistant
If that wasn’t bad enough, other coaches used to circle Kentucky as a big game because of its head coach. Not anymore. They don’t consider him to be as big of a threat as he once was, if at all.
There’s just no fear now when I see him on the other sideline. The game has changed and he is becoming archaic.
— Anonymous SEC head coach
The Razorbacks currently rank 95th in scoring defense and 115th in scoring offense. Those are not numbers that inspire a lot of hope. John Calipari’s first season at Arkansas is a disaster thus far and it does not show signs of a turnaround.