Arkansas basketball's John Calipari shares vision for identity of 2024-25 Razorbacks
As the start of the 2024-25 Arkansas basketball season quickly approaches, many pundits have speculated just how the Razorbacks will look, under head coach John Calipari .
Arkansas enters as the No. 16 team in the preseason AP poll. They had a resounding number of transfers depart from their respective programs once Calipari accepted the job in April. The Razorbacks added six key players in the portal over the offseason, with three of them coming from Kentucky: DJ Wagner Jr., Adou Thiero, and 7-foot-2 big man Zvonimir Ivisic.
Calipari is expected to revive Arkansas basketball in the upcoming season, and he's already shed some light on what he's going to require from his new-look squad.
"A team that plays really fast, it shares the ball, and is rough," Calipari told Andy Katz.
Calipari's rosters have always been talented, but as they've shown in recent years, they've had repeated trouble fulfilling their mission during March Madness. Calipari hasn't been to a national title since 2014, and has just one national championship that he won in 2012 with Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist.
John Calipari and Arkansas basketball's identity in 2024
Calipari, who in the past has been known for his sheer embrace of one-and-done talent, appears to keeping the focus more on camaraderie, than having a select few star players monopolize the basketball. Arkansas is coming off a 16-17 record, so the time is now for Calipari to help restore the vision. He's not at all concerned about where they've landed in the preseason rankings .
"I've done this so long, I've had teams overrated. I've had them underrated," Calipari said, via Connor Goodson of HawgSports. "You can hype all you want. Eventually you got to play the games. So whatever you think we are. I agree. You think we're awful? I agree. You think we're really good? I agree. Doesn't matter."
"What I will tell you is this team has only been together five months," Calipari said. "Why do you think I put together a schedule of Kansas and TCU, a hard Lipscomb game, Baylor in Dallas. Why do you think I did that?... So, if we get dinged early and we're not ready, 'OK, then I got work to do.' If we hold our own, we know 'OK, now let's tighten this up and let's see the areas we got to get better at.'
"You go on and you're playing Illinois, Michigan, Miami. I mean, that's all before, like December 10. Why would you do that? Because we need to see where we are. his is about March. How do we get prepared to play then? Our league is really hard. The only way you know if you're ready for the league is play non conference where you're getting stuffed a little bit."
Arkansas opens up with two charity exhibitions against Kansas on October 25, and TCU on November 1. The Razorbacks' regular season will commence on November 6 against Lipscomb.
