Arkansas Razorbacks coach John Calipari had an eventful first year as the head shot-caller for the program in the 2024-25 season. The Razorbacks had an abysmal start to the recently concluded campaign, wherein they started 0-5 in conference play, before eventually making it to the 2025 NCAA tournament and reaching the Sweet 16.
In a recent media availability on Wednesday, July 9, by Inside Arkansas on YouTube after an Arkansas open practice, Calipari was asked about his thoughts on his first year with the Razorbacks and how it affected his and the team’s overall morale from the beginning to how they finished.
“Last year, you know how it started, we had no team, had no staff. I said, ‘Can I see the schedule?.’ There was no schedule. I’m like, ‘What?,’ and now you bring guys together that did not know each other and I had a couple from before but the reality of it is it was a brand new team. Then we get hurt, so I didn’t get to do the scrimmaging, and I knew we’d be behind,” Calipari said. (13:30)
He then went on to expound on the gravity of the result they had by the end of the year.
“But, at the end of the year, that was the most rewarding year I can remember in a long time because they stayed true and they stayed strong and we just kept tweaking and changing to try to make us good. Right now, you know, you can tell I’m more comfortable, like, I had to walk in here, I didn’t know anybody. I didn’t know the campus. Do you guys understand? I never was on this campus,” Calipari explained. (14:11)
“We went from the graduate down the back way and I’m thinking, ‘This is awful,’ to that building and most times, it was dark. We came in late and maybe in the afternoon, we’d come down and chill but we went the back way…So, I didn’t even know what the campus was, I didn’t know anybody, all that stuff. So, I’m just more comfortable,” he added.
In his first year with the Razorbacks, Calipari led the program to an overall record of 22-14 (8-10, SEC) and went all the way to the Sweet 16 of this year’s March Madness, bowing out of the tournament to the Texas Tech Red Raiders, 85-83.
John Calipari Is More Aligned With The Arkansas Razorbacks Now Given That It’s About His Players
Later on his availability to the media after an open practice with the Arkansas Razorbacks, coach John Calipari shared why exactly he is more comfortable and at peach with being at the helm of the program’s coaching staff, citing their priorities as the reason why.
“Let me tell you, I am so happy and comfortable and at peace with what we’re doing and how we’re doing it because we’re about the kids. It ain’t about this, that, it’s about those kids. Now, if we do our job, they’re going to lead us to where we’re trying to go, and I say it again, it’s real, what we’re doing,” Calipari shared. (15:12)
Calipari and the Razorbacks will now look to uncork a better outing in the 2025-25 season later this year, which officially begins around the first week of November.
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