The Razorbacks were back in national conversation when John Calipari joined them. The 3x Naismith College Coach of the Year was enthusiastic about this new chapter but was wary of the challenge that lay ahead. The team was without a roster when he took over this year, yet the belief remains that he will bring the Arkansas program the success they strongly desire. But with their season at 2-1 doubts are already creeping in.

After winning the 2012 Championship, the Kentucky Wildcats, under John Calipari, failed to replicate their success. While Cal’s name was heavy enough to get them ranked at top spots in pre-season polls, what hurt them was they couldn’t walk the talk. So in 2024, he moved on from the Wildcats to the Arkansas Razorbacks. While it was expected that it would take some time to shape the team in order to win the first national championship since 1944, the start has been less than ideal.

On Saturday’s episode of The Field Of 68: After Dark, Rob Dauster and Jeff Goodman were asked to pick between Kentucky or Arkansas at this point with three games played. During the conversation, Dauster brought up why he thinks the Razorbacks don’t look to be in contention for the NCAA title. “I just don’t think, I’m very much… if I had any Arkansas stock, it’s been sold,” Dauster stated.

To this, Jeff Goodman remarked, “Wow, look at you! You’re completely out on Arkansas?” “It’s been sold. I am out on Arkansas being an SEC title Contender, and being a national title contender,” Dauster enunciated.

When Cal left the Wildcats, he brought four players with him who were supposed to represent Kentucky this season: D.J. Wagner, Adou Thiero, Zvonimir Ivišić, and Johnell Davis. Therefore, it was expected that the Razorbacks, though ranked 16th in the AP preseason polls, would have a successful season after a roster and coaching change.

However, as the season continues, the Razorbacks don’t look like living up to the expectations, instead falling by two spots in the preseason polls. They started the season with a win 76-60 win over Lipscomb but fell to a 72-67 defeat at the hands of Baylor in the very next game. Even though, they bounced back to beat Troy in their latest outing, Dauster remains unconvinced.

“The biggest problem is that Arkansas still has a dude coaching them that thinks that running out a bunch of freshmen and running the same sets that he ran for John Wall and Eric Bledsoe is going to work in the year of 2024. It’s not going to work. I don’t know why I said this… I said this on Friday night… last Friday when Arkansas lost to Baylor, I said this ‘I am so mad at myself for talking myself into the idea that John Calipari was going to do something different, and he’s not doing anything different,” Dauster added.

While D.J. Wagner (current avg. 5 ppg), Johnell Davis (10 ppg; 4.7 rpg), and Boogie Fland (15 ppg; 5.7 apg) can be blamed for a lackluster display by Arkansas so far, Calipari’s traditional approach, according to Dauster, is their biggest problem. This was something seen at the Wildcats as well.

Calipari’s idea of coaching some would say revolves around preparing the boys for the NBA rather than coaching the team to achieve success. Toward the end of his tenure, his approach didn’t work and his once golden touch deserted him. Having reached the Final Four in four of his first six seasons with the Wildcats, the team failed to achieve this even once since 2015.

The Wildcats’ assistant coach John Welch made some major changes in their performance last season. However, once Cal left Kentucky, Welch too moved to become the head coach at Fresno. And now, Calipari has gone back to his habitual approach as Dauster had pointed out after their second loss.

During his time with the program, he also took them to 7 Elite Eights and a championship title. However, in the last season, the Wildcats had the worst preseason ranking of those 15 seasons: 16th. Hence, when he came to the Razorbacks, it was expected that Cal would make some major changes with no pressure of coaching a top-ranked program. But to Dauster’s dismay, he hasn’t done so.

“My concern is that it’s the like I don’t know why I talked myself into this idea that John Calipari was gonna do something different, when we’ve been asking him to do something different like the last six seasons at Kentucky and I was like ‘Well he’s got this new job. He’s going to be reinvigorated. He’s going to do different things,” Dauster expressed.

The basketball analyst also slammed Cal for not bringing in Welch with him, opining that the latter had “changed the offense that he had last season.” In the 2023-24 season, the two main stars were Reed Sheppard and Rob Dillingham. Pointing out the issues with ball screen defense Dauster remarked, “They had no idea how to break down.” Concluding his rant, Dauster expressed, “It’s like what’s the definition of insanity: doing the same thing over, and over, and over again, expecting a different outcome, right?”

Still, it’s too early to say that the Razorbacks won’t be in contention for the SEC or the national championship. But their style of play and issues even in their win over Troy were visible and Capilari wasn’t too pleased himself.

Calipari bemoans Razorbacks’ 3-point struggles in win over Troy

Despite the much-needed win last Wednesday, the poor 3-point shooting display by his team left Calipari frustrated. The Razorbacks shot 2-of-11 from deep in the first half and trailed by a point before putting on a much-improved display in the second half to emerge victorious.

They finished with 10-of-23 from beyond the arc. Zvonimir Ivisic was impressive, making 6-of-7 attempts, the rest of the team only went 4-of-16. Talking the issues with their 3-point game, Calipari mentioned, “Normally, you’d have eight and that comes from your guards, your wings. Thank goodness, right? We were moving the ball, we had it, boop, wide open miss. Everything inside out, the guy has it, miss. Another one here missed. I was ready to strangle myself, like, c’mon.”

Even in the previous games against Lipscomb and Baylor, they went only 9-for-39, with a meager 23.1% conversion rate. Right now, they are ranked 23 in 3-point shooting in the SEC. Thus, a lot of work remains to be done, if they are to prove the likes of Dauster wrong.

Their fans will hope that the Razorbacks will not crumble under the pressure and will use the next games to better their display with the 65-year-old potentially changing his approach.