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, the 3x Naismith College Coach of the Year moved on from the Wildcats to the Arkansas Razorbacks. It was expected that bad luck would at least leave him now, but alas, according to analysts, the Razorbacks might not be able to realize their NCAA dreams this season.

On Saturday’s episode of The Field Of 68: After Dark, Rob Dauster discussed why 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 4 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. Therefore, according to Dauster, the team might not be able to win the NCAA title or even the SEC tournament.

“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 enumerated remembering all of his statements after loss to Baylor.

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, Calipari’s traditional approach, according to Dauster, is their biggest problem.

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.

Rob Dauster roasts John Calipari

The former Kentucky Wildcats HC has been with the program since 2009. In those 15 seasons, he took the Wildcats to 4 Final Fours, 7 Elite Eights, and a championship title. However, in the last season, the program 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?”

Hopefully, the Razorbacks will not crumble under the pressure and will use this opportunity to better their display with the 65-year-old potentially changing his approach.