After a crushing 76-52 loss to Tennessee, John Calipari wasn’t exactly in the best of spirits. His fiery post-game press conference made that abundantly clear. But just as he was dealing with the sting of defeat, life handed him a moment worth celebrating. Though it wasn’t his moment, it belonged to someone incredibly close to him.

Saturday’s ‘Derrick Rose night’ at the United Center, the Chicago Bulls honored Derrick Rose, their former MVP and hometown hero, as they announced the retirement of his iconic No. 1 jersey. The occasion marked the end of Rose’s illustrious 15-year career, which he capped off with his retirement earlier this year. 

Calipari, who coached Rose during his single college season at the University of Memphis, traveled all the way to Chicago and was there to witness it all. For Derrick, the night was emotional, to say the least. As fans roared their love for the youngest MVP in NBA history, Rose stepped to the microphone, his voice heavy with gratitude. “Thank you, Chicago, for forcing me to be great,” he said.

For Cal, the tribute was deeply personal. His bond with Rose stretches back to 2007, when he first coached the young guard in Memphis. Watching the ‘best he has ever coached’ bask in the love of his city must be a proud, full-circle moment for the Arkansas coach. 

But this came after Arkansas’ crushing loss in the SEC opener. They got completely blown out by Tennessee, losing 76-52. So, what went wrong? A lot, actually. First off, Arkansas got absolutely destroyed on the boards. Tennessee grabbed a whopping 51 rebounds, and 24 of those were offensive rebounds alone.

Meanwhile, the Razorbacks only managed to haul in 29 rebounds total. But it wasn’t just the rebounding. Arkansas couldn’t get anything going offensively, either. They shot just 20.7% from three. On top of that, they committed 15 turnovers.

It was just one mistake after another. And the coach went all fiery and didn’t shy away from calling out his team for all the mistakes.

John Calipari lays it all out after Arkansas’ loss to Tennessee

“They kind of manhandled us. I can’t remember the last time I got beat by 30 rebounds,” said coach John Calipari. And he wasn’t wrong if we consider the stats. He didn’t sugarcoat anything. “We miss free throws, we miss threes, and we get outrebounded by 30. How did you only get beat by 25? Could’ve been 50.”

To put that into perspective, Arkansas was awful from the free-throw line too, hitting only 46.2%. But the HC wasn’t just blaming his own team. He gave Tennessee full credit, saying, “Hats off to Tennessee, they’re the No. 1 team for a reason. They had more offensive rebounds than we had rebounds. I want you to hear what I just said.” 

Then, he got into how things went down in practice leading up to the game. He admitted that if he could go back, he would’ve done things differently. “We didn’t do a shooter-out today,” Cal said. He even said that they had three or four guys who kind of no-showed and ‘basically slept.’

This loss marked Arkansas’ third of the season, which, you know, doesn’t sound terrible on paper. But they’ve got some serious work to do, especially with big matchups coming up. It’s time for the Razorbacks to iron out their shooting and rebounding issues and focus on executing better.