“What Cal does, just by stepping onto this campus, is he puts Arkansas basketball back into the national conversation,” Nolan Richardson, the only coach to lead Arkansas to a championship title said of their new head coach John Calipari. When Cal left the Kentucky Wildcats for the Fayetteville program, fans expected the Hall of Famer to experiment with his methods, especially without the pressure of coaching a top-ranked program. However, Calipari’s coaching methods were criticized by a basketball analyst after tipping off to a disappointing loss just in their second game.

On Saturday’s episode of The Field Of 68: After Dark, popular basketball analyst Rob Dauster analyzed Calipari’s coaching methods and delivered an unfavorable verdict on his mentorship for which all he has to conclude is: “And Kenny it just drives me insane.”

“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.

After Calipari had taken over the job at Arkansas, he had reflected on his coaching changes over the years including “channeling this unidentified critic,” and now “he worries only about positively affecting the lives of his players and their families,” according to Brendan Quinn of NY Times.

While the 65-year-old consistently failed to live up to the expectations for the past few seasons at Kentucky, this was an under-rated program, and therefore a turnaround was expected of him. However, the Pennsylvania-born once again disappointed his fans.

“Even though he got rid of the guy that changed the offense that he had last season when they were so much fun to watch. And it’s the same thing, right?… Yeah well, look it’s the same issues with ball screen defense that we’ve seen over and over and over again,” Dauser said while pointing out how the Razorbacks need to work on their defense. Last season, Reed Sheppard and Rob Dillingham played for Calipari and made watching their team quote enjoyable for the spectators.

“There was like a five minute stretch in the second half where all Baylor did was run high ball screens with Jeremy Roach and… and Norchad. And just put a shoot in the corner because Arkansas had no idea how to defend it, they had no idea how to break down,” he added.

His previous assistant coach John Welch was hired by Kentucky in 2023 and served them for two years, forming a core strategist of their offensive plans. However, when Cal left the Wildcats, Welch too decided to change his program. But instead of following the 2012 NCAA Championship-winning coach, he started over as the associate head coach at Fresno State. This also earned Cal the wrath of basketball analysts because of the potential changes that Welch could have brought over at the Razorbacks.

“If I was going to pick rosters in terms of like which team had a more talented roster like… it’s probably Arkansas, right? I think that’s fair to say. But it just, I don’t understand why they do the things that they do. I don’t understand why you’re still…,” Dausted enunciated.

The talented roster according to Dauster includes DJ Wagner, Karter Knox, Zvonimir Ivišić, Johnell Davis, Boogie Fland, and Jonas Aidoo. While Fland is projected to be the 10th overall pick in the NBA 2025 mock draft, Knox is expected to go at the 32nd place.

Moreover, with Arkansas having top-notch players like Wagner and Davis, Fland might not get the desired amount of time on the court which speaks volumes about the talent this team has.

“And Kenny it just drives me insane. like you just watched how fun it was you see what college basketball is in 2014 and you’re still doing the same thing. It’s like what’s the definition of insanity: doing the same thing over, and over, and over again, expecting a different outcome, right?,” Dauster concluded.

Overall, the Razorbacks failed to match the expectations set by the 3X Naismith College Coach of the Year’s arrival.

Arkansas suffer a major setback just in their second regular season game

Calipari brought with him four transfers from Kentucky. Therefore, it was believed that this would provide the Razorbacks with the much-needed roster strength to tackle big teams. However, when the No. 16th ranked Arkansas clashed with the No. 8th ranked Baylor, the result was not what one would have expected from Calipari, but exactly what their standing reflected.

Instead of having a neck-to-neck fight, the Bears never trailed behind the Razorbacks. Though Cal-mentees leveled the score thrice, each time the Bears star Jayden Nunn hit go-ahead baskets after already having scored a three that got them the lead. The game finally came close when the Hogs’ star Fland hit one from beyond the arc to inch to 70-67. However, VJ Edgecombe made two consecutive free throws off a foul on Adou Thiero that ultimately got the Bears at 72 at the final buzzer.

Therefore, owing to a weak defense and lacking a pro-active offense, the Razorbacks lost their second game. Hopefully, Cal will be able to sort out things since this is just the beginning of the season, and come back stronger in their next game against Troy.