The Arkansas Razorbacks have just survived their version of the Super Bowl, as freshman Boogie Fland put it. No, not the Arkansas football team, but the basketball team. John Calipari’s squad, which has struggled with slow starts all season long, just had a brilliant 82-57 win over the University of Central Arkansas at Simmons Bank Arena. And yet, the coach has one flaw that he wants the guys to fix before they call themselves a winning team.

So far 9-2 in the season, the Razorbacks look good on paper. And yet, some of these supposedly easy match-ups have turned into hard games and Calipari addressed the difficulties in the post-game presser last night. Discussing how the team had a good practice the day before, the coach stated, “I’m trying to convince these guys, like Karter – singles. I don’t need Grand Slam home runs. Singles.”

In baseball, the scoreboard may not show a wide gap with singles but they eventually help widen the gap. The batter has reached first base safely without a fielder putting them out. But it only happened because they hit the ball in the first place.

That’s exactly what Calipari wants his team to do, “If you don’t have something, let’s just move the ball. I had to do some stuff today to get us to move the ball from one side of the court to the other. You know, structured motion, just move it, and then we play.”

He also gives a football example then, “They do pack-line defense, you think you throw it to the post? You can’t if you throw it to the wing. Because they’re front and they flood the weak side.” Fortunately for the Razorbacks, yesterday showed they’re no slow team when they are in their element. Making 9 of their 11 first shots, Trevon Brazile rebounded both and put them back in to give Arkansas the point.

It ultimately forced UCA coach John Shulman to call a timeout but eventually, Arkansas had an 18-point game at halftime. Although they struggled a bit near the end, their lead was enough to help them ultimately take home the win. “We did some good stuff,” Calipari concluded.

But while Arkansas put in a team effort, what really got the opposite team going was Boogie Fland and how to stop him.

Even John Shulman is impressed by John Calipari’s freshman star

Karter Knox and Boogie Fland are both living up to the hype they established coming out of high school. But yesterday, while Knox had 14 points on the night, Fland led the way with 16 points, a career-high five steals, and finally broke away from the seven assists curse by also having a career-high nine steals in the game. The No. 1 point guard in the 2024 recruiting class has not disappointed.

“The goal is to keep him out of the paint,” coach John Shulman said. “That’s easy for me to say, I’m a 58-year-old man. ‘Hey man, keep that dude out of the paint.’ It’s really difficult to keep him out of the paint.”

Not to mention Fland’s five rebounds, which made it a complete game and was reminiscent of another John Calipari student – Kentucky’s John Wall, who had at least 16 points, 9 assists, 5 rebounds, and 5 steals in a game, per StatHead. Although Fland later said he wished he had gotten a double-double, it was nevertheless a thrilling night. Next game, maybe!