Winter is coming but things are just starting to heat up in the SEC. John Calipari’s first year as head coach at Arkansas has not been as smooth as he would have hoped but then everyone knew getting the band back together would be difficult. “I met with the team. There is no team,” he famously said back in April. Fast forward to December, and the team is slowly taking shape, but one last SEC battle of the year remains.

With only nine players on the Razorbacks team right now, every individual’s contribution is important. Fortunately for Arkansas, Jonas Aidoo is finally making his way back from injury, even if he’s not the same player he was at Tennesee last season.

Nevertheless, Calipari said after the latest bout against the Aggies, “It’s like I told them – you wanna win the game and go for Christmas, breathe for the first time, and then come back here absolutely jacked and juiced, let’s go.”

“And let’s get ready for the grind that’s ahead of us. None of us and no one in the league can predict anything. So whatever it is, every team is going to have hard games. Everyone from top to bottom…everybody’s looking for Ws. I just hope that we’re not the W.”

Thanks to Aidoo and Boogie Fland’s double-doubles, and just a single rebound holding back Trevon Brazile from the same feat, Arkansas was the proud winner of the night with 95-67.

Fland had 12 points and 11 assists and a career-first double-double, whereas Aidoo scored a season-high 17 points and season-high 11 rebounds to record his 10th career double-double (first in Arkansas). This one was still an easy win but post-holidays, aka the last day of the year, will pose one last non-conference and SEC game for the Razorbacks vs. Oakland and Calipari knows it’s going to be hard work.

Although the Golden Grizzlies have lost most of their roster from last year, it will still be a memorable game for Calipari, whose Kentucky lost to Oakland after the Wildcats lost 80-76 in the first round of last year’s NCAA tournament. Either way, it’s going to be a tough time ahead for the Razorbacks and Calipari doesn’t want his team to become the easy wins others look forward to.

John Calipari will not let Arkansas become the ‘easy‘ team

Before the Arkansas Razorbacks toppled No. 14 Michigan, their best win had been against a Miami team that had already lost six games in a row. Not the next win one could boast about and as every coach is wont to do, John Calipari looked at the schedule for some easy wins next.

“Normally as a coach, you’re looking [at the schedule],” Calipari said. “‘Okay, do we have some wins in this league?’ Then I start thinking, ‘Are we the win?’ The way we were playing for a while. S–t, maybe they’re looking saying, ‘Jesus, we’re playing Arkansas. Thank God for that.’”

Just before the Razorbacks went back down the ladder, however, Calipari brought them up again with some important wins. Their last two non-conference victories against Central Arkansas and NC A&T might have gone a long way but the Razorbacks need to continue the momentum against Oakland next.