John Calipari is trying to build Arkansas into one of the premier college basketball programs in the country and the Hall of Fame coach believes he will have to significantly change the way he builds his rosters in order to accomplish that.
While speaking with reporters at the SEC meetings in Destin, Fla., on Wednesday, Caipari admitted that the “formula” he used for recruiting at Kentucky may not work anymore. Calipari referenced how his No. 3-seeded Wildcats were upset by No. 14 Oakland in the first round of the NCAA Tournament this past season. That loss was a product of 24-year-old senior transfer Jack Gohlke dropping 32 points on Kentucky.
Gohlke’s performance served as another reminder to Calipari that building a roster of star freshmen who will likely on play one season in college may no longer be a wise approach.
“The lesson was you can’t do this now with seven freshmen. You just can’t,” Calipari said, via ESPN’s Pete Thamel. “You’re going to hit a team that’s 25 years old on average, one was 26, and that team is physically going to get you, and so now we have a couple transfers that are older, some kids that transferred from Kentucky that went through it, and they’re a year older, and some freshmen.”
Now that he is at Arkansas, Calipari said he will focus on trying to sign a few freshmen, retain a few players and land a few others in the transfer portal. He joked that he could change his approach once again if he does not find success.
“Now that may not work. And then you’ll say, ‘Well, you said …’ Well, I changed my mind. I didn’t like how it looked,” Calipari said.
In other words, Calipari agrees with what Jay Wright said about Kentucky having just one NCAA Tournament win over the past four seasons.
Arkansas went 16-17 last season and missed the NCAA Tournament, but the Razorbacks reached the Sweet 16 the year before and the Elite Eight in back-to-back seasons prior to that under Eric Musselman. Calipari is hoping a new approach and his two-word recruiting pitch will help him reverse his trend of disappointing postseason finishes.