ESPN Analyst Reveals What Calipari Has at Arkansas That He Didn't Have in Final Years at UK

It's been over 14 years since John Calipari took the Kentucky Wildcats to the mountaintop of college basketball by winning the 2012 NCAA Tournament.

The legendary coach has put some more feathers in his cap since then, but hasn't been back to the Final Four since 2015.

Yet the 67-year-old Calipari still has plenty of gas in the tank. He can still recruit like nobody else, as evidenced by his No. 2 recruiting class at Arkansas this season. He's taken the Razorbacks to back-to-back Sweet 16s during his two years at UA and appears to have a roster capable of getting back to the Final Four this year in regard to talent.

And according to ESPN's Seth Greenberg, Calipari is as good as he was once was.

"His real gift is to get guys to truy each other and believe in each other and believe in him," Greenberg said Wednesday on The Chuck and Bo Show. "He's a brilliant, brilliant coach. But he also cares do deeply about his guys. I think that's the thing that people just don't understand. He's going to be loyal to his guys. He's a really loyal friend.

"These last two years in Arkansas, I see the old John Calipari back. He's having joy in coaching this team. He's having joy being at Arkansas. He loved his time at Kentucky, there's no doubt about it. But he'd be the first one to tell you, it's like dog years."

Greenberg said that Calipari has one major asset in particular in Fayetteville that he didn't have during the contentious final years of his tenure at Kentucky.

"Seeing him with a smile on his face, seeing him pouring himself into his team like he always does... the job is so hard, if if you don't have everyone on the same page — your administration, coaching staff — it's impossible," Greenberg said. "He has that now. He had that when he first went to Kentucky, and certain things happened. He has that now where he feels appreciated.

“He's enjoying being there. You can see it by the way he carries himself, how he's pouring himself into his team and his job. It's like the old Cal back. I see a joy in him that maybe the last few years at Kentucky he didn't have because he didn't feel like everyone was on the same page."

If Calipari were to deliver a national championship to Fayetteville this season, it would break a 33-year title drought in Fayetteville dating back to 1994.

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