National Podcaster Asks Question You Knew Was Coming on Calipari

With Razorbacks starting 0-5 in SEC for first time ever, some suggesting now may be retirement time

Arkansas Razorbacks coach John Calipari giving his team instructions during a game with Troy at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville, Ark. | Nilsen Roman-Hogs on SI Images

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — It apparently didn't take long for Arkansas fans to find out what Kentucky fans were warning them about in April. Not everything was going to be Final Fours and trophies and when it goes bad, it's really bad.

Things weren't like this with the Wildcats, though, and it even is getting attention from national media, too. The Aaron Torres podcast on YouTube has been on a tear the past week and he freely admits he picked the Razorbacks to be really, really good.

He wasn't alone. Now, right or wrong, the guns are getting turned on John Calipari, the surprising hire back in April. When chicken magnate John Tyson used his personal relationship with the Kentucky coach he had the bank account to back it up. The entire world of college basketball was shocked.

But nobody was thinking there would be an 0-5 start to SEC play. Calipari is ducking the media like he's running from the law these days. There is another press conference scheduled for today with assistant coach Chin Coleman.

Even postgame press conferences, especially on road games, are over quickly. Granted, there's not a lot of Arkansas media in attendance at these games to extend it with questions, but nobody is taking Zoom questions these days.

It's not clear the Razorbacks could dump him if they wanted to (and don't expect him to give them cause). Right now, the doldrums are being blamed on injuries and lack of competitive practice time.

Some are starting to call out Calipari on that one because this team just looks like they don't care. It was the opinion of Eddie Sutton and Nolan Richardson that the biggest part of rebounding is effort, not skill and Hogs' assistant Kenny Payne pointed out will is more important than skill on that.

These Razorbacks are just looking like they don't really care. We don't get to ask the players many questions, either, because Calipari apparently doesn't want the media poking around asking anything.

Or he doesn't want folks to find out how bad things really are. Whether that's the case or not is sheer speculation, but some are wondering if they're just lazy or unmotivated. Considering they have shown the talent is there, it's hard to find a different answer.

Calipari keeps putting it off on a very challenging SEC schedule with a lot of high-caliber teams on the schedule. Arkansas was supposed to be one of those teams, too, but an 11-2 start to the season has turned into an 11-7 nightmare record nobody saw coming.

At least now they have a home game and maybe Calipari won't need to jump out the press conference to go catch a plane. If he does that on a home game there will be more questions but we'll deal with that whole issue if it happens.

Now he better get it figured out. Failing to do that will have more national folks asking the same questions.

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