What Does Kelvin Sampson Know About John Calipari’s Program?

Building relationships is good.

Even if you are on different sides of coaching. But on Saturday, two coaches collide, set aside their relationship, and prioritize their team to try to add a quality win to a strong resume.

For coach Kelvin Sampson, he goes way back with former Kentucky head coach John Calipari, who is now in his second season with Arkansas. Looking back on the years Sampson has coached, he always remembers how Calipari was always in the picture as a successful coach.

On Saturday at the Prudential Center, the Cougars take on the Razorbacks, where two top-25 programs meet in the Never Forget Tribute Classic, and Sampson knows he is in for a treat when he takes on a Hall of Fame coach with future NBA prospects on his roster.

“Anytime you go against a Hall of Fame coach, it always adds a little juice,” Sampson said. “You know how well prepared and how well his team’s going to play. For us, it’s an opportunity for us to see where we’re at.”

Woo Pig Sooie

Not long ago, the Arkansas basketball program saw its head coach exit the building to coach at USC, and in came Calipari, who thought it was time to move on from Big Blue for a fresh start. During that time period, he came to visit the school, where, when he showed up, there was no roster, and it became a viral video to get a laugh.

Well, two years into rebuilding a program that made a deep run in the NCAA Tournament one season ago, where it ran into Texas Tech in the Sweet 16 before losing. Luckily, several players elected to stay, so Calipari had a team coming into this season.

“They play well together,” Sampson said. “Cal does a great job of putting his teams together. He makes them fit. You look at his team this year, he’s got really good post guys. The Brazile kid. That’s not an accident that he’s having his best year this year.”

An additional player that the national media have honed in on, and so has Sampson, is the guard, Darius Acuff Jr., who is the leading scorer for Arkansas with 18.2 points per game.

“He’s as good as any point guard I’ve seen,” Sampson said. “He just makes everything easier. He gets guys shoots. He knows when to go. He knows when to change speeds.”

A lot of credit goes to what the future Hall of Fame coach has done in recruiting and retaining ballers as the landscape of college basketball has evolved over the years.

“Arkansas doesn’t have a lot of weaknesses because the way they are shooting the ball from the outside,” Sampson said. “They are always going to have major scoring threats on the floor together, which is what makes them so unique.”