Calipari, While Great Recruiter, Also Teacher at Heart

Coach ready to send Razorbacks 'into the fire' against top-ranked Kansas for exhibition opener at Walton Arena

Arkansas Razorbacks coach John Calipari with Kentucky last year at Bud Walton Arena on Jan. 27, 2024 in Fayetteville, Ark. / Andy Hodges-Hogs on SI Images

Every good coach is a teacher, first and foremost. The best rival or exceed the professors who lead classes in the various halls across campus.

Profs, like coaches, have their own style. Biggest difference is professors aren't judged on their students' grades while coaches are, and if the players don't win, the coaches get the blame — deserved or not. 

Coaches who exude a real presence are rare, but Arkansas has had a few of those who called Barnhill and Walton Arenas their classroom.Now they’ve got another one, a Hall of Famer like Eddie Sutton and Nolan Richardson.

Both of those men were meticulous and just a bit professorial. Richardson was meticulous in a controlled chaos kind of way.

Both styles worked with players and led to great success. The new head hoops Hog, coach John Calipari, has a rep for developing — the sports version of teaching — players.

He also excels at the most important aspect of coaching, besides winning, of course, which is recruiting. Calipari has a bunch of talented players on the Arkansas campus.

They worked out through the summer, then as school began. Next comes the first test — ready or not — on Oct. 25 when the Hogs square off against Kansas, ranked No. 1 in preseason polls, at Walton Arena. They follow with another exhibition Nov. 1 against TCU in Dallas.

Proceeds from the Kansas game will benefit Children's Hospital.

"It gives us a chance to do something to give back to the community, but it also puts us against opponents ... that you’re probably going to get stung pretty good," Calipari said. "But it’s perfect for us to figure out where we are right now, for our fans to see where we are, for the staff. Everyone has an idea of where we are right now."

Most of the summer was spent on individual improvement, but after school began, the coaching staff worked the players more on team drills, schemes and developing chemistry.

"I shifted some to team, five-man, how we’re going to play together both offensively and defensively," Calipari said. "The summer was total development of players and we really didn’t do much of that team stuff."

While he figures otherwise, Calipari assumes some think he’s nuts to expose his players to possible failure when he’s still trying to teach them his schemes and style of play. His attitude is to throw them in the deep end and see who can swim.

"You say, ‘You don’t have the team stuff locked down yet and you’re going to play Kansas?’ Yeah," Calipari said, confident in his approach. "You’re going to get hit in the mouth, but you’re hoping they swing. You’re hoping they will learn from that experience.

"Shoot, I want to win every game I coach, but when you’re building and you’re doing this, you’ve got to throw them into the fire and see where they are right now. And then we’ll all know — here’s where we are as we start this process."

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