Calipari's Wife Stepped into Razorbacks' Biggest Shoes in Best Way Possible

Champions at Arkansas aren't made on courts, they are molded at kitchen tables

Arkansas Razorbacks coach John Calipari directing his team against Kansas in an exhbition opener against Kansas at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville, Ark. / Andy Hodges-Hogs on SI Images

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — When Nolan Richardson coached the Razorbacks basketball team, it wasn't uncommon to hear his players speak of his wife Rose as if she were their own mother.

It was said the players came to play for Nolan, but they stayed and endured because of Rose. Most notably her cooking, especially her strawberry cake, and the atmosphere around her table kept them coming back.

There would be no talk of basketball when her boys were enjoying family time with her. There was enough of that weighing them down outside the Richardson family farm.

It was a big part of why Arkansas found the success it did in the 1990s. Richardson may have built the house, but Rose was the foundation.

Fast forward a few decades and word spread around after John Calipari took the job that he had a wife named Ellen who became a mother figure to the players her husband tried to mold into champions.

There was something about the way former players glowed about her that made it clear Arkansas may be about to acquire a special ingredient that hasn't fully been there at a super mom level since Richardson.

It provided a much bigger reason to believe Calipari might be able to find success at Arkansas than a gaudy Hall of Fame ring. Still, while there were hints Ellen was building a home for the young men on the team in the background, Calipari hasn't spoken about it in detail until his press conference Wednesday evening.

"She's the mother for these kids," Calipari said. "If they're not over my house once a week, she's saying, 'Where are the kids?' She gives them all chocolate and fruit roll ups and they're in a bowl that they can take."

In one of the early episodes of the docuseries following Calipari, Ellen can be seen meticulously trying to make sure everything is right in her home when the players come over. She takes care to break the ice to make sure they know they are welcome to anything they want as they prepare plates of food while snacks also pop up around the area.

She does all she can to make them comfortable and create a relaxed family atmosphere before they have to follow her husband down a specially decorated viewing room where the chuckles are set aside and the business of basketball becomes serious.

Instead of Rose's famous strawberry cakes, today's Razorbacks are treated to Ellen's unforgettable brownies. When a player has a birthday, the brownies go in the oven, even if that player has long since moved on to full adulthood.

"The former players who call back on their birthday, if I wish them a happy birthday, [they ask] 'Is she sending me brownies?'" Calipari said. "Now think about that. The kid's 50 years old. He wants brownies on his birthday."

It's that relationship that partially triggered the tears everyone saw on national television after the Razorbacks knocked off No. 2 seed St. John's to advance to the Sweet 16. Calipari recently shared part of the darkness to which he keeps referring when taking about all his players have overcome involved a player in his office crying.

While fans and media are just now becoming privy to the shallowest of details about what has gone on behind the scenes, Ellen has known the whole time. She's experienced it along with them with a mother's heart as they fill her home each week.

Much like with Rose, she represents the break from basketball and the outside world. She's the heart this program needed to push through the hard times and overcome so potential could fully be realized.

It remains to be seen whether she will oversee a national championship team as a mom away from home like Rose did all those years ago.

However, the one thing that is certain is it's more likely to finally happen once again because she has dared to step into those unfillable shoes in the spirit of Rose Richardson on behalf of all the players' moms who can't be there to help give them those family moments when they need it most.

HOGS FEED:

• Don't expect Calipari to jump out of coffins if Razorbacks win

• McCasland lays out why Arkansas Razorbacks will have trouble with Texas Tech

• Apologies from Calipari not needed

• No 'Coaching Mismatch' Between Hogs, Red Raiders This Go Around

• Sweet 16 notebook: Hogs hold final practice in prep for Texas Tech