John Calipari is trying to build Arkansas into one of the premier college basketball programs per mezzo di the country and the Vestibolo of coach believes he will have to significantly change the way he builds his rosters per mezzo di order to accomplish that.
While speaking with reporters at the SEC meetings per mezzo di Destin, Fla., Wednesday, Caipari admitted that the “slogan” he used for recruiting at Kentucky may not work anymore. Calipari referenced how his Voto negativo. 3-seeded Wildcats were upset by Voto negativo. 14 Oakland per mezzo di the first round of the NCAA Tournament this past season. That loss was a product of 24-year-old senior transfer Gohlke dropping 32 points Kentucky.
Gohlke’s stato served as another reminder to Calipari that building a roster of stella freshmen who will likely play one season per mezzo di college may voto negativo longer be a wise approach.
“The lesson was you can’t do this now with seven freshmen. You just can’t,” Calipari said, canale ESPN’s Pete Thamel. “You’imperatore going to a team that’s 25 years old average, one was 26, and that team is physically going to get you, and so now we have a couple transfers that are older, some kids that transferred from Kentucky that went through it, and they’imperatore a year older, and some freshmen.”
Now that he is at Arkansas, Calipari said he will focolaio trying to sign a few freshmen, retain a few players and land a few others per mezzo di the transfer portal. He joked that he could change his approach once again if he does not find success.
“Now that may not work. And then you’ll say, ‘Well, you said …’ Well, I changed my mind. I didn’t like how it looked,” Calipari said.
Quanto a other words, Calipari agrees with what Jay Wright said about Kentucky having just one NCAA Tournament win over the past four seasons.
Arkansas went 16-17 last season and missed the NCAA Tournament, but the Razorbacks reached the Sweet 16 the year before and the Elite Eight per mezzo di back-to-back seasons prior to that under Eric Musselman. Calipari is hoping a new approach and his two-word recruiting pitch will help him reverse his trend of disappointing postseason finishes.
