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Honest opinion about Arkansas roster

Article from an AR writer said something to the effect that Cal is a great threat to college basketball or something like that. Said with his 'change in philosophy' he is a dangerous man, so to speak, to the college basketball world. I had not seen where he has changed his philosophy. He told the AR fans putting players first is the way they do things and it won't change. What did the writer mean?
I know right before he left he was saying he's going to keep right on doing the same thing here putting the kids first being all about the kids, you know exactly what he means by that too. He was rubbing it in our faces he could still do it right before he even left, he gives him enormous narcissistic supply that he can make the entire thing about "his mission". F off Cow
 
Cal said he finally figured out you couldn't win in the transfer portal era playing 5 freshmen, thus he was building a roster of older players to go along with a couple of 5 star recruits so he can win championships while still putting his players first.

I guess all us Ole dumb@$$ BBN bennies were right all along. It only took Cal 15 years to figure out what many of us already knew. Grown @$$ men will beat your skinny little freshmen most of the time, especially when it really counts....NCAA Tournament time.
If only he had tried this at UK, we might have had a team with 6 Seniors led by the defending NPOY in 2023 and won it all with all that experience…

Oh wait.
 
True story. I am rolling around in the slop and covered in it. GO HOGS GO!!
I can’t blame you. Optimism is a good thing to have. I lived on it the last several seasons with Cal. It’s all I had. We are in the same type of boat, really. It’s just our captain has yet to sink any ships. Hasn’t sailed them very far but hasn’t sank any. Y’all’s was the captain of the Titanic!
 
I can’t blame you. Optimism is a good thing to have. I lived on it the last several seasons with Cal. It’s all I had. We are in the same type of boat, really. It’s just our captain has yet to sink any ships. Hasn’t sailed them very far but hasn’t sank any. Y’all’s was the captain of the Titanic!

It's new to us. We used to get excited to be even mentioned with a top ten HS recruit. Now our name is mentioned with the best of the best. Have hated Cal because of taking Goodwin and Monk from our back yard. Arkansas has basketball talent and will for the foreseeable future at the HS ranks and now we aren't even really recruiting them. In the past it was our only chance.

If he sticks to what he says, recruits 3/4 HS kids, works the portal and has some retention, we will be happy

We lived through the Stan Heath, Pelphrey, Dana Altman fiasco and Mike Anderson. Muss awakened the sleeping giant within us. We only hope JC can get us an opportunity at deep runs. Not saying he'll do it but to say we aren't enjoying it currently would be false.

Glad y'alla re happy. I'm a Pope fan.
 
I see a top 15-20 team on paper. With that said Cal could have a chip on his shoulder and actually Coach this team.
This. Lets watch and see if he starts really coaching, game coaching like we all wanted him to do more of here. I suspect he will try much harder with something to prove. I"ll keep a check off list as he goes through the season:

Starts his best five _____
Stop random/chaotic substitution patterns _____
Let guys play through mistakes without subbing _____
Stop sitting players with two fouls, then three, then four effectively fouling them out yourself!!!*_____
Spaces the floor more _____
Teach better cutting off the ball _____
Teaches how to stop straight line drives ____
Teach how to guard the high ball screen ____
Teaches the art of the ball fake to move the defense ____
Uses Inbounds plays _____
Zones other teams underneath inbounds _____
Occasionally switches defenses to change momentum _____
Uses his timeouts to change momentum ____
Use occasional half court trapping to create tempo/turnovers _____
Calls situational sets for his scorers _____
Attack other teams foul trouble _____
Attack the mismatches _____
Attack off the drive when in the double bonus _____
Play more zone when we are in foul trouble or other guys are in the double bonus _____
Foul dribbler up 3 on last play _____
Spend less time watching the game as an emotional fan reacting to every play and watch more as a tactician/strategist. _____.

Did I miss anything?
 
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It's new to us. We used to get excited to be even mentioned with a top ten HS recruit. Now our name is mentioned with the best of the best. Have hated Cal because of taking Goodwin and Monk from our back yard. Arkansas has basketball talent and will for the foreseeable future at the HS ranks and now we aren't even really recruiting them. In the past it was our only chance.

If he sticks to what he says, recruits 3/4 HS kids, works the portal and has some retention, we will be happy

We lived through the Stan Heath, Pelphrey, Dana Altman fiasco and Mike Anderson. Muss awakened the sleeping giant within us. We only hope JC can get us an opportunity at deep runs. Not saying he'll do it but to say we aren't enjoying it currently would be false.

Glad y'alla re happy. I'm a Pope fan.
Thanks!

We are just happy to have someone who cares about the name on the front of the shirt, rather than JUST the name on the back, again.
 
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Cal said he finally figured out you couldn't win in the transfer portal era playing 5 freshmen, thus he was building a roster of older players to go along with a couple of 5 star recruits so he can win championships while still putting his players first.

I guess all us Ole dumb@$$ BBN bennies were right all along. It only took Cal 15 years to figure out what many of us already knew. Grown @$$ men will beat your skinny little freshmen most of the time, especially when it really counts....NCAA Tournament time.
This isn't the first time that Cal has said the exact same thing. He has had this revelation after several seasons and even had the blend of older and younger guys but he still couldn't win.
 
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If Arkansas fans are happy I’m glad for them. What will be will be, only time will tell what Calipari does
I’m ecstatic with our current situation . I have more hope than I have had in several years.
It was never a problem with our players; we had some really great guys over the years
 
Honest opinion

There's a likely chance that Cal with his way of doing things does well at Arkansas

I also think there's a likely chance that Pope with his way of doing things here does well.

It would not surprise me one bit to see both Arkansas and UK do well next season.
 
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They have no shooting that equals disaster in todays game!!
Cal's best teams didn't feature a lot of great shooting, they had average shooting (35% from 3), but featured a lot of defensive toughness, which our last 4-5 teams lacked. I think he will try to lean on being a team in the mold of Houston and Tennessee, rather than shooting a bunch of 3's.
 
He doesn’t know how to coach.
He doesn't but he used to be the best motivator in the game and was elite at getting his players to play hard for him. The thing about being a good motivator though, is that you yourself have to be motivated. He lost that mojo at UK. Will he get it back at Arky? Possibly, but I'm betting that even if he does, it will be very short lived. Jaded motivation is powerful but never sustainable. He convinced himself that winning wasn't important as a way to cope with his own failures. All he cares about is draft night, and perhaps trying to stick it to UK.
 
He doesn't but he used to be the best motivator in the game and was elite at getting his players to play hard for him. The thing about being a good motivator though, is that you yourself have to be motivated. He lost that mojo at UK. Will he get it back at Arky? Possibly, but I'm betting that even if he does, it will be very short lived. Jaded motivation is powerful but never sustainable. He convinced himself that winning wasn't important as a way to cope with his own failures. All he cares about is draft night, and perhaps trying to stick it to UK.
I don't his issue is lack of motivation as much as it is his assistant coaches. His assistants did most of his coaching for him at UK and they have been bad for several years. He finally hired a good coach in Welch but now he has moved on and has been replaced by Brad.
 
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If only he had tried this at UK, we might have had a team with 6 Seniors led by the defending NPOY in 2023 and won it all with all that experience…

Oh wait.
I don't know if most of you are ever going to be able to come to grips with the fact that Cal didn't have the resources he needed to do this here. That, and a toxic, ignorant fanbase, is why he is not still coaching here.

For sure real soon you're going to start seeing the repercussions of this and the fanbase will start to lose interest. But I doubt any of you can swallow your pride and ever admit it wasn't really Cal.
 
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I don't know if most of you are ever going to be able to come to grips with the fact that Cal didn't have the resources he needed to do this here. That, and a toxic, ignorant fanbase, is why he is not still coaching here.

For sure real soon you're going to start seeing the repercussions of this and the fanbase will start to lose interest. But I doubt any of you can swallow your pride and ever admit it wasn't really Cal.
I'm embarrassed for you.
Helena Bonham Carter Reaction GIF
 
I don't know if most of you are ever going to be able to come to grips with the fact that Cal didn't have the resources he needed to do this here. That, and a toxic, ignorant fanbase, is why he is not still coaching here.

For sure real soon you're going to start seeing the repercussions of this and the fanbase will start to lose interest. But I doubt any of you can swallow your pride and ever admit it wasn't really Cal.
The Arkansas fan base just doesn’t know any better. You’re trying to relive your one moment of success from 1994 by hiring a washed up coach with last years Kentucky roster minus the talent.
I believe the Cal hire will set your program back even farther.
When you cannot win a game in the NCAA tournament, you have to go coach at Arkansas.
 
The Arkansas fan base just doesn’t know any better. You’re trying to relive your one moment of success from 1994 by hiring a washed up coach with last years Kentucky roster minus the talent.
I believe the Cal hire will set your program back even farther.
When you cannot win a game in the NCAA tournament, you have to go coach at Arkansas.
Everytime I ever see anyone on the internet make assumptions, they make a fool of themselves by making the wrong ones. It's like I'm the only person in the world who's ever heard the saying "When you assume, you make an ass out of you and me."

So nice job, ass.

I'm no longer a 'fan' of any team. I grew up rooting for this one. I'm trying to explain to people too stupid to grasp it, why that is.
 
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Cal's best teams didn't feature a lot of great shooting, they had average shooting (35% from 3), but featured a lot of defensive toughness, which our last 4-5 teams lacked. I think he will try to lean on being a team in the mold of Houston and Tennessee, rather than shooting a bunch of 3's.
And probably get smoked by well-trained placed and spaced snipers (again, like last year)
He literally said we're doing fine because we are still getting the ball inside while Jack was getting nonstop headshots
 
I don't know if most of you are ever going to be able to come to grips with the fact that Cal didn't have the resources he needed to do this here. That, and a toxic, ignorant fanbase, is why he is not still coaching here.

For sure real soon you're going to start seeing the repercussions of this and the fanbase will start to lose interest. But I doubt any of you can swallow your pride and ever admit it wasn't really Cal.
This explains why butters was always a little slow and the last to catch on to everything.
 
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This explains why butters was always a little slow and the last to catch on to everything.
It's a confession that you think that's something you can garner from this post because you can't.
Do you know whose opinion matters to me? The very smart people in my life I consider peers. Anything any of you randos on here could possibly say to me won't change a single thing I think about myself because I respect none of you, but people I DO RESPECT, think the world of me. I keep telling you guys, I'm a teacher. I'm not here for ego or for e-cred, obviously this would be the wrong place to go for that. I'm here because I'm pissed my childhood basketball team is a shell of its former self, and I'm trying to wake others up to that so we can stop supporting a program that no longer cares about any of us.
 
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It's a confession that you think that's something you can garner from this post because you can't.
Do you know whose opinion matters to me? The very smart people in my life I consider peers. Anything any of you randos on here could possibly say to me won't change a single thing I think about myself because I respect none of you, but people I DO RESPECT, think the world of me. I keep telling you guys, I'm a teacher. I'm not here for ego or for e-cred, obviously this would be the wrong place to go for that. I'm here because I'm pissed my childhood basketball team is a shell of its former self, and I'm trying to wake others up to that so we can stop supporting a program that no longer cares about any of us.

Proud of you coming out. I’m gay too
 
The Arkansas fan base just doesn’t know any better. You’re trying to relive your one moment of success from 1994 by hiring a washed up coach with last years Kentucky roster minus the talent.
I believe the Cal hire will set your program back even farther.

When you cannot win a game in the NCAA tournament, you have to go coach at Arkansas.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the transformation you’ve made. But damn you rode Cal pretty hard dude, one of the last ones in full support. Honest question, did you know he was failing at UK and just not want to admit it? No shot taken just curious….
 
Two honest opinions about Arky roster.

1) Nobody has ever really thought too much about their roster. I don't say that to intentionally be an ass, nor because of Cal. I say that as a casual observer of sports, specifically SEC sports. They've always had walmart, tyson, and jerry jones money, if not to give directly to athletes, to support the athletics department in terms of everything else...pay coaching staffs, support staffs, facilities, recruiting budgets, etc. They are what they are.

To be fair, most people probably don't pay much attention, nor worry about UK football and that's fair.

2) Their roster and coach look a lot like the roster and coach that essentially got run out of town here.

They'll most likely be an upgrade by hog standards. They have some blue chip talent, they have some NBA talent, they'll have some good highlights.

I don’t know why our own fans bash our football team’s history so bad. I’ve had to argue our own that our football program is LIGHT YEARS ahead of Indiana lol. Look at the history of Ark and Kentucky football. People we might not be Alabama and we’ve had some really down years historically / issues beating certain teams (so has Tennessee in this conference btw), but we are not as bad as many make it out. I’d say all in all we’ve got a decent program historically. And for some reason people act like Arkansas is a great football program and and were trash it’s just not true.

You’d never convince some people that we’re going on 4 in a row vs. Florida, won 7 of 10 against USC, own the head to head with Arkansas including the last 3 of 4. It’s time the myth about UK football is put to bed. We are not a crappy program.
 
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Don’t get me wrong, I love the transformation you’ve made. But damn you rode Cal pretty hard dude, one of the last ones in full support. Honest question, did you know he was failing at UK and just not want to admit it? No shot taken just curious….
I am a Kentucky basketball fan that was not happy with the results and perception of our program the past few years. When Cal went to Arkansas, that ended my affiliation with him. He’s the coach of a conference rival.
 
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