John Calipari's Arkansas Razorbacks are playing with fire heading into the final week of the regular season. Arkansas enters play on Tuesday night at Vanderbilt with a 17-12 overall record, but only a 6-10 mark in SEC play. Their most recent loss was a brutal one at South Carolina over the weekend. The Hogs fell to the sub-.500 Gamecocks 72-53 in Columbia. Arkansas has two conference games left.
With two tough opponents back-to-back in having to go to Vanderbilt on Tuesday night and then hosting Mississippi State on Saturday afternoon, Arkansas' chances of making the NCAA Tournament are increasingly up in the air. ESPN's Joe Lunardi has the Razorbacks as one of the last four teams in heading into Tuesday's action. They would be the 12th of 12 SEC teams to make it in.
Calipari said after this past weekend's loss to South Carolina that they must move on from it quickly.
“You know, I told the guys after. Folks, we, we’ve been through a gauntlet, just like South Carolina. I told them, eight games like we played? You were due for a dud. It was a dud. Move on. I said burn the tape and let’s get ready for Vandy."
This has been a frustrating season for Arkansas hoops. Losing Eric Musselman to the USC job may have signaled regression anyway. However, Arkansas attempting to go big-game hunting by poaching Calipari out of Kentucky may not have been the right way to go. Arkansas needs to be better in-game, which is not Calipari's forte. This is something Kentucky fans know all to well with him.
March Madness will feel weird without Calipari being part of it, but we might be living in that reality.
John Calipari wants Arkansas to burn the tape after South Carolina loss
With the Pac-12 as we know it dissolving and the SEC going from 14 to 16 teams with the additions of Oklahoma and Texas, the Power Five leagues, including the Big East, are going to account for the majority of the NCAA Tournament bids going forward. We are getting to the point where at least three-quarters of the teams playing in the SEC are going to make the tournament. Twelve should make it.
With Arkansas having to beat one of essentially two locks to make the tournament in Vanderbilt and Mississippi State back-to-back, they better hope they get one, in addition to winning a few games in the SEC Tournament. Arkansas may have the players and the tradition to go in a deep run should they make the NCAA Tournament, but we have seen Calipari unravel in huge spots far too often of late.
No, I am not going to harpoon Calipari like a 19th century New England whale if Arkansas does not make the tournament in his first year leading the Razorbacks. However, the drop-off from Musselman to Calipari should not be this significant. I wonder if deep down Arkansas regrets spending all that money to get Calipari to switch SEC allegiances. I am sure Kentucky is happy as clams over this.
Arkansas may have been due for a dud, but the selection committee knows what happened already.