FAYETTEVILLE -- No. 3 seed Arkansas now knows it will face the winner of No. 11 Oklahoma or No. 6-seed Texas A&M on Friday night at approximately 8:30 p.m. in the SEC Tournament.
In Wednesday's first day of action, Oklahoma defeated South Carolina 86-74. Ole Miss defeated Texas 76-66, Auburn downed Mississippi State 79-64 and Kentucky battled back to down LSU 87-82. The Sooners and Aggies will play at 8:30 p.m. Thursday night to determine who faces the Razorbacks. John Calipari isn't overly concerned with which of the two teams he faces.
"I’m not worried about anything," Calipari said. "It’s just that you are playing to hold your seed, to improve your seed. That’s what you’re doing. And if that means you keep winning, then you keep winning. But you know your whole thought … like last year we had to win that first game to make sure we were in. This thing is how much can we improve our seed. But yeah, there’s not worry. It’s just let’s understand that we’re playing for something even bigger than just this tournament."
Senior Trevon Brazile has had outstanding games for Arkansas recently and Calipari is hoping the versatile forward can continue his play.
"He just has to be more consistent in his mindset coming in, his preparation, so that he can just play," Calipari said. "You're not thinking. You're not trying to take drills off. You're not trying to do what's easiest. You're in there getting treatment like crazy. So, you're not ever saying it's a knee, it's an ankle, it's this, it's that. Just got to be more consistent.
"He's had a terrific year. He really has, and now for us, he's going to have to have the kind of games that he had the last couple, in the range. He doesn't have to be way above them, just be in the range. Part of it's offensive rebounding that takes no skill. Yeah, we need a three or two from you, but all the other stuff he does, blocking shots, rebounding, flying, dunking balls in the offense, making free throws, things that don't take a whole lot of skill. I call them the easy things. Do those things really hard. If he does that, we're pretty good."
Calipari has seen his team play improved defense as the season went along and expects more of the same going forward.
"Yeah my teams have, but this team is kind of where we are defensively," Calipari said. "But we’re so good offensively, well we had a couple games where we shot 38% and won, but that’s because those games we really guarded, and so we could do that. But if you’re shooting 50% and they’re shooting 52%, you’re losing. And so we’ve got work to do, but these kids have a fight and they have a desire and a will to win and it’s going to come down to that. I’m trying to get them to talk to each other, less got to come from me. More comes from holding each other accountable. You don’t have to be mean about it, maybe when you tell a guy a third time you got to be mean, but talk to each other out there. Cover for each other. So I’m anxious to see, but this time of year, that’s what this will all come down to. Even in this tournament, the next tournament, it’s all the same. You got to be able to guard in case you’re not shooting the ball well."
Arkansas' first game will be televised on the SEC Network.