FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas is headed to the NCAA Tournament as a No. 10 seed where they will face No. 7 Kansas in the West Region on Thursday night in Providence, R.I., at 6:10 p.m. on CBS.
Arkansas (20-13) finished ninth in the SEC while Kansas sixth in the Big 12. The Razorbacks played 17 teams in the NCAA Tournament finishing 8-11 in those games. John Calipari is pleased his team is in the tournament after starting SEC play 0-5.
"We’re in," Calipari said. "Anybody looking at this saying, ‘we may not get in?’ But I’m saying, they were taking teams that we had beaten. And they were like, you start looking around like everybody was so confident we were getting in. I’m like, ‘hey’. But the whole point was, get in. It's the first year. Getting things established. Struggling early, and my teams have struggled early in the past, but not like that, because we haven’t played in a league like that and where schedule will dictate some of it. But to stick together, to be in dark places yet overcome, to understand the battle that you have is with yourself, the life lessons that these kids take from this is really good. To be able to say, ‘alright, we’re in the tournament’. Hard road. It may be the hardest, but so what, we’re in."
Arkansas and Kansas faced three common opponents. Baylor beat Kansas 81-70 and the Razorbacks 72-67. Both teams beat Oakland. Arkansas handed them a 92-62 loss while the Jayhawks beat them 78-57. Missouri beat Kansas 76-67. The Tigers downed Arkansas 83-65 in the first meeting, but the Razorbacks bounced back to hand them a 92-85 loss.
The Hogs defeated Kansas 85-69 in a preseason exhibition. Calipari was asked if Kansas is doing anything different now?
"I haven’t watched them that much, but I’ve coached against Bill (Self) a bunch, and him the same," Calipari said. "He kind of, we know each other pretty well. They, the big kid didn’t play. He did not play here, so they’re a different team with him. We’re going to have to have a heckuva game, and we’re going to have to play well.
"You know, it was funny, it came up to me yesterday about Boogie (Fland) that he had good workouts and he was going to be able to practice, and they called the doctor and the doctor said, ‘if he thinks he can go, let him get through practice, and I’m good’. He wants to play. The greatest piece of it was Boogie saying to me, ‘I don’t want to screw them up. I just want to help’. I said, ‘well, you may play 10-15 minutes’. But, so what? He said, ‘I’d be good’. And I said, ‘we may need you more. I don’t know’. But then I grabbed the team and said ‘it’s not really changing anybody’s role or what’s going on, we just have an eighth man’. Instead of having seven, having foul trouble or having two or three guys not playing well, which is normal stuff, now you have a little bit of breathing room."
With Fland returning Calipari was asked how he makes sure the chemistry of the team isn't messed up since they are playing their best basketball now?
"Well, the first piece is we did some stuff today on how I’m going to play him," Calipari said. "The reality of it is, I think we’ll play him in a way he’s most comfortable playing so he can be aggressive, and loose, and free and not have all the stuff on his shoulders. And I told him, ‘you just got to be aggressive and play. You know how we’re playing. We’re playing fast. At times we’re grinding. You’re watching. You’re here’."
Calipari said he was building his roster for the postseason. He talked about the progress from an 0-5 in SEC to now?
"Well the biggest thing you can’t plan for is injuries," Calipari said. "The stuff that happened to Jonas, where he was out four months and had to have an operation. The stuff that happened to Nelly, falling out of golf cart? Being out that amount of time? Then all of a sudden Adou (Thiero). Then all of a sudden Boogie. Your two leading scorers are out. You can’t predict all that stuff.
"But you say about us being older, you do know we’re the youngest team in the SEC? We’re the youngest team in the SEC. Yeah, for me we’re older, from some of my past teams. But we’re still a young team. Look, we defend. We do all that. We just have spells where we don’t make baskets."
Calipari is expecting big things from Jonas Aidoo and Johnell "Nelly" Davis since they have previous Final Four and Elite Eight experience.
"Yeah, because they’ve been in there and won games," Calipari said.
Calipari explained how much Fland has been able to do in practice.
"Today, he practiced the whole practice," Calipari said. "So he was doing individual work. Did full workouts that way. Practiced today, will practice tomorrow, will practice Tuesday, practice Wednesday, play on Thursday. If you asked me, ‘Will he play more than 15 minutes?’ I don’t know. Maybe less. But I know he’s talented. For our team, come in and defend and rebound, make easy plays, fly up and down the court, make the plays and be who you are — and that will help us."
The Razorbacks were the last at-large team announced and Calipari explained his thoughts through the waiting process.
"I was worried," Calipari said. "I was worried all day. And I kept saying, 'Why worry? If we're out, we're out.' But my staff (said), 'We're fine. If those teams, we beat 'em all, we beat 'em twice and if they're in, we're in and then all of a sudden, they're all.' And you're like, wait a minute, what? What is happening here? But like I said, this is like my old days. I'm happy we're in. Let's go play. I mean there are other times where I'm like, 'Why would you put us there? Why would you put us in this when we've done this?' This year my first year trying to establish what we are and what we're about. We're in the NCAA tournament with a chance to advance."
Calipari also provided an update on Thiero.
"Not this week," Calipari said. "Like he didn’t practice today. Not this week, but if we advance, we’ll see."
