FAYETTEVILLE — The Arkansas Razorbacks basketball program may have become accustomed to 0-3 starts to SEC play in recent years, but for first-year Razorback coach John Calipari the experience is a novelty. When Calipari first came into the SEC back in 2009 from Memphis, the country was in the throes of what became known as “The Great Recession” and the University of Kentucky basketball program which Calipari inherited was in a similar state.
Calipari — who was inducted into the college basketball hall of fame while still at Kentucky thanks also to prior history-making stints at Massachusetts and Memphis — quickly proceeded to restore the Wildcat program with an Elite 8 appearance in 2009 and a national championship the following year. But if Saturday’s 71-63 loss — Arkansas’ second in as many home outings to start the 2025 SEC slate — to the visiting Florida Gators (15-1, 2-1 SEC) at Bud Walton Arena is a key indicator, Arkansas (11-5, 0-3 SEC) is in desperate need their own Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) bailout right now.
Everything Coach Cal said after Arkansas’ loss to Florida
‘Target on our back’
“I mean, we’re a new program,” first-year Razorback transfer power-forward Jonas Aidoo told the press after the game. “People wanna come for us. Like, (we had) a lot of top-rated players coming in. They just want to come for us. Like, what Cal has on his back, all of us have on our back too. We all have a target on our back, and we just have to fight every single game.”
“(The referees) tell you, ‘We’re not bailing you out. You had no chance of making it.’ We’re still doing that. That’s more high school AAU stuff, but we’ll get through it.”…