Hoop Hogs notebook: Calipari, players discuss summer practices, roster, recruiting, schedule, staff at BWA on Monday

By Kevin McPherson

FAYETTEVILLE – In the 110 days since he was formally announced inside Bud Walton Arena to fans and media as the new Arkansas Razorbacks men’s basketball coach, John Calipari has been busy on a multitude of fronts: Assembling a roster nearly from scratch, assembling a coaching staff, piecing together a schedule for the upcoming 2024-25 season, conducting summer limited practices, and recruiting for future Hog teams among other important endeavors necessary to start a new program.

Calipari was back inside BWA on Monday to face the media for the first time since that April 10 introduction ceremony that sent a buzz throughout the college basketball world, and he along with players Trevon Brazile, Adou Thiero, and Boogie Fland were at the podium to collectively give a State of the Hoop Hogs address with the start of the regular season just more than three months down the road.

“We do the summer, and we’ll have goals, what we’re trying to get done,” Calipari said to open his presser. “Really important when you’re taking over a new program.. And there are reasons you’re taking over a new program. Every time I’ve taken over a new program … the first (thing) is you’re setting the tone. This summer was so big on us setting the tone. Setting the tone on how we’re going to work. Why we’re doing what we’re doing. Because it’s the foundation for the culture that we’re going to have. But it starts with that foundation.

“Coach (Eddie) Sutton did a great job here. Coach (Nolan) Richardson, think about the mid-90s. They could have won back-to-back championships. (That) is not done very often. It’s doable. Muss did a great job. Coach Muss (Eric Musselman), look, last year they struggled. But you think about where he took the program. It’s doable. Maybe I do it different, it takes a little longer … But this thing, what we’re about to do, is always going to be about players, it’s going to be about putting the best talent on that floor and then my job is to get them to come together and play for one another. I feel comfortable doing those things.”

- Practice: Calipari said summer limited practices were exclusively about individual player assessment and development, and that he did not install plays or sets for his team to work through in the summer. He was at liberty to oversee eight weeks of limited practices (four hours per week) in addition to strength and conditioning work spanning the months of June and July. About midway through the allowed on-court work, the Razorbacks basketball social media platforms shifted into high gear to publish numerous highlight video clips from practices to flaunt the team’s clear abundance of size, length, athleticism, skill, and talent.

“The second piece (after establishing a foundation and culture of expectations) was the individual development,” Calipari said. “See, I believe that individual development comes before you start talking systems and how your team’s going to play. And we did none of that system, teamwork, plays. We don’t have an out of bounds play, a zone offense, we don’t have a press. We have nothing. What we worked on was individual development: Getting them to understand where we’re trying to take each individual. The reason is at the end of the year, my hope Is they say I’ve never been a better basketball player. That’s the best I’ve ever been. This is the best my mindset’s ever been. This is the best I’ve been as a teammate, I’ve got the best heart I’ve ever had. I care about people, I’m doing stuff. At the end of the year, that’s what we want.

“But the foundation for that is started right here in the summer. I’ve always believed this. It’s culture first and winning follows. So this foundation was so that we could start what this culture is going to look like, It’s as much mind as it is body. … How do we make them as uncomfortable as we can? And they learn to be comfortable in those environments. That’s what we did all summer. We didn’t just do shooting, we conditioned, and then make a shot. Now make shots. How do we make them uncomfortable? And I’ll talk a little bit more on advantage drills, where now people are moving and you got to recognize stuff. We did the practices. But before we did that, we did morning weight training. This morning they were in there at 8 o’clock weight training. It’s hard to weight train at 8 o’clock in the morning and get enthusiastic. You’re working on their minds, not just their bodies. Breakfast as a team. You’re not late, you’re where you’re supposed to be. Breakfast. Just set the tone of what we’re trying to do. We go to practice. Practice is about teaching. A lot of — you ready ? — conditioning. Not just to condition in the drills we did.”

Head-to-head competition between players was also a staple of the Hogs’ summer work.

“And then the third thing is they competed against each other, because yeah, we’ve got to be a team but you’ve got to go against each other and certain guys will start standing out and doing that,” Calipari said. “Because of how we play, you’ve got to be able to fly up and down the court. We’re having the track coach come over when we come back to teach us how to sprint. How about, just teach us how to run? You don’t run like that. Your feet don’t fly. So we’ve got to go to the basis of how we play fast. You gotta run fast. I’ve done this at other schools where I’ve been, we brought in the track coach. They’re the geniuses. They know how to do this, the running. The second piece is, how do you play fast but your mind moves slow? Well, you do drill work to make them. You’re playing really fast but your mind’s got to slow down. Yeah, we’re fast, we’re just not in a hurry.”

“You talk about advantage drills. How do you do things where that you broke down your guy but they’re running at you now? How do you not charge or turn it over? What do you do? Those are the things we worked on for the guys. Defensively, feet. How did your footwork? How do you get a big base? How about this one? How do you play with your arms? We’re long. Seven-two, 6-11, 6-10. We are long. Well, let’s play with our arms out. We set that foundation. Those are the things we did in the summer.”

Fland expressed understanding of what Calipari is looking to accomplish in summer drills.

“I feel like it’s going well,” Fland said. “You know, he’s (Calipari) pushing us beyond our limits and just trying to make us uncomfortable and like getting in that mode of just playing fast and doing exactly as he’s asking us to do.”

Thiero admitted he likes to set the tone physically in practice.

“To speak on the physicality, I’m trying to set the tone and bring it every day,” Thiero said. “We end up scrapping a little bit, but when we get off the court, it’s all love. We know that.

“But yeah, we try to be as physical as we can. Because we know the SEC. Me and T.B., we already played in it. It’s super physical, so we try to set the tone and show everybody you’ve got to be tough.”

- Roster: It’s a spoil of riches in both the backcourt and frontcourt when looking at Arkansas’ projected top nine rotation players. A deep backcourt features lead guards DJ Wagner (6-3, sophomore, Kentucky transfer) and Boogie Fland (6-3, freshman, 2024 5-star McDonald’s All American); shooting guard Nellie Davis (6-4, senior, Florida Atlantic transfer, AAC Co-Player of the Year in ’23-24); and wings Karter Knox (6-6, freshman, 2024 5-star McDonald’s All American) and Billy Richmond (6-5, freshman, 2024 5-star prospect).

“Johnell Davis lives in that gym, he’s in there two or three times a day,” Calipari said. “What I want is to make him uncomfortable… we have to make him comfortable being uncomfortable, that’s when you become an attack dog.”

The frontline is not as deep as the guard corps but it’s not short on talent, experience, or ability:  3/4-combo forward Adou Thiero (6-8, junior, Kentucky transfer); 4/5-combo Trevon Brazile (6-10, junior returnee, preseason All SEC first team pick in ’23-24); center Zvonimir Ivisic (7-2, sophomore, Kentucky transfer); and center Jonas Aidoo (6-11, senior, Tennessee transfer, All SEC second team and SEC All Defensive team in ’23-24).

Brazile is the lone returning player from last season’s Arkansas roster.

“After the season,  I wanted to go (test out the NBA draft process),” Brazile said. “I kept in contact with coach Cal and the staff. What they do is… you already know what they do. So coming back,  it was a no-brainer for me.”

Calipari went deep discussing his roster.

“Three guards, three wings, three bigs. Trevon is better than I thought he was,” Calipari said. “So I’ll just, a story: He’s in there laying on his back and I said, you’re better than I thought you were. He looks at me and says ‘I told you’. But that’s the confidence that I want him to feel, but he’s got to get into wars and be comfortable in those situations. My whole thing with what I do, I try to make guys uncomfortable and let them know you must be comfortable when you’re uncomfortable. You’ve got to learn. You’ve got to understand that’s all part of it. But no, I’m feeling good about who we have and what we have, and they’re going to compete. We have a few point guards. Probably have three or four guys that can play point.

“I’m not letting (Ivisic) shoot any threes. Big Z, 7-foot-2, he wants to shoot — no, no, no. You’re not shooting threes, so now he has to shoot twos. You know why? An elbow jumper, when you miss that, it’s kind of embarrassing. A three when you’re 7-foot-2 and you’re way out there, ah man he almost made that. No, you’re shooting twos and that means you’re going to get in the gym and get better or you’re going to be embarrassed all the time. And you know what, he’s getting better. Jonas (Aidoo) was all conference, we already know. We’re trying to work on his wheels, I want him to run better, run smoother, but he’s still a beast. Shooting the ball better, but getting his legs. Boogie (Fland) is better than I thought. I know what DJ (Wagner) is, just needs to continue to get healthy with that ankle. And then Karter (Knox) and Billy (Richmond), both I’m trying to say, ‘Karter you’re not settling on jump shots. Nope, not happening.’ And any time he drives and gets to the rim, I stop the practice. That’s what I’m talking about, why doesn’t he do that more? Because he’s uncomfortable. It’s easier shooting jump shots, I don’t need you shooting jump shots, I need you to be that guy. And Billy Richmond, he’s just got to get more consistent shooting, and where can you shoot where they have to guard you because when they guard you, you’re going by people. Like, he’s good.”

Four more players have also been formally announced as part of the ’24-25 roster – Division II transfer Melo Sanchez (6-4 guard, Hawaii Pacific); freshmen Jaden Karuletwa (6-6 wing) and Ayden Kelley (6-1 guard); and Kentucky senior-graduate walk-on Kareem Watkins (5-8 guard, brother of Wagner). A fifth additional player – 2024 prospect Casmir Chavis (6-3 guard) – committed to Arkansas in July but has not yet been formally announced as an official signee.

Calipari and his staff work on instilling belief in the players in themselves.

“The biggest challenge you have and I’ve always had is mindset,” Calipari said. “How do I get these guys to think different, to think bigger? It was only a few short months ago, I walked in with no team, no staff no schedule. And now we’re talking about how do we get a new team and how do we get them to think together, but think bigger? Well, you think big, but you work, bigger. Because it’s not being delusional. You’re not dreaming dreams. This is about what you’re trying to accomplish for yourself … I tell the story, but I’m trying to get them to think like kings. Because kings think different.

“Arnold Palmer went over to Bahrain to build a golf course. After he was done, he went to see the king and they said on the way in, ‘Look, if the King offers you a gift, accept it because you always accept the gift.’ So he walks in and the king thanked him and said, ‘Look, I’d like to give you a gift.’ Arnie said, ‘That’s fine.’ And the King said, ‘What would you like?’ Now, Arnie was taken aback. So he said, ‘A golf club. A golf club would be fine.’ So he left. The king said, ‘I will. Great seeing you,’ and he left, he goes home and on the way home, he’s thinking about this driver with a gold head with diamonds. It’s from the king! It’s going to be in his office. He’s going to tell stories about it — what he did and meeting the king. He gets home and two, three weeks goes by and there’s no golf club. So then a letter comes in, his secretary gives it to him and he says, ‘Is there any anything with it?’ No, just this. So he opens the letter and the letter thanks him. So he’s kind of disappointed and he puts it back in the envelope and there’s another piece of paper in there. He takes out the piece of paper and it’s a deed to a golf club.

“Kings think differently than we think. And I’ve got to get these kids to understand, ‘I want you to think big and dream big, but you must work bigger.’ But your dreams for yourself and your teams have to be big. As you dream bigger, think bigger, there are going to be bumps in the road. It’s all part of what we do. I say that because I feel the excitement. I feel it. I feel it in the building. I feel it on the campus. I feel it around the state. I see it, I feel it. I was told a couple weeks ago that we sold out season tickets. People, it’s July. The building seats 20,000! Season tickets, gone. What I say to you and all of our fans, I’m as excited as you are … But be patient because of how we do this. It is a process.”

- Schedule: Calipari dropped a few nuggets when talking about the team’s upcoming non-conference and exhibition game slates.

“Schedule was really hard because there was no schedule,” he said. “So now, where this schedule will be, right now we’d like to get another home game. We have Michigan in New York City, we’re playing in Kansas City, not far. We chose there for a game with Illinois where our fans can get to.

“We’ve got an exhibition with TCU in Dallas. We’re in the works with Kansas on an exhibition here in Bud Walton. We play at Miami. We’re trying to get another home game or another game maybe in Dallas or neutral site, obviously. We play play in Little Rock. But this was hard, now, and we’re still not done because most people have most of their stuff done when we took over.”

Here are Arkansas’ known nine non-conference opponents and one exhibition-game foe (plus the pending second exhibition game) …

-TCU in exhibition game, Dallas (likely late October)
-Kansas in exhibition game, Fayetteville (PENDING and NOT set in stone, would likely late October)
-Troy, BWA in Fayetteville (Nov. 13, contract pending final signatures)
-Maryland-Eastern Shore, BWA in Fayetteville (likely a November game date, contract pending final signatures)
-Little Rock, BWA in Fayetteville (likely a November game date, contract pending final signatures)
-Illinois, T-Mobile Center in Kansas City (Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 28)
-at Miami, second annual ACC/SEC Challenge (Dec. 3)
-Michigan, Jimmy V Classic at Madison Square Garden in New York City (Dec. 10)
-Central Arkansas, Simmons Bank Arena in North Little Rock (Dec. 17)
-North Carolina A&T, BWA in Fayetteville (Dec. 21)
-Oakland, BWA in Fayetteville (Dec. 30)

-Recruiting: Calipari has already put his stamp on recruiting in his short time in Fayetteville, establishing four 5-star commitments and/or signings when combining the 2024 and 2025 classes, which is the most 5-star pledges in consecutive classes in school history.

That is bolstered by his success pulling highly regarded veteran college players out of the transfer portal.

He said his recruiting formula now is no different than it’s ever been.

“All we’ve done is move the headquarters from one place to another,” Calipari said. “That’s all. We’re recruiting the same thing, I’m saying the same things in the home that I’ve said for 30 years now. Why would you say the same things in each home? Well, he says it works. It’s been pretty successful, here’s why. I know what I said in every home, I know what I said. I’m not going to say things I don’t remember. Well guess what, I remember because — somebody put out a video of me in a home video. You remember that video? That was Immanuel Quickley’s home visit. There was an Ipad that his aunt or her fiance were using, and they videoed it from that. I can’t remember but I remember the visit. Somebody said have you seen it? Well yeah, I’ve done that visit 1,000 times.

“It’s the same visit and it becomes this: If you’re drinking, smoking, clubbing, don’t come here. If you have a little bit of fraud in you, don’t come here… if you want to work hard and earn it, this place is for you.”

- Staff: Calipari is one significant hire away from completing his Arkansas coaching staff, and the missing link appears to be his former player at Kentucky and a student assistant coach the last two seasons for the Wildcats – Tyler Ulis — who’s in line take up the fifth and final assistant coaching position. Former Kentucky assistant coaches Kenny Payne (Hogs associate head coach), Chin Coleman (Hogs associate head coach), Chuck Martin (Hogs assistant coach) followed Calipari to Arkansas, and he hired his son Brad Calipari to one of the five assistant coaching positions.

Retained from the previous Arkansas staff are former assistant coach Ronnie Brewer, Jr. (Hogs director of student-athlete development), Riley Hall (Hogs director of basketball operations), Matt Townsend (Hogs head athletic trainer), and Dave Richardson (Hogs strength and condition). Also following Calipari from Kentucky to Arkansas are staffers Bruiser Flint (Hogs special assistant to the head coach), Chris Woolard (Hogs general manager), Lunetha Pryor (Hogs chief of staff), Kevin Butty (Hogs video coordinator), and Kevin Gallagher (Hogs assistant video coordinator).

“Ronnie Brewer, he is going to be in a real important position,” Calipari said. “Recruiting coordinator for the mid south, which is Arkansas. We made a couple of offers in state. I’ll only make an offer if I think, one, the young man is built for this, and two, he can help us win. But also, how about Dallas? How about Oklahoma City? How about St. Louis, Missouri? How about Memphis, Tennessee? There’s an area that Ronnie can be, but I also want him to be our liaison to all the former players. Anybody that knows how I’ve done this, and I’ve talked to many of them already. We’re going to do a fantasy camp. I want them all to come back. Be a part of this. I’ve sent some pictures out of some of the guys. Corliss. The picture of him, and I’m saying we’ve got to get this back to where you guys had it.

“Riley Hall, who is basketball ops, couldn’t have done this stuff, when you asked how’d you get this much stuff done, couldn’t have done it without someone that knew this university and the system and how things work. And then I’ve brought guys with me. We’re still filling out the staff. We have one, I want to bring Tyler Ulis. He and Brad can be those on-court guys. I’d like those two to be able to do some of the recruiting so Kenny and Chucky and Chin don’t have to be all of it. Those guys can be some leg work for them, which is good. They’re both young and can get out there. We’ve got Chris and Lunetha. We’ve got Bruiser Flint. We’ve got the two Kevins in the film room. Matt and Dave, who have done great jobs in weight training and the training room.”