Our favorite John Calipari answers taken from his first press conference as new Arkansas men’s basketball coach

By Kevin McPherson

FAYETTEVILLE — In what is unmistakably the biggest hire in Arkansas Razorbacks athletics history, Kentucky-departed and already-Naismith-Hall-of-Fame-anointed John Calipari not only embraced the optics and hoopla surrounding his introduction ceremony and first press conference as new Head Hog in front of 7,000 hyped-up fans inside Bud Walton Arena on Wednesday, but like the hire itself his first performance as the basketball program’s leader was a grand slam homerun.

There was a lot to like about his overall vibe — his energy, body language, facial expressions, and verbal repartee — interacting with the media that was preceded by the traditional sit-down one-on-one podium banter while having friendly exchanges with former Arkansas players, dignitaries, and fans.

I’ve picked out a few things that stood out the most to this reporter / hoops analyst from Calipari’s first public performance as Head Hog …

Q: I personally asked Calipari what it was about the opportunity to coach at Arkansas that inspired him to envision taking a fourth school to the NCAA Tournament Final Four?

Cal A: ”I called Kelvin Sampson. He and I are dear friends, and I said, tell me about Hunter (Yurachek, athletics director at Arkansas). Well, he almost jumped through the phone, and I said, what are you talking about? I talked to his assistant who used to work for me, Bilal, and he said, when you need things done, then he goes and does it. He’s, what can I do to help you, and then we’re going to get it done. I mean, what he did at Houston, the building, the practice facility, all this stuff. What Kelvin needed so he could coach basketball. That got me to where I had to listen, because I’m going to say it again, basketball coaches win games. Administrations win championships, and you know why? Because they want to, and it’s important to them. Some of the phone conversations, because the meeting we had, as a matter of fact, he’ll tell you. How much time did we spend on it? It was 15 minutes, because I got what I needed to hear. We spent no time on that. It was a commitment to what he wanted to do, and working with somebody, he’s a basketball player … This program, you talk about some of the best jobs in the country in basketball, this is one of them. You can say what you want. This is one of them.

“This is a state that I’m comfortable in. It’s how I grew up. I can’t wait to go around the state and meet people and be in situations where they’re going to say, he’s a regular guy, I hope. I don’t think I’m this magician. People look at me different than I look at myself. This thing, when we sat down, somebody said what about Wednesday? Never entered my mind about coaching, one week ago. It never entered my mind. Thursday night was a, hey I need you. My friend John Tyson. Whatever John Tyson would ask me to do, I’m doing. I need you to meet with our AD. He’s going to go through some stuff. I want you to talk to him and help him out. He’s a good man. You’re going to love meeting him, and we did. All of a sudden, Saturday and Sunday, we did. I said I’m not doing anything during this championship. These kids have done too much. They deserve it. It got out, but we didn’t speak. Neither one of us spoke. We’re not talking about it. You can insinuate all you want.

“And then, I needed a day, and then it was Tuesday morning, and it was okay, let’s go with this. To be at a place like this. To do what I was able to do at Kentucky. I was happy. I mean, I loved it there. My wife loved it there. You know what? Fifteen years, I was there. Did everything I could. Gave every ounce of everything I could, and you know what? I’m jacked about another opportunity. I’m like, let’s go. Now, I met with the team. There is non team. Hunter is extremely confident, but we’ve got to get a roster together. And some of it is a little bit of everything, but we will. It may take a little longer because there are kids that put their name in the NBA Draft that are going to go through some of the process, which means, do you wait for that kid? Or do you go take somebody that’s not quite as good and you’re going to be juggling balls. That’s what we do now.

“I said it out there, my initial thing when he asked me the question, ‘I can’t leave this team, the players.’ And it was Kelvin that said to me, ‘What are you talking about? They can go wherever they want. They can go wherever they want if you stay. You go or stay. They can go to another school, they can stay, they can go pro, they can do whatever they want now. I said, ‘You know what, I want to be happy with this, and I want to go and say let’s do this together.’ I told Hunter, administrations win championships. Let’s do this together. I love seeing the president out there. Is it the president? (Yurachek corrects him, it was the chancellor). Chancellor, I’m sorry. So it was fun.”

Q: When did you actually tell Hunter Yurachek yes (to accept the job)?

Cal A: ”Probably Monday night. But my thing to him, probably at some point on Sunday was, I feel really good, just give me time. This is going to play, I think Monday night was when it was done, but it was probably 11 o’clock at night or later. And then Tuesday morning, I did the video and my wife did a video and then we did this. Can you imagine that it happened in three or four days?”

Q: Plans on building a roster with NIL, the portal, etc.?

Cal A: ”I can’t tell you that. I’d be telling everybody else that. Look, there’s going to be enough kids that would want to play here for us. That will be fine. I really believe that. And you know, whether I was at UMass or Memphis or at Kentucky, kids want play for us and hopefully it’s because we put them first and their families know it.”

Q: What is your approach to the in-state recruiting?

Cal A: ”It’s the first place you look. Are they good kids and are they good enough? If they are, we’ll recruit them. I did the same thing at Kentucky. Derrick Willis, Dominque Hawkins. Some of them are on different paths now. It may take them a little long, but so what? Those kids are all professional. Reed Sheppard. ‘Why did he take him? He’s never going to play him.’ What? I play the best players. ‘What do you mean you didn’t start him?’ He’s fine. He’s going to be a lottery pick. How about that? But I’ll do the same here. Archie Goodwin (Sherwood, Ark.) was a good player for us. But Malik (Monk, native of Lepanto, Ark.) was a really good player for us. I have to tell you, Malik never thought he took a bad shot. The reason was is that he got it off. ‘What do you mean?’ ‘What are you doing? You’ve got two people on you.’ ‘I got it off.’ But one of the greatest kids, really smart. His mother already hit me. Marcus already called me. ‘Mom’s going to cook for us. She said she’s coming to practice.’ I love it. I just told coach Owens, who I was with at Kansas for my first job. I was a volunteer assistant. So you know what a volunteer makes, right? That’s how I started. He was here tonight. Isn’t that great? He came from Tulsa to be here.”

Q: Will you tell us about you?

Cal A: ” … When I say I’m a grinder, that’s what I am. I told my sons this, I don’t know why- you look at- I’m telling you, my dad was a baggage handler and my mom worked there (?). Please, I am just, my friends called me Johnny. Johnny Calipari. I’m not that guy that, you know, it’s me bringing everybody together, bringing the staff together, gathering people, getting the team to understand how you have to work — You ready for this? — together. Not working by yourself. And then having a dream and a burning desire to compete for championships. Why am I here? That’s why I’m here.

“One more thing: I’m always going to be a players first coach. I’m sorry. It’s about the players. For some reason people think you can’t really be a coach that wants to win if you’re about the players. No, you can do both. You can be, ‘Every decision I will make will be, is the best decision for these guys?’ Not me as a staff, nothing. Is it the best decision for them? When we’re doing things, how we’re doing things. You saw my team this year. We played totally different. Why? It was the best way for that team to play. We could really score. But it was how they had to play. And all I can tell you is I won’t change that. It does change recruiting because it of this transfer portal. You can’t have as many freshmen as you usually have. You have a group of freshmen you have a group of returning players or you have a couple transfers that can impact it. Sometimes they’re the Alpha dog, that guy coming in. But even those guys will come here for one reason: ‘How do you make me better, Coach? I want to go to the next level. Can you help me?’ If I see a player that I don’t think I can help, if I’m being honest, I’m probably- Not that he’s not a good player. I don’t want to use some young men and say, ‘Yeah, you’re gonna set screens and (inaudible).’ No. How can I help him get better? That is what my job is, to prepare them for life after basketball. Tell them how to create joy in their life. Do something for somebody else, and you’ll figure out how to create joy in your life.

“Coach Riley, Pat Riley says to me, ‘The best compliment, Cal, I can give you is your team, your players come in this league, and they’re all good teammates. Think about that. For me as a coach, that was the best compliment I can get. Yeah, they’re in that league and get the second deals, they’re doing all the stuff, yet they’re great teammates. That’s what I want to have the base of what we’re doing here, the culture of what we’re trying to do here.”

Cal’s closing statement: CLOSING STATEMENT: “Folks, is this it? Good. I didn’t mean that. Yes, I did. Really appreciate everything today. One of the things I told the couple of players that were part of the team stuff “I fell bad for them. I feel bad that they are going through this.” Now, would they have gone through it whether the coach left? I feel bad that my guys are going through it but it’s different than it was 10 years ago, five years ago, four years ago. They now have the ability to do what they choose to do. I’m looking forward to this, you can tell. I’m excited, the fans seem to be excited. I haven’t coached a down, I don’t have a team. Please, let me get stuff together and then we’ll all be excited.”