John Calipari ‘jacked’ for Razorback roster rebuild

John Calipari is officially on the job and on the clock as the head coach for Arkansas men’s basketball.

The dust has settled, and the pomp and circumstance has come and gone in Fayetteville. Now, all eyes turn to a Razorback roster that needs rebuilding from the ground up.

Arkansas has zero scholarship players at the moment, which makes for a daunting task ahead, but Calipari is one of the most feared recruiters in the country who is fully-equipped with the NIL to piece together a winner.

“I’m jacked about another opportunity. I’m like ‘let’s go.’ Now, I met with the team. There is no team,” he quipped. “Hunter’s extremely confident, but we’ve got to get a roster together. It’s a little bit of everything, but we will.”

One thing that has always been a given with Calipari is he will have a roster among the most talented in the country.

Couple that with the resources at his disposal and a program with rich history and a starvation for success, and Arkansas is very much an attractive destination.

“There’s going to be enough kids that want to play here for us that we’ll be fine. I really believe that,” Calipari said. “Whether I was at UMass or Memphis or at Kentucky, kids want to play for us. Hopefully, it’s because we put them first and their families know it. 

“If you’re not into basketball, you won’t come here. If you’re smoking, drinking, clubbing, chasing. This is about being at a place that is zeroed in on a culture that creates professional habits.”

Calipari has a reputation for signing annual treasure troves of top-end high school talent, as evidenced by his six-man Class of 2024 haul that ranks No. 2 in the country at 247Sports.

Three of those incoming freshmen — McDonald’s All-Americans Jayden Quaintance and Karter Knox as well as imposing 6-10 forward Somto Cyril — have already de-committed from Kentucky and reopened their recruitment.

Arkansas will be very much in play to land their services in the near future.

After a trio of early exits in the NCAA Tournament, the need to have older, more physical and experience players is not lost on Calipari, who will have no choice but to attack the transfer portal more aggressively than ever before.

“What’s changed a little bit is that kids are older,” Calipari said. “You know why they are older? Why do you think we played against a 26-year-old in the NCAA Tournament with our 19-year-olds?

“COVID a little bit. They’re giving a bunch of wavers. And nobody wants to leave because of NIL. I’m going to stay here. I’ll make more here than if I went and got a job, and I’m still playing basketball.

“So, that’s one of the issues, which means physical toughness and physicality matter more now than ever before. You can have freshmen, but they better be physically tough.”

Look for Calipari and Arkansas to move swiftly to lay the foundation and set the tone with a combination of freshman flips, portal splashes and potentially a returning piece or two from last season’s roster — the new Head Hog did meet with three Razorbacks who are currently in the portal on Wednesday.

In fact, a source familiar with Calipari’s early recruiting efforts told Natty State Sports it would not be a surprise to see Arkansas make enough additions to be able to put a lineup on the floor by the end of the weekend.

As for securing all the pieces of the puzzle, however, one of the compromises for going big-game hunting in the offseason is playing the waiting game as talented portal prospects test the draft waters.

“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,” Calipari said. “Which means do you wait for that kid or go take somebody that’s not quite as good? And you’re going to be juggling balls. That’s what we do now.”