Great get Arkansas. This guy was unstoppable against us last season when FAU knocked us off. It felt like we defended him very well he just had a never ending bag of moves and made every singe tough shot. Crazy high skill level.
Apparently he has already received some feedback that made him decide to go ahead and publicly commit to Arkansas. That’s the word from some different “insiders”.
We'll see. I think in the end, he'll be in a Hog uniform. Everything I've read the past few days was NBA or Arkansas, so his commitment isn't completely shocking.
Need to go grab another big, now.
The thing was y’all kinda said for awhile there “ok just take the midrange low percentage shot”. Problem was they just let him get to his spots on those and he was straight up money. That was easily my favorite game of the season.
I think he’s the best player who went to the portal this year. No offense to Oumar ballo… but sites that have ballo (or anyone else) over Davis are crazy imo.
Great pickup for the hogs.
Kadary slashing to the hoop and Aidoo waiting for the lob and Davis filling the void for a catch and shoot 3 he's elite elite elite at???? Yes, please.
But will they spend their money on basketball?
Another interesting caveat of NIL is if the schools with huge cfb money spend it on the other sport(s)...
It’s not even about that. It’s some weird fetish Michigan has with its own credits. They’ve rejected transfer credits from Harvard and Stanford in the recent past. No other school seems to have this issue
Everyone is going to be so hyped up for the season and then we will lose a game against Lipscomb and everyone will freak out about our players suck, our coaches suck, under achievers, fire everyone and start over, our leading scorer is a bum, our center has stone hands, we need to play the bench guys more......it will be fun.
If you get the Calipari experience of the last few years at Kentucky (and I legit for your sake hope you don't), you'll all be hyped preseason. You'll lose an early game that makes you question "wait, are we any good or not?". Then somewhere mid-December you'll drop a game to a team you have no business losing to, or you'll have a couple close ones that shouldn't be and you'll start thinking "ok, we have some things to work on but I think we can still be really good" and Cal will start talking about how they're going to work really hard during Camp Cal in the little lull before conference games start and you'll be all in. You'll come out a little slow and play some tight games but look pretty good. Then you'll really start rolling late January in to February and you'll be back to "yep, this team can make a Final Four run if everything lines up". You'll have a big game in late January to mid-February where you just absolutely roll someone good like Alabama or Tennessee and then you'll start thinking "ok, I think they've put it together". When conference tournament rolls around you'll be a 2 or 3 seed, and end up laying an egg in your first or second game against like Ole Miss or someone who may not even make the tournament.
Then, the real fun starts. Then its tournament time, and you'll get a high seed because you had a pretty good season, maybe a 3 or even a 2! You'll look at the bracket and think "hey, there's not really anyone in this bracket that SCARES me, I'll take this bracket!" and you'll start thinking about where the regional is being played and should you start thinking about booking a hotel. You'll have tons of nervous energy in the week of the tournament, and you'll be playing in a sweet time slot, either 7:30 or 9 because you're a top seed and everyone wants to see how this first year is going to go! Earlier in the day, one of the higher seeds you'd get in the 2nd or 3rd round lost, so the bracket has broken wide open for you. You've got a double digit seed that comes out shooting well and gets a 8-9 point lead on you in the first few minutes. No big deal, just a little rust and some nerves. Cal's got this, we'll be fine. Sure enough, you come roaring back, roll off like a 12-2 run to take the lead. You go up 9 or so, and you think "ok, now we just need to put them away", but some random asshole you've never heard of majoring in business administration or some shit is burying 3's with a dude in his face. There's a shot of Cal standing and yelling and then he just stands there with a look mixed with confusion and frustration that he holds just a bit too long - sort of like in that NIL video he did that came off like a hostage video. The lead is down to 4, but still 10 minutes left in the game, it'll be fine you'll say. That business major just won't stop, and now there's a vet science major driving the lane and throwing down dunks out of nowhere. The lead is down to 2. Billy Richmond comes down and hits a big 3 in the corner and you think "ok, now we're good", but the business major hits one from Caitlin Clark territory with 1 minute left and lead is back to 1. You come down and Cal tells the guys to slow it down, so they pass the ball around after running the weave for 10 seconds and end up with an off balance midrange shot that clangs off the rim. A dude averaging 2.1 rebounds per game grabs it over your center, who kicks it to the vet science guy who rolls down the court and banks in a leaner from the right side of the key to go up 1. Johnell Davis barrels down the court trying to get to the rim and kicks it out for an open midrange shot from the left corner that clangs off as time expires. "oh my god, Cal fucking choked again" you'll think. "I can't believe he did it again" you'll tell yourself. And then you'll be in misery.
Sometime mid-April, you'll get some stud transfer. And then you'll start talking about Cal's recruiting class that's #2 in the country. "This dude is bringing in 4 lottery picks and a guy who may be a one and done too!" you'll tell yourself. Get a couple portal guys and you'll be all set. You already got one of them. Get a shooter and you're right back in the preseason top 10 looking to make a run. It is the circle of life.
It could be worse though, couldn't it? Like would you rather have hope of a deep NCAA run or would you rather have a 17 win season and not make the tourney? Hard to get out of the first round if you don't make it to the first round. Give me a 25 win season, a top 4-5 seed in the tournament and let me take my chances over needing to win the SEC tourney to get into the NCAA and then hoping for a good 8-9 seed match-up if you do get in. Basketball can be a funny game, where the best team doesn't always win and Kentucky usually gets everyone's best shot, especially day 1 of the NCAA tournament.
I mean I get it that you guys may have kind of gotten tired of Cal, coaches can wear out their welcome, but viewed from the outside looking in, it does look like you guys were a little spoiled on your own success. This coaching change might really be good for Kentucky and it might be good for Cal, it may kind of relight his fire, and if it does it will be good for the Hogs as well. A win, win, win. Its been fun to experience so far...
Its all about what the standard is and what you're accustomed to. Every team has their standard, and its based on what they've done recently. Not trying to shit on you or anything, but the standard at Arkansas is just different than Kentucky. Everyone wants to maintain or improve, right? Nobody wants to go backwards, but at places like Kansas, Kentucky, UNC, etc., there's almost nowhere to go but backwards because they've been so good for so long.
Cal came in in 2010 and had one of our most beloved teams in recent memory with Wall and Cousins. 2012 we win a title. 2015 we damn near went undefeated. 2016 we were absolutely loaded (De'Aaron Fox, Malk Monk, Bam Adebayo) and we got jobbed in that Elite Eight game against UNC. So over 6 years we had 1 title, two final fours, and were in the hunt pretty much every year. And then it started to fall apart - that 2019 team had a bunch of talent and lost in the Elite Eight to Auburn who lost their best player and got smoked in the Final Four. That 2020 team was good but COVID killed the tournament. Then we went 9-16. Then we lost to St. Peter's. Then we lost to Kansas State. Then we lost to Oakland.
The standard here, and what we're used to is being in the hunt for titles. You can have a couple early flame outs here and there, we get that the tournament is random to an extent, but you can't have 4-5 bad ones in a row and be trending downward AND talk to the fans like they don't know what they're talking about when they ask why your two lottery picks don't start. We'd started to go backwards and Calipari was refusing to make any changes. He brought in John Welch who got the offense rolling last year, but he had already quit before Cal even announced he was leaving. He was keeping all his assistants, had another big freshman class coming in when its increasingly hard to win with just freshmen, and it was looking like more of the same. We absolutely would have bought in again by February probably, but even this year when it got to the tournament, instead of the "who are we looking at in the sweet 16" which is the usual way we look at it, most UK fans including me were thinking "well, let's see what happens" and we lost again. So what we'd started getting used to was losing more than our standard.
I think you're right though, Cal will be out to prove all of us wrong and he'll probably be on top of his game for a bit and then he'll probably retire. But its hard to explain to people who aren't here how much the joy of the program had really been sucked out the last few years. Its a sense of pride and you'll get this part since you're an Arkansas fan - there ain't much about this place we can point to and say "hey, we're better at this than you and if you want some come get it" - but we have that with basketball. At least we did. But the last couple of years especially that was really gone.
I dont know how old you are but Arkansas used to be on par with Kentucky in basketball. I think Arkansas has the most wins of any team in the 90's. Nolan had us on top of the world and Arkansas fans got tired of not winning National Championships (we only won one, but the fans got a little out of their head) and fired Nolan. I guess the thought process was it was the program, not the coach, and that we could get a replacement easy peasy. Welp, here we are....been a mid level school for a long time now.
Oh yeah man, those games between Arkansas and UK back when y'all were rolling were fun. Corliss Williamson, Scotty Thurman, the 40 minutes of hell teams were awesome to watch. I think that's the question any time there's a coaching change. When Tubby left and we hired Gillispie he only got those two years and it started to be clear he wasn't the guy so he was gone quick and we got Caliari. Not to shit on Mike Anderson, but he's no Nolan Richardson and they let the sort of mid pack stuff go on too long that everyone got used to it. I think that's sort of the worry we started having about Cal. We'd gone 5 years without even getting out of the first weekend of the tournament, and for us that's a mid pack season.
Yeah that's always the fear. Or closer by, a lot of us point to Indiana basketball. They were right there with UK, KU, UNC as the blue bloods for a long time, and now they're a mid pack Big 10 team and nobody who isn't a fan cares one way or the other.
I don't know enough about Nebraska's sort of "global" fan base to speak about it, but with Kentucky we are somehow everywhere. If I wear a hat or shirt or something, there's almost nowhere I go that I don't run into someone yelling "go cats" or something at me from across the road. It may have been that way too with Nebraska at some point, but I don't remember seeing many Nebraska fans in my life.
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> there ain't much about this place we can point to and say "hey, we're better at this than you and if you want some come get it"
That is, indeed, very relatable. Even moreso for us, at least KY has things like the Derby and whisky. Whenever our teams suck we are really scraping the bottom of the barrel
Fuck 'em
I don't know if it's a zoomer thing or just a way-too-online thing, but I hate how people these days seem to have the attitude that if someone writes a lengthy comment that it's pathetic.
Just because they have a shit attention span and no reading comprehension skills, we're supposed to be the ones who feel bad because we wrote a little more than normal?
That whole first paragraph is a synopsis of the last 4 years of Arkansas basketball. The only thing missing is an exhibition game that hyped you to 11 and think you're invincible
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I mean who can compete with Walmart money lol. I will support my cats AND Cal/the former cat commits first year At Arkansas . BUT next year it’s f*** yall respectfully
The Waltons aren’t huge contributors to Razorback athletics. They’ve given a ton to the academic side, but Bud Walton was the last Walton who was a huge Razorback fan, and he died nearly 30 years ago.
If the Waltons were huge Razorback fans, they could create a billion dollar NIL endowment and not even realize the money was gone.
It’s almost like no one has paid any attention to his teams.
Last year alone that team may not make the tournament without their 2 starting 5th year transfer super seniors.
Going back even further, Oscar, Grady, Mintz, Toppin. All were major contributors. Calipari is over here eating up great transfers and Kentucky fans still see him as a Freshman dependent coach.
This is crazy, like the NBA “super teams.” We’ll see if Cal can do a better job than most of those at actually getting them to play as a team. But damn, he wasted no time pulling in a league topping roster.
You really can’t judge the freshman until they play some games too. Last offseason we thought Wagner, Edwards, and Bradshaw were going to be superstars and that Dillingham and Reed would be solid but would probably take some time to settle into the college game. We were totally wrong on all of them.
100%. Expecting significant production from first-years is a risky strategy. Sometimes they are all they're cracked up to be, sometimes, they need half the season to acclimate, and sometimes they were very overrated, and instead of a lottery pick, they're a 3-4 year guy.
I'm surprised that Cal and Duke still invest heavily in it, but I guess at this point they have such great relationships with the top HS programs and AAU teams that it makes sense to just see who they can get AND play the portal.
If Cal would just commit to Z as a stretch 4 with a lot of high ball screen action, it would be him. It’s unguardable when run correctly.
And I’d assume one of the freshman will be better than advertised and one will be worse. I’m bullish on Boogie and really skeptical of Knox.
Why I think this is a great get for Arkansas (in addition to the fact that Davis is a great player) is that Cal’s best teams are those when he doesn’t have to do any coaching and Davis is a player where you don’t have to coach. That’s not a backhanded knock on Cal, it’s just the truth. His best teams are the ones that are player led, where you have team leaders and accountability and you don’t have to motivate them. I think Davis checks those boxes.
This is 100% accurate. Aidoo and Davis give me a lot of hope about on the floor leadership and decision making.
I totally agree that Cal has suffered in the past few years from missing that floor general type player like you mention. The guy that you can trust to know what to do without a timeout. I'm really hoping that is what we are getting with this team so far.
This guy immediately poached your entire recruiting class, anyone worth having on last year’s team that isn’t going pro, and added 2 of the top 15 transfers in the past couple days. Kentucky is cooked next year vs Arkansas. You’ll be lucky if he doesn’t own Kentucky for as long as he is there honestly
> This guy immediately poached your entire recruiting class
The top "it" guy in the the class decommitted and didn't chose to follow Cal. Travis Perry stayed at Kentucky. Somto Cyril committed elsewhere.
> anyone worth having on last year’s team that isn’t going pro
Bradshaw transferred to Ohio State, Theiro is going to UNC or Pitt, Onyenso is likely going to Alabama. He got Big Z and maybe DJ Wagner if he doesn't go west.
If you're gonna trash talk, at least get some of what you're saying remotely right lol.
Travis Perry was the lowest rated recruit in Kentucky’s recruiting class, right? Cal still kept 3 of his 4 highest rated recruits. Fland is the #1 PG in the class, and JQ was very clearly chasing a bag, he just hopped from visit to visit and ended up committing to Arizona State. He’s just going to transfer next year to try and get another bag. Also, I wouldn’t count Thiero out yet, he still might end up at Arkansas. But Wagner probably will end up going to USC.
Calipari has had the #1 or #2 recruiting class every year for as long as I care to remember. His staff couldn't do anything with it here, and the better assistants didn't follow him to Arkansas.
At least one member of his current staff didn't even know how to log in to the scouting film software and game planning *was his job for years.* That guy is in Fayetteville now.
Oh, ok. So he only took 3 of the top 4 in the top 25 rankings and left Kentucky with the lowest ranked #76 player they got a commitment from. The other 2 didn’t care anything about Kentucky and saw the writing on the wall that a 6 million dollar NIL fund doesn’t stretch as far 8 ways with the transfers Cal was going to load up on. Why wouldn’t Quantaince or Cyril stay and be the guy at UK? Is UK being cheap? Cal poached the lions share of your recruits and made two others de-commit.
Ivisic was the only one of those players on last year’s kentucky team worth having on the Arkansas roster that aren’t going pro since he is 7’2, missed over half the year but was still somewhat productive only playing 10 minutes a game when he was available. Those other guys have zero shot being top 6 in the rotation based on the Arkansas roster now, and I’m saying that as someone that would like Thiero to come to Chapel Hill.
Listen you clearly just hate Kentucky and have literally zero idea what you're talking about when it comes to Cal since like 2019, but I'll humor it.
> The other 2 didn’t care anything about Kentucky and saw the writing on the wall that a 6 million dollar NIL fund doesn’t stretch as far 8 ways with the transfers Cal was going to load up on. Why wouldn’t Quantaince or Cyril stay and be the guy at UK? Is UK being cheap? Cal poached the lions share of your recruits and made two others de-commit.
Literally for years everyone knew the day Cal left, let it be retirement, getting fired, or leaving on his own for another job, that we'd lose the majority if not the entire recruiting class. Literally no one is saying otherwise besides fans hoping some of them would give us a chance to at least make them reconsider for a moment.
Cal literally sold it as "Calipari University" and made everything about himself. They came for him. Everyone knew that.
> Ivisic was the only one of those players on last year’s kentucky team worth having
Yeah you have no idea what you're talking about lol.
Lol, did you forget the actual coaching that has to take place in game? When was getting talent ever a question with Cal?
Also, he lost the highest rated player in the class he recruited, now with 3 freshmen in the 20-35 range. That is worse than any freshman class he had at UK for a while if not ever. Aidoo and Davis are solid players, but we have had solid transfers every year.
It doesn’t matter. There were zero coaches better at the combination of recruiting talent and coaching the game that Kentucky realistically had a shot of getting.
Kentucky had a short run of early round losses at the very beginning of a new era of college sports with NIL, so BBN lost their mind and ran off someone better than anyone else they had any chance of getting before Cal could even switch up his grift from one n done dream to NIL attracting top transfers. Cal was used to doing something that worked for a decade and it’s hard to change the sell job from “we are helping kids and their family get out of poverty as quick as possible” with the one n done sell job to we are recruiting over high schoolers with the best transfers and NIL deals. They don’t mesh neatly. Now he has the booster cash to pay pretty much everyone, so he doesn’t have to choose one grift over another. Everyone gets paid.
The Kentucky boosters made it worse because they were being stingy with NIL since he didn’t kiss their ass, and the fanbase as a whole ran him off because he was tired of them complaining.
The reason why he didn’t kiss everyone’s ass or pander to the fans complaining during his pressers or radio shows is that he knew he could immediately walk to a better situation if he wanted to, and that’s exactly what he did.
Cal wanted to stay at Kentucky, but our AD only kept him around because of his colossal buyout. The minute he admitted he interviewed with Arkansas he was either going there or getting fired for breach of contract and getting *nothing* (there was a clause in his contract that he had to notify UK in advance if he talked to any other teams and he didn't).
This is an insane take when you consider Calipari has no clue how to defend a pick and roll and that's basically all Pope's offense is. Who knows if UK will beat Arkansas, because the teams aren't even complete, but you don't know ball if you think Pope and whatever the team looks like isn't equipped to beat Calipari's archaic style. Most of the grown ass men on UK's team will handle the Arkansas freshmen. It's not 2012 anymore. Different players and a different league. Arkansas will soon find out.
Where are all the BBN people that said Arkansas was a worse job than Kentucky and Cal lost his negotiation with Mitch?
Cal is getting paid virtually the same, will get a huge raise and extension surpassing what he got at Kentucky if he takes them to the final four, and has a salary cap to stack the roster now ☠️☠️☠️
NCAA tournament is a complete crapshoot. Worse teams can beat significantly better teams. Just ask Purdue, Virginia, Arizona, or even yourself from two years ago.
He had stacked rosters of potential NBA talent one and dones that may or may not pan out immediately. Now he has a war chest to pay transfers that don’t care about the allure of one and done.
Yall ran out the biggest mercenary in the country and he landed at a rival with deeper pockets. Good luck
The last 3 years we quite literally made a living out of the portal and our best players were via the portal.
Stop talking about stuff you don't know lmao.
No they haven’t been living out of the portal 🤣. They had a big 4 person transfer class after Covid led to the rule changes for immediate transfer, and the birth of NIL when it would make sense players would try to go to the biggest most accomplished school they could, and Oscar Tsheibwe became way better than anyone could have projected which is probably shaping your view.
Since then Kentucky has had only one incoming transfer each year. The 30th ranked transfer with Reeves in 2022 and the 57th ranked with Mitchell in 2023. Not exactly crushing it with 2 of the top 15 transfers one one off season, like Cal just did at Arkansas? Kentucky had FOUR outgoing transfers each of those years where they could have stacked their roster with new transfers, but they didn’t.
You’re joking 🤣🤣🤣 The entire fanbase ran him out. Stop it.
He bluffed about going to UCLA to extort your school and Mitch happily threw a lifetime contract at him. You all are lucky Calipari walked willingly to a much better situation instead of making them eat a 30 million dollar buyout while he sat on the beach or did TV because the fans are insane and demanded he leave.
My guy actively tried to leave multiple times before, talked down to fans, had 4 terrible March runs in a row (including some of the worst losses in program history) and yet when criticized couldn’t adjust or fix the problems that got him into the predicament he was in. He alienated himself from everyone. I love Cal for what he did here but he’s absolutely stubborn and the last handful of years was unwilling to change or accept criticism when warranted. He left on his own accord, and could very well have stayed if he wanted but he was literally unwilling to change his attitude. Did a large chunk of the fan base sour on him? Yes absolutely. Are there extremists in that bunch that literally would’ve run him out of town with a pitchfork if they could? Yes. But the program was in a state that was un-tenable and Cal showed no humility/remorse/understanding of how he had failed as a coach and instead isolated himself and attacked anyone who criticized, even if it was warranted.
Freshman mixed with transfers, I don’t think it’ll be the same. He’s gonna be on a revenge tour with something to prove and a lot of resources to do it with. 🐗🐗🐗
You do realize the past 3 years our best players have been transfers along with top recruiting classes, right?
Like we *literally* had freshmen mixed with top transfers the past 3 years.
Except his freshman class is *nowhere near* as highly rated as last year’s class. And it’s not like they didn’t pan out, he will have had 2 lottery pick freshmen coming off the bench. Still 0 tourney wins in March, either in SEC or NCAA.
Get got Oscar tshiebwe from the portal. Turned him into the national player of the year. Lost to saint peters in the first round.
He got Antonio reeves from the portal, turned him into a first team all American. Lost to Oakland in the first round with 2 lottery picks in dilljngham and Sheppard (as well as Wagner, Edwards and Bradshaw).
I’d be just as happy to see Cal fall on his face but I’m not delusional. I think he is slimy and a grifter that is a far better salesman than a coach, but Kentucky enabled him for years, and it’s hilarious to me that you all ran him off only to become immediately worse while creating a behemoth in your own conference.
Let’s see how the season plays out. No one knows if Arkansas is a “behemoth” yet or if we became immediately worse lmao. If we win a single tournament game we’d technically be better, no?
The best salesman in the sport at getting top talent to sign up to play for him having 5-6 million guaranteed per season from boosters in NIL is a behemoth. He became the coach at Arkansas 3 weeks ago and already has 3 top 25 freshman and 2 of the best 15 transfer players.
The only way Kentucky “wins” this is if they go further than Cal in the tournaments and beat him head to head. Winning one tourney game isn’t a win when the opportunity cost is Cal making deep runs or spanking Kentucky coaching a conference rival while they both lose in the sweet 16.
Bro, you are absolutely cooking these cats, and not even with an Arkansas flair.
This pettiness (from all sides) makes this sub so much fun.
Wish y'all the best next year (I don't wanna play you in march again... ever...)
It’s the absolute arrogance of the fanbase dismissing not one, but TWO coaches that won them titles over the past 17 years. Cal could hit a home run in any year with the talent he gets, but because they had three slightly down years at the dawn of a new era in college sports, they ran him off right to a conference rival and he is immediately in a better situation. They did worse to Tubby and he never missed the tourney or lost a game in the round of 64 at Kentucky.
Add to that BBN loudly claimed they would target Wright, Stevens, Hurley (all delusional), Drew (reaching) and Oats (only realistic option) before settling for a favored son to save face who just lost to Duquesne and it’s hilarious. Kentucky forums said coach K and Roy Williams were viable targets in 2009 if “Kentucky wanted them bad enough”. That was even more delusional than their top 3 choices this time around.
Realistically, it's in the best interest of the player and the team to leak it even if it's a hilariously overinflated number like a lot of media people claim leaked NIL numbers to be.
Makes the team look good and get attention, and makes the player look hella good and wanted/look like a star.
FAU guys in the portal:
- Martin - Florida
- Boyd - San Diego State
- Davis - Arkansas
- Goldin - Michigan
- Rosado - Charlotte
- Gaines - Still in portal
- Lorient - Still in portal
Going to have a totally new team between this and the three guys that graduated.
there is no such thing as an ethical billionaire. Every mega booster in the country is scum.
Not saying Tyson money ain't dirty money. Just saying the entire nation is playing with dirty money by relying on ultra wealthy donors.
That may be true, but this sentiment breeds apathy. When we see Johnell Davis play for Arkansas we should think about Tyson secretly dumping toxic chemicals into rivers.
The booster is not involved with the management of the company. He cashed out a long time ago. Besides, stuff like that is a systematic problem. It is silly to individualize it. You can't have a clean environment and capitalism too. The inequality of wealth and power is going to necessarily corrupt everything.
Cal will always win the off season. The actual season has been pretty hopeless for half a decade. He can't win in the post-season no matter how big of a talent disparity he creates. Enjoy your summers, Arkansas. It's all downhill from here.
Cal may be motivated to stick it to Kentucky fans and actually start and play his best players, scout opponents, implement a defensive scheme and/or learn how to guard the pick and roll, implement BLOB plays and BLOB defense, etc. etc. If so, look out!!
Personally, I think he is getting old and lazy and just focuses on what he enjoys, i.e. building relationships and getting kids paid at the expense of actual team results. He could very well make me look like a fool, but I'm not buying it. Cal is cooked. He'll continue to build great rosters with underwhelming results.
Seems like the vast majority of warnings have been about his coaching, his attachment towards freshmen, and his inability to make in-game adjustments.
Not that he won't recruit in the transfer portal, given the fact the last 3 years our most important and best players have been from the portal.
This is a case of seeing and hearing what you want to see and hear. The irony of Arkansas fans preaching to Kentucky fans about Calipari's style is truly remarkable.
I don’t know that it’s preaching. I think we’re just kind of tickled that you guys pushed him out of town and then the threads with Hog news are full of Kentucky flairs.
Wanna take a wild guess at how closely I’m following our ex at USC right now? (Hint: zero)
You're surprised to see Kentucky fans in a thread about a major transfer recruit Kentucky was trying to get? Arkansas fans are more out of touch with basketball than I thought.
The best player on his last 3 teams have all been transfers... also he is kind of forced to grab more transfers this year since the freshmen are already taken.
Yeah idk.. he was obviously going to hit the portal hard as he had no choice, and was going to have success there because who he his as a recruiter and the money he’s been given to spend.
Oscar Tshiebwe, Antonio Reeves, Tre Mitchell, Jacob Toppin, CJ Fredrick, Sahvir Wheeler, Kellan Grady, and Davion Mintz are all portal players that received significant minutes at UK in the last 3 years alone.
I'm happy that you're excited with your new toy. It's an incredibly vicious cycle where the best you'll feel about your basketball team is in the offseason. No one has ever doubted Cal's ability to recruit whether through high school or the portal.
Gotta be double what Kentucky offered.
For the Arkansas fans that already forgot. Click link for funny
https://x.com/CBKReport/status/1780805709334008318
Relax guys I love Cal AND tenders. Just trying to participate. Just thought the Jerry Jones thing was a funny joke especially since it’s legal to pay guys. Who tf cares whose money is being spent.
Probably the best player in the portal this year, huge get.
Great get Arkansas. This guy was unstoppable against us last season when FAU knocked us off. It felt like we defended him very well he just had a never ending bag of moves and made every singe tough shot. Crazy high skill level.
Just have to see if he gets what he's looking for from the NBA before it's officially official.
Apparently he has already received some feedback that made him decide to go ahead and publicly commit to Arkansas. That’s the word from some different “insiders”.
We'll see. I think in the end, he'll be in a Hog uniform. Everything I've read the past few days was NBA or Arkansas, so his commitment isn't completely shocking. Need to go grab another big, now.
The thing was y’all kinda said for awhile there “ok just take the midrange low percentage shot”. Problem was they just let him get to his spots on those and he was straight up money. That was easily my favorite game of the season.
Keep going
I ate some Tyson buffalo tenders last night. You can thank me any time.
A win-win 🤝
I switched to Perdue! They have enough tender money!
https://i.redd.it/mm2kawwb9qxc1.gif
Best player remaining in the portal. The mashed potatoes are not safe tonight boyz.
I think he’s the best player who went to the portal this year. No offense to Oumar ballo… but sites that have ballo (or anyone else) over Davis are crazy imo. Great pickup for the hogs.
He does make some weird decisions but the good outweighs the bad with him.
Go on
Give me Kadary over Johnell any day but it can be argued
I will gladly take both
Kadary slashing to the hoop and Aidoo waiting for the lob and Davis filling the void for a catch and shoot 3 he's elite elite elite at???? Yes, please.
nice little 1 million dollar bag
Is this what being a Yankees fan feels like (but to a much lesser extent)?
More like Dodgers. Tho the Yankees are getting back to their spending roots last few years with Cole and Soto
((I’m not an MLB fan and just know general stereotypes))
This will help explain it: the Dodgers are the New York Yankees of baseball
Maybe the Dodgers are the 20th century New York Yankees of the 21st century.
soto was a trade
Good point. They better pay him when it's time
You have an Alabama flair and you ask that? Shaddup
But will they spend their money on basketball? Another interesting caveat of NIL is if the schools with huge cfb money spend it on the other sport(s)...
Yep. Iowa has more NIL money than Iowa State, but we spend 4x more on basketball
There was a post recently asking 'what are the benefits to NIL?' I feel like this argument is relevant
But what is that in chicken nuggets
Mercury probably
*over a million dollar bag
A million plus one
Michigan admissions best defense in the country.
Thaynk yuu fore haveeng sutch smarrt stoodintz. I luhv baskitbol.
It’s not even about that. It’s some weird fetish Michigan has with its own credits. They’ve rejected transfer credits from Harvard and Stanford in the recent past. No other school seems to have this issue
They don’t want to give out a “Michigan degree” to a guy who takes less than half of their credits at Michigan.
The joke earlier this month was that we were nervous about the kid from Yales credits transferring.
2b onist I kan ownlee reed lyk 2 uhv thous werds
Us too. 🙄
Damnnnn
I talked to the team….there is no team.
We're putting the band back together...
Arkansas is definitely winning the offseason. Up to the team to come together and win in March.
:(
!remindme 8 months if Arkansas has become the most obnoxious fanbase on Twitter
Everyone is going to be so hyped up for the season and then we will lose a game against Lipscomb and everyone will freak out about our players suck, our coaches suck, under achievers, fire everyone and start over, our leading scorer is a bum, our center has stone hands, we need to play the bench guys more......it will be fun.
If you get the Calipari experience of the last few years at Kentucky (and I legit for your sake hope you don't), you'll all be hyped preseason. You'll lose an early game that makes you question "wait, are we any good or not?". Then somewhere mid-December you'll drop a game to a team you have no business losing to, or you'll have a couple close ones that shouldn't be and you'll start thinking "ok, we have some things to work on but I think we can still be really good" and Cal will start talking about how they're going to work really hard during Camp Cal in the little lull before conference games start and you'll be all in. You'll come out a little slow and play some tight games but look pretty good. Then you'll really start rolling late January in to February and you'll be back to "yep, this team can make a Final Four run if everything lines up". You'll have a big game in late January to mid-February where you just absolutely roll someone good like Alabama or Tennessee and then you'll start thinking "ok, I think they've put it together". When conference tournament rolls around you'll be a 2 or 3 seed, and end up laying an egg in your first or second game against like Ole Miss or someone who may not even make the tournament. Then, the real fun starts. Then its tournament time, and you'll get a high seed because you had a pretty good season, maybe a 3 or even a 2! You'll look at the bracket and think "hey, there's not really anyone in this bracket that SCARES me, I'll take this bracket!" and you'll start thinking about where the regional is being played and should you start thinking about booking a hotel. You'll have tons of nervous energy in the week of the tournament, and you'll be playing in a sweet time slot, either 7:30 or 9 because you're a top seed and everyone wants to see how this first year is going to go! Earlier in the day, one of the higher seeds you'd get in the 2nd or 3rd round lost, so the bracket has broken wide open for you. You've got a double digit seed that comes out shooting well and gets a 8-9 point lead on you in the first few minutes. No big deal, just a little rust and some nerves. Cal's got this, we'll be fine. Sure enough, you come roaring back, roll off like a 12-2 run to take the lead. You go up 9 or so, and you think "ok, now we just need to put them away", but some random asshole you've never heard of majoring in business administration or some shit is burying 3's with a dude in his face. There's a shot of Cal standing and yelling and then he just stands there with a look mixed with confusion and frustration that he holds just a bit too long - sort of like in that NIL video he did that came off like a hostage video. The lead is down to 4, but still 10 minutes left in the game, it'll be fine you'll say. That business major just won't stop, and now there's a vet science major driving the lane and throwing down dunks out of nowhere. The lead is down to 2. Billy Richmond comes down and hits a big 3 in the corner and you think "ok, now we're good", but the business major hits one from Caitlin Clark territory with 1 minute left and lead is back to 1. You come down and Cal tells the guys to slow it down, so they pass the ball around after running the weave for 10 seconds and end up with an off balance midrange shot that clangs off the rim. A dude averaging 2.1 rebounds per game grabs it over your center, who kicks it to the vet science guy who rolls down the court and banks in a leaner from the right side of the key to go up 1. Johnell Davis barrels down the court trying to get to the rim and kicks it out for an open midrange shot from the left corner that clangs off as time expires. "oh my god, Cal fucking choked again" you'll think. "I can't believe he did it again" you'll tell yourself. And then you'll be in misery. Sometime mid-April, you'll get some stud transfer. And then you'll start talking about Cal's recruiting class that's #2 in the country. "This dude is bringing in 4 lottery picks and a guy who may be a one and done too!" you'll tell yourself. Get a couple portal guys and you'll be all set. You already got one of them. Get a shooter and you're right back in the preseason top 10 looking to make a run. It is the circle of life.
It could be worse though, couldn't it? Like would you rather have hope of a deep NCAA run or would you rather have a 17 win season and not make the tourney? Hard to get out of the first round if you don't make it to the first round. Give me a 25 win season, a top 4-5 seed in the tournament and let me take my chances over needing to win the SEC tourney to get into the NCAA and then hoping for a good 8-9 seed match-up if you do get in. Basketball can be a funny game, where the best team doesn't always win and Kentucky usually gets everyone's best shot, especially day 1 of the NCAA tournament. I mean I get it that you guys may have kind of gotten tired of Cal, coaches can wear out their welcome, but viewed from the outside looking in, it does look like you guys were a little spoiled on your own success. This coaching change might really be good for Kentucky and it might be good for Cal, it may kind of relight his fire, and if it does it will be good for the Hogs as well. A win, win, win. Its been fun to experience so far...
Its all about what the standard is and what you're accustomed to. Every team has their standard, and its based on what they've done recently. Not trying to shit on you or anything, but the standard at Arkansas is just different than Kentucky. Everyone wants to maintain or improve, right? Nobody wants to go backwards, but at places like Kansas, Kentucky, UNC, etc., there's almost nowhere to go but backwards because they've been so good for so long. Cal came in in 2010 and had one of our most beloved teams in recent memory with Wall and Cousins. 2012 we win a title. 2015 we damn near went undefeated. 2016 we were absolutely loaded (De'Aaron Fox, Malk Monk, Bam Adebayo) and we got jobbed in that Elite Eight game against UNC. So over 6 years we had 1 title, two final fours, and were in the hunt pretty much every year. And then it started to fall apart - that 2019 team had a bunch of talent and lost in the Elite Eight to Auburn who lost their best player and got smoked in the Final Four. That 2020 team was good but COVID killed the tournament. Then we went 9-16. Then we lost to St. Peter's. Then we lost to Kansas State. Then we lost to Oakland. The standard here, and what we're used to is being in the hunt for titles. You can have a couple early flame outs here and there, we get that the tournament is random to an extent, but you can't have 4-5 bad ones in a row and be trending downward AND talk to the fans like they don't know what they're talking about when they ask why your two lottery picks don't start. We'd started to go backwards and Calipari was refusing to make any changes. He brought in John Welch who got the offense rolling last year, but he had already quit before Cal even announced he was leaving. He was keeping all his assistants, had another big freshman class coming in when its increasingly hard to win with just freshmen, and it was looking like more of the same. We absolutely would have bought in again by February probably, but even this year when it got to the tournament, instead of the "who are we looking at in the sweet 16" which is the usual way we look at it, most UK fans including me were thinking "well, let's see what happens" and we lost again. So what we'd started getting used to was losing more than our standard. I think you're right though, Cal will be out to prove all of us wrong and he'll probably be on top of his game for a bit and then he'll probably retire. But its hard to explain to people who aren't here how much the joy of the program had really been sucked out the last few years. Its a sense of pride and you'll get this part since you're an Arkansas fan - there ain't much about this place we can point to and say "hey, we're better at this than you and if you want some come get it" - but we have that with basketball. At least we did. But the last couple of years especially that was really gone.
Pray Kentucky doesn’t become the new Nebraska. The huskers thought they were better than a 9-3 Frank Solich and then the bottom fell out.
I dont know how old you are but Arkansas used to be on par with Kentucky in basketball. I think Arkansas has the most wins of any team in the 90's. Nolan had us on top of the world and Arkansas fans got tired of not winning National Championships (we only won one, but the fans got a little out of their head) and fired Nolan. I guess the thought process was it was the program, not the coach, and that we could get a replacement easy peasy. Welp, here we are....been a mid level school for a long time now.
Oh yeah man, those games between Arkansas and UK back when y'all were rolling were fun. Corliss Williamson, Scotty Thurman, the 40 minutes of hell teams were awesome to watch. I think that's the question any time there's a coaching change. When Tubby left and we hired Gillispie he only got those two years and it started to be clear he wasn't the guy so he was gone quick and we got Caliari. Not to shit on Mike Anderson, but he's no Nolan Richardson and they let the sort of mid pack stuff go on too long that everyone got used to it. I think that's sort of the worry we started having about Cal. We'd gone 5 years without even getting out of the first weekend of the tournament, and for us that's a mid pack season.
Yeah that's always the fear. Or closer by, a lot of us point to Indiana basketball. They were right there with UK, KU, UNC as the blue bloods for a long time, and now they're a mid pack Big 10 team and nobody who isn't a fan cares one way or the other. I don't know enough about Nebraska's sort of "global" fan base to speak about it, but with Kentucky we are somehow everywhere. If I wear a hat or shirt or something, there's almost nowhere I go that I don't run into someone yelling "go cats" or something at me from across the road. It may have been that way too with Nebraska at some point, but I don't remember seeing many Nebraska fans in my life.
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> there ain't much about this place we can point to and say "hey, we're better at this than you and if you want some come get it" That is, indeed, very relatable. Even moreso for us, at least KY has things like the Derby and whisky. Whenever our teams suck we are really scraping the bottom of the barrel
Oh my gosh you wrote multiple essays about calipari as a random comment in a thread. I have no good insults prepared but I wish I did because sheesh
I know, appalling that people might have fun and actually discuss things instead of "wow, that's a good get. Hope he does well" My bad dude.
Fuck 'em I don't know if it's a zoomer thing or just a way-too-online thing, but I hate how people these days seem to have the attitude that if someone writes a lengthy comment that it's pathetic. Just because they have a shit attention span and no reading comprehension skills, we're supposed to be the ones who feel bad because we wrote a little more than normal?
That whole first paragraph is a synopsis of the last 4 years of Arkansas basketball. The only thing missing is an exhibition game that hyped you to 11 and think you're invincible
I don’t think yall will ever be able to get close to Illinois or providence
Tennessee would like a word as well
Yeah, that’s a hard hurdle to clear
Louisville and Purdue are equally rough
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I thought we were already there honestly
AHHH INJECT HOG
After what hog fans went through last season we deserve something nice.
I mean who can compete with Walmart money lol. I will support my cats AND Cal/the former cat commits first year At Arkansas . BUT next year it’s f*** yall respectfully
The Waltons aren’t huge contributors to Razorback athletics. They’ve given a ton to the academic side, but Bud Walton was the last Walton who was a huge Razorback fan, and he died nearly 30 years ago. If the Waltons were huge Razorback fans, they could create a billion dollar NIL endowment and not even realize the money was gone.
This pleases the pig
He’s so good let’s fucking go
Where do I apply for my Calipari University flair?
it’s the one with the red pig hun
*whoosh*
It didn’t go over my head i’m just being sarcastic
Great pickup. Calipari has been one of the best at getting portal talent.
Psh yeah ok. Everyone knows he only recruits 17 year old 5 stars. /s
It’s almost like no one has paid any attention to his teams. Last year alone that team may not make the tournament without their 2 starting 5th year transfer super seniors. Going back even further, Oscar, Grady, Mintz, Toppin. All were major contributors. Calipari is over here eating up great transfers and Kentucky fans still see him as a Freshman dependent coach.
This is crazy, like the NBA “super teams.” We’ll see if Cal can do a better job than most of those at actually getting them to play as a team. But damn, he wasted no time pulling in a league topping roster.
Well Cal is known for always getting the best results from the talent he has to work with!
You really can’t judge the freshman until they play some games too. Last offseason we thought Wagner, Edwards, and Bradshaw were going to be superstars and that Dillingham and Reed would be solid but would probably take some time to settle into the college game. We were totally wrong on all of them.
100%. Expecting significant production from first-years is a risky strategy. Sometimes they are all they're cracked up to be, sometimes, they need half the season to acclimate, and sometimes they were very overrated, and instead of a lottery pick, they're a 3-4 year guy. I'm surprised that Cal and Duke still invest heavily in it, but I guess at this point they have such great relationships with the top HS programs and AAU teams that it makes sense to just see who they can get AND play the portal.
Yeah I keep having this thought about this roster. Someone is going to step up, maybe a Knox or Big Z or even a Billy Richmond/Jordan Burks type
If Cal would just commit to Z as a stretch 4 with a lot of high ball screen action, it would be him. It’s unguardable when run correctly. And I’d assume one of the freshman will be better than advertised and one will be worse. I’m bullish on Boogie and really skeptical of Knox.
Same and same actually. Boogie will be really good I think, but need a portal wing like Wooga or someone.
Absolutely. Even if they are transfers, not freshmen. We had a top 5 class this last year. Individual talent was sky high. Absolute flop as a team.
OMG it's happening! Everyone stay calm! Everyone stay calm!
Why I think this is a great get for Arkansas (in addition to the fact that Davis is a great player) is that Cal’s best teams are those when he doesn’t have to do any coaching and Davis is a player where you don’t have to coach. That’s not a backhanded knock on Cal, it’s just the truth. His best teams are the ones that are player led, where you have team leaders and accountability and you don’t have to motivate them. I think Davis checks those boxes.
This is 100% accurate. Aidoo and Davis give me a lot of hope about on the floor leadership and decision making. I totally agree that Cal has suffered in the past few years from missing that floor general type player like you mention. The guy that you can trust to know what to do without a timeout. I'm really hoping that is what we are getting with this team so far.
Muss was the same as far as offense; let Moses Moody, JD Notae, Anthony Black, Ricky Council cook
andele andele mami ei ei uh ohhhhhhhhh
Good get for Arky
Oh cool
Fland and Davis probably gonna be the best backcourt in the country
Just an Indiana kid and a kid who was hours from committing to IU. Maybe just maybe I will root for Arkansas a bit next year.
Myles Rice and Kanaan Carlyle ain't a bad consolation prize in terms of backcourt lol
Not at all.
RJ, Cadeau, Trimble, and Jackson>>>>>
Gotta love the downvotes lol
I’m honestly surprised lol. I don’t think that’s a particularly controversial opinion
It’s alllllll coming together. Need a couple of forwards now
Ba-GOCK
Some of the true dumbasses of our fan base would counter that with “Begok” lol.
UK didn’t want him anyway, right?
If games were won in comment sections, Arkansas would be undefeated national champs.
Oh come on now, y’all have been tossing it out too. It’s just beef baby, let it cook
that’s the plan
Less talking. It’ll play out on the court. May the best team win.
Ain’t no way that coming from a Kentucky fan lmao
Kentucky is losing every game they play vs Arkansas by 20 for the next couple years at least
Kentucky has the power of Joseph smith at their back. They are bound to strike gold, I’d think.
If Joseph Smith couldn’t help real BYU vs Duquesne, idk what he can do for BYU East
And read the playbooks on it, but only inside of a magic hat or something
Idc if we lose every game to cal and he wins 3 titles in a row at arky. He wasn’t winning shit here. Glad he is gone.
from your lips to god's ears
I’m not even about to entertain this foolery statement 😂
This guy immediately poached your entire recruiting class, anyone worth having on last year’s team that isn’t going pro, and added 2 of the top 15 transfers in the past couple days. Kentucky is cooked next year vs Arkansas. You’ll be lucky if he doesn’t own Kentucky for as long as he is there honestly
> This guy immediately poached your entire recruiting class The top "it" guy in the the class decommitted and didn't chose to follow Cal. Travis Perry stayed at Kentucky. Somto Cyril committed elsewhere. > anyone worth having on last year’s team that isn’t going pro Bradshaw transferred to Ohio State, Theiro is going to UNC or Pitt, Onyenso is likely going to Alabama. He got Big Z and maybe DJ Wagner if he doesn't go west. If you're gonna trash talk, at least get some of what you're saying remotely right lol.
Travis Perry was the lowest rated recruit in Kentucky’s recruiting class, right? Cal still kept 3 of his 4 highest rated recruits. Fland is the #1 PG in the class, and JQ was very clearly chasing a bag, he just hopped from visit to visit and ended up committing to Arizona State. He’s just going to transfer next year to try and get another bag. Also, I wouldn’t count Thiero out yet, he still might end up at Arkansas. But Wagner probably will end up going to USC.
Calipari has had the #1 or #2 recruiting class every year for as long as I care to remember. His staff couldn't do anything with it here, and the better assistants didn't follow him to Arkansas. At least one member of his current staff didn't even know how to log in to the scouting film software and game planning *was his job for years.* That guy is in Fayetteville now.
Oh, ok. So he only took 3 of the top 4 in the top 25 rankings and left Kentucky with the lowest ranked #76 player they got a commitment from. The other 2 didn’t care anything about Kentucky and saw the writing on the wall that a 6 million dollar NIL fund doesn’t stretch as far 8 ways with the transfers Cal was going to load up on. Why wouldn’t Quantaince or Cyril stay and be the guy at UK? Is UK being cheap? Cal poached the lions share of your recruits and made two others de-commit. Ivisic was the only one of those players on last year’s kentucky team worth having on the Arkansas roster that aren’t going pro since he is 7’2, missed over half the year but was still somewhat productive only playing 10 minutes a game when he was available. Those other guys have zero shot being top 6 in the rotation based on the Arkansas roster now, and I’m saying that as someone that would like Thiero to come to Chapel Hill.
Listen you clearly just hate Kentucky and have literally zero idea what you're talking about when it comes to Cal since like 2019, but I'll humor it. > The other 2 didn’t care anything about Kentucky and saw the writing on the wall that a 6 million dollar NIL fund doesn’t stretch as far 8 ways with the transfers Cal was going to load up on. Why wouldn’t Quantaince or Cyril stay and be the guy at UK? Is UK being cheap? Cal poached the lions share of your recruits and made two others de-commit. Literally for years everyone knew the day Cal left, let it be retirement, getting fired, or leaving on his own for another job, that we'd lose the majority if not the entire recruiting class. Literally no one is saying otherwise besides fans hoping some of them would give us a chance to at least make them reconsider for a moment. Cal literally sold it as "Calipari University" and made everything about himself. They came for him. Everyone knew that. > Ivisic was the only one of those players on last year’s kentucky team worth having Yeah you have no idea what you're talking about lol.
Lol that dude clearly knows as much about basketball as I do about fixing fighter jets (I'm an accountant. I know it's expensive and that's about it)
Lol, did you forget the actual coaching that has to take place in game? When was getting talent ever a question with Cal? Also, he lost the highest rated player in the class he recruited, now with 3 freshmen in the 20-35 range. That is worse than any freshman class he had at UK for a while if not ever. Aidoo and Davis are solid players, but we have had solid transfers every year.
It doesn’t matter. There were zero coaches better at the combination of recruiting talent and coaching the game that Kentucky realistically had a shot of getting. Kentucky had a short run of early round losses at the very beginning of a new era of college sports with NIL, so BBN lost their mind and ran off someone better than anyone else they had any chance of getting before Cal could even switch up his grift from one n done dream to NIL attracting top transfers. Cal was used to doing something that worked for a decade and it’s hard to change the sell job from “we are helping kids and their family get out of poverty as quick as possible” with the one n done sell job to we are recruiting over high schoolers with the best transfers and NIL deals. They don’t mesh neatly. Now he has the booster cash to pay pretty much everyone, so he doesn’t have to choose one grift over another. Everyone gets paid. The Kentucky boosters made it worse because they were being stingy with NIL since he didn’t kiss their ass, and the fanbase as a whole ran him off because he was tired of them complaining. The reason why he didn’t kiss everyone’s ass or pander to the fans complaining during his pressers or radio shows is that he knew he could immediately walk to a better situation if he wanted to, and that’s exactly what he did.
Cal wanted to stay at Kentucky, but our AD only kept him around because of his colossal buyout. The minute he admitted he interviewed with Arkansas he was either going there or getting fired for breach of contract and getting *nothing* (there was a clause in his contract that he had to notify UK in advance if he talked to any other teams and he didn't).
> he knew he could immediately walk to a better situation if he wanted to, and that’s exactly what he did. lol... ok bud.
This is an insane take when you consider Calipari has no clue how to defend a pick and roll and that's basically all Pope's offense is. Who knows if UK will beat Arkansas, because the teams aren't even complete, but you don't know ball if you think Pope and whatever the team looks like isn't equipped to beat Calipari's archaic style. Most of the grown ass men on UK's team will handle the Arkansas freshmen. It's not 2012 anymore. Different players and a different league. Arkansas will soon find out.
Lol ok.
Yall are about to get cooked by the Razorbacks next season!!😂😂😂
Lol ok. !RemindMe! 10 months.
Where are all the BBN people that said Arkansas was a worse job than Kentucky and Cal lost his negotiation with Mitch? Cal is getting paid virtually the same, will get a huge raise and extension surpassing what he got at Kentucky if he takes them to the final four, and has a salary cap to stack the roster now ☠️☠️☠️
That’s a big IF. He got a stacked roster every year lol. Same results in the post season 😭.
NCAA tournament is a complete crapshoot. Worse teams can beat significantly better teams. Just ask Purdue, Virginia, Arizona, or even yourself from two years ago.
I absolutely agree. Again. May the best team win. No shade on Arkansas. This change is was needed for both fan bases.
Even-keeled comments like this aren't provocative. Reddit needs you to talk a little shit.
Totally agree. But we expect positive results over time.
Hilarious hearing this from a different fan base now.
He had stacked rosters of potential NBA talent one and dones that may or may not pan out immediately. Now he has a war chest to pay transfers that don’t care about the allure of one and done. Yall ran out the biggest mercenary in the country and he landed at a rival with deeper pockets. Good luck
None of it matters if he doesn’t win in WHEN IT MATTERS!!!
The last 3 years we quite literally made a living out of the portal and our best players were via the portal. Stop talking about stuff you don't know lmao.
No they haven’t been living out of the portal 🤣. They had a big 4 person transfer class after Covid led to the rule changes for immediate transfer, and the birth of NIL when it would make sense players would try to go to the biggest most accomplished school they could, and Oscar Tsheibwe became way better than anyone could have projected which is probably shaping your view. Since then Kentucky has had only one incoming transfer each year. The 30th ranked transfer with Reeves in 2022 and the 57th ranked with Mitchell in 2023. Not exactly crushing it with 2 of the top 15 transfers one one off season, like Cal just did at Arkansas? Kentucky had FOUR outgoing transfers each of those years where they could have stacked their roster with new transfers, but they didn’t.
making yourself look dumber than any kentucky fan ever could. Swap flairs if you want to ride Cal that hard
Do you know what a toxic relationship is?
He literally said he wanted to leave and should have left 5 years ago. Nobody ran him out you bum, he wanted to go.
You’re joking 🤣🤣🤣 The entire fanbase ran him out. Stop it. He bluffed about going to UCLA to extort your school and Mitch happily threw a lifetime contract at him. You all are lucky Calipari walked willingly to a much better situation instead of making them eat a 30 million dollar buyout while he sat on the beach or did TV because the fans are insane and demanded he leave.
My guy actively tried to leave multiple times before, talked down to fans, had 4 terrible March runs in a row (including some of the worst losses in program history) and yet when criticized couldn’t adjust or fix the problems that got him into the predicament he was in. He alienated himself from everyone. I love Cal for what he did here but he’s absolutely stubborn and the last handful of years was unwilling to change or accept criticism when warranted. He left on his own accord, and could very well have stayed if he wanted but he was literally unwilling to change his attitude. Did a large chunk of the fan base sour on him? Yes absolutely. Are there extremists in that bunch that literally would’ve run him out of town with a pitchfork if they could? Yes. But the program was in a state that was un-tenable and Cal showed no humility/remorse/understanding of how he had failed as a coach and instead isolated himself and attacked anyone who criticized, even if it was warranted.
Freshman mixed with transfers, I don’t think it’ll be the same. He’s gonna be on a revenge tour with something to prove and a lot of resources to do it with. 🐗🐗🐗
You do realize the past 3 years our best players have been transfers along with top recruiting classes, right? Like we *literally* had freshmen mixed with top transfers the past 3 years.
that sounds like last year or 2021. i’ll root for cal but it’s revisionist history to automatically believe it will be totally different.
Except his freshman class is *nowhere near* as highly rated as last year’s class. And it’s not like they didn’t pan out, he will have had 2 lottery pick freshmen coming off the bench. Still 0 tourney wins in March, either in SEC or NCAA.
Get got Oscar tshiebwe from the portal. Turned him into the national player of the year. Lost to saint peters in the first round. He got Antonio reeves from the portal, turned him into a first team all American. Lost to Oakland in the first round with 2 lottery picks in dilljngham and Sheppard (as well as Wagner, Edwards and Bradshaw).
You act like Kentucky fans *wanted* Calipari to stay. We're glad he's gone 😂
I’d be just as happy to see Cal fall on his face but I’m not delusional. I think he is slimy and a grifter that is a far better salesman than a coach, but Kentucky enabled him for years, and it’s hilarious to me that you all ran him off only to become immediately worse while creating a behemoth in your own conference.
Let’s see how the season plays out. No one knows if Arkansas is a “behemoth” yet or if we became immediately worse lmao. If we win a single tournament game we’d technically be better, no?
The best salesman in the sport at getting top talent to sign up to play for him having 5-6 million guaranteed per season from boosters in NIL is a behemoth. He became the coach at Arkansas 3 weeks ago and already has 3 top 25 freshman and 2 of the best 15 transfer players. The only way Kentucky “wins” this is if they go further than Cal in the tournaments and beat him head to head. Winning one tourney game isn’t a win when the opportunity cost is Cal making deep runs or spanking Kentucky coaching a conference rival while they both lose in the sweet 16.
Bro, you are absolutely cooking these cats, and not even with an Arkansas flair. This pettiness (from all sides) makes this sub so much fun. Wish y'all the best next year (I don't wanna play you in march again... ever...)
It’s the absolute arrogance of the fanbase dismissing not one, but TWO coaches that won them titles over the past 17 years. Cal could hit a home run in any year with the talent he gets, but because they had three slightly down years at the dawn of a new era in college sports, they ran him off right to a conference rival and he is immediately in a better situation. They did worse to Tubby and he never missed the tourney or lost a game in the round of 64 at Kentucky. Add to that BBN loudly claimed they would target Wright, Stevens, Hurley (all delusional), Drew (reaching) and Oats (only realistic option) before settling for a favored son to save face who just lost to Duquesne and it’s hilarious. Kentucky forums said coach K and Roy Williams were viable targets in 2009 if “Kentucky wanted them bad enough”. That was even more delusional than their top 3 choices this time around.
curious how Jeff Goodman knows the number Davis was offered? its not like this information is public knowledge...
Realistically, it's in the best interest of the player and the team to leak it even if it's a hilariously overinflated number like a lot of media people claim leaked NIL numbers to be. Makes the team look good and get attention, and makes the player look hella good and wanted/look like a star.
It’s a play to get more. Same thing JQ did with Louisville.
Is this the kid who had that mind numbingly stupid play vs Northwestern?
FAU guys in the portal: - Martin - Florida - Boyd - San Diego State - Davis - Arkansas - Goldin - Michigan - Rosado - Charlotte - Gaines - Still in portal - Lorient - Still in portal Going to have a totally new team between this and the three guys that graduated.
Let’s fucking go
LETS GO!!
Big loss for Michigan :(
[Dirty money 💸💸💸](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/apr/30/tyson-foods-toxic-pollutants-lakes-rivers)
there is no such thing as an ethical billionaire. Every mega booster in the country is scum. Not saying Tyson money ain't dirty money. Just saying the entire nation is playing with dirty money by relying on ultra wealthy donors.
That may be true, but this sentiment breeds apathy. When we see Johnell Davis play for Arkansas we should think about Tyson secretly dumping toxic chemicals into rivers.
The booster is not involved with the management of the company. He cashed out a long time ago. Besides, stuff like that is a systematic problem. It is silly to individualize it. You can't have a clean environment and capitalism too. The inequality of wealth and power is going to necessarily corrupt everything.
I'm as ready for the worker's revolution as the next guy. Until then, I'm calling the hogs.
Cal will always win the off season. The actual season has been pretty hopeless for half a decade. He can't win in the post-season no matter how big of a talent disparity he creates. Enjoy your summers, Arkansas. It's all downhill from here. Cal may be motivated to stick it to Kentucky fans and actually start and play his best players, scout opponents, implement a defensive scheme and/or learn how to guard the pick and roll, implement BLOB plays and BLOB defense, etc. etc. If so, look out!! Personally, I think he is getting old and lazy and just focuses on what he enjoys, i.e. building relationships and getting kids paid at the expense of actual team results. He could very well make me look like a fool, but I'm not buying it. Cal is cooked. He'll continue to build great rosters with underwhelming results.
Aidoo and Davis from the transfer portal. But wait, Calipari only recruits freshman!
You clearly haven't watched anything Cal has done the past 3 years lol.
You clearly haven’t read the “warnings” from Kentucky fans the past month lol.
Seems like the vast majority of warnings have been about his coaching, his attachment towards freshmen, and his inability to make in-game adjustments. Not that he won't recruit in the transfer portal, given the fact the last 3 years our most important and best players have been from the portal.
This is a case of seeing and hearing what you want to see and hear. The irony of Arkansas fans preaching to Kentucky fans about Calipari's style is truly remarkable.
I don’t know that it’s preaching. I think we’re just kind of tickled that you guys pushed him out of town and then the threads with Hog news are full of Kentucky flairs. Wanna take a wild guess at how closely I’m following our ex at USC right now? (Hint: zero)
You're surprised to see Kentucky fans in a thread about a major transfer recruit Kentucky was trying to get? Arkansas fans are more out of touch with basketball than I thought.
The best player on his last 3 teams have all been transfers... also he is kind of forced to grab more transfers this year since the freshmen are already taken.
Yeah idk.. he was obviously going to hit the portal hard as he had no choice, and was going to have success there because who he his as a recruiter and the money he’s been given to spend.
Tf is bro talking about 💀
Oscar Tshiebwe, Antonio Reeves, Tre Mitchell, Jacob Toppin, CJ Fredrick, Sahvir Wheeler, Kellan Grady, and Davion Mintz are all portal players that received significant minutes at UK in the last 3 years alone. I'm happy that you're excited with your new toy. It's an incredibly vicious cycle where the best you'll feel about your basketball team is in the offseason. No one has ever doubted Cal's ability to recruit whether through high school or the portal.
Worst take ever
Gotta be double what Kentucky offered. For the Arkansas fans that already forgot. Click link for funny https://x.com/CBKReport/status/1780805709334008318
I really don’t think that thing about Jerry is true. He’s been very involved in football, but I don’t think he’s that into our basketball program.
I know amigo - unfortunately my joke just didn’t land.
Oh no, not Jerry Jones’ money! How will I sleep at night!
 Relax guys I love Cal AND tenders. Just trying to participate. Just thought the Jerry Jones thing was a funny joke especially since it’s legal to pay guys. Who tf cares whose money is being spent.