There were high hopes and expectations for the Arkansas Razorbacks as they began their conference play under John Calipari. Needless to say, things didn’t get off to the best of starts.
The Razorbacks hit the road to face the Tennessee Volunteers at Knoxville. They wound up losing 52-76, and the veteran coach couldn’t be more angry at his players.
Following the defeat, Calipari didn’t mince his words about his players and the way they approached this game, going as far as to say that multiple guys were ‘no-shows.’
John Calipari calls his players ‘no-shows’ after loss to Tennessee
“The one thing I would do different in this game,” Calipari angrily said. “And all night, I tossed and turned. We didn’t do a shootaround today. And I just felt our body time is new pretty early. If I had to do it over again, we would have had a shootaround. Because we had three or four guys basically no-show. So basically, they slept, had breakfast.”
Arkansas didn’t have a lot of time to rest after taking down Oakland on December 30, just five days before their SEC showdown. Even so, Calipari won’t make up excuses.
Of course, we’re also talking about the No. 1 team in the nation, so there should be no shame in losing to Tennessee. Still, the Hogs won’t get very far with that kind of effort.