The Arkansas basketball team could be the best team in the country. 

The Arkansas basketball team could underachieve and sneak into the NCAA Tournament. 

One game into the exhibition season – not the regular season, mind you, the exhibition season – and fans across the SEC have concrete ideas on how the Razorbacks will fare in their first season with John Calipari at the helm. Well, when I write “the SEC,” I mean Kentucky. Kentucky basketball fans definitely have thoughts about the Hogs.

Quelle surprise. 

No one of right mind is going to apply Arkansas’ 85-69 win over preseason No. 1 Kansas with too broad a brush. Exhibition games mean nothing even under the best of circumstances. Considering the Jayhawks were without All-American center Hunter Dickinson (among others), a man on the shortlist for national player of the year honors, it would be even more silly to suggest the Hogs are national championship favorites now.

Kentucky Basketball Fans Are Scared Pre Halloween

One particular fan on Kentucky’s Rivals message board put it perfectly.

“Good lord,” the user wrote. “Kentucky fan base was united. All it took was 10 minutes of an Arkansas scrimmage to get people to piss their pants about how good Arkansas is gonna be. Its fool’s gold people. The only bad thing is how annoying their fans will be because they don’t realize it yet.”

Somehow, the poster both gave slight praise and plenty of backhand to their old coach’s new team. The central idea isn’t wrong, even if it’s articulated poorly: Arkansas is good, but it’s unclear how good.

The “good” parts of Arkansas’ ostensible scrimmage were quite good. 

DJ Wagner looked like a superstar. The former Wildcats guard was 8 of 12 from the floor in scoring a team-high 24 points while mixing in a pair of 3-pointers, something that hadn’t been generally among his strengths, with strong penetration as he got to the line for eight free throws, burying six of them. 

The sophomore’s ability to play off the ball may be massive as freshman guard Boogie Fland showed out from the point. Fland scored 22 points on 8 of 15 shooting and doled out five assists, too. If he can control the pace of the game and be the team’s primary ball-handler in his first year out of high school, watch out.

Another Kentucky fan was quick to give that duo props.

“Wagner and Fland look very very good against inarguably the best defensive backcourt in the country,” they wrote, quick to provide a counter by also calling the game a “nothingburger.”

Arkansas Basketball Not Yet at Full Strength

Not everything was golden, though. Johnell Davis, who Kansas coach Bill Self called one of the best guard transfers in the country, did not look completely recovered from a wrist injury just yet. He played 25 minutes but scored just five points on 2-of-9 shooting, including a 1-of-6 mark from 3-point range. And, actually, Arkansas was bad from distance the whole night, going just 6 of 24, as Fland was also just 1 of 6. 

Arkansas isn’t likely to have so many calls go its way, either. The chances the Hogs outshoot their opponents from the free-throw line by 18 more attempts on a regular basis are nil. 

Rebounding left a bit to be desired as Kansas racked up 13 second-chance points. Arkansas doesn’t have a true minutes-eating, body-up interior presence while center Jonas Aidoo, a Tennessee transfer, is out. Zvonimir Ivisic may be 7-feet-2, but six rebounds and one block is indicative of where he spent time on the court. 

The question is, when Arkansas gets fully healthy, if it can all gel. Eric Musselman made custom-built rosters in Fayetteville work for three seasons before things fell apart at the seams last season. Calipari is famous, however, for collecting individual pieces and getting them to fit. In the regular season, anyway. 

That makes what another Kentucky poster said quite funny:

“Well this will be a fun year. Arkansas fans have lucked into some relevancy (sic) after taking up our sloppy seconds. So naturally they will be here to rub whatever success they have in our face, literally for no reason.”

In the last four years, Arkansas has three Sweet 16s, an Elite Eight and one season one game under .500. Kentucky has one season seven games under .500 and three NCAA Tournament appearances with two first-round losses and a second-round defeat. Seems that particular poster needs some self-reflection when it comes to – ahem – relevancy.

Arkansas has been loaded with future NBA players during that span, as has Kentucky. In fact, they may be the two most successful college teams when it comes to producing such. Derek Johnson, who runs Kansas’ Locked on Jayhawks podcast, admitted the Razorbacks had the advantage in this key area.

John Calipari Collects Talent and Grows It

“If you’re just going with the pure talent of the Kansas roster versus the Arkansas roster, if you’re looking at it from an NBA perspective, say for instance, maybe you go with the Arkansas roster, but what is the advantage that Kansas has? They have the best coach in college basketball in Bill Self,” Johnson said. “That’s not going to give as much of an advantage in the first game when you’re not running all your plays and figuring out your defensive system probably a little bit more.”

While one could quibble with the remark Self is the best coach in the sport, anyone unwilling to hear that argument is goofy. Bill Self has proven himself a master tactician and has the resume to back it up. Coaching needs talent. Talent needs coaching. Both Kansas and Arkansas have the traits in spades, though Johnson suggested Self kept things close to the vest and didn’t run the look he will in the regular season.

Is the suggestion that Calipari did? Silly “my team had a bad day and yours had a good day” stuff.

Frankly, my favorite take from a Kentucky fan after the Arkansas basketball and Kansas basketball game was this one:

“Hawgs fans, I’m glad you’re happy…But….trust the 99.9% of Kentucky fans when we tell you, you’re not going to be happy for very long. Cal will NEVER prioritize Arkansas winning over his players futures. Never. This will be a very frustrating time for you folks.”

Heaven forbid a coach looks out for his players, helps make them into men and provides high-quality basketball. Arkansas fans will only be frustrated if things fall apart in a few years. For now, though, the Razorbacks faithful should bask in what’s happened so far, excited about what may come.

Just understand that, hey, it’s October. The scary stuff hasn’t even hit yet.

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