COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Arkansas coach John Calipari sat down with his team after its loss to No. 8 Texas A&M Saturday for a “heart-to-heart.”
The Hall of Fame coach wanted the Razorbacks to understand that they let a major opportunity slip away with the 69-61 defeat.
“For us to bust through, we’re going to have to beat somebody,” he said. “We can say what we want, [but] I wanted to make sure they weren’t happy [thinking] we’re going to be OK. No, if we won that game … we’re in the tournament.”
He then repeated that sentence before raising his voice.
“So, it’s not OK to say we’ll be all right,” he bellowed. “Now you’re going to have to go get somebody else.”
Calipari, who has taken six teams to the Final Four, knows that his Razorbacks will need a signature win to even reach the tournament in his first season at the school.
It isn’t an easy task playing in the Southeastern Conference, where five teams are ranked in the top 10 of the AP Top 25 poll, including the top three.
Saturday’s loss to A&M dropped Arkansas to 15-10 overall and 4-8 in league play.
The game was tied with about 10 minutes left Saturday before the Aggies used a 9-0 run to pull away in the victory. This defeat came a week after the Razorbacks suffered a four-point loss to No. 3 Alabama.
“Normally you say you are what your record says you are,” Calipari said. “But in this league, the way this is, you just got to get it going at the right time and I thought we did. Alabama, they’re really good. This team is really good. Guess what? We had a chance at both of them, but we didn’t [win].”
As for if he thinks he got through to his team with his postgame talk, Calipari said only time will tell.
“I needed to say it, and then they got to respond to it,” he said. “It wasn’t mean, I wasn’t cussing, I wasn’t yelling. Was [like] look, do you understand this was the game? So, it’s not OK. This was it, and you had your chance.”
Arkansas won’t have to wait long for a chance at another signature win. The Razorbacks visit top-ranked Auburn Wednesday night.
