John Calipari embraced the one-and-done era like few college basketball coaches, becoming one of the best annually at bringing in talented freshmen and routinely getting them to Final Fours before shipping them off to the NBA.
The formula served him well during his 15-year run at Kentucky that ended after last season, as NIL money and the transfer portal skewed rosters older and created more parity.
But Cal is up to his old tricks in his first season at Arkansas.
"I'm kind of back to the roots of being the underdog," Calipari said before the Razorbacks' NCAA Tournament first-round win over Kansas last week.
And now, he has the 10th-seeded Razorbacks back in the NCAA Tournament's Sweet 16 following their win over second-seeded St. John's and Calipari's longtime rival Rick Pitino. The Razorbacks face West Region No. 3 seed Texas Tech on Thursday in the regional semifinals.
Once a staunch competitor of Calipari’s for the best high school talent, Pitino’s philosophies toward building championship teams have shifted during his latest coaching stop.
"We're not recruiting any high school basketball players, not this year," Pitino said recently when asked how he planned to keep St. John's relevant after the school captured its first Big East tournament title since 2000.
But Pitino — and others for that matter — may reconsider after watching Arkansas freshmen Karter Knox, Boogie Fland and Billy Richmond III combine for 37 points and 19 rebounds in its upset over the Red Storm.
For Calipari it is confirmation that he can still follow the blueprint that produced six Final Four appearances and a 2012 NCAA title with Kentucky.
“I’m not changing how I do things,” Calipari said.
Pitino, who along with Calipari are the only two men’s coaches to take three different programs to the Final Four, said his decree to rely exclusively on transfers even extends to the highest-rated high school seniors in the country as he tries to replace three seniors who were instrumental in St. John’s run this season.
“I probably wouldn’t take him because I don’t think you can win and win big with high school kids,” Pitino said. “I really don’t believe it.”
While Calipari has vowed not to alter the DNA that earned him a place in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, he does acknowledge some tweaks to his formula do have to be made.
“I’m not going to take seven or eight freshmen, which I have done,” Calipari said. “We started five freshman in the national championship game (in 2014 at Kentucky). That’s done. That’ll never happen again. But bringing guys in, developing talent, let them go through the wars, prepare them and if they leave after the year, I’m good. They’re leaving anyway! Whether they’re a junior or a senior.”
Purdue coach Matt Painter sees both sides of this conversation around developing young talent versus relying heavily on veteran transfers.
His Boilermakers are back in the Sweet 16 largely because of the play of veterans Braden Smith, Trey Kaufman-Renn and Fletcher Loyer. All three started in last year’s national title game loss to UConn.
But to get back to March Madness’ second week, Painter’s team also had to beat a portal player-rich McNeese team that upset a Clemson squad in the first round that also started two transfers.
“I just think there’s a lot of parity in college basketball, a lot of change in college basketball. Whoever can get enough guys to be good together,” Painter said. “You see those coaches who do a better job than others just because they have that discipline and get them to buy into their system.”
Following his team’s win over St. John’s, Calipari said going forward he is content to put the onus on his staff to get his college newbies to overachieve.
“We have a couple really good freshmen coming in,” he said. “I’m hoping we get one more and then we have to get in the transfer portal and grab a couple of guys. I’m hoping we get a crew of these guys coming back, but we got to sit down with them. I got to have those talks. When is it open? The portal?"
“Monday,” a reporter replied.
“When? This Monday?” Calipari responded, glancing over at the news conference's moderator.
“Don’t look at me,” the moderator said with smile.
“Welcome to my world,” Calipari said.
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