Arkansas basketball has a core philosophy when fascinated about the early a part of its upcoming season, a primary beneath new head coach John Calipari.
‘Win to be taught’.
The Razorbacks imagine they’ll be taught quite a bit about themselves Friday night time (8 p.m., SEC Community) when No. 1 Kansas involves Bud Walton Enviornment for a preseason exhibition. Affiliate head coach Kenny Payne met with the media Thursday afternoon to preview the occasion, and the chance to face a national-championship hopeful with a scarcity of stakes is an thrilling prospect for the teaching workers.
“I feel that the environment, the kind of crew that you simply’re enjoying and it doesn’t rely, even when we lose we’ll nonetheless be undefeated,” Payne stated.
“It reveals our younger guys, it reveals a few of our veterans, simply how vital it’s that you simply be able to play since you’re not simply enjoying towards an everyday crew that you simply’re imagined to beat. You’re enjoying towards a crew that’s top-of-the-line within the nation, and so our studying curve goes to need to be quick, and this accelerates that.”
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Kansas head coach Invoice Self stated at Massive 12 Media Days Wednesday that the exhibition could be performed throughout quarters quite than halves, giving each groups extra alternatives to observe completely different eventualities like late-game conditions. It additionally doubles the resets, and coaches will be versatile in what they need to work on. Calipari confirmed the format in a put up on ‘X’ Thursday morning.
Let me present some readability about our Kansas Exhibition sport. This can be a REAL exhibition sport. Invoice Self and I each talked about what our groups want and we selected quarters which can present extra situational alternatives. We’re wanting ahead to an unimaginable environment in…
— John Calipari (@CoachCalArk) October 24, 2024
Sadly, each side are coping with accidents. Payne stated Thursday that Arkansas has had a number of practices in current weeks with solely 5 gamers. Payne wouldn’t disclose any particular Hogs who’re set to overlook Friday’s exhibition.
In response to the Topeka-Capital Journal, Kansas will likely be with out guard Shakeel Moore, and graduate middle Hunter Dickinson has missed time in current weeks. Junior guard Rylan Griffen skilled a hip flexor challenge Monday that may probably depart him as uncertain.
Followers is perhaps disenchanted that this 12 months’s exhibition will not have the identical feeling as final 12 months’s towards Purdue the place the groups performed two 20-minute halves and went to additional time to settle a meaningless October scrimmage, however that is additionally by design.
Calipari has routinely burdened the challenges of implementing a brand new tradition in his first 12 months with Arkansas, the place as Eric Musselman was coming into his fifth 12 months. The Hogs are nervous about being wholesome and peaking a lot later within the season.
“This can be a course of,” Payne stated. “Each crew that Coach Cal has coached over the X quantity of years, there’s been a standard denominator. The crew will get higher in January, February, March. So, we’ve to strategy this with that in thoughts.”
This text initially appeared on Fort Smith Instances File: Time to be taught: Arkansas basketball set for night time of classes versus Kansas
