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Being able to practice already putting Arkansas ahead of maiden year

Originally posted on Arkansas Razorbacks on SI
By Daniel Shi | Last updated Jul 9, 2025 8:14 PM ET

Arkansas coach John Calipari can admit it now, the nine-person roster construction was a bit naive.

"All of a sudden all my friends said ‘oh, you’re going to have an injury and you’re going to be stuck,’" Calipari said. "They were right. So we had injuries and we were down to five guys and I’m thinking, ‘did I do the right thing?"

Calipari opened practice to the media Wednesday, something that wasn't possible in his first year with just at one point as few as just four players available. Jonas Aidoo, Johnell Davis all missed time, hindering the team's ability to scrimmage.

"You compete against each other," Calipari said. "We had to do it against GAs last year, and that worked, but barely."

This year, there are 15 players on the roster. most of which will play a key role for this year's team. Between freshman and transfers, there are eight new players that Calipari must integrate into the system.

Calipari feels a lot more settled in his surroundings in his second season as Arkansas' head coach. The team is undoubtedly ahead in terms of install where they were last year. Last year, only Trevon Brazile returned any production, this year, the Hogs are tops in the SEC returning their scoring from 2024-25.

SEC returning scoring by percentage:

Arkansas 45%
Missouri 44.1%
Florida 40.6%
Alabama 34.9%
Vanderbilt 34.3%
Kentucky 33.2%
Mississippi State 32%
Texas 31.9%
Georgia 26.3%
Tennessee 18.4%
Ole Miss 17.2%
Auburn 15.9%
Oklahoma 10%
LSU 9.8%
South Carolina 8.6%
Texas A&M 0%
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) June 21, 2025

Brazile, Karter Knox, DJ Wagner and Billy Richmond are all back for another year under the Calipari system.

"I am so happy and comfortable and at peace with what we’re doing and how we’re doing it because we’re about the kids," Calipari said. "It ain’t about this, that. It’s about those kids. Now, if we do our job, they’re going to lead us to where we’re trying to go."

The players are feeling the benefits of just being able to have some competition to go up against in practice.

" We couldn't get the bump that we needed," Wagner said. "This year we got everybody practicing, everybody playing the whole summer. We're getting a lot out of it."

Calipari expressed some silent confidence about where the team is at, both in the team's practice an the schedule that has slowly revealed itself. Between the non-conference and the SEC, the Razorbacks will play all eight reigning Elite Eight teams.

"You schedule to your team," Calipari said. "You don't schedule because you just want to schedule, you’ve got to look and say, ‘Ok, where are we? Is this too much for these guys? Are we being fair?’ So yeah, this schedule is good. We're talking about every team in the Elite 8 we’re playing."

Putting two and two together, if Calipari thinks putting together one of the toughest overall schedules in recent memory is fair, the unspoken words in that the team is pretty good, but has plenty of room to grow.

"I like where we are,' Calipari said. "It’s July 9th. I’m not trying to have us in midseason (form). But you can see they’re somewhat organized. To be organized in July, when again we do have four returners but everybody else is new, then I feel pretty good about it."