When John Calipari was hired to lead the Arkansas basketball team, he had the unorthodox idea of recruiting only nine rotation players to the team in his first year.
That decision has backfired so far, with injuries to key players leading to fatigue and a lack of team chemistry. Arkansas is now 11-7 overall this season and is winless through the first five games in the Southeastern Conference.
“I think John probably made a mistake by only having nine scholarship players,” ESPN analyst Seth Greenberg said Tuesday on The Chuck and Bo Show. “I understand exactly why he did it and it makes sense in the gate world and trying to develop team chemistry. You want guys who are part of the solution and feel involved, but guys play so many years. -round and I think the guys are getting beat up a little bit.”
The injury bug has been rampant throughout the program over the past three months. Forward Jonas Aidoo missed almost the entire preseason with a foot injury. Guard Johnell Davis’ wrist has been bothering him immensely, and now freshman point guard Boogie Fland is dealing with a hand injury that will likely sideline him for at least Wednesday’s game against Georgia.
Arkansas assistant head coach Chin Coleman said Tuesday the plan is to use a committee of players to fill the void left by Fland.
“Obviously, it’s natural for DJ (Wagner) to take on this role,” Coleman said. “He’s done it his whole life. He’s done it over his career. So it’s an easy solution for him to just transition into this role. But as far as the committee is concerned, Johnell will have to take some of the responsibility of this responsibility, and Billy Richmond, who played this role.
The shortened rotation makes sense in a vacuum. In a perfect world, a basketball team only needs nine players. But in the real world, injuries happen. On top of that, with fewer players on the roster, it forces those players to live up to the hype more often than not.
“We have nine guys and if Boogie is out for a while, we might have eight,” Calipari said after the loss to Missouri. “Well, guess what these eight guys have to do? Play well. All of them. You can’t have four of the eight and pull it off.”
Where the nine-man rotation seems to have hurt Arkansas the most is in the performance of some of the guys it recruited. Injury aside, Davis’ wrist is fine, he said. But he still hasn’t had as big an impact as expected in the preseason, averaging just 8.3 points per game on 40.9 percent shooting and turning the ball over 1.7 times per game.
“For (the SEC), he’s a little bit of an undersized small forward, and that impacts him defensively, rebounding the basketball,” Greenberg said. “Johnell has to try to be more aggressive, but it’s hard to be more aggressive when you’re playing against (SEC) athletes. There’s a big difference between the Conference USA athletes and, especially this year , in the SECOND.”
That said, with Fland likely out with a hand injury, Davis has an opportunity to show his value. He’s averaging 28.4 minutes per game, but could be given a bigger role at point guard for the Hogs.
“What you’re saying is there are 15 shots to spread out,” Calipari said on his radio show Monday. “Who needs three or four more shots out of those 15 to start? Nelly. He’s used to taking 17, 18 shots. When you take eight, nine or seven, it’s a lot harder. So we have to give him more shots.”
Even despite the Hogs’ struggles this season, Greenberg said he’s not selling his stock in Calipari.
“You don’t win national championships or go to the Final Four without knowing what you’re doing,” Greenberg said. “It’s an anomaly, it doesn’t look like one of his teams. Considering he’s been doing this for about 35 years, I’d say the odds are in Arkansas’ favor.”
