The Arkansas basketball team got smacked by Florida on Saturday. Arkansas lost to the Gators, 111-77. It was one of the worst losses in the career of Razorbacks head coach, John Calipari. Following the game, Calipari expressed just one wish about his team's beatdown.
“I wish it would have gone faster,” Calipari said, per the Associated Press.
The loss matched the worst defeat of the legendary head coach's career. Calipari's Razorbacks lost the rebounding battle, 51-31.
“It was going to come back to our will versus their will,” Calipari said. “And if you stop playing, they keep moving their feet and put you in bad positions. And they did that to us a bunch. We had some opportunities to rebound. They just beat us to a ball. … They outrebound us by 20. Come on. You’re not going to win that game. You’re not.”
Arkansas basketball is now 21-8 on the season, and 11-5 in the SEC. The Razorbacks are in third place in the SEC standings.
Arkansas had a game to forget against Florida
The loss was Calipari's worst since his Kentucky team lost to Duke in 2018. Calipari felt his Arkansas team on Saturday just didn't meet Florida's physicality.
“They’re not afraid to throw you around,” Calipari said of Florida. “That’s how they play. If you’re avoiding their contact, you can’t play in this game. And we had a bunch of guys try to go sideways and then come back and back and back. You can’t play that way.”
Calipari says his club has to immediately regroup. Arkansas basketball still has games left to play before March Madness, including the SEC conference tournament.
“Look, I’ve done this so long, stuff happens,” Calipari added. “I told them, ‘We had a great February. We got two games left. Let’s get out of here and go.’ I said it wasn’t my team. This is not the team I’ve been coaching.
“But I did tell some guys, ‘You got to do some soul searching and be honest with yourself. Why did you play the way you played?’ Not a whole lot else you can do.”
The Razorbacks have two regular season games left on the schedule. Arkansas next plays Texas on Wednesday.
