John Calipari believes teams are a 'fraud' without a post presence

Wednesday was a historic day for the Arkansas men’s basketball program, marking the first game with new head coach John Calipari at the helm following 15 seasons at Kentucky. Leading the Razorbacks to a 76-60 win over Lipscomb in Bud Walton Arena.

Despite securing their first win of the Calipari era, Arkansas did not shoot particularly well from behind the three-point line, making just four of their 19 shots from behind the arc. Which led to Coach Cal being asked after the game about how he’ll approach the team’s three-point shooting moving forward.

“What we’ll do is look at how we’re getting them,” Calipari said about three-point shots. “Now I said this on radio, if your team has no post presence, you’re a fraud. You can win games, if you can’t throw that ball to the post and make that guy score or draw double teams, where you get the threes we’re talking about, your team’s a fraud. And so I’ve said that every year I’ve coached.”

Basketball at every level has become more predicated on the three-point shot, but Calipari wants to make sure his team can still control the post. Which they were able to do on Wednesday with 54 of their 76 points coming from the paint.

The Razorbacks will be relying on Kentucky transfer Zvonimir Ivisic and Tennessee transfer Jonas Aidoo in the post this season. With Aidoo playing in just seven minutes last night after missing Arkansas’ first two preseason exhibition games with an injury.

“And I think this team when Jonas comes back healthy, you have Z, we got people to throw it to now, go score. You watch this game, you’re going to double team. You’re going to say just go, make him pass it to somebody,” Calipari explained. “And the good news for Z, he can really pass.”

Ivisic was efficient in his 21 minutes on Wednesday with 12 points on 83.3% shooting. Also blocking three shots and grabbing three rebounds. But Aidoo being inserted in the lineup full-time will add a veteran presence that Calipari believes the Razorbacks could use.

“Now Jonas was about 75%, but the reason I played him a few minutes, you got to start playing at some point. And then tomorrow you may be hurting a little bit, well you haven’t played in a while,” Calipari said. “And so we need him to get back because he gives us a veteran rebounding, talking on defense. He doesn’t make the mistakes these other guys make defensively right now.”

Aidoo’s health and the Razorbacks’ post-presence will be fascinating to track as the season continues to get underway. As Arkansas takes on No. 8 Baylor this Saturday in marquee matchup American Airlines Center for their next game.