John Calipari admits he did not expect SEC to be 'this good' in 2024

After spending the past decade and a half in the league, John Calipari has been caught off guard by the SEC.

Calipari spoke about the difficulty so far in his first season at Arkansas following their 73-66 loss to No. 23 Ole Miss on Wednesday. He said the strength of the Southeastern Conference has been the biggest cause of that as he wasn’t expecting it to be as difficult as it is now that they’re in league play.

“I didn’t think the league would be this good,” Calipari said postgame. “I knew the league was going to be good but I didn’t think, top to bottom, that it would look like this.”

The Razorbacks have opened conference play with two losses with a 24-point loss at No. 1 Tennessee and then this seven-point loss to No. 23 Ole Miss. They’ll now follow that with a third-straight ranked game this weekend against No. 8 Florida.

As of now, the Razorbacks then have six other games against ranked opponents at Auburn, Alabama, at Kentucky, at Texas A&M, Mississippi State, and Oklahoma. That’s not to mention the quality of opponents throughout the league from there, with 15 of the 16 teams having a winning percentage so far of .733.

With that, there are legitimately no days off right now in the SEC. That makes it all the more difficult for Calipari as he tries to set up his new program in Fayetteville for the long-term but may not have the results in the present that the ‘Hogs will want.

“This now made my job even harder when you’re trying to build a culture and it’s about the process, not the results. Uh oh – results matter. They matter. But you’re trying to build beyond that and the culture has to come first and then wins follow,” said Calipari. “Everywhere I’ve been, it’s been the same. Early on, it’s ugly, it’s, you know, we’re not together. And then eventually we go and we start getting it going. The difference is you’re going to start getting it going but you’re going to be playing a team where you play really well and it’s hard to win anyway because they’re really good and it may be on the road.”

Still, Calipari wants to be in the Southeastern Conference. It’s absolutely a challenge but, because of that, they’ll have more than enough opportunities to make a resumé from it if they can win.

“But, hey, this is the league you want to be in. This is the league you want to be in because you’ve got enough chances to do what we’re doing,” said Calipari. “Now let’s go win some games, win some Quad I games, have a Quad I win, you know. You start and, all of a sudden, in this league, you can do it. There are other leagues? You’re not winning any games that are going to be Quad I games. So now this is – but you’ve got to win the game. You’ve got to play to win.”

Winning in the SEC won’t be as easy as it has been in years past for Calipari, especially now with the league as good as it has ever been. The schedule is the schedule for everyone in the league, though, with several chances left for Arkansas over the 16 still to come.