John Calipari broke out ‘refuse to lose’ mentality vs. Missouri

On Saturday, Arkansas picked up its third ranked win of the season with a 92-85 win over No. 15 Missouri. After the victory, Razorbacks head coach John Calipari revealed his pregame message to his team.

“Today I broke out the ‘refuse to lose,” Calipari said. “I don’t care what you do, how you do it, refuse to lose. When it’s late in the game, refuse to lose. We had timeouts. We called them instead of throwing the ball away.

“We’re 4-3 in the last seven [games]. We lost to the [No. 1] team, the 2 team and the 6 or 7 team. That’s who we lost to. [Missouri] was a top-10 team. If they beat us today, they’re probably 8 or 9. That was a big-time win. But, you know what, now we’ve got to finish.”

Arkansas is finding its stride at the perfect time. After beginning conference play with a 0-5 record, the Razorbacks are now 5-9 in SEC play. In ESPN college basketball analyst Joe Lunardi’s latest bracketology, he named Arkansas as one of the last four teams in the tournament.

While it’s far from a comfortable spot for the Razorbacks to be in, it’s a much better situation than seemed possible only a month ago.

It was a comeback effort for the Razorbacks on Saturday. They trailed Missouri 48-41 at halftime but outscored the Tigers by 14 points in the second half to run away with the win.

Arkansas dominated down low against Missouri, racking up 44 points in the paint compared to the Tigers’ 28. Arkansas sophomore Zvonimir Ivisic was especially spectacular tallying a team-high 20 points while shooting 6-8 from the field and 7-7 from the charity stripe.

Nonetheless, he wasn’t the only Razorback with a hot hand. All five of Arkansas’ starters scored double figures in the win. John Calipari couldn’t be prouder of his team’s growth since the beginning of conference play.

“Everybody watching this team knows we’re getting better,” Calipari said. “Now we just gotta finish. The greatest thing about this league, every time you play it’s a Quad 1 game … It’s just ridiculously hard. But these kids, they’re resilient. Let me say it again to the fans, they’re resilient.”

On Wednesday, Arkansas will have a chance to build on its momentum as it squares off against Texas at 9 p.m. ET. The game will air live on ESPN2.