John Calipari calls for Arkansas to come back 'jacked and juiced' from Christmas

With what’s ahead of them once they come back from the holidays, John Calipari hopes the Razorbacks are ready for when they return.

Calipari spoke about Arkansas heading into a nine-day break in the schedule for Christmas following their latest win at 95-67, their second-largest margin of the season, over North Carolina A&T. He said it’ll be good for the ‘Hogs to head home, take a break, and prepare themselves for the conference schedule that’ll be waiting on them back in Fayetteville.

“Like I told them, you want to win the game and go for Christmas, breathe for the first time, and then come back here absolutely jacked and juiced – let’s go,” said Calipari. “Let’s get ready for the grind that’s ahead of us.”

The Southeastern Conference is going to be as difficult of an 18-game stretch as any league will give to their teams in the country. 10 of the 16 teams in the SEC are ranked in the Top-25 of the latest AP Poll, including Arkansas at No. 23. Only one team has three losses with all of the other teams being 10-2, 11-1, or undefeated with three being so in Tennessee, Florida, and Oklahoma.

At this point, no one else has to point out how good the league is this season, including Calipari to his own players ahead of playing in it starting next month with eight ranked games with three of those coming to start out in conference play for them.

“It’s, look, you know – none of us and no one in the league can predict anything. So, whatever it is, every team is going to have hard games – every one from top to bottom,” Calipari said. “They had Oklahoma last. Some of you guys may have voted that way. They haven’t lost, I don’t believe. You have Vandy playing as good as anybody in this league right now, you know. Think, ‘Well, we’ve got Vandy twice!’. You don’t want Vandy twice.”

“So, it’s, like I said. Everybody’s looking for Ws. I just hope that we’re not the W,” said Calipari.