John Calipari on Arkansas' roster construction: 'I can't make any trades'

John Calipari gave a brutally honest assessment when it came to the state of the Arkansas roster this season.

Following a bad 72-53 loss to South Carolina on the road Saturday, the Razorbacks dropped to 17-12 on the season. Calipari made it clear, Arkansas simply has to play with what it has.

But it’s certainly fair to question if the roster is enough to be an NCAA tournament caliber team.

“We needed to have more,” Calipari said. “You do not plan on what happened. We needed more guys. When we had the guys, we played better as we got shorter, less guys. It’s not only being injured, but you can’t have three or four of your seven play poorly and expect to win. I can’t make any trades. I can’t pick up anybody on the wire. This is who it is. How do we make this work? 

“That is all I’ve been thinking about this season. That is what I’ve been doing all season. Now, we have two games left in the regular season. Both games are going to be dog fights. From Feb. 1, there were eight games. We won five. We went 5-3. Three of them were against top-10 teams. We lost two. We had a chance in all three. These kids have fought, battled and played together. We hit a dud.”

It was a dud of a first half, that’s for sure. Calipari’s team trailed 32-14 after the first 20 minutes. While they picked it up in the second half, they couldn’t close the gap.

“With seven minutes to go, ‘I said, no fouls. I want to be in the locker room in 10 minutes.’ With 3:50 to go, I said, ‘Don’t you foul. I want to be in the locker room in five minutes.’ We just needed to get out of the gym,” Calipari admitted. “We gave it away a lot earlier, or they took it from us. South Carolina has lost some games, and to keep their team going is a heck of a statement to their staff and the team.”

To go back to the roster portion of this discussion, Caliopari had to answer questions about a shorthanded Arkansas team. They played without Adou Thiero and Boogie Fland.

“We’re undermanned,” Calipari said. “Adou Thiero and Boogie Fland were out. No one wants to hear that, but it makes it so we can’t have three out of our seven play poorly. You can’t and win. Everybody has to come in and be their best version. If you’re not playing well, do all the easy stuff really hard. Don’t try to do something crazy; a step back three. Do the easiest things: defend, rebound, block out, dive on the floor and sprint every chance. Do all that easy stuff really hard.”