John Calipari on balancing portal with NCAA Tournament: 'I'm not on the phone with anybody'

The Transfer Portal is open for college basketball. The timing of that, for the teams who made it to the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament, can be a little bit awkward, though. After all, coaches now need to balance roster turnover with preparing for the biggest games of the season.

Arkansas Razorbacks head coach John Calipari is no exception to those challenges. Even with his experience, roster building in the new era is fairly new to him. So, as he explained on The Dan Patrick Show, he’s balancing the portal and the NCAA Tournament by currently setting his focus on the games on the court.

“Yesterday was a kind of long day,” John Calipari said. “Got a lot of film work done. Got practice plans prepared. The staff meetings is where we’re doing everything. Then, at the end, I said, ‘Alright, let’s talk.'” Now, before you can figure out portal, don’t you have to know who’s coming back and who’s leaving? So, I don’t know of anybody in these 16 teams that are sitting down with players and saying, ‘Are you coming back or are you going to put your name in the portal? What are you gonna do?'”

Going into his first season at Arkansas, Calipari leaned into using the Transfer Portal. That meant bringing in five players from the portal and seeing eight leave the program. Notably, three of those players transferred in from Kentucky, Calipari’s former school.

“So, it’s just difficult right now, but we’ve got names and what I would say with anybody listening,” Calipari said. “If you want to get better, if you want to be challenged, if you want to really play with good players, be coached as though you’ve already gotten there, to be hugged and challenged and make you uncomfortable, then come with me. You come to Arkansas. But, right now, we’re not on the phone with anybody yet.”

At this point, John Calipari quickly cut himself off to make it clear, Arkansas does have staff members working on the portal. It’s just not his focus while he prepares for the Sweet Sixteen in the NCAA Tournament. That is, unless it’s a special circumstance.

“My staff may be. I shouldn’t say that. My staff may be, but I’m not… If there’s a young man that we know really, really good, and he wants to do this and wants to talk to me, you won’t believe this, I’d probably get on the phone with him, and say, ‘Hey, let’s do this.’ But short of that it’s probably mostly staff.”

John Calipari and Arkansas will be back in action on Thursday. That’s when they’ll be facing a major challenge in the Texas Tech Red Raiders, hoping to make it to the Elite Eight.