Arkansas basketball has a core philosophy when thinking about the early part of its upcoming season, a first under new head coach John Calipari.
‘Win to learn’.
The Razorbacks believe they are going to learn a lot about themselves Friday night (8 p.m., SEC Network) when No. 1 Kansas comes to Bud Walton Arena for a preseason exhibition. Associate head coach Kenny Payne met with the media Thursday afternoon to preview the event, and the opportunity to face a national-championship hopeful with a lack of stakes is an exciting prospect for the coaching staff.
“I think that the atmosphere, the type of team that you’re playing and it doesn’t count, even if we lose we’ll still be undefeated,” Payne said.
“It shows our young guys, it shows some of our veterans, just how important it is that you be ready to play because you’re not just playing against a regular team that you’re supposed to beat. You’re playing against a team that’s one of the best in the country, and so our learning curve is going to have to be fast, and this accelerates that.”
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Kansas head coach Bill Self said at Big 12 Media Days Wednesday that the exhibition would be played across quarters rather than halves, giving both teams more opportunities to practice different scenarios like late-game situations. It also doubles the resets, and coaches can be flexible in what they want to work on. Calipari confirmed the format in a post on ‘X’ Thursday morning.
Unfortunately, both sides are dealing with injuries. Payne said Thursday that Arkansas has had multiple practices in recent weeks with only five players. Payne would not disclose any specific Hogs who are set to miss Friday’s exhibition.
According to the Topeka-Capital Journal, Kansas will be without guard Shakeel Moore, and graduate center Hunter Dickinson has missed time in recent weeks. Junior guard Rylan Griffen experienced a hip flexor issue Monday that will likely leave him as doubtful.
Fans might be disappointed that this year’s exhibition won’t have the same feeling as last year’s against Purdue where the teams played two 20-minute halves and went to overtime to settle a meaningless October scrimmage, but that’s also by design.
Calipari has routinely stressed the challenges of implementing a new culture in his first year with Arkansas, where as Eric Musselman was entering his fifth year. The Hogs are worried about being healthy and peaking much later in the season.
“This is a process,” Payne said. “Every team that Coach Cal has coached over the X amount of years, there’s been a common denominator. The team gets better in January, February, March. So, we have to approach this with that in mind.”
