WATCH: Arkansas HC John Calipari focuses on team's mental preparations ahead of upcoming debut campaign
Arkansas is set to begin its 2024-25 season under the guidance of their new coach John Calipari. The coach who took Kentucky to four Final Fours has worked hard to rebuild the Razorbacks roster since his arrival.
With Calipari aiming for another successful season at the new program, he has been spotted motivating his players with powerful speeches several times. The Razorbacks recently shared a video of him speaking about winning mental battles:
"There are things we'll do when you come back. I call them 20-20s, and all of it is to mentally get you to think I can't do this, and every time you do it you say, 'I can remember where I was getting nice flanks thinking about having to do it. Now it's part of what I am.'
"That means I went from being uncomfortable to being comfortable being uncomfortable. And that's when you get this thing where you fight and you battle and you've never given up."
Not all games are won physically, some are won mentally. A strong mindset is what Calipari has been trying to instill in a roster that has new faces with a new coach. Calipari was also spotted giving a speech when he was not happy with the performance of his team during practice.
"If you're getting beat by this workout, you're not ready," said Calipari. "You're not ready to leave here. Until you know I can do this and I'm not acting like I'm dying or my tow hurts or my back. You came here telling us, 'This is what I wanna do.' Okay, I told you what we do here."
Calipari was followed by several players from Kentucky when he came to Arkansas. Other than that, Trevon Brazile and Lawson Blake stayed at Arkansas in addition to new recruits Jonas Aidoo and Johnell Davis.
With little or no experience of playing together with each other, Calipari has a tough job on his hands. He will have to spark a camaraderie among the players to make them feel comfortable with each other on and off the court. However, he has the right experience to tackle this situation.
Kentucky HC Mark Pope is excited about the match against John Calipari's Arkansas
After the transfer of John Calipari to Arkansas, Mark Pope took the coaching job for the Wildcats. He also had to rebuild his roster, but both coaches are almost done with it. Pope shared his views about the match against Arkansas next season with Fox Sports' John Fanta:
"We're in the same league, and we get to go head-to-head here at Rupp this year. And it's going to be fiery. There will be fireworks because that's how Cal is, that's why he's so good, and that's certainly how we're going to represent the University of Kentucky."
Indeed, Calipari's return to Kentucky as Arkansas' head coach will be a hit show.