FAYETTEVILLE – As Arkansas transitions into exhibition season for the 2026-27 men's basketball team, the Razorbacks have more pressure on them this season to be good than many others before them.
From a loaded backcourt to a rebuilt frontcourt, third-year coach John Calipari has delicately pieced a roster together that can potentially contend for the program's first national championship since 1994 and first Final Four appearance since 1995.
That certainly doesn't mean it'll be easy getting to that point.
Arkansas has a group chock full of freshmen with a few upperclassmen sprinkled in. It might actually take some time for them to mold into a Picasso painting, but Calipari seems very upbeat about what his third team can become ahead of a pair of glorified pickup games against Gonzaga and Memphis.
"The games Gonzaga and Memphis will be great games," Calipari said on Wednesday. "My guess is we'll be so nervous, maybe even for both of them that they will look awful. You'll say 'they play really hard. They don't look very good right now, but man, do they play hard.' And that's what we're trying to get to.
"The thing that is hardest to teach is a competitive spirit. It's hard. You either have that or you don't. We have a competitive spirit."
That's one major point Calipari mentioned earlier this summer as the conditioning program started and some of his team arrived on campus. In a video that went viral, he told his team, "if you're not a dog on this team, ah, you won't play."
That is so true for every team he's ever coached, but he hasn't built a team at Arkansas that can go 10-12 players deep in practice, good-on-good every single day. But he did point some caution tape up because there might be an adjustment period for his team as they learn to play with each other against actual high-major competition.
Perhaps this team can look like a pure mixture of the 1996 Chicago Bulls and the Monstars without their powers from "Space Jam" all at the same time early in the season. Gonzaga and Memphis will be a solid barometer that gauges where this team is, but the first weekend of the regular season going up against Virginia will be the first true test of leadership and development.
"Now, our skills and our team play and our decision making.
Like last year, what did we average turnovers per? What do we average? Nine. 10.
Nine. And we scored 90 (points per game). That's crazy. So now we'll get 10 or 11 and I'll be going
snuts when I shouldn't.
"If we get to 12, it should be fine. But we were like just abnormal. But we didn't have three
seven-footers and three who are 6-foot-11 and we didn't have those guys last year."
Darius Acuff took a minute to truly get going.
Meleek Thomas found his stride in SEC play.
Billy Richmond III put together an offensive skillset not seen prior to February of last season.
Making Muurinen Uncomfortable
This year's Razorbacks team will take its lumps with Indiana, Michigan State, North Carolina and Arizona on tap in non-conference play. That's what Calipari likes to do with his teams, but the one part of his team he wants to figure out is what his team looks like with Miikka Muurinen on the floor.
Muurinen, who stands 7-feet, 225 pounds, is expected to be a huge piece to the team on both ends of the floor and possesses quite the NBA upside. There's been some ups and downs throughout the process of getting him eligible for the season, and that required providing him mental conditioning to keep him focused in practice.
At the end of the day, it all worked out, but Calipari said it surely weighed on one of college basketball's most talented freshmen.
"Let me tell you what [Muurinen's ruling] did. It picked [him] up," Calipari said. "Could you imagine being 19 and not knowing if you're going to play or not or that you're going to be sent home? Could you imagine what he went through?
"That's why it was hugging and crying and he text me that night, 'Coach, I can't thank you enough.' And he'd been terrific in practice because he was bad for a couple. I'm like, 'What's wrong with this kid?' And they're like, "You're joking, Coach." One of the staff, you know, this is weighing on him."
One philosophy of Calipari's is to make his athletes feel uncomfortable in their weaknesses to make them better overall players. He wants his team to understand the value of being efficient within a scheme, play free to their strengths and comfortable in areas they've usually struggled.
"So, that being done, it's not weighing on anybody now. We know he's there. Let's see how he is. I've got to get him to do some things that he's not used to doing. But that's on me."
Whether that's challenging Muurinen with physicality that he'll see against veteran frontcourts, being a consistent defensive asset and becoming a dependable rebounder like Trevon Brazile. He already has a refined European offensive skill set, but must embrace the role of an all-around teammate to truly thrive within Calipari's NBA-level system.
"You either fight or you flee," Calipari said. "Fight or you flee. And they're going at each other and all of a sudden everybody gets better."
Arkansas opens up exhibition play on Saturday, Oct. 24, 2026 inside Bud Walton Arena. Tipoff for the game will be announced at a later date.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/arkansas as Razorbacks' Potential Comes With Warning From Calipari Before Exhibitions.