Arkansas HC John Calipari hit on the harsh reality of opposing SEC coaches

It was a a disastrous start to the season for Arkansas basketball in his first season below John Calipari. The Razorbacks showed signs of promise early in the season, but have now lost their first five games in SEC play and are one of the worst teams in the conference.

Things went from bad to worse for Arkansas on Saturday. Calipari and company fell behind 18-2 against Missouri in a non-competitive 83-65 loss, leaving far more questions than answers about the state of the team and what they can do moving forward.

Arkansas and its fans aren’t the only ones wondering about these things. Opposing coaches in the SEC, too they have their own thoughts about the first season of the Calipari era and not all of them are positive, according to Hoops IQ’s Jeff Goodman.

“They have a ton of individual talent,” one coach said, per Goodman. “But none of their pieces fit.” None of them.”

“I don’t think Calipari and his staff can adjust,” another coach said.

Arkansas has a lot of talent after Calipari brought in most of his returning players from last year’s Kentucky team, along with former Florida Atlantic star Jonelle Davis. However, Davis hasn’t been able to get his bearings and is really struggling to score, and the rest of the pieces aren’t coming together as expected. As a result, you have a team that hit high highs in the win over Michigan, but also very low lows in SEC play.

Boogie Fland’s injury makes Arkansas’ outlook more ominous

If being let down by Missouri on Saturday wasn’t bad enough, Arkansas lost one of its best players in the process. Star guardian Boogie Fland’s hand injury flared up and Calipari said after the game that it didn’t look good. Calipari made it sound like Fland might be forced to miss time, which is bad news for this Arkansas team.

Fland is the team’s second-leading scorer at 15.1 points per game and has been one of the driving forces for this Arkansas team on the offensive end of the floor. This is a team that struggles to shoot and space the floor, so Fland’s ability to create shots for himself and others is very valuable in making them effective on that end of the floor.

If Fland has to miss time, Jonelle Davis needs to step up and look more like his old self at Florida Atlantic. After scoring over 18 points per game at FAU last season, Davis is averaging just eight points per game on just over 40% shooting from the field so far this year. He’s been one of the most disappointing players in the nation so far this year, but he absolutely has to return to form if Arkansas wants to get back on track without Fland in the lineup.