Arkansas legend Nolan Richardson offers advice to John Calipari: 'You got to stay ahead of the posse now'
Former Arkansas basketball coach Nolan Richardson passed along some advice to John Calipari, who just signed a deal to become the team’s new head coach.
The former Kentucky leader is set to take on a new challenge in 2024-25. Richardson is the lone man to lead Arkansas to a national title win, back in 1994.
The Razorbacks fully expect Calipari is the guy to get it done in the present. But Richardson gave him some words of wisdom.
“You got to stay ahead of the posse now,” Richardson said, via USA Today. “Cause if you’re not saying ahead of the posse, they’re going to get you.”
Kentucky is a basketball blue blood, but now that Arkansas has Calipari on the sidelines, fans know a championship could be within reach.
“Now Kentucky has tremendous expectations,” Richardson said. “But little do they know that Arkansas does, too.”
Calipari won a title in his lifetime, but it’s been awhile since he made a deep run. A chance of scenery can certainly help.
“Absolutely,’’ Richardson said if a new school can rejuvenate Calipari. “He doesn’t have that huge monkey on his back.’’
Richardson went 389-169 as head coach of Arkansas and was 508-206 overall with the Razorbacks and Tulsa from 1980-2002. He also coached Tulsa’s WNBA team for two seasons in 2010 and ’11.
On3’s James Fletcher specifically had a clear path for how the former Kentucky coach can effectively build out the team he just took over in this modern era of rampant player movement.
“There’s two major factors that play into John Calipari being able to kickstart his success in the transition Kentucky fans wanted to see as he arrives at Arkansas. No. 1 is that he’s going to start from scratch on this roster,” explained Fletcher, noting the departures from Arkansas following Eric Musselman’s move to USC.
“He is not going to have pretty much anyone. I think they have one player who is currently on the roster and that’s a guy who might enter the NBA Draft. So, he will be building a roster from scratch without having a full recruiting cycle to bring in freshman.”