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FAYETTEVILLE – With so many freshmen expected to contribute to the Arkansas men’s basketball team this season, coaches are still in the process of figuring out what works best for everyone on the floor.
For Jordan Smith Jr., the reigning Gatorade National Player of the Year and No. 2 overall prospect in the 2026 class, adjusting to college basketball has been easier because so many of his teammates are going through the same process.
“I feel like it’s because you know we’re all young,” Smith said on Tuesday. “Like we have nine…eight freshman on the team and it’s just like we all came from high school so we all learn together and just to ask the same question that we have to talk about in the locker room, talk about it outside of the gym and it just really brought us up together.
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“We’ve just had a lot of fun you know learning and going through the same stuff, you know, failing, winning, good days.. bad days. So, just overall being together as a young group has really made everybody better.”
That chemistry Smith speaks of will be important as Calipari continues to experiment with different lineups and offensive sets that fit his team better than what helped his previous team led by Darius Acuff and Meleek Thomas.
Changing Things Up
What Arkansas fans watched during the Baha Mar Summer League in the Bahamas may not be exactly the kind of halfcourt offense they will see come Saturday against Gonzaga.
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After watching his team during practice, coach John Calipari decided to switch things up a bit by implementing some different looks that fit his personnel better.
“If I’ll be trying to play nine or 10 guys, I’m looking around this room, most of you probably don’t really know basketball, what would you think I should do if I’m trying to play nine or 10,” Calipari said. “Probably press, would you say, then play really fast so they can only play three or four minutes at a time.
“That means you still have to be disciplined. If we block shots, we are really fast….
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/john-calipari-already-making-changes-170004216.html
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Publish date : 2026-10-21 17:00:00
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