Calipari mulls limiting Ark

• Myron Medcalf, ESPN

  • Personnel WriterMay 9, 2024, 06:37 PM ET Close Covers college basketball
  • Joined ESPN.com in 2011
  • Graduate of Minnesota State University, Mankato

As he prepares for his very first season at Arkansas, John Calipari stated he will not stack his rosters with an abundance of skill, which was his strategy throughout his lengthy period at Kentucky.On the most recent

episode of his “Ways to Win” podcast with previous Oregon State head coach Craig Robinson, Calipari said the turnover in college basketball in the transfer portal age has altered his philosophy on assembling lineups.

“You might believe I’m insane, however I told my personnel, I only want to have eight or nine guys,” Calipari told Robinson, who is now the executive director of the National Association of Basketball Coaches. “They’re leaving anyhow and why would I develop a kid for somebody else? Why would I do that?”

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Calipari said he’s talked to other coaches who’ve talked about similar strategies.According to NCAA guidelines

, a team can have up to 13 scholarship players. While a lot of groups seldom make use of every scholarship player on the lineup, the concept of utilizing fewer scholarships due to the turnover that the bulk of Department I groups have sustained in the last few years might indicate a major shift within the sport.Calipari has actually currently added seven players to his first Arkansas lineup, a group that consists of former Kentucky devote Boogie Fland, a five-star possibility, and previous Florida Atlantic star Johnell Davis.But he said he wishes to use the other areas on his roster for walk-ons and rely on those non-scholarship players and graduate assistants to help the team prepare for its opponents next season. He kept in mind that women’s college basketball groups frequently use non-staffers to help them in practice.”I desire those [graduate assistants] to have actually played in Europe or simply got done playing and can still play,”he said.”We can use them in practice. The women’s programs have five guys that they call’managers,’however that’s who they skirmish versus. Possibly I do it that way. We have some walk-ons, we have some [graduate assistants], we have 8 or nine guys and that’s it. And if there is a 10th guy, he understands he’s the 10th guy. “Calipari stated his personnel cautioned that an injury could develop obstacles with a shortened lineup. However he stated he’s comfortable with the

concept because he’s played little rotations in the past.”I coached 6 [gamers] when I was at UMass, “he stated.