Arkansans crave relevance. They've always done that. This desire is embedded in their DNA, a well-deserved hunger.

A state that is so beautiful from border to border, and yet probably too many Americans can't show it on a map. A state that has so much to offer, and yet so many in the Deep South can't quite bring themselves to believe that Arkansas is theirs, while the cowboys of the Southwest can't quite accept it as one of their territories either. Few areas are anchored by more money (see: The Waltons, aka the Walmart people, live there), few campuses are prettier than the one in Fayetteville, and even fewer fan bases are more fiercely loyal (see: the birthright, the sneaky one is). difficult correct execution of the pig call “Woo Pig Sooie”).

And that's why the people of Arkansas embraced John Calipari. The coach already in the Basketball Hall of Fame with his national championship ring, 33 regular season and tournament conference titles and 855 career victories, the most among active coaches. Oh, and that's straight from central casting, Moon Township, Pennsylvania, Italian basketball coach accent, complete with several “Fugazi” references as he chats about the transfer portal and so much hand motion you'd assume he was handcuffed If he were tied up, he would walk silently.

It doesn't feel much like Arkansas. But it didn't feel much like Memphis or Kentucky either. But he spent nearly a decade with the Tigers and then a decade and a half in Lexington, where he left in April to become head hog.

“Just by stepping on this campus, Cal is putting Arkansas basketball back in the national conversation,” said Nolan Richardson, the only coach to lead the Razorbacks to a national title in 1994. Richardson still groans when he remembers his Hogs' first game as defending champions, when they were defeated by Calipari's UMass Minutemen in a 104-80 win to open the season. Since Cal's hiring, he's had to address the game many times, including during a conversation with the current team in August. “No matter what happens, there's no way to talk about college basketball in this country without talking about, 'Well, what's John Calipari doing in Fayetteville?' This place and this program deserve this attention.”

Attracting attention has never been a problem for Calipari. But sometimes that attention gets strange. That was certainly the case in Lexington, where he coached the Cats to 14 appearances in a dozen NCAA Tournaments, including a Natty and four Final Fours, and without the COVID-19 pandemic stopping that, it would have been with Safety has been 13-for-15 in the 2020 season just as the SEC Tournament began, with Kentucky as the No. 1 seed. But over the next four seasons, he missed the NCAAs entirely in 2021 and failed to make his team the last three years to get past the second round. Big Blue Nation set bluegrass on fire. Additionally, he openly criticized UK's basketball facilities compared to what he saw on the streets in the SEC basketball arms race and even got into a bizarre public spat with Kentucky football coach Mark Stoops.

So when Calipari made the decision to send BBN west to WPS (“Woo Pig Sooie” for you out-of-towners) to replace current USC head coach Eric Musselman, the announcement was initially met with understandable shock. But that was quickly doused with a dose of relief. On all sides.

“I think we all want to win games and win championships, but we also want to enjoy what we do while pursuing those goals,” Calipari, 65, said as Arkansas' season opener against Lipscomb approached Wednesday moved. “I enjoy challenges, but also the chance to perhaps influence others. It starts with the guys on this roster, but then it also applies to this school and this state that I'm still getting to know. We all feed on energy.” . There’s definitely a lot of energy for me to feed off of at the moment and there’s no shortage of challenges either.”

Challenge like no other squad. “How about you take over a broadcast and ask to see the team before the press conference and guess what? There is no team,” he said. Now that team features three Kentucky transfers, three highly rated freshmen who originally committed to Kentucky, and All-AAC and All-SEC transfers in Florida Atlantic's Johnell Davis and Tennessee's Jonas Aidoo, a group that won largely thanks to NIL checks issued by Razorbacks supporters.

Challenge, such as attending a conference that was once called “Kentucky and the Others” but has now become a roundball minefield. “We used to have these meetings: 'Guys, we all really need to promote this as a basketball conference to help each other out,' and now we have eight teams every March and first-round draft picks and NBA lottery picks every summer making millions spent at every school on facilities, recruiting and travel, you can feel it now.”

Challenge because you always have to shift the conversation from where he was to where he is. “I’m for Kentucky. Of course I am,” Calipari said. “I have dedicated my whole heart and soul to the club for 15 years. I love (new head coach) Mark Pope. February 1), but by then I'll be pretty much done with what I have to worry about.

And challenge yourself by not accidentally saying “Cats” instead of “Hogs” or accidentally saying “On on, U of K” instead of “Arkansas!” Fight! Fight! Fight!” sing. “When Hunter (athletic director Hunter Yurachek) came to convince us to fly to Fayetteville for the show, I had to tell him, 'Hey man, I don't have anything red to wear.' He said there were enough of them and I could change on the plane.

But as energized as Calipari is by his new wardrobe, his new surroundings and his new roster – his projected starting lineup has just one returnee from last year's Arkansas team – there are questions about the greater challenges everyone faces. that need to be answered in college athletics, pains that seemed to have been felt most acutely in the realm of men's basketball. Almost all of Calipari's coaching colleagues have given up their careers in recent seasons, from Roy Williams and Mike Krzyzewski to Jim Boeheim and Jay Wright to his relative Tony Bennett, who resigned from Virginia just last month and said, “I can.” give it my all?” “Can we create a program this way, or is my way more based on the old model?”

Calipari, who began his coaching career in 1982 as a Kansas assistant under Ted Owens, joked, “I'm the old model.” He has four players on the Arkansas roster who are sons of players he coached. In September, he hosted his annual Coach Cal Fantasy Experience, where campers could spend a weekend playing or training alongside former Arkansas and Calipari players with $2,500 donated to his charitable foundation.

“It's like the old TV show 'This Is Your Life,'” he recalled with a laugh shortly after this year's camp, the first at Bud Walton Arena, ended. “We had campers who had been at the camp in Kentucky for years, new people from Arkansas and even old friends from Memphis and UMass. For me, it’s a life flashing before my eyes, but in a good way.”

Old guys in knee braces putting it through their teenage sons, guarded, coached and encouraged by former Arkansas greats like Joe Johnson and Pat Bradley. Everyone is trying to recreate the “40 Minutes of Hell” across the field emblazoned with the name of Richardson, the last coach to lead the Razorbacks to a Final Four. That was 1995. That's how long ago Calipari was in Amherst, a year before his first Final Four, and another Arkansan, Bill Clinton, was serving his first term in the White House.

For many across Arkansas, from Little Rock to Fort Smith, this was the last time their state would achieve the national prominence it deserved. Now their desire to feel that warmth again is surpassed only by the longing of the man they hope will take them back. John Calipari already has relevance. Now he wants to have a little fun too. It's fun to win. The old basketball coach's valiant last stand in this new age of basketball, a revolution in a state that prides itself on making new money and blazing new trails while rooted in old-school Natural State sensibilities remains.

“There is still a lot of work to be done, and everyone here understands that,” he told a group of Hog callers as training began in October. “But if we achieve the success that we know we are capable of, then there will be lots of smiles.”