DALLAS (AP) — National championship-winning coaches John Calipari and Scott Drew are in similar situations, getting started this season with Top 25 teams while coaching a bunch of new players.
In Calipari’s case for his debut with 16th-ranked Arkansas, he is coaching a new team.
“This is a brand-new team that has never played together,” Calipari said.
The Razorbacks played six transfers, three who came with Calipari from Kentucky, and three freshmen in a 72-67 loss to Drew’s eighth-ranked Baylor Bears on Saturday night in a matchup of former Southwest Conference rivals at the home of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks.
Drew had only one returning starter and nine newcomers for his 22nd season at Baylor, staying in Waco after being linked to Kentucky’s coaching vacancy last April when Calipari left after 15 seasons with the Wildcats that included a national title in 2012.
Jayden Nunn, that returning starter for Baylor, scored 16 points and had go-ahead baskets against the Razorbacks each of the three times the game got tied. The Bears (1-1) never trailed.
While struggling against the zone defense that Baylor used often, Arkansas (1-1) was within 70-67 when freshman Boogie Fland made a 3-pointer with 24 seconds left. But the Bears then broke the press and added two free throws.
“The second half, we did some good stuff,” Calipari said. “This is November, they’re a top-10 team and we came down and gave ourselves a chance.”
The Razorbacks missed six of their last eight shots over the final six minutes of the game, though that was during a stretch when their only turnover was when transfer guard Johnell Davis got called for an offensive foul when lowering his shoulder on a drive against Duke transfer Jeremy Roach.
“Those are all correctable,” Calipari said. “We’ve got a lot work to do. I still think my team’s pretty good.”
Baylor, the 2021 national champion, was coming off a 101-63 loss at sixth-ranked Gonzaga in its season opener five nights earlier.
Drew said the second game was certainly more like Bears basketball.
“We took care of the ball, we shared it a lot more, took much better shots, defended a lot more,” Drew said. “Just across the board, it was a typical Baylor game.”
Miami transfer Norchad Omier had 15 points and 12 rebounds against Arkansas for his 69th career double-double. Those are the most among NCAA active players, as are his 1,336 rebounds.
Baylor was the only team to play Top 25 teams in each of its first two games. The Bears shot 46.6% from the field (27 of 58), better than the 37% they did against Gonzaga in a rematch of the 2021 national championship game.
“It was very satisfying,” Nunn said. “First off, just want to thank God for helping us get through this adversity that we faced this past game, just trying to overcome that. So, it was very satisfying to get this W, for sure.”
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