The Arkansas basketball Bahamas tour is over. The Baha Mar hoops festival has run its course. The Razorbacks played four games and got a lot of people rightly excited for the coming season, which is now three months away. That last detail – three months – shows that John Calipari still has so much time before the season even begins to drill down and hammer home some details with this team. It’s true that a team can only learn so much in practice, or against weaker opponents in summer exhibitions. Nevertheless, it was apparent that we saw a lot of potential in this group and got a taste of what is possible. If this team does max out over the course of the season and hits its stride in March, Arkansas can definitely make the 2027 Final Four.
What did we learn from the past week of summer basketball? A lot … but we’re going to focus on one big key in this specific article. Ask yourself: What is the number one overall key to the season beyond staying healthy? It could be a lot of different things. Many answers are valid. Reasonable people can disagree on this question.
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Our answer: turnovers.
When Arkansas struggled in the third of four games this past week, in the first half against Toros del Valle, the thing holding the team back was turnovers. They flowed like a gusher against an active and competitive Toros defense. UA led by only eight points at halftime despite holding Toros under 30 points. The defense was doing its job, but the offense was preventing the Razorbacks from opening up a bigger lead. After halftime, the offense started flowing. Players began to execute the offense the way it was supposed to be handled. Everything clicked. UA scored 54 points in the second half and pulled away, turning an eight-point halftime margin into a 42-point win.
Here’s the more precise point to make: Arkansas’ defense appears to be so good that the Hogs are going to win on nights when they don’t shoot well. Arkansas will be able to win ugly games, but there’s a limit to that point. Ugly games can refer to bad shooting or low scoring, but ugly ball can’t refer to turnovers allowed. Turnovers, especially live-ball giveaways, can lead to easy baskets for opponents in transition. As long as Arkansas misses a shot and doesn’t turn the ball over, it can set up its ruthless halfcourt defense and keep the opponent from scoring. Arkansas can win a 59-55 game because it won’t give up any cheap points.
If UA commits turnovers, however, and opponents score 15-20 points off those turnovers, a 59-55 win becomes a 65-59 loss.
As long as Arkansas isn’t gifting possessions and points to opponents, this season should work out well. That’s the number one thing to take away from this summer week of exhibition hoops.
