It wasn’t a good start to conference play John Calipari And Arkansas. With the Razorbacks in their first season under the former Kentucky Coaches and national champions, they are 0-4 to start the SEC schedule.

This also included a tough 78:74 defeat away from home LSU on Tuesday night in which the Razorbacks fell behind in the second half but staged a valiant comeback. Although they came close to two points in the final minute of the game, they couldn’t quite get it done.

Boogie Fland led the team with 19 points and was one of five Arkansas players to score in double figures. In his press conference after the loss, Calipari was critical of his coaching.

“They deserved to win the game and I’m just disappointed not to be able to get the boys to where we need to get over the hump,” he said. “In some of these games I might have to drag them to the finish line and if I have to train like that, I will. I try to create space and give them options.

“We had a loss of possession late that was just a hard pass to the post and stuff like that. But that’s all normal stuff. In the end, you want your kids to understand that they need to be fouled. You’ll need to take a few shots. We had a guy recording, Boogie. So we went with him. He almost got us back to where we could win the game.”

John Calipari took over at Arkansas this season after spending 15 years at Kentucky. He had an esteemed resume with four Final Fours and a national title during that span, but there had been a downward trend in recent seasons.

Although Kentucky made the NCAA Tournament in each of the last three seasons under Calipari, it did not advance past the second round. In fact, the Wildcats had been bounced twice in the first round by a No. 15 and No. 14 seed, respectively.

The growing frustration of fans in the UK is one of the reasons Calipari decided to make the move and get a fresh start in Arkansas. Now, however, it appears the same problems have followed him to Fayetteville.

There’s still a long season ahead of us and the Razorbacks have plenty of opportunity to turn things around. But right now they’re trending in the wrong direction and need to figure it out quickly.

Their next chance to overcome the four-game defeat comes against them on the road Missouri on Saturday at 5:00 p.m. CT.