FAYETTEVILLE — A short press conference means one thing for Arkansas coach John Calipari.

He's not happy, satisfied or willing to settle for what his basketball team is giving him right now, and that might be saying it nicely. His team was going to face shortcomings at some point being so young, and struggled to close the door against a quality Memphis team when the lead swelled to 21 early in the second half.

Calipari walked into his postgame press conference obviously frustrated by his team's inability to close out its final exhibition game of the preseason.

"Folks, we've got a lot of work to do," Calipari said Wednesday night. "You know, give Memphis credit. You get them down 20, whatever it was, we have a chance. Let's make it 30. They never went away. And you know what it was? They just gutted it out."

For a team loaded with athleticism, length and highly regarded freshmen, Arkansas has shown flashes of becoming one of the more dangerous teams in the country but that's only happened in spurts of two exhibitions.

This won't always be the case as Calipari likes to challenge his team against quality opponents, but some of the problems that showed up Wednesday night must be fixed before SEC play ever begins. One of the biggest issues Arkansas has faced his its inconsistency embracing physicality on either end of the floor.

Arkansas made just five of its 16 attempts on layups and dunks in its 76-72 win over Gonzaga on Saturday, struggling to finish against the Bulldogs' size around the basket. While there was considerable improvement in that department Wednesday against Memphis by connecting on 54% of attempts from the floor and dropping 54 points in the paint, it still wasn't enough to satisfy Calipari.

"We struggled guarding one-on-one," Calipari said. "Again, they're an older team, so they created the physicality of the game. Our guys got bumped and shot fadeaways again. So now a layup that should be a layup is a fadeaway layup. Why? 'Because I didn't play through the bump.' But we're going to be going through that all year."

Taking Care of Business

Paint life wasn't the only area Arkansas struggled to take care of business in either, as the Razorbacks were bad yet again at the free throw line by making only 15-of-27 attempts.

Missing the one-and-ones, not sealing off for offensive rebounds and allowing Memphis to get quick buckets on the offensive end kept this game from getting out of hand to being a competitive game at the final buzzer.

The Razorbacks were able to play their brand of basketball for a bit against Memphis by scoring 26 points off 15 turnovers with 14 coming off steals and blocked seven shots. Arkansas' length at every level defensively will cause havoc each night and that alone showed up exhibition play once again by causing 34 deflected passes, which suggests Calipari's team was making life hard for their opponent.

"We had 34 deflections. That's huge, folks. That means you won big. Well, we didn't win big. Again, free-throw shooting. Free-throw shooting. Come on now," Calipari said. "So when you watch that and there's four minutes left in a close game, can you tell me the three you would absolutely not have then? They'll dictate that. You've got to have, like, look, late in the game, 'I'm making free throws.'"

Calipari Takes Blame for Defensive Confusion

Calipari noted that some of Arkansas' defensive problems were a result of his own decisions.
The Razorbacks experimented with a different trapping approach against Memphis, but the adjustment created confusion and contributed to poor rotations on the defensive end.

"So, you know, I look at it and I say that some of the stuff mentally, one-on-one defense, grinding it," Calipari said. "We tried to help, bad rotations. Part of it was we were trapping in a way we hadn't trapped before. And I probably should have known that was a mistake, but I did it. It was my call.

"But 18 assists, nine turnovers, really good, including the dunk that Abdou [Toure] missed. Would have made it 19 and nine, but he missed a dunk. We've got work. Got to work on zone. Have not done one thing with zone, and we play in a week."

Calipari was far from celebratory following a challenging exhibition slate, but understands what kind of team he has going into the regular season. He could find this season a bit frustrating at the start, but he's shown enough through the years that he's in his bag coaching from the sideline when he's leading a group of young men.

Arkansas returns to the floor on Tuesday, Nov. 3 at Bud Walton Arena when they host UA-Pine Bluff at 7 p.m. CT on the SEC Network+.