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Arkansas' John Calipari - 'Back to my roots of being the underdog' - ESPN

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — John Calipari is in his 33rd season as a college basketball head coach, but as he prepares his Arkansas squad to face Kansas in a highly anticipated first-round matchup in the NCAA tournament, he was reflecting on his early years.

«I'm kind of back to my roots of being the underdog,» Calipari said Wednesday at the Amica Mutual Pavilion, where the 10th-seeded Razorbacks face the seventh-seeded Jayhawks on Thursday.

«This was one of those years that was so rewarding. All I'm thinking about is where we were — threw us in the coffin, forgot the nails. No chance of the NCAA tournament and all of a sudden we're here.»

The roots to which Calipari, 66, referenced was his tenure at the University of Massachusetts from 1988-96, his first head coaching job.

UMass had qualified for the NCAA tournament just one time before Calipari's arrival. He proceeded to lead the Minutemen to five straight berths from 1992-96, which included a run to the Final Four in 1996 — which was later vacated by the NCAA — in which the Minutemen's first- and second-round games were played in Providence.

Calipari referenced those games Wednesday, while also relating his experience to his current Arkansas team, which was ranked 14th in the Associated Press preseason poll before finishing 20-13 overall and 8-10 in the SEC.

Calipari noted how the Razorbacks have played without leading scorers Boogie Fland (thumb) and Adou Thiero (knee) for an extended stretch, which has limited him to a seven-man rotation. The plan is to integrate Fland into the mix against Kansas, as he has been cleared to return.

Arkansas lost six of seven games in January, which Calipari said set up a defining part of the season because the next two games were on the road

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