FAYETTEVILLE -- For three days, John Calipari was on an expedition.
Auburn shellacked the Arkansas men's basketball team in such a decisive manner Saturday it felt to Calipari as if his team was lost. All he wanted was to find it again.
After the 95-73 loss at Neville Arena, the coach repeatedly said his team didn't resemble what he knew it to be. He called it a "spanking" -- something Arkansas hadn't experienced in competitive losses to Duke, Houston and Michigan State.
So, for the days between that bashing and Wednesday's home tilt against South Carolina, he was on a mission to get his team back. In basketball hyperbole, it was a prodigal son moment for Calipari.
"Look, I want to win the game," Calipari said on the Razorback Sports Network pregame radio show. "I want to win every game I coach, but I'm more concerned with me getting my team back. And if that ends up that we get it back but they're so ridiculously good [that South Carolina wins] tonight, I'm OK. As long as I get my team back."
Calipari got his wish, and then some.
Arkansas not only returned to the form that had some national analysts calling it a Final Four contender prior to the Auburn game, but it took things to another level in a 108-74 romp over South Carolina.
It was perhaps the best version of the Razorbacks (13-4, 3-1 SEC) this season.
It's rare in a 34-point victory for the final score to look closer than the game felt, but that was the case against the Gamecocks. If not for bench-clearing substitutions by Calipari over the final minutes, the margin may have been pushing 50 points.
When he put on the postgame radio show headset, there was relief in Calipari's voice.
"You know, it's nice to have my team back," Calipari said. "Some of it, I'm telling you, I'm still disappointed in myself because you saw that we focused on how we have to play."
Calipari's message was that he hopes the beatdown on The Plains was a lesson for all parties involved. He took ownership of the team's preparation for that game, yet held his players accountable for not entering with a sense of urgency.
For those who piled into Bud Walton Arena for the late midweek tipoff, there was no question if the weekend's result had served as a wake-up call for the Razorbacks. They were ready from the jump.
"Hopefully we learned our lesson," Calipari said. "We don't want to feel the way we felt after that game."
In the game against Auburn, it didn't matter which players were on the court for Arkansas. The train was off the rails.
Against South Carolina, it was the opposite. It didn’t matter which five were together for the Razorbacks. They were a well-oiled machine.
A freshman guard Darius Acuff Jr. (5), forward Trevon Brazile (7), forward Nick Pringle (23), guard D.J. Wagner (21) and guard Billy Richmond III (24) huddle before free throws during the first half of the Razorbacks' 108-74 win over South Carolina at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville.
“There are games where you’ve just got to find five guys,” Calipari said. “Like, [not everyone is playing the way they should], but these five are. But we hit a game [against Auburn] where we couldn’t even find five. I was looking for five. We couldn’t find five. I even told [South Carolina coach Lamont Paris] after: ‘What you did here, we did at Auburn. It’s the same thing. You kind of let go of the rope. We did the same.’”
Calipari expected to face a desperate South Carolina team. He said as much Monday on his weekly radio show at Sassy’s Barbecue and Grille.
His task for the Razorbacks was to exceed the urgency level of the Gamecocks. Calipari wasn’t asking for perfection, but he was demanding relentless effort.
“They’re not computers; they’re not robots,” Calipari said. “They’re not going to be great every night, but they can compete every night. You can battle every night. You can play desperate every night. And all the stuff we’ve taught in training falls back on that.
“We did a lot of stuff [Monday] to get them connected, and it doesn’t guarantee you win the next game. It doesn’t.... But I’ll tell you; the other guarantees you’re going to lose.”
Though he wasn't expecting flawless play against the Gamecocks, he practically got it.
Arkansas was sharing the ball and not giving it away. Its 27-to-4 assist-to-turnover ratio was something Calipari called "ridiculous" to happen in an SEC game -- a feat headlined by the latest All-America-level performance by freshman Darius Acuff with 18 points, 13 assists and 0 turnovers.
The Razorbacks were strong down low, with the frontcourt trio of Trevon Brazile, Malique Ewin and Nick Pringle combining for 46 points, 16 rebounds and 7 assists. Simultaneous production from the three was something Arkansas had been wanting to see down low.
Freshman guard Meleek Thomas, figuratively the Robin to Acuff’s Batman for the nation’s top-scoring frosh duo, made all five 3-pointers he took. Speaking on the SEC Network headset after the game, Thomas said the Razorbacks gave Calipari his team back.
The game was poetry in motion for Arkansas.
Things looked effortless at times as the team's talent was matched with apparent focus.
What's the task now? To not need to learn the same lesson again.
Calipari doesn't want to go searching again.
"I don't want to do what I did against Auburn," Calipari said, noting his team would practice every day between Saturday's 3 p.m. Central game at No. 21 Georgia. "Georgia is the leading scoring team in the country. They press the game. They scramble the game up. They run people at the ball. They're really a good team. They're big. They rebound. It's going to be a really hard game for us."