What's in a halftime speech?

What did Arkansas Basketball Coach John Calipari Say to Motivate His Team on Wednesday Night? And Will it Work Again?

The Arkansas Razorbacks had started the season 0-5 in conference play and looked destined to move to 0-6 on Wednesday night against the Georgia Bulldogs. The Hogs were down by 15 points with seconds remaining in the first half, when Big Z (Zvonimir Ivisic) made a 3-pointer to make the team 1-of-11 from deep and cut the lead to 12 points.

They went to the locker room with their heads held low. Losers gonna lose. But they emerged with a new sense of energy and focus in the second half and outscored Georgia 42-27 to win the game by 3.

So what happened in the locker room? What did Coach Cal say?

I’ll start with what we know he didn’t say. He didn’t use the same speech my high school basketball coach used my sophomore year in a road game against eventual state champions El Dorado.

We were down by 20 at the break and were simply outmanned. He made a few personnel adjustments and tried to remind us to stick to our game plan and focus on executing. He said,"Hey fellas, we are only down by 20. We don’t have to get it all back immediately. Just run our plays. Whittle away at that lead.”

At the end of the 3rd quarter we came to the bench now down by 36. Coach said, “Guys we’ve got to score now. No more waiting around.”

Maybe Calipari reminded the team that life is a game of inches and the inches we need are everywhere around us.

This speech made famous in the movie Any Given Sunday is still motivating today. He simply needed to remind the players that we have been so close to being great. We are just on the cusp of our potential.

We don’t know everything that was said at halftime, but in his postgame speech, Coach Cal did say he told the team “Guys, you missed every three, and we're still in the game. We're down five baskets. Don't go nuts. We're fine. We'll make shots.’ Our 7-foot-2 guy is the only guy to make a three, and it was right at the buzzer at the end of the half. Come on. We're fine."

Maybe Calipari reminded the team that we must play more physical and aggressive and leave no doubt

This speech made famous in the movie Remember the Titans challenges the team to win with defense by being aggressive and out-hustling the opponents.

After the win, Adou Thiero said, "Word around the SEC, you know, we’re soft. They’re going to try to come here and punk us. Nah. We had to fix that and show we have fight in us. You’re not going to come in here and punk us around, no matter what."

And we saw the Hogs answer the call by out rebounding their opponent for the first time in conference play and actually grabbed 10 more boards than Georgia on Wednesday.

Maybe Calipari reminded the team not to worry about the scoreboard but to simply focus on playing their best

This speech made famous in the movie Hoosiers is all about creating a winning mindset. And that’s what Coach Cal talked about in his postgame interview. He said he realized if he was frustrated with losing and he’s been coaching for years, he knew his younger players had to be struggling.

He said he taught the players about a notecard he carries around that has 5 things written on it. He looks at it first thing in the morning and throughout the day to keep him focused, motivated, and encouraged. Unfortunately he didn’t share what those 5 items are. Maybe that’s a good idea for another article?

Maybe Calipari told the team to just play the next 20 minutes for the next 20 minutes

In a speech made famous in the movie Varsity Blues, the team ousts the coach, changes up the playbook, and decides to care less about their future and more about winning now.

There’s a part of this that was obvious on Wednesday night, Calipari made halftime adjustments. He started throwing the ball inside more and challenging the dribble-drive guards on the wings to attack the rack instead of settling for floaters.

This change led the Hogs to draw more fouls and get to the free-throw line more often. The Hogs went 29-of-34 (85.3%) from the stripe on Wednesday. If they are going to have success without Boogie Fland the rest of the season, this change will have to stick.

This season the Razorbacks are only averaging 18 free-throw attempts per game. That ranks 213th in the country. If you look at the top of the list with teams shooting 30-to-35 free throws per game, you’ll start noticing they are all teams ranked in the top 25. Good teams get to the rack. Great teams get to the line.

I do hope the changes that were made in the second half against Georgia are sustainable. Tonight, the Hogs have a winnable game against Oklahoma. But it’s also a must-win game. The pressure will be on for us to play with the same intensity that we mustered for that 20-minutes of Hell on Wednesday night.

Here’s to bringing back 40-minutes of Hell!

-WPS