Amid portal era, Calipari hints at limiting Ark. roster to '8 or 9 guys' - ESPN

As he prepares for his first season at Arkansas, John Calipari said he won't stack his rosters with an abundance of talent, which was his tactic during his lengthy tenure at Kentucky.

On the latest episode of his «Ways to Win» podcast with former Oregon State head coach Craig Robinson, Calipari said the turnover in college basketball in the transfer portal era has changed his philosophy on assembling rosters.

«You may think I'm crazy, but I told my staff, I only want to have eight or nine guys,» Calipari told Robinson, who is now the executive director of the National Association of Basketball Coaches. «They're leaving anyway and why would I develop a kid for someone else? Why would I do that?»

Calipari said he's talked to other coaches who've discussed similar strategies.

According to NCAA rules, a team can have up to 13 scholarship players. While most teams rarely utilize every scholarship player on the roster, the idea of using fewer scholarships due to the turnover that the bulk of Division I teams have endured in recent years could signal a major shift within the sport.

Calipari has already added seven players to his first Arkansas roster, a group that includes former Kentucky commit Boogie Fland, a five-star prospect, and former Florida Atlantic star Johnell Davis.

But he said he wants to use the other spots on his roster for walk-ons and rely on those non-scholarship players and graduate assistants to help the team prepare for its opponents next season. He noted that women's college basketball teams often use non-staffers to help them in practice.

«I want those [graduate assistants] to have played in Europe or just got done playing and can still play,» he said. «We can use them in practice. The women's programs