If it still seems strange three months later that John Calipari is the head coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks men’s basketball team, that’s understandable.

Just as it should be believable that Calipari switched from wearing blue to wearing Razorback red.

Coach Cal, as he likes to be called, spent 10 years at Memphis and 15 at Kentucky in blue. He also spent eight years at UMass, and the common denominator at all three programs was success, enough to lead all three programs to the Final Four.

Monday morning Coach Cal held a press conference. A real one. Not a pep rally like the night he was introduced as Arkansas’ new coach.

That night the party was over and it was time to get to work. Since then he has worked from sunrise until after sunset.

The timing was perfect for him to give a summer report. First, it didn’t interfere with football, which officially starts Wednesday, and that’s before he takes a short vacation to the Jersey Shore.

It was clear that he embraced the rich history and tradition of the Razorback basketball team and wanted to make Arkansas great again.

He had a lot of respect for what Eric Musselman did, but he almost beamed when he talked about what Eddie Sutton and Nolan Richardson did, remembering how Richardson almost won back-to-back national championships.

He said Sutton and Richardson were Hall of Fame coaches who played at Arkansas.

He failed to mention that he is the third Razorback coach to be inducted into the legendary Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Coach Cal left no doubt at the press conference and the 25 people in attendance via Zoom that he is happy to be in Arkansas, and that Kentucky is more of a memory than his old home of Kentucky.

He even mentioned that Ellen, to whom he was married for 38 years, grew up 2.5 hours away in Missouri.

What Coach Cal knows is that he essentially took a lateral move when he left the Wildcats and has the opportunity to coach four different programs to the Final Four.

He is a builder, a developer of success.

Under his leadership, UMass and Memphis became national teams and he returned Kentucky to that status. He plans to do the same at Arkansas.

“You know my standards,” he said, “winning is important.”

Just a few months ago he had no players, no staff and no schedule. Today his cup is overflowing. They spent the summer as a staff changing the mentality of the young players who have to compete at the highest level.

This summer they didn’t play once or defend once, but instead they worked on their physical condition and reprogramming some highly valued players so they could think about the team first.

It’s an extremely successful formula, which Arkansas fans appreciated by purchasing all the seats for the upcoming season.

The man who has averaged nearly 26 wins per season in his 33 years as head coach wants to make the Razorbacks feared at home and fearless away. It’s a bit of a longshot, but he could surpass the 1,000-win mark in his fifth season at Arkansas.

That total includes wins vacated by the program. In his career, he has led 11 teams to win 30-plus games in a single season.

He has games scheduled in New York and Miami and is working on taking Kansas to Fayetteville for an exhibition game. He hopes to play Gonzaga in the future.

Coach Cal said his Razorbacks will be no different than his previous winners. They’ll fly up and down the field, and he’s even bringing in a UA track coach to teach them the proper way to sprint.

John Calipari was himself on Monday, winning the press conference and leaving no doubt that he is happy to be the head Hog.