FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Upon entering the locker room to meet his new team, Razorbacks coach John Calipari found it completely empty. None of Eric Musselman’s former players had chosen to stay at Arkansas.

With the roster vacant, Calipari accepted the situation. He had players eager to transfer in and several elite high school prospects ready to sign.

If it were a completely fresh start, at least he had the satisfaction of selecting his entire team himself. He certainly wasn’t going to plead with any current players who clearly didn’t want to stay.

“I don’t even beg the recruits I’m pursuing,” Calipari said. “They have to want this as much as I want them. They need to desire me and our staff. If a player who has been here doesn’t want to be here, would you want them here? No?”

One of the players who technically had the option to be in the locker room that day was forward Trevon Brazile, who was testing his value in the NBA. When the evaluation returned as expected, he needed a college home.

Word got back to Calipari, and although he was surprised, he was also intrigued. He asked someone to get Brazile on the phone so he could assess how serious and committed Brazile was to a new approach.

“We talked, spoke with his dad, sat down, and that’s what he wanted to do,” Calipari said. “I told him, ‘Let’s go do this.’ I shared my plan for him and what we aim to achieve.”

His plan involves adding muscle to Brazile’s 6-foot-10, 220-pound frame. So far, it seems to be working.

What a great Talk “TB’s dad said the same thing,” Calipari mentioned about parents noticing changes in their sons’ physiques.

“‘I see muscles on my son that weren’t there before.’ So, when it comes to the weight room, I don’t want to hear they’re doing well. I want numbers. That’s all I care about. The rest doesn’t matter to me. And when you see the numbers, like in their core and legs, you’ll know if they want to improve, they’ll see gains there.”

As for “what we try to do,” it actually involved cutting back on an old habit and developing a more aggressive approach. This means Brazile won’t be shooting threes anymore but will instead focus on improving his mid-range accuracy and attacking the rim with power.

“We need to make you comfortable with being uncomfortable so you can be an attack dog,” Calipari said. “TB, I’m trying to make him an attack dog. I don’t want him standing out there shooting threes. No, no, you’re not doing that here.”

So far, the result has been performances from Brazile that exceed Calipari’s expectations. However, this doesn’t mean his lone returning forward lacked confidence.

“[Brazile’s] lying there on his back,” Calipari recalled. “I said, ‘You’re better than I thought you were.’ He looked at me and said, ‘I told you,’ and that’s the confidence I want him to feel. He’s talented, but he needs to get into battles and be in those situations.”

At some point, Calipari called Cuonzo Martin, who is in his second stint as Missouri State head coach. Before returning to Springfield, Martin was Brazile’s coach at Mizzou and made it clear how much he loves Brazile’s potential as a player.