FAYETTEVILLE — John Pelphrey is beginning his second season as Arkansas’ basketball coach, but it’s understandable if he feels like a first-year coach.

Pelphrey and the Razorbacks essentially are starting over after losing nine players from last year’s team.

The departures include the loss of six seniors, two players who transferred and Patrick Beverley, who would have been the team leader but was declared ineligible in August for undisclosed reasons.

To make up for the heavy turnover, the Razorbacks have added a seven-man recruiting class.

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The only returnees from last year are junior guards Stefan Welsh and Stephen Cox, junior forward Michael Washington, sophomore guard Marcus Britt and redshirt freshman forward Michael Sanchez.

“It’s going to be like year one all over again from a coaching-staff perspective,” Pelphrey said. “Now the one thing that’s different is that you don’t have guys with the experience level that you had on last year’s team.

“ That group of guys had experience and back-to-back NCAA Tournaments under their belt.”

But all the Razorbacks on last season’s team had to learn to play for new coaches and in a new system.

“I think the amount of teaching, the amount of energy on a daily basis with patience being shown, all those things are going to be expected again from our coaching staff,” Pelphrey said. “Our players are going to have to be extremely coachable.

“ They’re going to need to have a relentlessness to them to be able to come to work, and whatever happens good or bad, be ready to go the next day.

“ We’re going to have put a bunch of days like that together.”

While the coaches figure to do a lot of teaching and correcting, Pelphrey said he still wants fastpaced practices in keeping with the style of play the Razorbacks want to implement.

“The last thing I want to do is get to a start-and-stop situation when that’s not what we want to create in the games,” Pelphrey said. “That’s part of coaching.

“ You’ve got to try and find that balance of being able to teach and communicate what you want to get done. But by the same token, this is not a style of play that’s conducive to stopping every 15 seconds.”

The Razorbacks begin practice Friday in Walton Arena. Normally the first practice is open to the public, but that won’t be the case Friday as Walton Arena continues to undergo renovations.

Plans call for the Razorbacks to meet with the fans for autographs and pictures before the Red-White intrasquad game Oct. 24, next Friday night, at Walton Arena.

Arkansas Athletic Director Jeff Long said installation of new retractable seats will be finished in time for the Red-White game.

“We have no reservations about that,” Long said.

A new “Classic Razorback” logo already is at mid-court in Walton Arena and the floor was refinished Monday night, allowing Arkansas’ men’s and women’s teams to be able to practice on it Friday.

New lights also have been installed to make the court brighter for televised games and there are new goals for the first time since the arena opened for the 1993-1994 season.

Arkansas’ coaches might need the extra lighting to make sure they recognize all the new faces of the players.

Newcomers include freshman guards Courtney Fortson and Rotnei Clarke, freshman forwards Andre Clark, Jason Henry and Brandon Moore and junior college transfer forward Montrell McDonald.

“We’ve worked very hard on the recruiting process to bring in a certain talent level of guys, and we’re excited about that,” Pelphrey said. “We’ve got pieces right now that we feel we can really, really build on for the future, and build toward winning championships.

“ That’s what we’re here to do.”

Arkansas coaches and administrators have declined to comment on Beverley’s ineligibility, citing student privacy laws, but he told The Sporting News Today Web site it resulted from a situation regarding a class paper.

Beverley, a 6-1 guard who would have been a junior after averaging 13 points and 5. 5 rebounds in his two seasons at Arkansas, recently signed to play professionally for a team in the Ukraine.

“Yes it was a big blow, and yes it hurt us,” Arkansas’ Welsh said of Beverley’s unexpected loss. “But all summer long we’ve worked to create our own identify.

“ We’d love to have Patrick with us, but unfortunately he’s not and we just have to move forward with our season.

“ Everybody understands that with him not being here, it means that each one of us has to do more.”

Pelphrey, 40, became a surprise player-coach in last year’s Red-White game when the team was down to 10 players because of suspensions and injuries.

A former star at Kentucky, Pelphrey played eight minutes and was 1 of 3 from the field, hitting a three-point basket.

Arkansas has 11 players listed on its roster headed into this season, but walk-on tryouts were held earlier his week and Pelphrey said it’s possible two to four more players could be added.

“I wouldn’t rule anything out,” Pelphrey said. “I’ve never had four walk-ons before, but we’ve never been in this situation.”

Pelphrey said he has no plans to play in the Red-White game this year.

“There would have to be a lot of things go wrong for me to put the uniform back on,” he said. “No one is getting suspended between now and Friday.” At a glance WHAT Arkansas Red-White game WHEN 7: 30 p. m Central, Oct. 24 WHERE Walton Arena, Fayetteville PREGAME Gates open at 5: 30 p. m. The men’s and women’s teams will hold autograph sessions from 6 p. m. to 7: 15 p. m. ADMISSION One canned food item to be donated to the Salvation Army NOTE The Razorbacks’ first practice is Friday, but won’t be open to the public