- John Calipari returned to Rupp Arena as the coach of Arkansas, defeating his former team, Kentucky, 89-79.
- Arkansas, typically a poor 3-point shooting team, found success from beyond the arc, making 13 3s at a 52% clip.
- The game also highlighted the changing dynamics of fan and program relationships, as former Kentucky coach Tubby Smith was honored despite facing criticism during his tenure.
LEXINGTON — The irony of Arkansas coach John Calipari bringing his new team to Rupp Arena to beat his old one, 89-79, was that all Kentucky fans wanted him to do was to change a bit with the times.
A tweak in his offense and roster construction could have kept Calipari in Lexington the better part of another decade.
That change never seemed to come … until Saturday night.
Calipari beat UK and its new coach Mark Pope at their own game.
The Razorbacks entered the game dead last in the SEC, shooting 24.8% from 3-point range. Shots from behind the arc made up only 37% of their total shot attempts, too. They switched it up against the Wildcats.
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Arkansas came out shooting 3s like it has always been part of its offense. Eight of its first nine shots from the floor were from behind the arc, and it paced an effort that saw the Hogs shoot half of their first 38 shot attempts from 3.
It made more than 10 for just the fifth time this season and the first time in SEC play, finishing with 13. The Hogs shot a season-high 52% from 3 to power just their second win in conference play and their first on the road.
“It’s nice to know they can play this way,” Calipari said.
In a bit of a role reversal, UK took on the personality of Arkansas and looked to attack the rim more than hunt shots on the perimeter. The Cats took 37% of their shots from 3-point range, which was down from their mark of 43.8% in SEC play.
UK forward Amari Williams was the beneficiary. He responded by scoring a career-high 22 points thanks to a season-high 13 shot attempts. His touches in the paint didn’t lead to many kickouts for open 3s, though, and UK made just 3 of 13 attempts in the second half.
The Cats still haven’t quite adjusted to playing without starting point guard Lamont Butler, who missed his third straight game with a shoulder injury, and that’s not limited to the players on the floor.
“We’re navigating some roster situations right now that have me feeling a little constricted,” Pope said. “I probably need to be a little more bold regardless and take some more shots of being aggressive.”
Aggression wasn’t a problem for Arkansas.
Adou Thiero scored a team-high 21 points for Arkansas, and his presence as a power forward in the lineup helped Calipari avoid playing a pair of traditional bigs together as he was wont to do at UK.
The Razorbacks maintained good spacing offensively and, even as Calipari told his team at halftime he didn’t want them launching too many 3s, were able to get open shots when they wanted.
Former UK guard D.J. Wagner scored all of his 17 points in the second half and added eight assists. Former UK center Zvonimir Ivišić
scored 14 points and made four 3s for the first time since he had six against Troy on Nov. 13.
“We had to do that for him,” said Thiero, a former UK forward who followed Calipari from Lexington to Fayetteville. “He’s always had our backs. We felt like tonight, we had to really have his.”
Calipari, who coached at UK for 15 seasons from 2009-24, entered the court to a round of boos from the crowd that used to cheer him on. One day, UK will celebrate Calipari in a way that he truly deserves, having brought the Cats a national championship and an additional three Final Four trips.
is proof of that.
That’s the same Smith who won the 1998 national championship as some UK fans were quick to add a footnote “with Rick Pitino’s players.” The same Smith who was once dubbed “Ten-loss Tubby” by UK fans for having three consecutive seasons of double-digit losses. The same Smith who bolted for Minnesota after 10 seasons in 2007 having grown tired of the pressures of being the UK men’s basketball coach.
It was hard at the time to ever see Smith embraced the way he was Saturday night with the lights dimmed and the spotlight on him at midcourt as the cheerleaders spelled Kentucky and Smith spread his arms to be the “Y.”
“I made it clear, it was a privilege and an honor to coach here,” Calipari said. “We had 15 unbelievable years. A great run.”
By beating UK in the manner they did, Calipari and the Razorbacks might get on a run, too.
Reach sports columnist C.L. Brown at [email protected], follow him on X at @CLBrownHoops and subscribe to his newsletter at profile.courier-journal.com/newsletters/cl-browns-latest to make sure you never miss one of his columns.
