Former Kentucky basketball players were the stars for Arkansas in return win at Rupp Arena
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Game day: Arkansas 89, No. 12 Kentucky 79
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday night’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Arkansas in Rupp Arena.
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From the outset on Saturday night, it was clear there would be no red carpet rollout for the former Kentucky basketball players returning to Lexington with Arkansas.
From the moment that the trio of ex-Cats turned Razorbacks — sophomores Zvonimir Ivisic and D.J. Wagner and junior Adou Thiero — hit the Rupp Arena court for pregame warmups, they were lustily booed by those clad in blue and white in the stands.
Those boos, which were also extended to ex-UK coach John Calipari on his return to Rupp, were silenced by the end of the night, though, morphing into music that blared from Arkansas’ visiting locker room following an 89-79 win over No. 12 Kentucky.
Not only did the Razorbacks, a team in desperate need of a marquee win for its NCAA Tournament hopes, come into Rupp Arena and get exactly that on Saturday night, but the Hogs who played starring roles in the victory were all exacting a measure of revenge on their former program.
Each of Ivisic, Thiero and Wagner made the decision last offseason to leave Lexington for Fayetteville, and to follow Calipari to his next coaching stop after his 15-season tenure at UK had run its course.
Regardless of what the results had been for each player so far this season, Saturday was a showcase of what each could do at their best.
Ivisic — the 7-foot-2 Croatian big man whose NCAA eligibility case was a major UK storyline last season — went for 14 points and connected on four 3-pointers.
Thiero — now a junior and a potential first-round NBA draft pick — had 21 points and eight rebounds, leading the Razorbacks in both categories.
Wagner — the former highly celebrated recruit who admirably played through injury for the Wildcats last season — scored 17 points, all in the second half, while dishing out eight assists against only one turnover.
As the final buzzer sounded, Wagner’s grandfather Milt — a former Louisville star who took in Saturday night’s contest from the seating area next to the media section at Rupp — departed with a firm clap of the hands.
Calipari was the main attraction Saturday. That much was clear before, during and after the game. But it was the play of the three ex-Cats on his Arkansas team who elevated the visitors to the highly sought-after win.
“We got a decent bit of Ws while we were here,” Thiero said postgame. “So, it’s good to walk out of here with another one.”
“It just felt good just to be able to come back around, see some familiar faces and stuff like that, and be able to get the win,” Wagner added.
A look at Arkansas’ scoring charts shows just how big of an impact this trio of players had on the Razorbacks’ win. The trio combined for more than 58% of the Hogs’ total points. Thiero had a personal 8-0 scoring run in the first half. The ex-Cats combined to score Arkansas’ first 12 points of the second half. Later in the second period, they combined for eight straight points by the visitors. The trio also combined for the final eight points that Arkansas put on the board.
Simply put, the Arkansas players most familiar with Rupp Arena had the biggest impact on claiming one more win in downtown Lexington, only this time while wearing cardinal and white.
In the lead-up to Saturday’s game, Calipari spoke at length about returning to Rupp Arena with Ivisic, Thiero and Wagner.
Ivisic and Wagner’s lone Kentucky season featured plenty of highs and lows — a 23-10 overall record and 13-5 mark in SEC games, but zero postseason wins and the ignominy of going out to 14-seed Oakland in the NCAA Tournament. Thiero was around for the season before that, a freshman who found his way around star Oscar Tshiebwe and a UK squad that reached the second round of March Madness in 2023.
All told, the trio of players were part of 28 wins at Rupp Arena. Well, 29 if you count Saturday.
Still, Calipari called all three players into his office together before the Razorbacks departed Fayetteville for Lexington to ensure that they would be in a good frame of mind when they returned to their old gym.
“I said, ‘Are you guys OK going back? Are you going to be OK?’ And they all said, ‘We’re fine, coach. We’re worried about you,’” Calipari said postgame Saturday. “That’s the kind of team I have. That’s the kind of players they are. They were worried about me. I said, ‘I’m fine.’ No, they were good. They were good. And they played well today. They all three played well.”
After the win, Thiero spoke of the unity that Arkansas showed. It marked just the Razorbacks’ second conference win of the season and their first SEC win away from Fayetteville’s Bud Walton Arena.
“Everybody else on the team, they just had our backs, went in there and played hard, knew how much this game meant to all of us,” Thiero said.
Calipari spoke of his desire for Thiero, now listed at 6-foot-8, to drive the ball and put pressure on the rim, rather than settling for 3-pointers. Thiero scored 10 of his 21 points from the foul line, and only one of his five made field goals was a 3-pointer.
“He and I had a heart to heart the other day about some of the things he’s got to start changing and doing, and I said, ‘I’m saying this because you have a chance to be one of the best,’” Calipari said of Thiero during his pregame press conference Thursday.
Ivisic, who only played in 15 games last season at UK, is now dependable (from a health standpoint) and is fully utilizing his distinct distance-shooting abilities. The Croatian entered Saturday’s game shooting 40.6% from deep, and he went 4-for-7 (better than 57%) against the Wildcats.
“I want Z to shoot those balls,” Calipari said Saturday.
Then there’s Wagner, who posted a season-best assist total with eight, which was only two off his career-best of 10 from January 2024, while he was at UK.
Many of Wagner’s statistical totals this season are in line with what he did last season at Kentucky. Except playing time. As a freshman at UK, Wagner averaged 25.8 minutes per game for the Wildcats last season. Entering Saturday’s game, Wagner led Arkansas in averaging 34.4 minutes played per game this season. He logged 37 minutes in Saturday’s win.
“I wanted D.J. to run more of the (offensive) stuff so they’re not looking at me, they’re looking to him,” Calipari said of the second-year guard.
This bore meaningful fruit for the Hogs when it came to transition opportunities. Arkansas — which is statistically a much slower team in tempo than UK — won the fast-break points battle Saturday, 18-5.
“That definitely was something we emphasized. We realized we weren’t scoring on fast breaks as much. We weren’t really benefiting off our defense as much,” Thiero said Saturday after Arkansas forced UK into 14 turnovers. “So we made that an emphasis to try and do that tonight. And we were able to do a better job at it.”
Former UK basketball recruits also played well against the Wildcats
While the actual ex-Cats will get the lion’s share of the attention, it’s also worth noting the performance of two ex-UK recruits for Arkansas in the road win.
Both freshman forwards Karter Knox and Billy Richmond III played meaningful roles for the Razorbacks.
Knox, a 6-foot-6 forward, started and played 34 minutes, scoring 10 points and grabbing four rebounds. Knox has now played at least 20 minutes in each of Arkansas’ last four games.
Richmond, a 6-foot-5 forward, played 10 minutes off the bench and had four points and two rebounds. Richmond was also assessed a technical foul near the end of the game as part of a minor skirmish that broke out near the Arkansas bench.
Along with freshman guard Boogie Fland — one of Arkansas’ best players who is likely out for the season with a hand injury — Knox and Richmond comprised the three former Kentucky recruits from the 2024 class who followed Calipari to Fayetteville.
During his Thursday pregame press conference, Calipari spoke positively about how both Knox and Richmond have found their way in the college game.
“I’m really proud of (Knox), because freshmen come in with an idea of what this is and this is going to be easy. And he came, and we talked, and he said, ‘This is way harder than I thought it would be.’ Yes. And then helping him define how he should play,” Calipari said.
“With Billy, he is so aggressive defensively. Diving on the floor. Blocking a shot. He flies up and down. But then he’s got to slow down. You can play fast, but you can not be in a hurry. And he’s in a hurry sometimes, but he’s learning,” Calipari added about Richmond.
This story was originally published February 2, 2025 at 3:46 AM.
