Is Adou Thiero entering ‘enemy territory’ in return to Rupp? It’s not the way he sees it

No one involved knew quite what to expect when Adou Thiero committed to the Kentucky Wildcats as a relatively unknown high school basketball recruit nearly three years ago.

Even so, it’s safe to assume that no one thought it would turn out quite like this.

Thiero is currently projected to be a first-round NBA draft pick. Improbable back then, but not a complete stunner, given his college coach’s track record of getting players to the pros.

He’ll be making that jump from Arkansas. That’s not too much of a shock, given the current state of college basketball and the comings and goings of players courtesy of the transfer portal.

That Thiero and John Calipari are still together three years later, but in Fayetteville, wearing Razorback red and not UK blue? That prophecy would have resulted in the strangest looks from the sport’s followers back in 2022.

Thiero’s college path has indeed been an unpredictable one, and what appears to be his final season at this level isn’t going according to plan either.

On Saturday night, he comes back to his former home, one of the side attractions in the circus that will be Calipari’s return to Rupp Arena for the first time since leaving for Arkansas in April after 15 years as the head coach of the Wildcats.

“For me, I don’t really think it’s gonna be like enemy territory or nothing,” Thiero said. “I got a lot of home games out there. I’ll probably have the most home games on the court. So I’ll just be out there — just let my game do the talking for me.

“You know, emotions will definitely come out that game, though, for sure.”

Thiero spoke to the Herald-Leader and a few other outlets at SEC media day in the fall, looking forward to his return to Lexington, looking back on his two years spent as a Wildcat, reliving the whirlwind few weeks last spring that ultimately landed him in Arkansas, where he thought and hoped things would be going much differently than they are now.

Leaving Kentucky basketball

It was all such a scramble in March and April of last year that many Kentucky fans might have forgotten the exact sequence of events, but Thiero actually entered the NCAA transfer portal before Calipari engaged in talks with Arkansas.

By the time Thiero became the first UK player to announce his intentions to look elsewhere for the 2024-25 season, UK athletics director Mitch Barnhart had made it clear that Calipari would be back at Kentucky, despite fan angst around his latest first-round loss in the NCAA Tournament.

Thiero was viewed as a major building block for Calipari’s next UK roster, and the timing of his decision was an unexpected blow to the coach’s rebuilding efforts. Thiero said that, at the time, he simply wasn’t sure what he wanted to do next.

“If I’m being honest, I really didn’t know,” he said. “I was considering coming back to Kentucky, but then when (Calipari) said he was leaving, I didn’t know what I was doing from there. It wasn’t until probably a week later, when everything started settling down. I was kind of getting comfortable with my list. I was figuring out where I wanted to go, setting up visits, stuff like that.”

At one point, North Carolina appeared to be the most likely landing spot for Thiero, who actually met with UNC head coach Hubert Davis in Lexington while he was still a UK student (but after he had entered the portal).

Thiero said that once Calipari got settled in Fayetteville, he reached out and “wanted to have a conversation.” They talked then. Thiero went home to Pennsylvania, and they talked there, too. The player discussed it with his parents — including his father, Almamy, who played for Calipari at Memphis — and they ended up taking a visit to Fayetteville.

New Kentucky coach Mark Pope had a conversation with Thiero after arriving in Lexington, but nothing came of that. Thiero ended up committing to Calipari, for the second time, on May 6.

“I had to realize — he helped me become the player I was,” Thiero said. “From my freshman to my sophomore year, he helped me make that big jump. And I was already comfortable with the whole staff and everything. So it was like, ‘Why go somewhere new with people you don’t know?’ And then being with someone you know — like you’ve known your whole life — and they’re a Hall of Fame coach on top of it.”

Adou Thiero at Arkansas

Thiero was surrounded by familiar faces in Fayetteville.

Calipari’s current staff includes Chin Coleman, Bruiser Flint and Chuck Martin, who were all assistants at UK last season. It also features Kenny Payne and Brad Calipari, two former UK basketball figures, as well as Tyler Ulis, the Wildcats point guard who served as a student assistant on Calipari’s final two Kentucky teams.

Former UK teammates Zvonimir Ivisic and D.J. Wagner also transferred to Arkansas, and one-time Kentucky recruits Boogie Fland, Karter Knox and Billy Richmond jumped to Fayetteville, too.

Once practice began, Thiero, the most veteran “Calipari player” on the Arkansas roster — with two previous years of playing under the Hall of Famer — found himself in a leadership role, especially with the incoming freshmen and others new to the coaching style.

His advice for the youngsters?

“You’re not gonna get your point across,” Thiero said with a laugh. “You might as well just — whatever he says, just listen to it. Because you’re not gonna be able to change his mind.”

Once the games began, Thiero emerged as the team’s best player.

He was so under-the-radar when Calipari started recruiting him toward the end of his senior season of high school that Thiero didn’t even have his own page on the national recruiting websites, let alone a star ranking next to his name.

The beneficiary of a late growth spurt — he’s now listed at 6-foot-8 and 220 pounds — to go with his elite athleticism and nose for the ball, Thiero showed flashes at Kentucky, but he never quite took off.

He played sparingly as a freshman (2.3 points in 9.7 minutes over 20 games). He starred at times as a sophomore, but injuries hampered his season — he missed eight games — and ultimately forced him to watch most of Kentucky’s stunning loss to Oakland last March from the bench.

Thiero entered this season looking for a fresh start. From an individual perspective, things couldn’t be going much better. He returns to Rupp Arena averaging 16.1 points, 6.2 rebounds and 1.8 steals per game. His shooting numbers — 57.2% from the field, 64.1% on 2-pointers — have been impressive, and that hard-playing, athletic, do-what-it-takes hustle that won over so many UK fans has made him one of the most entertaining players in the SEC.

Pro scouts are noticing, too. The latest NBA draft prospects list from ESPN had Thiero slotted into the No. 23 overall spot, well within first-round territory, despite his struggles as a 3-point shooter (just seven makes at 22.6% this season).

But Arkansas has been bad since SEC play began. The Hogs, who were ranked No. 16 in the AP Top 25 preseason poll, lost their first five games in league play, then lost Fland — the other standout performer on the team — to what is expected to be a season-ending hand injury.

With Fland out, Thiero willed Arkansas to its first SEC win last week, scoring 17 points, grabbing a season-high 11 rebounds, and making some key plays down the stretch to give the Hogs a 65-62 victory over Georgia.

“My mindset was just, ‘Finish this game. Get us one under our belt.’ And I was able to do that,” said Thiero, who scored five points in the final 30 seconds.

Three days later, Arkansas lost another home game, 65-62 to Oklahoma, to fall to 12-8 overall and 1-6 in the SEC, all alone at 13th in the league standings. Unless something changes in a big way soon, Calipari, Thiero and the rest of the former Cats won’t make the NCAA Tournament.

On Saturday night, the Razorbacks will try again to right the ship. This time, in a familiar place to most of them.

Thiero said back in the fall that the inevitable attention that will be paid to Calipari’s return wouldn’t affect the way he would approach this game. As he correctly stated then, he’ll be the most experienced player on the Rupp Arena court Saturday — Thiero appeared in 22 games there as a Wildcat — and he said he hoped the UK fans would greet him warmly.

“It was a great experience. It was something I wanted to do ever since I was a kid. I wanted to play at the University of Kentucky. And just being able to live out that dream was a real blessing. And I’m just grateful for it. Grateful for all the BBN — thank you for everything you guys did for me. All your support, it was … I appreciate it.”

This story was originally published January 30, 2025 at 6:00 AM.

Ben Roberts

Lexington Herald-Leader

859-429-2848

Ben Roberts is the University of Kentucky men’s basketball beat writer for the Lexington Herald-Leader. He has previously specialized in UK basketball recruiting coverage and created and maintained the Next Cats blog. He is a Franklin County native and first joined the Herald-Leader in 2006. Support my work with a digital subscription