Everything John Calipari said after Arkansas came to Rupp Arena and beat UK basketball

On his return to Lexington, which was met with boos from a boisterous Rupp Arena crowd, former Kentucky coach John Calipari was able to leave a winner.

The emperor came back to his former empire and emerged with an 89-79 victory for his struggling Arkansas squad over the 12th-ranked Wildcats.

The Razorbacks — a poor 3-point shooting team over the course of this season — made 13 of its 25 attempts from deep for 52%.

The former Kentucky players and recruits who are now Razorbacks also contributed in a major way. Junior Adou Thiero led the Hogs with 21 points and eight rebounds, both team highs. Sophomore Zvonimir Ivisic had 14 points and made four shots from 3-point range. And sophomore D.J. Wagner had 17 points, all scored in the second half, to go along with eight assists and just one turnover.

The Razorbacks, now 13-8 overall and 2-6 in SEC games, led for the entire second half in Calipari’s return victory.

Afterward, Coach Cal returned to the Rupp Arena press room to meet with reporters, where he explained the emotions of the moment and what the win could mean for his Arkansas team moving forward.

Here’s everything Calipari said after Arkansas won at Rupp Arena.

Question about what it felt like to win at Rupp Arena as an opposing coach.

It’s hard to win in here. I’ve got to be honest with you, and Adou said he did the same thing. I looked up a couple times, and I thought we were losing because I kept looking at Kentucky, instead of Arkansas.

I told (Adou) I did that and he said, ‘Coach, I did the same thing.’ It was 15 years here. The great thing for me was I was able to get around and see all my dear friends. Today, I went and saw two guys that I knew weren’t going to be able to get out of the house, one did.

So, coming back and playing this well. We played well. We did. It’s not ... Made a lot of shots. But we’ve lost a lot of games because, (we go) 0-for. Like, guys, we’ve got to make something?

So, it’s nice to know they can play this way. We had a great week of practice. And I told them, we’re primed for this now. Let’s go.

Question about Calipari talking with former Kentucky players Zvonimir Ivisic, Adou Thiero and D.J. Wagner about returning to Rupp Arena.

Well, I called them in together and 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.’ 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. D.J. played, and so did Z, and so did Adou. Adou played ... That’s how we want him to play every game. Hard to play that way every game. But, we put it in his hands in spots where he could drive the ball.

But we also ran. A bunch of points in transition. (Johnell Davis) was playing like we’ve all expected him to play.

Kentucky’s a really good team. We’re fortunate. We had to shoot 70%, 55 and 52, to win the game. If we don’t do that, we lose the game. They’re very, very good. They went to Tennessee with this same team and won.

And then Tennessee comes back and beats Florida by 20. This league is crazy.

Question about what Calipari’s emotions are after winning at Rupp Arena.

We needed to win a game. So it didn’t matter who it was against. I made it clear, it was a privilege and an honor to coach here. We had 15 unbelievable years. Great run. Support, the fans supported us. The families that entrusted us with their sons.

I got 190 texts by the time the game ended. And I’m guessing a bunch of them are former players, not that they’re ever going to root against Kentucky, they went to school here. But they also have a relationship with me.

The only emotion I have was ... I got mad about the technical (foul) by Billy (Richmond). I got mad at Jonas (Aidoo), grabbed the guy and took him to the floor. Come on, you’re a vet.

I was into the game. I was going play to play, trying to drag us over the finish line.

Question about what it felt like playing against Kentucky and whether it felt like a “Super Bowl” for Arkansas.

Maybe. But, you won’t believe this, Adou said it seems like we’re still everyone’s Super Bowl, when we play.

We have other teams making shots, bank shots ... What in the world just happened?

So, yeah I would say, look it’s not like we pointed to this game. We didn’t. We’re just trying to win. Now we’re going on to the next game. We’ve got Sunday off. We’re getting home at 1:30 or 2. We practice Monday and Tuesday and travel and go to Texas, that’s easy.

I mean, this doesn’t end. And I’ve said it before, I didn’t look at any of the games today. I don’t know what happened other than the Tennessee game, and I only knew that because the TV people told me at shootaround.

But, you’re going to lose three out of four, four out of five, two or three in a row. You’re going to because of this league. And all you want to rack up is Quad 1 wins. Just keep racking up Quad 1 wins, that’s the most important thing.

Question about how Arkansas guards Johnell Davis and D.J. Wagner shot the ball.

Well, not only that. When you look at it, we had eight turnovers. We’re just, we end games with eight or nine or 10 turnovers and I’m like, ‘How did we lose?’

Well, we shoot 35% and 26% from the 3, (and) you’re not winning. Not in this league. You can’t get away with it. So, hopefully this shows them, and we’ve played games like this, where we shot the ball well. We just hit the league and we’re just like (noise). Couldn’t hit a shot. We were 11-2, beat Michigan, and all of a sudden you’re sitting there like, at one point I’m saying, ‘Are we going to win a game?’

Then when got off the schneid and I’m so happy that we’re not going 0-18. But today’s a good win. Good win for the kids.

They needed it. They were celebrating in there. We talked to each of them about how they helped this team win ...

Look folks, I’ve said this. I’ve been so blessed my whole life. And then here some adversity hits me, what? I want pity and (for people to) feel bad and what? I have been blessed my whole life. So adversity hit. You know what I’m worried about? Those kids.

And yeah, I’ve got to be strong for them, they’ve got to see me being confident and see me, like I told them, ‘I’m coaching fearless today. I want you to play fearless.’ Play. I wanted D.J. to run more of the stuff so they’re not looking at me, they’re looking to him.

So there’s stuff we’ve got to do to build on this. Like, alright, it’s a great win. It’s one. ...

So now we’ve got to rack up and see if we’re getting better or not.

A couple more questions so I can go home.

Question about the strength of the SEC.

After (Arkansas beat Georgia), Mike (White) said to me, ‘You did this to all of us.’ And it wasn’t just me, it was the schools, it was (former SEC commissioner) Mike Slive investing in basketball, making it TV. So now, all of a sudden, everybody invested in it.

You remember, I was begging for us to get five teams, six teams (into the NCAA Tournament). And now, this is like maybe the best league, are you ready for this, ever.

Ever. And that’s why I’m saying, what Kentucky is doing, and how they’re doing it. Mark Pope is doing a great job. Not a good job. A great job. What they’re doing, today, we kind of got them today. Move on. Next game. This was one game.

And if anybody takes (away) more than that, they’re crazy. It’s one game. And if I take it any different with my team then I’m crazy.

But we just needed to win folks. Whether it was Kentucky, we just needed to win, so I can keep coaching. The hardest thing is you’re coaching them, you’re teaching, you’re bringing them together, they’ve got to feel some success to know that we’re on the right path.

Question about the amount of 3-pointers that Arkansas took against Kentucky.

You’ve got to understand now, I was all over them like, ‘We’re not going to take 40 3s.’ We took 25. That ain’t too bad. 25 3s. Tennessee took 45. We tried to drive the ball every chance. I got on Adou a couple times for shooting 3s.

Why are you doing that? You’re as good a player as there is in the country when you drive the ball. Drive the ball!

I got on Karter (Knox) about that. But I want (Davis) to pull up and shoot. I want D.J. to shoot some of those balls. I want Z to shoot those balls. But we have to play how we have to play to win. And part of that is grinding it out.

Now, we still scored 89, 90 points and we were working it. We were grinding it out. We can still score 90 playing that way. The crazy thing, there’s not one way to do this, and each team has their own team that they play. At halftime I said, ‘Let’s not get happy about these 3s.’

(People would say) why would you do that? You’re making them. Go and miss six in a row and they break out and you know what Kentucky does with that, they make a 3 at the other end. Cause that’s how they play.

Good team. Good shooting. Big kids are playing well. Mark’s done great. He was the right guy for the job. Thanks.

This story was originally published February 2, 2025 at 1:54 AM.

Cameron Drummond

Lexington Herald-Leader

859-242-5257

Cameron Drummond works as a sports reporter for the Lexington Herald-Leader with a focus on Kentucky men’s basketball recruiting and the UK men’s basketball team, horse racing, soccer and other sports in Central Kentucky. Drummond is a second-generation American who was born and raised in Texas, before graduating from Indiana University. He is a fluent Spanish speaker who previously worked as a community news reporter in Austin, Texas. Support my work with a digital subscription