Here’s what Kentucky basketball must do to spoil John Calipari’s return to Rupp Arena

Saturday will be special.

It’s not every game that your former coach returns to the place of his former employment to play his former team. And not every coach is John Calipari.

Yet when Kentucky basketball plays host to the Arkansas Razorbacks on Saturday night for the long-awaited return of Coach Cal, Mark Pope’s Wildcats will have one job and one job only.

Ignore the hype. Ignore the noise. Ignore the circus that is sure to surround the return of John Vincent Calipari, who in a 15-year run as the UK coach took the Wildcats to four Final Fours and a national championship before his Big Blue express ran out of steam.

The Cats must ignore all that and more the same way they ignored the doubters so sure that minus starting point guard Lamont Butler and nearly without starting forward Andrew Carr, No. 12-ranked Kentucky had little chance of beating No. 8-ranked Tennessee on the Volunteers’ home floor Tuesday night.

Beat the Vols the Cats did. Inserted into the starting lineup, Koby Brea scored 18 points. Point center Amari Williams grabbed 15 rebounds and contributed four assists. Jaxson Robinson sank four 3-pointers and scored 17 points. Ansley Almonor also buried four 3s on his way to 12 points. Final: Kentucky 78, Tennessee 73.

Mainly, Pope’s club simply put its nose to the grindstone and executed the task at hand. UK overcame a 33-30 halftime deficit. Its 78 points were the most Rick Barnes’ Vols have allowed all season. It made 12 of 24 attempts from 3 against a UT defense ranked No. 1 nationally in defending shots from beyond the arc.

“Resilience” was the word Pope used in his postgame press conference. Fits like a glove. Despite a totally revamped roster, one that has had to deal with more than its fair share of injuries — Butler’s shoulder, Carr’s back, Kerr Kriisa’s foot surgery that has sidelined the backup point guard since Dec. 7 — Kentucky is now a remarkable 6-1 against AP top 15 teams.

Arkansas is not a top-15 team. Far from it. Calipari’s debut in Razorback red has stumbled from the start. At 1-6 in league play, Arkansas is tied for 14th in the 16-team SEC. It lost at Tennessee by 24 points, at Missouri by 18 points. After a 68-65 win over a reeling Georgia last week, the Hogs lost at home to Oklahoma 65-62.

It won’t be just Calipari’s return Saturday. Adou Thiero, D.J. Wagner and Zvonimir Ivisic are all former Cats and major contributors on the Arkansas roster. Karter Knox and Billy Richmond, two players who had signed with Kentucky only to follow Cal to Fayetteville, will be making their Rupp debuts, as well. Another UK signee, Boogie Fland, is potentially out for the season after undergoing hand surgery. Fland was/is Arkansas’ best player.

Calipari will be Saturday’s main attraction, of course. The situation demands it. This isn’t Rick Pitino returning to Rupp as the coach of UK’s bitter archrival, but Saturday will be memorable nonetheless. How will the fans react? What will Cal’s pregame handshake with Pope be like? How will it feel to see Kentucky’s most recent coach leading the other team? How will the Razorbacks react?

Better question: How will the host Wildcats react in a game Kentucky fans want desperately to win? And will be expected to win. To be honest, given the way the two teams are playing this season, the pressure will be on the home team. The pressure will not be on Calipari. It’ll be on Pope.

That’s OK. His first Kentucky team has shown it can rise to the occasion. It beat Duke. It rallied from a 16-point halftime deficit to beat Gonzaga in Seattle. It outlasted Florida. It beat Mississippi State in Starkville. Shorthanded and riding a two-game losing streak, it beat Tennessee in Knoxville.

It should make Calipari’s return to his old Kentucky home a losing one Saturday night. To do so, the Cats must do one thing, however. It must treat a game that’s unlike any other game as if it is just any other game.

This story was originally published January 29, 2025 at 10:08 AM.

John Clay

Lexington Herald-Leader

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John Clay is a sports columnist for the Lexington Herald-Leader. A native of Central Kentucky, he covered UK football from 1987 until being named sports columnist in 2000. He has covered 20 Final Fours and 42 consecutive Kentucky Derbys. Support my work with a digital subscription