FAYETTEVILLE -- John Calipari will return to Kentucky on Saturday night and this time as the opposing coach.
Calipari was the head coach in Lexington from 2009-2024. He was 410-123 at Kentucky winning the 2011-12 national championship. His first team at Arkansas has struggled to a 12-8, 1-6, record. What have the days leading up this game been like?
"Our focus the last few days has been us, so we haven’t done that stuff," Calipari said. "We’ll start today and tomorrow worrying about Kentucky. I’m trying to make sure that we are organized, that we understand what we’re trying to do, that there’s no confusion, so our kids can be aggressive and go play. But, today will be a day that we do spend time and probably, normally we don’t watch tape this early but there might be some things I want them to watch from our practice of what we were doing good and what we got to do in this game. But yeah, we’ve done a lot of that stuff was us, and trying again to just keep building these kids up is hard. They’ve lost some games that, you know, all of us could’ve done something different and so that affects us a little bit. But, we’ve got a great group of kids, great group of kids."
This year's Arkansas team has Adou Thiero, D.J. Wagner and Zvonimir Ivisic who played for the Wildcats last season. Calipari was asked if he has had talks with them about returning to face their old team?
"I’ll do that today, the four of us will sit down," Calipari said. "But let me just say this, there will be some emotions now walking into Rupp Arena. From me, you’re not going to erase from my mind what we’ve done there. You can’t erase history, it’s what it was. For them, last year, some of the stuff we did was — and they were all part of it. So, walking in, there will be emotions. There will be things that, you know I’m going to walk in — now we walk in Friday night, so I get to run a little run-through in Rupp, so we’ll be there Friday night. But, yeah it’s, I cherish my time there and so does Ellen and our family, great friends, lifelong friends they will be. Now, I want you to understand, even my friends are Kentucky fans. They grew up with Kentucky and they’re going to be Kentucky fans. Now, I hope they have red socks on. But, that’s what it is and I look forward to walking in the building. As an opposing coach, I’m the opposing coach. In my time, I don’t remember them ever cheering an opposing coach. So, if that, I’m fine. All I know is, the fans, they’re terrific. They were terrific during our run. They’re engaged and my guess is they’re going to be really engaged on Saturday."
Calipari knows his reception on Saturday night will be different than when he was the head coach there. Predictions have varied from the media on what kind of reception Calipari will get.
"Look, I’m an opposing coach walking in the building," Calipari said. "And I get that. I’m not bitter in any way. What I did was right for me and my family, but it was also right for Kentucky. Mark Pope has done a fabulous job. He knows that program because he played in it. He was the right guy for that job. I’m walking back into that environment, yeah, there may be some boos, there me be a lot of boos. They may… That doesn’t change anything for me. It doesn’t change the history, it doesn’t change my history, none of that. My focus right now, just so you know, the last two days, I’m worry about Arkansas. I’m worried about getting this going. Do I have a soft spot for Kentucky? Yes. I was there 15 years.
"We gave our heart and soul — and not only to basketball. Yes, we did a lot of stuff in basketball during that time that was pretty special. But we were also involved in communities when there was flooding, when there were hurricanes. Super storm Sandy, we did stuff. Stuff happened in Houston. Different things within our state. Ellen and I did things that we didn’t want in the paper that you just did with people you knew or people that we felt we needed to help. And I want to do the same here. I mean, you had the tornadoes up in Rogers. We were up there, the governor was there. I cheat this seat if I don’t get involved in those things, and I said the same thing when I was at Kentucky."
Kentucky is 15-5 and 4-3 this season. Calipari praised the job Pope has done there.
"They’re good," Calipari said. "He’s got them playing in a way they gotta play to win. They play hard. They shoot 3s. They spread the court. He’s got them playing good. They’re playing in a confident way, so he’s done a good job with them."
Kentucky beat Tennessee 78-73 on Tuesday night while the Razorbacks have a bye this week. Does the bye week help?
"You know, maybe," Calipari said. "We went through it, but we played on Wednesday, and Oklahoma had the week off, but we played Wednesday. Kentucky played Tuesday, and we had the week off. So they had the day off and a couple days to prepare, so it’s a little different than what we went through. But, you know, we needed to catch our breath, but you catch your breath to go into Rupp Arena."
The game will tip at 8 p.m. on ESPN Saturday night.
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