John Calipari got his first signature win at Arkansas at the expense of his former team on Saturday night.
Making a highly anticipated return to Rupp Arena, Calipari and the Razorbacks stunned No. 12 Kentucky, 89-79, handing UK its second straight home loss under first-year coach Mark Pope. The Wildcats suffered a 102-97 to No. 4 Alabama in its previous home game on Jan. 18.
Arkansas, which had lost six of its first seven Southeastern Conference encounters, relied on its outside shooting to defeat the Wildcats. The Razorbacks made 13 3-pointers and outscored Kentucky 12-2 to open the second half to fend off Kentucky.
“It's hard to win — it's hard to win in here,” Calipari said. ”I’ve got to be honest with you, Adou (Thiero) said he did the same thing — I looked up a couple of times and I thought we were losing because I kept looking at Kentucky (on the scoreboard) instead of Arkansas.”
More than anything, Calipari was glad his team simply won its first road game in the league.
“We needed to win a game so it didn't matter who it was against,” he said. “I made it clear it was a privilege and an honor to coach here. We had 15 unbelievable years of a great run and support.”
Coming off a 78-73 win at Tennessee earlier this week, the Wildcats failed to emulate a similar performance against the struggling Razorbacks.
“Congrats to Arkansas,” Pope said. “They played great basketball and they played really tough and really hard. Our guys are pretty disappointed.”
Pope said his squad wasn’t distracted by Calipari’s return but added the Wildcats were emotionally drained following the contest.
“Tonight is about as hurt as we have been all season long and we talked after the game, actually,” Pope said. “… It's super painful and we just can't indulge in this for very long.”
Arkansas (23-8, 2-6 Southeastern Conference) notched its first conference road victory under Calipari and three former Kentucky players — Thiero, D.J. Wagner, Zvonimir Ivisic combined for 52 points for the Razorbacks. Thiero scored 21 points, followed by Wagner with 17.
Amari Williams led Kentucky with a double-double with 22 points and 11 rebounds. Williams treated the contest just like the team's previous 20 games.
"I don't know if it was a distraction for other guys, but for me, I really have no relations to (Arkansas) and it was just another game," he said. "I felt it was like that for a few of those players too."
Jaxson Robinson followed with 20, while Ansley Almonor scored 12 and Otega Oweh finished with 10.
“Kentucky's a really good team,” Calipari said. “I mean, we're fortunate. We had to shoot 70 percent to win the game. If we don't do that, we lose the game.”
Robinson said there wasn’t “much to say” about the loss,” but added the Wildcats can’t dwell on the disappointing setback.
“We know what we did wrong and we got a game and not that “long to prepare),” he said (We have to focus on) just moving on — it’s conference play.”
For the second straight game, the Wildcats were without point guard Lamont Butler, who sat out because of an undisclosed injury as the hosts used a makeshift backcourt in the absence of Butler.
TUBBY RETURNS
Former Kentucky coach Tubby Smith, who led the Wildcats to a national title in 1998, also made an appearance and was introduced as the “Y” during the second half. Smith retired from coaching after a four-year stint at High Point.
BOOBIRDS FOR CALIPARI
There were definitely more boos, but some applause and cheers as well in Calipari's first time back in Lexington.
The Hall of Fame coach is the winningest active coach in men’s college basketball and has an 867-271 mark during his stops at Massachusetts, Memphis, Kentucky and now Arkansas. He was 248-26 at Rupp Arena and led the Wildcats to a 93-77 win over Vanderbilt in his last home game at Kentucky last March 6.Despite the early success, Calipari struggled his last two years, especially in the postseason where the Wildcats were eliminated early in the SEC Tournament and in the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament. His last game as Wildcats coach was an 80-76 loss to Oakland in the NCAA Tournament.
GAMETRACKER: Kentucky at Ole Miss, 6 p.m., Tuesday. TV/Radio: ESPN, UK Radio Network.
Photo by Les Nicholson - Kentucky Today
