John Calipari is known for being rather solicitous when it comes to media attention, so it may come as a surprise that he has hosted very few press conferences at Arkansas this season. He fulfills all the usual postgame obligations, but when it’s time to feed the local media info for an upcoming game, Calipari typically hands those duties off to one of his assistants.
That was not the case on Thursday, when Calipari met with the media to discuss his team’s upcoming game at Kentucky on Saturday (9 p.m., ESPN). It’s always a big deal when these two longtime SEC rivals square off, but this season it is a Really Big Deal. That’s because it will mark Calipari’s first time returning to Rupp Arena since he bolted for Fayetteville last April. “Let me just say this, there will be some emotions walking into Rupp Arena,” Calipari said. “In my time, I don’t remember them ever cheering an opposing coach. I’m fine. The fans are terrific. They were terrific during our run. They’re engaged and my guess is they’re going to be really engaged on Saturday.”
Asked if he thought the fans might boo him, Calipari replied, “There may be some boos. There may be a lot of boos. That doesn’t change anything for me. It doesn’t change the history. It doesn’t change my history.”
Frankly, I would be surprised if there were a lot of boos. Personally, I don’t think there should any boos. When Calipari walks into Rupp Arena, the fans should rise to the occasion and give him the ovation he deserves.
Kentucky fans are passionate, but they also understand history. They remember that when Calipari came to Lexington in 2009, he left a Memphis program that had played in the national championship game just two years before and consecutive Elite Eights in the two years prior to that. Calipari had it rolling at Memphis and could have stayed there forever. Yet, he left because he understood the importance of Kentucky in the college basketball diaspora. He saw the program the same way the fans saw it, as a beacon of excellence that had fallen on hard times.
Kentucky fans also remember all too well that before Calipari got there, they had just experienced the disastrous two-year tenure of Billy Gillespie. (Would that they could forget Billy Gillespie.) They recall that by that point their beloved Wildcats had not made a Final Four in 12 years. It only took Calipari two years to get Kentucky back there. In his third season, he led them to the NCAA championship, the program’s eighth. He took them back to the Final Four in 2014 as a No. 8 seed and to two more Elite Eights in the next four years.
Calipari didn’t just win at Kentucky. He made Kentucky cool again. He recruited high-wattage stars who reinforced the Big Blue Brand by going on to have lucrative careers in the NBA – and then giving back. He also performed countless acts of charity, good will and benevolence, many of which took place far away from the cameras. Unlike some of his predecessors, Calipari always understood that the duties of the Kentucky baskeball coach went well beyond recruiting, practices and games. He embraced the entirety of the job and the fans embraced him right back. It was a proper love affair.
Alas, things went sour as the Wildcats failed to make it to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament four straight years, including a pair of humiliating first-round upsets (which, lest we forget, came at the end of highly successful regular seasons). To that point, Calipari’s tenure at Kentucky had been the gift that kept on giving. Once the giving stopped, Calipari gave the fans the greatest gift of all: He left.
He didn’t bail on the program, like so many fans accused Rick Pitino of doing (unfairly, in my view) when he went to the Boston Celtics in 1997. Rather, Calipari swallowed his famously prodigious pride and acknowledged the obvious truth that his marriage with Kentucky had run its course. It was time for an amicable divorce.
When Calipari took the Arkansas job, he spared Kentucky both the awkwardness of having him continue to coach there when things were no longer working, as well as the pain of firing him and eating his humongous buyout. It was the right move for him, the right move for Kentucky, and in time I believe it will prove to be the right move for Arkansas. (Although the stubbornness that kept Calipari from adapting the last few years continues to impede his team’s progress in Fayetteville.) It was one of those rare situations where a big move was made and everyone won. And it was all Calipari’s doing.
Opposing Coaches on John Calipari and Arkansas: “Outdated.” “None of Their Pieces Fit.”
Jeff Goodman diagnoses what’s gone wrong at Arkansas, which remains winless in the SECIt’s not unheard of for a coach to get a warm reception at a school where he once coached. Rick Barnes gets a nice round of applause whenever he goes back to Texas, which fired him in 2015. Bruce Pearl generally gets the same treatment when he goes back to Tennessee, which fired him in 2011. Unfortunately, we’ve seen some nasty examples as well. When then-Texas coach Chris Beard took his Longhorns back to Texas Tech in 2021, the fans treated him venomously. Georgetown coach Ed Cooley gets a similar greeting each time he brings his Friars back to Providence, where he coached for 12 seasons.
The closest comparison to Calipari’s situation is the one that Pitino faced in 2001 when he first coached in Rupp Arena as the head coach at Louisville. In that case, the acrimony was intensified by the fact that Pitino had returned from his ill-fated stint with the Celtics to coach Kentucky’s biggest rival. The UK fans felt betrayed and made sure to let Pitino know it every time he came back to Rupp.
That’s why it was so noteworthy when Pitino posted a video on social media this week recalling how hurt he was by the reception he got and imploring the Kentucky fans to do better. “As you all know, I’m not best friends with John Calipari,” Pitino said. “He’s coming back on Saturday and I want all of you to show the great class that you have. Twenty-three thousand-plus people giving him a huge standing ovation. Show him what respect and admiration are all about. I know you have the class. I’ve always believed in you. Do it once again.”
That is especially true considering that Calipari’s successor, Mark Pope, who played on Pitino’s 1996 NCAA champs, is doing a phenomenal job. Despite having to replace his entire roster, Pope has the Wildcats ranked No. 12 in the AP poll with a 15-5 record (4-3 SEC). When I spoke with Pope by phone after Kentucky’s win at Tennessee Tuesday night, he didn’t sound like he expected the fans to treat Calipari so kindly. But he did express optimism that they will eventually come around, as evidenced by the warm reception Pitino got when he made a surprise appearance at Big Blue Madness in October. “The one thing you know is that, over time, Cal is going to be one of the most heralded coaches to ever coach at the University of Kentucky,” Pope told me. “The only thing that makes it complicated is he’s coaching at a rival school right now. There is no fan base in the world that will show Cal more love than Big Blue because Kentucky fans, we take care of our own. We just might not take care of our own when they’re playing for the other team.”
As Calipari’s press conference was drawing to a close on Thursday, a reporter suggested the possibility that Kentucky fans will be “enthusiastic” about his return. “I don’t expect that,” he said. “If it happened, I’d be like, wow. But I’m not expecting it.”
I am. There are no better college basketball fans than the ones who will pack Rupp Arena on Saturday. When Calipari enters, they should give the man his due. And when the game starts, they can cheer like heck for their Wildcats to win. That’s how it should be, and I predict that’s how it will be.