Eric Musselman opens up on relationship with John Calipari

Kentucky is set to travel to Fayetteville for an SEC matchup against Arkansas in front of a hostile crowd on Saturday.

While there will be no love lost from the fans inside Bud Walton Arena for Wildcat head coach John Calipari, Razorbacks boss Eric Musselman sung his colleague’s praises before the opening tip.

“I think he’s a guy that’s super important to the coaching profession,” Musselman said earlier this week, via KSR’s Tyler Thompson. “We all want to win and compete and get after it but I do think in the SEC coaches’ meetings and things like that, I think everything he always talks about is always for the betterment of the profession. 

“I think he’s super creative with his ideas of trying to create some type of summer league like the NBA has, to do that in August. Super creative. His winning goes without saying, so tremendous respect. I look at him as a friend, a mentor, somebody that you seek advice from when you need it, and love how his team’s playing this year.”

Calipari recently won his 800th career game as a head coach in college basketball. Over that time he has compiled twenty-eight 20-win seasons, been to multiple Final Fours and won the 2012 National Championship with star big man Anthony Davis — there aren’t many who have the mileage and success that Calipari does.

He has this year’s Kentucky squad on track to make that twenty-nine 20 win seasons, too. Kentucky boasts 14-4 record heading into Saturday’s SEC matchup and getting win No. 15 against the Razorbacks would push Arkansas to 10-10 on the season and in serious jeopardy of missing the NCAA Tournament.

Of course, a win against the No. 6 ranked Wildcats would point Musselman’s squad in the right direction in the hopes of dissolving their 1-5 start to conference play. Meanwhile for Kentucky, the Wildcats are trying to avoid their third-straight road loss to an SEC opponent.

Arkansas will have to beat the odds, though. Arkansas will be a 6.5-point underdog to the Wildcats entering Saturday’s matchup, according to FanDuel Sportsbook. ESPN Analytics give Kentucky a 71.5 percent chance to escape Fayetteville with a win, while KenPom predicts the final score to be 87-80 in favor of UK.

Opening tip between Arkansas and Kentucky is scheduled for 6 p.m. ET and will air live on ESPN.

After Saturday, the Razorbacks will round out their January schedule on the road at Missouri this coming Wednesday.