John Calipari receives game ball after first home win as Arkansas head coach
In January 2024, John Calipari was on the opposing sideline at Bud Walton Arena as Kentucky defeated Arkansas 63-57. Ten months later, he made his debut as the Razorbacks’ head coach – and he received a game ball after his first home win.
Arkansas defeated Lipscomb 76-60 Wednesday night to kick off Calipari’s tenure as head coach. In the postgame locker room, Razorbacks athletics director Hunter Yurachek presented him with a game ball and joked it’s the first time the home team can celebrate a Calipari victory.
“You’ve won 850-some games,” Yurachek said. “But this is your first at Bud Walton Arena that somebody’s gonna give you a game ball for.”
As he got the ball, Calipari asked the players to sign it to commemorate the occasion. However, he had one request of them.
“I want everybody in here to sign it,” Calipari told his team. “So sign your name like you’re signing – not … ‘No. 3.’ Sign your name.”
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Boogie Fland led the way for the Razorbacks with 17 points while Johnell Davis added 15 to go with six rebounds. Kentucky transfer Zvonimir Ivisic also had 12 points and added a team-high three blocks on defense.
Arkansas was efficient from the field, shooting 34-for-63 as a team while holding Lipscomb to just 22-of-58. However, the Razorbacks struggled from three-point distance, making just 4-of-19 attempts. Although Calipari praised the effort on defense, especially against a Lipscomb team he said played fast, he called for better three-point shooting down the stretch.
“How about this thought? Make a three,” Calipari said to start his postgame press conference. “How about that thought? You make seven or eight today, you get three or four more today, I want you to think of the score. We had 19 threes. I’m glad we didn’t shoot more because we’d have missed more. The good news is, we threw the ball inside today and we did some good stuff. So we know we can do it.”
It was quite the regular-season debut for John Calipari and Arkansas heading into a big matchup this weekend. The Razorbacks will head to Dallas to take on Baylor on a neutral site at American Airlines Center Saturday night.