John Calipari reflects on what he learned during time at Kentucky

John Calipari spent 15 seasons at Kentucky, and during that time sent the Wildcats to seven Elite Eight appearances, four Final Four’s, two national title appearances and one NCAA Championship.

Calipari learned a lot of lessons during his time leading the Wildcats. However, none were more important than learning how to be fearless, he told ESPN’s Jimmy Dykes during an exclusive interview inside Rupp Arena head of Arkansas vs. Kentucky on Saturday.

“None of it scared me,” Calipari said. “That’s good because I’m going through what I’m going through now, and it doesn’t scare me. I’ve been through the ups and downs of this stuff. I don’t see myself — I’ve got to win every game to prove I can coach. No, okay. This is about the kids. And here [at Kentucky], winning and losing can’t be life or death or you die at ton. But you learn that. You learn to keep changing and figuring out because I was bringing in a new team every year.

“That meant we’ve got to figure out how we’re going to do this, and that’s why it took ’till the end of the year … But you learn here, winning matters.”

Calipari ultimately won 410 games during his time with the Wildcats and sent 47 players to the NBA. For the first decade of his tenure, Kentucky was winning games and churning out first-round picks on a yearly basis.

However, these achievements became less frequent in the later years of the Calipari era. After three consecutive seasons without Kentucky making it past the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament, Calipari left for Arkansas and took some of his roster, and his recruits with him.

“This was the same at Arkansas, except you’re walking into this unforgiving [SEC] league,” Calipari continued. “The teams that we’ve lost to have all been rated in the top 15. You know what? Maybe we’re not 15, Maybe we’re 20.”

It took Calipari to use that same fearlessness for him to make the jump, and it will take the same emotions to down the Wildcats in Rupp Arena in fron of Big Blue Nation. Calipari wants his players, especially Adou Thiero, DJ Wagner and Zvonimir Ivisic, who played major minutes at Kentucky last season, to play their game on Saturday night with the same mindset.

Tip-off is set for 9 p.m. ET and will air live on ESPN. Calipari’s Hogs are an 11.5-point underdog heading into the matchup.